Reciprocal Relationships Between Disrespect Sensitivity,Racial Discrimination,and Aggression in African American Youth

Abstract

African American youth are more likely to experience racial discrimination, which contributes to greater sensitivity to disrespect and aggressive behavior. However, little is known about possible reciprocal relationships among discrimination, disrespect sensitivity, and aggression. This study investigated these reciprocal relationships and whether they vary by sex in predominantly African American youth. A total of 75 urban adolescents (52% female; 97% African American) reported on perceived disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression at two time points (average ages 16.1, SD = 1.11 and 17.8, SD = 1.14). Results from an autoregressive cross-lagged model indicated that racial discrimination at age 16 predicted greater disrespect sensitivity at age 18, whereas greater disrespect sensitivity predicted lower levels of racial discrimination over time. Analyses of sex differences showed that sensitivity to disrespect predicted lower levels of racial discrimination more strongly in females compared to males. These findings may inform interventions for African American adolescents who experience racial discrimination.

Keywords

Late adolescence aggression disrespect discrimination

The developmental changes and transitions that occur during adolescence can be challenging for any youth, but are further compounded by systemic discrimination for many African American youth. For example, African American adolescents are held to lower academic standards by their teachers and experience multiple instances of racial discrimination each day (English, 2020; Gershenson et al., 2016). Experiences of racial discrimination are associated with higher levels of psychosocial problems in African American youth, including aggression (Brody et al., 2006). Racial discrimination also increases mistrust and expectations of future discriminatory experiences (Combs et al., 2006; Herda, 2016). Although not yet studied, experiences of racial discrimination may also contribute to greater sensitivity to disrespect, which plays an important role in economically disadvantaged African American communities (Anderson, 2000) and leads to more aggressive behavior (DeBono & Muraven, 2014).

Studies also suggest reciprocal effects, for example showing that aggressive behavior predicts greater disrespect sensitivity over time (Mrug et al., 2019). Disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression may form a vicious cycle that contributes to poor developmental outcomes in youth. For example, disrespect sensitivity and racial discrimination may contribute to greater aggression, which in turn increases sensitivity to disrespect and perceptions of discrimination, leading to more aggression. Gaining a better understanding of these possible reciprocal processes would guide intervention efforts to interrupt such a vicious cycle. Furthermore, it is important to identify any possible sex differences in these relationships to further inform targeted interventions. Thus, this study examines reciprocal links between racial discrimination, disrespect sensitivity, and aggression in African American youth, and takes into account sex differences.

Disrespect Sensitivity and Racial Discrimination

Disrespect sensitivity refers to the tendency to view others’ behavior as disrespectful (McDonald & Asher, 2018). Although disrespect sensitivity shares some similarities with hostile attribution bias, which is a tendency to interpret other people’s actions as hostile in ambiguous situations (De Castro et al., 2002), disrespect sensitivity involves more general expectations of others’ behavior. Additionally, disrespect sensitivity includes assumptions about others’ valuation of oneself (i.e., respecting or disrespecting), which are absent in the more behavior-specific hostile attributions.

Racial discrimination is defined as the unjust treatment of individuals based on their race (Ong et al., 2009). African American individuals are more likely to experience discriminatory behavior than any other major racial/ethnic group in the U.S. (Lee et al., 2019). In fact, African American adolescents report experiencing an average of five instances of racial discrimination a day (English, 2020). Experiencing racial discrimination increases mistrust and expectations of future discriminatory experiences among African American individuals (Combs et al., 2006; Herda, 2016). Because racial discrimination is often perceived as disrespectful behavior that expresses disdain and devaluation of the individual (Leary et al., 2005; Wojciszke et al., 2009), experiences of racial discrimination may also increase sensitivity to disrespect.

No studies have examined the relation between racial discrimination and disrespect sensitivity. Nevertheless, peer rejection is predictive of increased hostile attributions bias in children, possibly due to rejection being perceived as hostile and internalizing expectations of others’ hostile behavior (Lansford et al., 2010). Similarly, repeated experiences of racial discrimination that is perceived as disrespectful may contribute to a hypervigilant state of expecting disrespect and thus increase sensitivity to disrespect. Moreover, greater sensitivity to disrespect may also make youth more sensitive to possible expressions of racial discrimination. As noted earlier, these relationships may be especially relevant for African American youth from disadvantaged communities where respect may play a central role (Stewart & Simons, 2006) and may experience high rates of racial discrimination (English, 2020; Lee, 2019). However, no studies have yet investigated the reciprocal relationships between racial discrimination and disrespect sensitivity.

Racial Discrimination and Aggression

Racial discrimination has been linked with a variety of behavioral and emotional problems in youth, including aggression (Benner et al., 2018). For example, racial discrimination was associated with higher aggression in a low-income, ethnically diverse sample of youth (Tobler et al., 2013) and in African American young adults (Caldwell et al., 2004). In longitudinal studies of African American adolescents, experiencing racial discrimination predicted more anger, aggression, and violent delinquency over time (Burt et al., 2012; Gibbons et al., 2012; Martin et al., 2011). Finally, envisioning a discrimination experience increased anger in an experimental study with African American youth (Gibbons et al., 2012) and in a quasi-experimental study of African American female college students (Clark, 2000).

