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Impact of Racial Discrimination on the Mental Health of Minoritized Youth

  • Child and Adolescent Disorders (TD Benton, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The impacts of racism and discrimination on developing minoritized youth are increasingly shown as having the potential to create long-lasting adverse outcomes on children’s developmental trajectories.

Recent Findings

From the quality of the schools they attend, to the level and amount of toxicants in the air they breathe, to equitable access to health care, and within interpersonal relationships and experiences with their peers, multiple forms of racism, systemic/structural, interpersonal/personally mediated, and internalized shape the health status of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPoC) youth. Accordingly, it is exceedingly important to use a developmental lens to distinguish the various outcomes these multiple forms of racism have on the health of minoritized youth.

Summary

Critically, the time is now for rapid identification of these harms in all of the mediums and spaces in which they present followed by prevention and intervention strategies that are effective in equitably ensuring the healthy development for all of America’s children.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Wanjikũ F. M. Njoroge

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Wanjikũ F. M. Njoroge

  3. Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Markolline Forkpa

  4. Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Eraka Bath

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  1. Wanjikũ F. M. Njoroge
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  2. Markolline Forkpa
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  3. Eraka Bath
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All authors conceptualized the analysis, provided critical revisions to the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted.

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Correspondence to Wanjikũ F. M. Njoroge.

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Njoroge, W.F.M., Forkpa, M. & Bath, E. Impact of Racial Discrimination on the Mental Health of Minoritized Youth. Curr Psychiatry Rep 23, 81 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-021-01297-x

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