Examining the associations between ethnic discrimination and school engagement: A daily diary study
Final Report Abstract
Being the target of discriminatory actions due to ethnicity can lead ethnic minority students to disengage from school. Yet, research on links between school-based ethnic discrimination and school engagement has mostly examined between-person level associations. Complementing this research, the goal of this project was to examine the relationship between ethnic discrimination in school and school engagement in everyday life over a two-week period. The project builds on existing research on school engagement, school-based ethnic discrimination, and identity process theory. These show that stressors that youth experience in a particular context (e.g., ethnic discrimination in school) influence their engagement in that context. The two main characteristics of discrimination- the type of behaviour (overt or subtle discrimination) and the source (peer or teacher discrimination)- may affect ethnic minority students in different ways. Specifically, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement in school were expected to decrease when students experienced ethnic discrimination at school on the same day and the next day. The study included 87 students (62% female, M = 15 years old) from all secondary school types (44.7% comprehensive school). Recruitment took place both in the schools themselves and in youth centers in the Ruhr region. Data were collected through a digital diary study over a two-week period. Baseline measures of discrimination experiences, school engagement, gender, family background, ethnic self-identification, and number of books in the household were collected. Subsequently, students completed daily questionnaires on overt and subtle experiences of discrimination by peers and teachers, and on behavioral, cognitive, and emotional school engagement. In multilevel models, and after controlling for baseline measures of discrimination and school engagement and control variables (gender, family background, ethnic self-identification, and number of books at home), within-subject effects suggest that students reported lower cognitive school engagement on days when they perceived discrimination by teachers and peers and subtle discrimination by peers (but not overt discrimination). Behavioral and emotional engagement were not significantly related to any of the types and sources of discrimination at the within-subject level, but were related to average discrimination (i.e., between-subject experiences of discrimination by peers and teachers) during the study period. We also found a one-day lagged association between teacher-based and subtle discrimination by peers and emotional engagement the next day. The results of the current project could serve as a basis for interventions that support students and educators in recognizing and combating school-based ethnic discrimination. Future studies could also examine experiences of discrimination at the within-subject level over a longer period of time, as there has been little research on this to date. It would also be helpful to examine the protective role of perceived social support from friends or family against experiences of discrimination.