It is also possible that aggressive behavior contributes to increased experiences of discrimination, which may be perceived as racial discrimination by racial/ethnic minority youth. Aggressive children and adolescents are more likely to experience peer rejection and lower teacher preference (Di Giunta et al., 2018; Mercer & DeRoisier, 2008). Thus, minority youth who engage in aggressive behavior may provoke rejecting and discriminatory behaviors from others that may be perceived as racial discrimination. One study that investigated these reciprocal relationships in Native American adolescents found that racial discrimination predicted more aggression, but aggression did not predict perceived racial discrimination (Hartshorn et al., 2012). However, it is not clear whether these results would replicate in African American adolescents who experience higher levels of racial discrimination than Native American youth (Benson et al., 2019).

Disrespect Sensitivity and Aggression

A few studies have linked experiences of disrespect to feelings of anger (Blincoe & Harris, 2011). Experimental studies show that feeling disrespected helps justify violence (Butler & Maruna, 2009) and leads to aggressive behavior, more so than feeling disliked or rejected (DeBono & Muraven, 2014). Additionally, sensitivity to peer rejection has been linked with increased aggressive behavior among middle and late adolescents (Beeson et al., 2020). Among early adolescents, those with higher levels of disrespect sensitivity were also more likely to endorse revenge goals in response to a peer provocation than those with lower levels of disrespect sensitivity (McDonald & Asher, 2018). Furthermore, the relation between disrespect sensitivity and aggression may be stronger in the Southern US compared to the North due to the South’s elevated conflict culture (Van de Vliert & Conway 2019). Indeed, males residing in Southern US were more likely to endorse norms of aggressive response to an insult compared to males in the North (Vandello et al., 2008).

It is also possible that aggression contributes to greater disrespect sensitivity. Research shows that youth with high levels of aggression are more sensitive to negative social cues, such as hostile facial expressions (Wilkowski & Robinson, 2012), and thus may also be more sensitive to cues of disrespect. In studies on the “Code of the Street”, it has been suggested that individuals living in dangerous communities develop elevated levels of sensitivity to disrespect in order to protect themselves against victimization (Stewart et al., 2006). Consistent with this hypothesis, hypervigilance and awareness of social threats were protective against victimization in African American adolescent males with high levels of aggression (Phan et al., 2020). The only study directly testing this relationship found that physical aggression indeed predicts increased sensitivity to disrespect in African American youth (Mrug et al., 2019).

Sex Differences

It is possible that the relation between racial discrimination, sensitivity to disrespect, and aggression may differ for males and females. For example, disrespectful behavior is more likely to elicit anger in males, but sadness in females (Blincoe & Harris, 2011), suggesting that links between disrespect sensitivity and aggression, as well as racial discrimination and aggression, may be stronger in males than females. Differences also exist in the amount and type of discrimination experienced by males and females. One study suggested that among African American adolescents, males are more likely to experience racial discrimination than females (Leath et al., 2019). Because of this higher exposure, African American males may be more likely to develop disrespect sensitivity and aggression in response to racial discrimination than females.

The Current Study

Based on previous findings of associations between disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression, this study examined the reciprocal relation between these variables that may form a vicious cycle perpetuating aggression in urban, predominantly African American youth. Given the limited research on sex differences in the links between these constructs, this study also explored whether the reciprocal relation differ for males and females. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that racial discrimination will predict higher sensitivity to disrespect and aggression. Further, we expected that aggression will predict increased perceptions of racial discrimination and sensitivity to disrespect. Finally, we hypothesized that high sensitivity to disrespect will predict higher levels of racial discrimination and aggression over time. In terms of sex differences, we expected that links between racial discrimination, disrespect sensitivity, and aggression will be stronger in males than in females.

Methods

Participants and Procedures

Participants included 75 adolescents (52% female; 97% African American, 3% European American) who took part in Waves 3 and 4 (referred to as Time 1 and Time 2) of the Coping with Violence Study (Orihuela et al., 2017). Because disrespect sensitivity and racial discrimination were not assessed at Waves 1 and 2, data from these prior waves are not included in the present paper. Eighty-four youth were initially recruited at Wave 1 from four public middle schools serving urban low-income communities in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Each adolescent and his or her primary caregiver completed individual interviews at a university laboratory at average youth ages 16.1 (Time 1; SD = 1.11; N = 75) and 17.8 (Time 2; SD = 1.14; N = 69; 92% retention). Participants retained at Waves 3 and 4 did not differ from those lost to attrition since Wave 1 on any socio-demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, race, or family income.

