UC Merced

Perceived ethnic/racial discrimination (PERD) is a psychosocial stressor that may undermine the health of people of color, but these associations have been understudied among Latino young adults. Ethnic/racial identity (ERI) has been proposed to be a moderator of PERD-health associations, but theoretically-based moderation effects have been inconsistently tested and results within the broader literature have been mixed. The current study examined whether ERI developmental dimensions (i.e., commitment and exploration) may individually moderate associations between PERD and the health of Latino youth, and whether ERI commitment may have stronger buffering effects among those who are higher on ERI exploration. Latino young adults (N = 702; ages 18-25; 70% female) were recruited using both a campus-based (N = 511) and a national online recruitment system (N = 191). Participants completed online surveys measuring PERD, ERI developmental dimensions, psychological distress, general physical health perceptions, and sociodemographic variables. Data were analyzed using moderated moderation models in the PROCESS macro version 4.2. As expected, heightened PERD was associated with poorer health (i.e., heightened psychological distress and poorer general physical health perceptions). However, neither ERI exploration nor ERI commitment moderated these PERD-health associations, and the hypothesized moderated moderation effect was not significant. The findings of the current study support a growing body of work which suggests that PERD can undermine both the psychological and physical health of Latino young adults in the USA, but raise questions about whether and how ERI development may moderate PERD-health associations among Latino youth. Implications for future research are discussed.