By Jason M. Nagata, Kyle T. Ganson, and Omar M. Sajjad, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, May 17, 2021
Research has consistently shown that racism is detrimental to the health of children, adolescents, and their families.1 These consequences range from higher infant mortality to poorer mental health and juvenile justice involvement.1 Despite the plethora of known adverse outcomes associated with racism among young people, little is known regarding the number of children who report that they experience racism and discrimination directly. Identifying the prevalence of racism and discrimination among a crucial developmental age group is imperative to curtail poor outcomes, adjust public health measures, and improve medical and mental health assessments and treatments. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the national prevalence of perceived racism and discrimination among 10- and 11-year-old children.
In this study, cross-sectional data of children aged 10 and 11 years from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a large, diverse, population-based sample, at year 1 (2017-2019 release 3.0) were analyzed in 2020. Institutional review board approval was obtained from the University of California, San Diego and at each of the 21 study sites (eAppendix in the Supplement), and caregivers provided written informed consent. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guidelines. Discrimination was measured from the Perceived Discrimination Scale,2,3 which was originally developed to measure adolescentsβ perception of being treated unfairly or feeling unaccepted in society owing to their racial or ethnic background. The unadjusted prevalence of racial and ethnic discrimination was estimated by race/ethnicity. Significant differences in racial and ethnic discrimination by race/ethnicity were determined by the adjusted F, a variant of the second-order Rao-Scott adjusted Ο2 statistic.
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