The study recruited all adolescents regardless of their race and ethnicity, so the inclusion of 3% European Americans reflects the racial composition of the schools from which the sample was recruited. These European American participants were included in the main analysis in order to retain the sample’s representativeness and maximize the analytic sample size. Furthermore, the European American participants were recruited from environments that primarily consisted of African Americans and thus may experience discrimination as a minority group within this social context. In fact, the 3% European Americans reported a range of racial discrimination experiences.

During recruitment, students in the participating middle schools were given a packet containing description of the study, contact information form, and informed consent and assent forms. Interested families returned a completed contact information form to the school and were later contacted by the study team and invited for an interview. At each time point, written informed consent and assent were obtained and adolescents were interviewed in private spaces by trained interviewers, with sensitive questions completed by participants without the interviewer through Computer-Assisted-Self-Interview (CASI). Adolescents received $50 for their time at each time point. All procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board.

Measures

Disrespect Sensitivity

At both time points, adolescents reported on their sensitivity to disrespect using 10 items from a 36-item disrespect sensitivity measure (McDonald & Asher, 2018). Questions addressed general attitudes towards and anticipations of disrespectful behavior (e.g., “Signs that others disrespect you are everywhere.”) and were rated on a five-point scale from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5). Two items that addressed positive and respectful behavior were reverse coded (e.g., “People tend to treat others in a kind and respectful way”). All items were averaged with higher scores indicating more disrespect sensitivity (α= 0.72 and 0.75 at Times 1 and 2).

Racial Discrimination

At both time points, adolescents reported on their experiences of racial discrimination using nine items describing various discriminatory behaviors or situations in which youth may have been discriminated because of their race (e.g., “How often have you been called a name or harassed because of your race?”) (Williams & Williams-Morris, 2000). The items were rated on a 4-point scale ranging from Never happened (1) to Happened a lot (4) and averaged, with higher scores indicating more experiences of racial discrimination (α= 0.85 and 0.93 at Times 1 and 2).

Aggression

At both waves, adolescents reported on their aggressive behaviors over the past 30 days using 18 items from the Aggression-Problem Behavior Frequency Scale (Farrell et al., 2016). Adolescents reported on the frequency of engaging in various aggressive behavior including physical aggression (e.g., “how many times have you hit or slapped another teen?”), verbal aggression (e.g., “How many times have you insulted someone’s family?”), and relational aggression (e.g., “How many times have you spread false rumors about someone?”). The items were rated on a 4-point scale ranging from Never (1) to Six or more times (4) and averaged, with higher scores indicating more aggressive behavior during the last month (α= 0.87 and 0.91 at Times 1 and 2).

Sociodemographic Data

At Time 1, adolescents reported on their biological sex and parents reported on adolescents’ date of birth and the family’s annual income (13-point scale ranging from below $5,000 to above $90,000). Adolescents’ age was computed from date of birth and date of the interview.

Data Analysis

Prior to the main analyses, the percentage of participants with complete data as well as the amount of missing data were examined. In addition, t-tests and chi-square tests of independence examined whether the participants with any missing data differed from those with complete data on any variables included in the analyses. Then, descriptive statistics were computed and bivariate correlations among all variables were examined. Paired samples t-tests evaluated changes over time in racial discrimination, disrespect sensitivity, and aggression.

The main analysis involved an autoregressive cross-lagged path model conducted in Mplus 8.1 using maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (MLR) due to non-normal distributions of some variables. The model included both stability and cross-lagged paths linking disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression at Time 1 with disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression at Time 2. All paths adjusted for adolescents’ age at Time 2, biological sex, and family income. Missing data were handled using Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML).

Finally, sex differences in the reciprocal links among the variables were examined using multi-group modeling. The fit of a model in which all paths and covariances were constrained to be equal for males and females was compared to the fit of an unconstrained model, in which all paths and covariances were allowed to vary by sex. A significant difference in the model fit between the constrained and unconstrained models was followed by tests comparing the fully constrained model to models in which one cross-lagged path at a time was unconstrained to vary by sex. If the likelihood ratio test was significant, the sex-specific path coefficients were interpreted from the unconstrained model.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Of the 75 participants included in the analyses, 65 (87%) had complete data on all variables, but only 3.7% of all data points were missing. Participants with complete data did not differ from those with any missing data on any variables across the two time points. Descriptive statistics and correlations among all variables are reported in Table 1. Disrespect sensitivity at Time 1 was only associated with higher Time 1 aggression, but all other main variables were positively intercorrelated. Paired-samples t-tests showed that, on average, racial discrimination increased from Time 1 to Time 2 (t₍₆₇₎ = 3.483, p = 0.001), whereas aggression and disrespect sensitivity scores did not change over time.

