Award Date

12-15-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Christopher Kearney

Second Committee Member

Gloria Wong-Padoongpatt

Third Committee Member

Saira Rab

Fourth Committee Member

Sheila Bock

Number of Pages

255

Abstract

Adolescents with marginalized identities often face chronic exposure to discrimination, a social stressor linked to a range of negative mental health outcomes. While much of the existing literature focuses on internalizing symptoms, fewer studies have explored how discrimination may disrupt the development of positive affect (POA), which is a core dimension of emotional well-being linked to resilience, identity formation, and long-term health. The present study examined how overall, race/ethnicity-based, and sexual minority (SM)-based discrimination affects longitudinal patterns of POA among adolescents with single or multiple marginalized identities. Drawing on four waves of data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, latent growth curve modeling was used to assess whether early exposure to discrimination during adolescence was negatively associated with initial levels and changes in POA over time. Participants included 11,176 adolescents categorized into racial/ethnic marginalized only, SM only, and multiply marginalized identity groups. Results indicated that higher levels of overall discrimination at T1 were significantly associated with lower initial levels and steeper declines of POA over time, whereas race/ethnicity-based discrimination was significantly associated only with steeper declines of POA over time. These associations did not differ meaningfully across identity groups. In contrast, SM-based discrimination was not significantly associated with initial levels and changes in POA over time for both singly and multiply marginalized adolescents. Findings underscore the enduring impact of discrimination on adolescent emotional development and highlight the importance of addressing distal stressors during critical developmental periods. Implications for theory, clinical practice, policy, and future research are discussed, with attention to developmental timing, measurement limitations, and the need for more intersectionally grounded analyses.

Keywords

ABCD Study; Adolescence; Discrimination; Latent Growth Curve Modeling; Positive Affect; Protective Factors

Disciplines

Clinical Psychology | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

File Format

PDF

File Size

2200 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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