Youth mental health and health-risk behaviors that are left unattended may have detrimental consequences for personal and social wellbeing in the long-run. Thus, the examination of social relationships associated with adolescent behavioral health conditions is critical, as it can present knowledge to effectively guide prevention and intervention programs. In response to such research needs, this three-essay dissertation analyzes two unique panel datasets concerning first and second generation immigrant youth in the U.S. and adolescents in South Korea.
Grounded in the ideas of social stress theory, Chapter 2 explores the plausibility of the presence of a systematic relationship between exposure to perceived discrimination and the mental health response to discrimination among youth of immigrant backgrounds. In the study, adolescents who were most likely to be exposed to perceived discrimination showed a smaller mental health response, possibly through mechanisms of adjustment, coping, and resiliency development. Results underscored the need to tailor interventions such that they incorporate mechanisms that effectively account for differential response to stressors across youth.
Chapter 3 investigates the different magnitudes of the marginal change in conditional depressive symptoms scores associated with the experience of perceived discrimination among a sample of immigrant youth. Results suggested that estimates of the discrimination-depression association that focus on the average individual would have understated the potential harm of perceived discrimination on depressed moods in the high end of the conditional depression distribution. Findings may provide important implications for understanding stressful social relationships and its association with depressive symptoms particularly in the most marginalizing conditions.
Finally, Chapter 4 examines the role of social capital—an informal mechanism of social control embedded in youth relationships with the family and community—in preventing the onset of health-risk behaviors among Korean adolescents. The strong association between family-level social capital and youth outcomes highlighted the importance of informal family-based prevention and intervention practices. Relational resources in the community were also proven important, but only for health-risk behaviors that often occur in communal areas. Results underscored the value of informal family and community mechanisms of control, alongside formal legislative forms of control in preventing the onset of youth health-risk behaviors.PHDSocial Work and Social ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93992/1/yshan_1.pd