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics and Correlations between Main Variables

	M (SD)	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.	7.	8.
1. Disrespect Sensitivity, T1	3.39 (0.66)	1.00
2. Disrespect Sensitivity, T2	3.27 (0.71)	0.23	1.00
3. Racial Discrimination, T1	1.43 (0.50)	0.05	0.26^*	1.00
4. Racial Discrimination, T2	1.71 (0.74)	–0.17	0.25^*	0.58^**	1.00
5. Aggression, T1	1.21 (0.28)	0.30^**	0.33^**	0.34^**	0.30^**	1.00
6. Aggression, T2	1.20 (0.33)	0.10	0.38^**	0.31^**	0.55^**	0.57^**	1.00
7. Female	0.52 (0.50)	0.04	–0.14	0.08	–0.16	0.04	0.09	1.00
8. Age, T2	17.80 (1.14)	0.24^*	0.08	0.14	0.09	0.06	0.04	0.03	1.00
9. Parental Income, T2	5.69 (3.56)	–0.07	–0.09	0.18	0.22	0.25^*	0.14	–0.04	–0.09

Note: T1–Time 1, T2–Time 2. ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01.

Main Analyses

The model was just-identified and thus had perfect fit. Standardized path estimates are presented in Fig. 1 . Within each time point, aggression was positively associated with both racial discrimination (T1 β= 0.34, p = 0.003 and T2 β= 0.52, p < 0.001) and disrespect sensitivity (T1 β= 0.26, p = 0.034 and T2 β= 0.30, p = 0.011). However, racial discrimination and sensitivity to disrespect were not related at either time point (β= 0.05, p = 0.590; β= 0.12, p = 0.351). Racial discrimination and aggression were stable over time (β= 0.52 and β= 0.57, p < 0.001), but disrespect sensitivity was not (β= 0.14, p = 0.213). Results for the cross-lagged paths indicated that racial discrimination predicted increased disrespect sensitivity over time (β= 0.20, p = 0.042), but was unrelated to changes in aggression (β= 0.11, p = 0.332). Interestingly, disrespect sensitivity predicted lower experiences of racial discrimination (β= –0.26, p = 0.013), but not aggression (β= –0.09, p = 0.273). Aggression predicted increased disrespect sensitivity (β= 0.28, p = 0.042), but not racial discrimination (β= 0.21, p = 0.174).

Figure 1.

Autoregressive cross-lagged path model linking disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression. Dashed lines indicate non-significant paths; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

Multi-group modeling showed significant sex differences in the overall model (Δ χ²₍₂₈₎ = 64.87, p < 0.001). Follow up tests of each cross-lagged path revealed sex differences in the link between Time 1 disrespect sensitivity and Time 2 racial discrimination (Δ χ²₍₁₎ = 5.41, p = 0.020) with the link between disrespect sensitivity and lower racial discrimination being stronger in females compared to males, although it was non-significant in either group (females β= –0.10, p = 0.367; males β= –0.01, p = 0.920). Significant sex differences were also found in the link between Time 1 aggression and Time 2 racial discrimination (Δ χ²₍₁₎ = 7.38, p = 0.007) with a stronger effect in males than females, but the path was not significant in either group (males β= 0.20, p = 0.110; females β= 0.02, p = 0.896). No sex differences were found in the remaining cross-lagged paths.

Discussion

This study extends prior research by examining the cyclical, reciprocal nature of the relation between disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression among urban, mostly African American late adolescents. Sex differences were also explored. The results revealed that both racial discrimination and aggression predicted increased disrespect sensitivity over time in both males and females. In turn, disrespect sensitivity predicted decreased perceptions of racial discrimination over time, and this path was stronger in females. Aggression was associated with greater disrespect sensitivity and racial discrimination within each time point, but did not uniquely predict changes in racial discrimination over time. Likewise, neither disrespect sensitivity nor racial discrimination predicted change in aggression over time.

A novel finding of this study is racial discrimination predicting an increased sensitivity to disrespect over time. It is possible that experiences of racial discrimination place adolescents into a hypervigilance state, which increases expectations of being treated with disrespect by others. This interpretation aligns with prior research on discrimination predicting increased hostile attribution biases and expectation of future discrimination in youth (Herda, 2016). Prior cross-sectional research also linked higher sensitivity to disrespect with more anger rumination among college students (Burris & Leitch, 2018). Therefore, individuals who experience discrimination during adolescence may develop an increased sensitivity to disrespect that may increase the risk of anger management problems as they transition into adulthood. The present findings further extend our understanding of the harmful nature of racial discrimination among urban, mostly African American youth, who experience the highest levels of racial discrimination of major racial/ethnic groups in the US (Lee et al., 2019).

Contrary to predictions, the findings also indicated that disrespect sensitivity predicted less experiences of racial discrimination over time. This relationship was stronger in females compared to males, even though it did not reach statistical significance in either sex. One interpretation may be that adolescents with a high sensitivity to disrespect are more capable of anticipating situations that may involve racial discrimination and are thus able to avoid these experiences. An explanation for the effect being stronger in females may be that as females transition into late adolescence and emerging adulthood, they may experience more sex discrimination instead of racial discrimination (SteelFisher et al., 2019). More research is needed to replicate and further elucidate this finding, including sex differences in the prospective association between disrespect sensitivity and lower racial discrimination. Interestingly, racial discrimination and sensitivity to disrespect were not associated concurrently at age 16 or 18, which suggests that the reciprocal relation between racial discrimination and disrespect sensitivity may not be immediate, but evolve over a longer time during adolescence.

