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Disentangling the effects of perceived personal and group ethnic discrimination among secondary school students: The protective role of teacher–student relationship quality and school climate
Author(s) -
Civitillo Sauro,
Göbel Kerstin,
Preusche Zuzanna,
Jugert Philipp
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
new directions for child and adolescent development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1534-8687
pISSN - 1520-3247
DOI - 10.1002/cad.20415
Subject(s) - psychology , ethnic group , psychological resilience , social psychology , self esteem , developmental psychology , student engagement , school climate , quality (philosophy) , multilevel model , academic achievement , pedagogy , philosophy , epistemology , machine learning , sociology , anthropology , computer science
Guided by risk and resilience and attachment perspectives, the present study examined whether teacher–student relationship quality and school climate can buffer against the deleterious effects of perceived personal and group ethnic discrimination on psychological and academic domains. We conducted multilevel analyses of seventh graders (40 classrooms; N = 456; 47% female) with different cultural self‐identifications in Germany. Partially confirming pre‐registered hypotheses, results indicated that high levels of perceived personal discrimination were negatively associated with global self‐esteem and emotional school engagement. Contrary to our expectations, neither perceived personal nor group discrimination negatively predicted academic self‐concept. In addition, teacher–student relationship quality but not school climate buffered the relationship between both personal and group discrimination and global self‐esteem and emotional school engagement such that the association was less negative when relationship quality was high. Taken together, our results underscore the importance of considering the different targets of discrimination (i.e., personal self and own group), and that positive teacher–student relationship can be especially beneficial and empowering for youth who are exposed to ethnic discrimination.