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Effect of School Racial Composition on Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms from Adolescence Through Early Adulthood

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Abstract

We investigate the effect of high school racial composition, measured as percent of non-Hispanic white students, on trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to early adulthood. We also explore whether the effect of school racial composition varies by respondent race/ethnicity and whether adult socioeconomic status mediates this relationship. We analyzed four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health using 3-level linear growth models. We restricted our sample to respondents enrolled in grades 9–12 in 1994/5 who were interviewed at a minimum in Waves I and IV. This resulted in 10,350 respondents enrolled in 80 high schools in 1994/5 (5,561 whites, 2,030 blacks, 1,834 Hispanics, 738 Asians, and 187 of other race). As the percentage of white students increased at the high school respondents attended in 1994/5, blacks reported more depressive symptoms. This effect did not vary by age. In comparison, Asian and Hispanic respondents who attended predominantly white high schools had lower levels of depressive symptoms than their counterparts who attended predominantly minority schools, but they also experienced a slower decline in depressive symptoms through early adulthood. Adult SES mediated the relationship between high school racial composition and depressive symptoms for black, but not for Asian or Hispanic respondents. Our results suggest that high school racial composition is associated with trajectories of depressive symptoms through early adulthood, but the effect differs by respondents’ race/ethnicity. Racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during early adulthood may have their origins in adolescence.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the University of Michigan’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program (grant N008885). This research used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a program project by Kathleen Mullan Harris, designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). This research also used data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement study, which was funded by a grant (R01 HD040428-02, Chandra Muller, PI) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and a grant (REC-0126167, Chandra Muller, PI, and Pedro Reyes, Co-PI) from the National Science Foundation. This research was also supported by grant 5 R24 HD042849, Population Research Center, awarded to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Health and Child Development. No direct support was received from grants P01-HD31921, R01 HD040428-02, or 5 R24 HD042849 for this analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter Street, Room 216, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Katrina M. Walsemann

  2. Educational Psychology, Research, and Foundations Program, University of South Carolina, 820 Main Street, Room 133, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Bethany A. Bell

  3. Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska, 711 Oldfather Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0324, USA

    Bridget J. Goosby

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  1. Katrina M. Walsemann
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Correspondence to Katrina M. Walsemann.

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Walsemann, K.M., Bell, B.A. & Goosby, B.J. Effect of School Racial Composition on Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms from Adolescence Through Early Adulthood. Race Soc Probl 3, 131–145 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-011-9053-3

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