The findings also suggest that aggression contributes to increased disrespect sensitivity over time. This is consistent with research indicating that individuals with elevated aggression are sensitive to negative social cues (Wilkowski & Robinson, 2012). Studies have shown that among African American male adolescents with high levels of aggression, increased arousal and vigilance predict lower victimization over time (Phan et al., 2020). Thus, aggressive behavior may lead to greater sensitivity to situations when harm may occur and aggressive response may be required in order to mitigate personal victimization. In this way, increased sensitivity to disrespect may serve an adaptive function for aggressive youth living in violent urban environments by helping them quickly identify situations of potential harm.

In contrast to the hypotheses, disrespect sensitivity did not predict changes in aggression over time. Experimental studies showed that disrespect generates anger in men more so than in females (Blincoe & Harris, 2011), which would be expected to lead to more aggressive behavior. It is possible that disrespect is more likely to engender aggression in younger adolescents whose behavioral control neural systems are not as well developed (Casey et al., 2011). Specifically, transitioning from middle to late adolescence has been linked with increased impulse control (Anokhin et al., 2015). This developmental increase in behavioral regulation may suppress the outward expression of anger through aggressive response to perceived disrespect in late adolescence, leading to the lack of association between disrespect sensitivity and later aggression observed in this study. Alternatively, disrespect sensitivity may only facilitate retaliatory or reactive aggression, which was not directly measured in this study. Future research should examine links between disrespect sensitivity and specific types of aggression across adolescence to disentangle these possibilities. Additionally, disrespect sensitivity was associated with increased aggression at both the age of 16 and the age of 18. Together with the significant prospective effect of aggression at age 16 on disrespect sensitivity at age 18, this may suggest that aggression shapes perceptions of disrespect more so than disrespect sensitivity contributes to aggression, at least over the course of late adolescence.

Contrary to hypotheses, racial discrimination did not predict aggression over time in neither males nor females, which contrasts with previous findings of racial discrimination predicting increased aggression over time in a sample of middle adolescent Hispanic males and females (Wright & Wachs, 2019). These differences may be due to an increase in impulse control from middle adolescence to late adolescence that may reduce aggressive responses to experiences of racial discrimination (Anokhin et al., 2015). Another possibility is that the effects of racial discrimination on aggression found in Hispanic youth do not extend to African American youth. Clearly, more research is needed on this relation across different age and ethnic groups of adolescents.

Also inconsistent with the hypotheses, aggression at the age of 16 did not predict changes in racial discrimination at the age of 18. While the relation between aggression and subsequent racial discrimination differed for males and females, suggesting a stronger positive effect in males, the association did not reach significance in either sex group or in the overall sample, which may be attributed to the small sample size. Nonetheless, this finding extends prior findings of no relation between aggression and subsequent racial discrimination in Native American adolescents (Hartshorn et al., 2012) to African American adolescents. However, the present results showed concurrent links between racial discrimination and greater aggression at both age 16 and age 18, which are consistent with previous cross-sectional research linking aggressive behavior with greater racial discrimination in minority youth (Caldwell et al., 2004, Tobler et al., 2013). Together, these results suggest that racial discrimination co-occurs with aggression, but variables may not be causally related over time. Experimental studies are needed to rigorously test whether these causal relations exist.

Implications

The current study advances our understandings of the cyclical nature in which disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression may be related. It supports the need for more longitudinal studies addressing such bidirectional processes and how they unfold during adolescence. The results also have implications for prevention and intervention programs serving urban adolescents. For example, the finding of aggression predicting increased disrespect sensitivity suggests that youth with high levels of aggression may benefit from cognitive retraining to prevent their increased sensitivity to hostile cues, as well as learning anger management strategies to manage behavioral responses to perceived disrespect and provocations. Similarly, the results linking racial discrimination with increased disrespect sensitivity further highlight the critical need for clinical services and interventions addressing racial trauma in minority youth (Saleem et al., 2020). Disrespect sensitivity may be reduced through trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy that modifies unhelpful ways of thinking and may attenuate the hypervigilance of expected disrespect (Phipps & Thorn, 2019). Finally, if future research replicates and elucidates the surprising finding of disrespect sensitivity being associated with fewer experiences of racial discrimination, perhaps the mechanisms underlying this relationship could be harnessed in interventions to help reduce exposure to racial discrimination in urban minority youth.

