Su Yeong Kim’s Study Reveals How Discrimination and Neighborhood Disadvantage Affect the Mental Health of Mexican-Origin Adolescents
By Dr. Su Yeong Kim, Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin
Ethnic discrimination, perceived violence, and neighborhood conditions collectively shape the emotional well-being of Mexican-origin adolescents. Their daily lives in the United States are defined not just by school and friendships, but also by persistent systemic disadvantage, unsafe environments, and racial bias — factors that deeply affect both their external circumstances and internal emotional states.
But how do such circumstances and structures really impact teen mental health?
What We Examined: Su Yeong Kim’s Research Insights
As part of our recent longitudinal work, we followed Mexican-origin youth to determine how neighborhood poverty and disadvantage predict internalizing symptoms such as anxiety and depression.
We focused on the ways youth:
- Witness violent events within their communities
- Live parenthood while tense
- And how ethnic discrimination exacerbates them
The Chain Reaction that Influences Mental Health
Our findings revealed a multi-layered pathway:
- Structural Neighborhood Disadvantage
Teenagers from poor, violent neighborhoods perceived their neighborhoods as more violent. - Perceived Neighborhood Violence
This realization was not just intellectual — at an emotional level. It made youth hypersensitive, hyper-aware, and tense emotionally. - Parental Hostility
Parents became more grouchy or angry in tense situations. While often not meant to be, this additional emotional load impacted teenagers. - Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescents
Ultimately, this cycle of stress resulted in increased anxiety, sadness, and somatic symptom levels.
The Augmenting Impact of Discrimination
One of the crucial findings: ethnic discrimination worsened every stage of the cycle.
Youths that experienced greater discrimination indicated that they felt less safe, experienced higher hostility from parents, and received poorer mental health outcomes — even when residing among the same neighborhoods as those without reports of discrimination.
Why This Research Matters
Our work suggests that youth’s social and emotional contexts need to be reconsidered — not just inside the house, but within the entire community.
This is what should occur, in our view:
- Invest in safer, fairer neighborhoods
- Offer culturally competent spaces that enable youth to manage racial stress
- Support pressured parents through communication tools that are positive
- Develop identity-affirming programs within schools that enhance youth voices
Supporting the Resilience of Mexican-Origin Youth
These adolescents are not only surviving, they’re becoming resilient despite remarkable adversity. Resilience isn’t a default state, however. It emerges when communities take a proactive approach to community safety, culture and identity validation, and mental health treatment.
Addressing both the structures and the emotions entrenched within them, we may not just help these youth survive, but thrive.
Read the Full Study —
Neighbourhood Disadvantage and Internalizing Symptoms Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Parenting and Ethnic Discrimination — by Dr. Su Yeong Kim and colleagues
Published in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence
