'The role of teacher, peer and parental support in the relation between racial marginalization and adolescent mental health’

Abstract

Adolescence is often accompanied by a decline in mental health. This decline in mental health problems may be affected by racial marginalization. Nurturing relationships could be protective factors against this, but research on this has not been conducted sufficiently. The goal of this study was to understand whether teacher, peer and parental support function as a buffer against the negative effects of racial marginalization on mental health of adolescents with a non-Dutch background. A representative sample of adolescents was used in this study, utilizing cross-sectional data. A multiple regression analysis was conducted specifically on adolescents with a non-Dutch background (N = 1507). The results showed that racial marginalization has a significant negative effect on mental health. Parental support was found to function as a significant protective factor against this effect, while teacher support was found to enforce the negative effect of racial marginalization on mental health problems. Peer support was found to be non-significant. It is important to delve deeper into the role of parents and to consider the role teachers play in racial marginalization and mental health problems more. More knowledge about racial marginalization could lead to a reduction of it and its unwanted effect on adolescent mental health.