Strengths and Limitations

A key strength of this study was its longitudinal design that enabled the examination of reciprocal relations between disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression during late adolescence, an important developmental period when youth begin to transition into independence. Another strength was the focus on urban, mostly African American youth who experience high rates of racial discrimination and must navigate social contexts in which respect and disrespect play central roles. Despite this strength, the study has several limitations that need to be acknowledged. One limitation of this study was the small sample size, which reduced statistical power to detect small effects and potential sex differences. A post-hoc power analysis suggests that although the study had sufficient power (.80) to detect medium sized effects (.28), the power to detect small effect sizes (e.g., β= 0.09 to.21) was low (.12 to.42). Nevertheless, the sample size and power were sufficient to detect meaningful small to medium sized relationships among racial discrimination, disrespect sensitivity, and aggression.

Another limitation is the reliance on self-reports for all key variables, which may have introduced some bias and inflated associations among the variables due to shared method variance. Finally, as this project focused primarily on urban African American youth, the findings may not be generalizable to other ethnic groups or cultural context. Similarly, since there was an overrepresentation of youth of lower SES, the results may not replicate in individuals of higher SES. However, studies show that experiences of racial discrimination among African American youth do not vary by SES (Assari et al., 2018). Additionally, research suggests that individuals of higher SES are less likely to adhere to “street codes” that are predicated on the importance of responding to disrespect and thus the question of generalizability to individuals of higher SES remain (Stewart, 2006). Future studies should replicate these findings in larger and more ethnically and economically diverse samples, as well as different developmental stages during adolescence.

Conclusion

Previous research found associations among disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression, but the possible reciprocal relations between them over time have not been examined. The current study used a longitudinal design to evaluate the reciprocal relations between disrespect sensitivity, racial discrimination, and aggression over two time points in late adolescence. The findings showed that adolescents who experience more racial discrimination and engage in more aggressive behavior become more sensitive to disrespect two years later. Conversely, being highly sensitive to disrespect was related to lower racial discrimination two years later, especially in females. The findings also suggest that associations of disrespect sensitivity and racial discrimination with higher aggression are concurrent or evolve over shorter time frames in late adolescence, as neither disrespect sensitivity nor racial discrimination uniquely predicted increased aggression over the two-year follow up period. Together, these results enhance our understanding of the complex relationships between social perceptions and behaviors in urban youth as they begin to transition into adulthood, and may inform future research and interventions helping adolescents cope with racial discrimination and manage aggression.

Footnotes

Bio Sketches

Carlos N. Espinoza is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Mr. Espinoza’s research focuses on identifying risk and protective factors for resilient behavior in minority youth.

Marlon Goering is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Mr. Goering’s research focuses on moral development and behavioral problems in adolescence.

Sylvie Mrug is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Mrug’s research examines the interplay of risk and protective factors in the development of behavioral and emotional problems in adolescence.

References

Anderson,

(2000). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. W.W Norton & Company, Inc.

Anokhin,

A. P.

, Golosheykin,

, & Mulligan,

R. C.

(2015) Long-term test–retest reliability of delayed reward discounting in adolescents. Behavioural Processes111, 55–59. https://doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2014.11.008

Assari,

, Preiser,

, Lankarani,

M. M.

, & Caldwell,

C. H.

(2018) Subjective socioeconomic status moderates the association between discrimination and depression in African American youth. Brain Sciences8(4), 71. https://doi:10.3390/brainsci8040071

Beeson,

C. M.

, Brittain,

, & Vaillancourt,

(2020) The temporal precedence of peer rejection, rejection sensitivity, depression, and aggression across adolescence. Child Psychiatry & Human Development51, 781–791. https://doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2014.11.008

Benner,

A. D.

, Wang,

, Shen,

, Boyle,

A. E.

, Polk,

, & Cheng,

Y. P.

(2018) Racial/ethnic discrimination and well-being during adolescence: A meta-analytic review. American Psychologist73(7), 855–883. https://doi:10.1037/amp0000204

Benson,

J. M.

, Ben-Porath,

E. N.

, & Casey,

L. S.

(2019) Methodology of the discrimination in the United States survey. Health Services Research54(2), 1389–1398. https://doi:10.1111/1475-6773.13226

Blincoe,

, & Harris,

M. J.

(2011) Status and inclusion, anger and sadness: Gendered responses to disrespect. European Journal of Social Psychology41(4), 508–517. https://doi:10.1002/ejs811

Brody,

G. H.

, Chen,

Y. F.

, Murry,

V. M.

, Ge,

, Simons,

R. L.

, Gibbons,

F. X.

,. . . & Cutrona,

C. E.

(2006) Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: A five-year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects. Child Development77(5), 1170–1189. https://doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00927.x

Burris,

C. T.

, & Leitch,

(2018) Harmful fun: Pranks and sadistic motivation. Motivation and Emotion42(1), 90–102. https://doi:10.1007/s11031-017-9651-5

10.

Burt,

C. H.

, Simons,

R. L.

, & Gibbons,

F. X.

(2012) Racial discrimination, ethnic-racial socialization, and crime: A micro-sociological model of risk and resilience. American Sociological Review77(4), 648–677. https://doi:10.1177/0003122412448648

11.

