Perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among US Latinos: the modifying role of educational attainment

ABSTRACT

Objective: Despite growing evidence that discrimination may contribute to poor mental health, few studies have assessed this association among US Latinos. Furthermore, the interaction between discrimination and educational attainment in shaping Latino mental health is virtually unexplored. This study aims to examine the association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms and the modifying role of education among a population of Mexican-origin adults.

Design: We utilized population-based data from 629 Mexican-origin adults (mean age = 52.8 years) participating the Niños Lifestyle and Diabetes Study (2013–2014). Perceived discrimination was defined as responding ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ to at least one item on the 9-item Everyday Discrimination Scale. High depressive symptoms were defined as scoring ≥10 on the CESD-10. We used log-binomial and linear-binomial models to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and prevalence differences (PD), respectively, of high depressive symptoms for levels of perceived discrimination. Final models were adjusted for age, sex, education, cultural orientation, and nativity. General estimating equations were employed to account for within-family clustering.

Results: Prevalence of perceived discrimination and high depressive symptoms were 49.5% and 29.2%, respectively. Participants experiencing discrimination had higher depressive symptom prevalence than those never or rarely experiencing discrimination [PR = 1.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.46–2.58; PD = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.12–0.27]. The strength of this association varied by education level. The association between discrimination and depressive symptoms was stronger among those with >12 years of education (PR = 2.69; PD = 0.24) compared to those with ≤12 years of education (PR = 1.36; PD = 0.09).

Conclusion: US Latinos suffer a high burden of depressive symptoms, and discrimination may be an important driver of this burden. Our results suggest that effortful coping strategies, such as achieving high education despite high perceived discrimination, may magnify discrimination’s adverse effect on Latino mental health.

KEYWORDS:

• Discrimination
• depressive symptoms
• latinos
• socioeconomic status
• education
• mental health

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the help of David Kleckner, Kathy Wisniewski, Christian Douglas, and Rebecca Stebbins from the Aiello Research Group for their assistance with data management and analysis. Additionally, we would like to thank the phlebotomists, interviewers, and participants for their collaboration in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Key messages

• Prevalence of perceived discrimination and high depressive symptoms were 49.5% and 29.2%, respectively, among study participants.

• Perceiving a high level of discrimination was associated with high depressive symptoms among US Latinos.

• The association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms was stronger among the more highly educated.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases under Grants R01 DK087864 and R01 DK60753; the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities under Grant P60 MD002249; the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development under Grant T32 HD007168; and the National Institute on Aging under Grant R01 AG012975.