Classmates' Discrimination Experiences and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Evidence From Random Assignment of Students to Classrooms in South Korea

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the association between classmates' discrimination experiences and an individual student's depressive symptoms. A set of social-psychological and behavioral variables were considered as potential mechanisms underlying this association. MethodsThe data came from the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study of seventh graders in South Korea. This study leveraged quasi-experimental variation generated from random assignment of students to classes within schools to address the endogenous school selection problem and account for the unobserved school-level confounders. To formally test for mediation, Sobel tests were conducted and peer attachment, school satisfaction, smoking, and drinking were explored as mechanism variables. ResultsAn increase in classmates' discrimination experiences was positively associated with an individual student's depressive symptoms. This association remained statistically significant even after adjusting for personal discrimination experience, a myriad of individual- and class-level covariates, as well as school fixed effects (b = 0.325, p < .05). Classmates' discrimination experiences were also associated with a decline in peer attachment and school satisfaction (b = −0.386, p < .01 and b = −0.399, p < .05, respectively). These psychosocial factors explained about one-third of the association between classmates' discrimination experiences and individual students' depressive symptoms. DiscussionThe findings of this study suggest that exposure to peer-level discrimination experience leads to friend detachment and school dissatisfaction, which in turn increases an individual student's depressive symptoms. This study reaffirms the importance of fostering a more cohesive and nondiscriminatory school environment to promote adolescents' psychological health and well-being.