Butler,

, & Maruna,

(2009) The impact of disrespect on prisoners’ aggression: Outcomes of experimentally inducing violence-supportive cognitions. Psychology, Crime & Law15(2-3), 235–250. https://doi:10.1080/10683160802190970

12.

Caldwell,

C. H.

, Kohn-Wood,

L. P.

, Schmeelk-Cone,

K. H.

, Chavous,

T. M.

, & Zimmerman,

M. A.

(2004) Racial discrimination and racial identity as risk or protective factors for violent behaviors in African American young adults. American Journal of Community Psychology33(1), 91–105. https://doi:10.1023/b:ajc0000014321.02367.dd

13.

Casey,

B. J.

, Jones,

R. M.

, & Somerville,

L. H.

(2011) Braking and accelerating of the adolescent brain. Journal of Research on Adolescence21(1), 21–33. https://doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00712.x

14.

Clark,

(2000) Perceptions of interethnic group racism predict increased vascular reactivity to a laboratory challenge in college women. Annals of Behavioral Medicine22(3), 214–222. https://doi:10.1007/BF02895116

15.

Combs,

D. R.

, Penn,

D. L.

, Cassisi,

, Michael,

, Wood,

, Wanner,

, & Adams,

(2006) Perceived racism as a predictor of paranoia among African Americans. Journal of Black Psychology32(1), 87–104. https://doi:10.1177/0095798405283175

16.

DeBono,

, & Muraven,

(2014) Rejection perceptions: Feeling disrespected leads to greater aggression than feeling disliked. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology55, 43–52. https://doi:10.1016/j.jes2014.05.014

17.

De Castro,

B. O.

, Veerman,

J. W.

, Koops,

, Bosch,

J. D.

, & Monshouwer,

H. J.

(2002) Hostile attribution of intent and aggressive behavior: A meta-analysis. Child Development73(3), 916–934. https://doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00447

18.

Di Giunta,

, Pastorelli,

, Thartori,

, Bombi,

A. S.

, Baumgartner,

, Fabes,

R. A.

,... & Enders,

C. K.

(2018) Trajectories of Italian children’s peer rejection: Associations with aggression, prosocial behavior, physical attractiveness, and adolescent adjustment. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology46, 1021–1035. https://doi:10.1007/s10802-017-0373-7

19.

English,

, Lambert,

S. F.

, Tynes,

B. M.

, Bowleg,

, Zea,

M. C.

, & Howard,

L. C.

(2020) Daily multidimensional racial discrimination among Black US American adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology66, 101068. https://doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2019.101068

20.

Farrell,

A. D.

, Sullivan,

T. N.

, Goncy,

E. A.

, & Le,

A. H.

(2016) Assessment of adolescents’ victimization, aggression, and problem behaviors: Evaluation of the problem behavior frequency scale. Psychological Assessment28(6), 702–714. https://doi:10.1037/pas0000225

21.

Gershenson,

, Holt,

S. B.

, & Papageorge,

N. W.

(2016) Who believes in me? The effect of student–teacher demographic match on teacher expectations. Economics of Education Review52, 209–224. https://doi:10.17848/wp15-231

22.

Gibbons,

F. X.

, O’Hara,

R. E.

, Stock,

M. L.

, Gerrard,

, Weng,

C.-Y.

, & Wills,

T. A.

(2012) The erosive effects of racism: Reduced self-control mediates the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use in African American adolescents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology102(5), 1089–1104. https://doi:10.1037/a0027404

23.

Hartshorn,

K. J. S.

, Whitbeck,

L. B.

, & Hoyt,

D. R.

(2012) Exploring the relationships of perceived discrimination, anger, and aggression among North American indigenous adolescents. Society and Mental Health2(1), 53–67. https://doi:10.1177/2156869312441185

24.

Herda,

(2016) The specter of discrimination: Fear of interpersonal racial discrimination among adolescents in Chicago. Social Science Research55, 48–62. https://doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.09.010

25.

Lansford,

J. E.

, Malone,

P. S.

, Dodge,

K. A.

, Pettit,

G. S.

, & Bates,

J. E.

(2010) Developmental cascades of peer rejection, social information processing biases, and aggression during middle childhood. Development and Psychopathology22(3), 593–602. https://doi:10.1017/S0954579410000301

26.

Leary,

J. D.

, Brennan,

E. M.

, & Briggs,

H. E.

(2005) The African American adolescent respect scale: A measure of a prosocial attitude. Research on Social Work Practice15(6), 462–469. https://doi:10.1177/1049731505277717

27.

Leath,

, Mathews,

, Harrison,

, & Chavous,

(2019) Racial identity, racial discrimination, and classroom engagement outcomes among Black girls and boys in predominantly Black and predominantly White school districts. American Educational Research Journal56(4), 1318–1352. https://doi:10.3102/0002831218816955

28.

Lee,

R. T.

, Perez,

A. D.

, Boykin,

C. M.

, & Mendoza-Denton,

(2019) On the prevalence of racial discrimination in the United States. PloS One14(1), 1–16. https://doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0210698

29.

Martin,

M. J.

, McCarthy,

, Conger,

R. D.

, Gibbons,

F. X.

, Simons,

R. L.

, Cutrona,

C. E.

, & Brody,

G. H.

(2011) The enduring significance of racism: Discrimination and delinquency among Black American youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence21(3), 662–676. https://doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00699.x

30.

McDonald,

K. L.

, & Asher,

S. R.

(2018) Pacifists and revenge-seekers in response to unambiguous peer provocation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence47, 1907–1925. https://doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0767-4

31.

Mercer,

S. H.

, & DeRosier,

M. E.

(2008) Teacher preference, peer rejection, and student aggression: A prospective study of transactional influence and independent contributions to emotional adjustment and grades. Journal of School Psychology46(6), 661–685. https://doi:10.1016/j.js2008.06.006

32.

Mrug,

, Tindell,

C. N.

, & McDonald,

K. L.

(2019) Individual and family predictors of disrespect sensitivity in urban adolescents: A pilot study. International Journal of Developmental Science13(1-2), 25–30. https://doi:10.3233/DEV-180256

33.

Ong,

A. D.

, Fuller-Rowell,

, & Burrow,

A. L.

(2009) Racial discrimination and the stress process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology96(6), 1259–1271. https://doi:10.1037/a0015335

34.

Orihuela,

C. A.

, Mrug,

, & Boggiano,

M. M.

(2017) Reciprocal relationships between emotion regulation and motives for eating palatable foods in African American adolescents. Appetite117, 303–309. https://doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.07.008

35.

Phan,

, So,

, Thomas,

, & Gaylord-Harden,

(2020) Hyperarousal and hypervigilance in African American male adolescents exposed to community violence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology70, 101168. https://doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101168

36.

Phipps,

, & Thorne,

(2019) Utilizing trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy as a framework for addressing cultural trauma in African American children and adolescents: A proposal. Professional Counselor9(1), 35–50. https://doi:10.15241/r9.1.35

37.

Saleem,

F. T.

, Anderson,

R. E.

, & Williams,

(2020) Addressing the “myth” of racial trauma: Developmental and ecological considerations for youth of color. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review23, 1–14. https://doi:10.1007/s10567-019-003041

38.

SteelFisher,

G. K.

, Findling,

M. G.

, Bleich,

S. N.

, Casey,

L. S.

, Blendon,

R. J.

, Benson,

J. M.

,... & Miller,

(2019) Gender discrimination in the United States: Experiences of women. Health Services Research54(2), 1442–1453. https://doi:10.1111/1475-6773.13217

39.

Stewart,

E. A.

, Schreck,

C. J.

, & Simons,

R. L.

(2006) I ain’t gonna let no one disrespect me”: Does the code of the street reduce or increase violent victimization among African American adolescents?Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency43(4), 427–458. https://doi:10.1177/0022427806292338

40.

Stewart,

E. A.

, & Simons,

R. L.

(2006) Structure and culture in African American adolescent violence: A partial test of the “code of the street” thesis. Justice Quarterly23(1), 1–33. https://doi:10.1080/07418820600552378

41.

Tobler,

A. L.

, Maldonado-Molina,

M. M.

, Staras,

S. A.

, O’Mara,

R. J.

, Livingston,

M. D.

, & Komro,

K. A.

(2013) Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, problem behaviors, and mental health among minority urban youth. Ethnicity & Health18(4), 337–349. https://doi:10.1080/13557858.2012.730609

42.

Wilkowski,

B. M.

, & Robinson,

M. D.

(2012) When aggressive individuals see the world more accurately: The case of perceptual sensitivity to subtle facial expressions of anger. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin38(4), 540–553. https://doi:10.1177/0146167211430233

43.

Williams,

D. R.

, & Williams-Morris,

(2000) Racism and mental health: The African American experience. Ethnicity and Health5(3-4), 243–268. https://doi:10.1080/713667453

44.

Wright,

M. F.

, & Wachs,

(2019) Does social support moderate the relationship between racial discrimination and aggression among Latinx adolescents? A longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence73, 85–94. https://doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.04.001

45.

Wojciszke,

, Abele,

A. E.

, & Baryla,

(2009) Two dimensions of interpersonal attitudes: Liking depends on communion, respect depends on agency. European Journal of Social Psychology39(6), 973–990. https://doi:10.1002/ejs595

46.

Van de Vliert,

, & Conway III,

L. G.

(2019) Northerners and southerners differ in conflict culture. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research12(3), 256–277. https://doi:10.1111/ncmr.12138

47.

Vandello,

J. A.

, Cohen,

, & Ransom,

(2008) US southern and northern differences in perceptions of norms about aggression: Mechanisms for the perpetuation of a culture of honor. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology39(2), 162–177. https://doi:10.1177/0022022107313862