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Social Patterning of Racial Discrimination Among a Diverse Sample of School-Aged Children in Australia

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Abstract

Objective

To examine the prevalence of young childrens’ reported experiences of racial discrimination and to assess whether discriminatory experiences vary by gender, religion and country of birth.

Methods

Data came from Speak Out Against Racism (SOAR), a cross-sectional study of 4664 public school students in grades 5–9 in two Australian states in 2017. An adaption of the Adolescent Discrimination Distress Index (ADDI), as a measure of discrimination, was used across four Indigenous and ethnic categories (Indigenous, Asian and non-Asian visible minorities, Anglo/European). Effect-measure modification (EMM) examined how experiences of racial discrimination across ethnic groups varied by gender, country of birth and religion.

Results

A sizeable proportion (40%) of students reported experiencing racial discrimination. Indigenous, Asian and non-Asian visible minority students reported higher rates of experiencing racial discrimination than their Anglo-European peers. Male students reported higher rates of experiencing racial discrimination than female students. Foreign-born students reported experiencing racial discrimination more often than native-born students, and both Christian and religious minorities experienced racial discrimination more often than students identifying with the dominant “No religion” group.

Conclusions

The findings highlight the prevalence of racial discrimination among adolescents and how gender, country of birth and religion can increase risk of these experiences.

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Data Availability

Data is not currently open access; please contact Naomi Priest (naomi.priest@anu.edu.au) for data access queries or requests.

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Acknowledgements

Speak Out Against Racism (SOAR) was conducted in partnership with the New South Wales and Victorian education departments and the Australian Human Rights commission. The study sponsors had no role in study design, analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The authors would like to thank all schools and students participating in SOAR. We thank Tania King for her work during the early stages of SOAR and research staff (Rebecca Moorhead, Sharon Moorhead, Brandi Fox, Meiliasari Meiliasari and Emma Whatman (Victoria) and Oishee Alam, Alexia Derbas, Katie Blair, Rosalie Atie and Zarlasht Sarwari (New South Wales) who were involved in data collection. We acknowledge the support of the Social Research Centre with data collection. We thank Kate Doery for her assistance with preparing the manuscript for submission to the journal.

Funding

Speak Out Against Racism was funded by the Australian Research Council LP140100413 in partnership with the New South Wales and Victorian education departments and the Australian Human Rights Commission. NP is supported by a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (APP1123677).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice and Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Fielding School of Public Health, Department of Community Health Sciences, CA, Los Angeles, USA

    Mienah Z. Sharif

  2. Centre for Social Research and Methods, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Mienah Z. Sharif, Shiauyun Chong & Naomi Priest

  3. School of Nursing & Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    Mandy Truong

  4. Disability and Health Unit, Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Anne Kavanagh

  5. Religion and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

    Oishee Alam

  6. Population Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

    Shiauyun Chong & Naomi Priest

  7. Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

    Yin Paradies

Authors
  1. Mienah Z. Sharif
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  2. Mandy Truong
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  3. Anne Kavanagh
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  4. Oishee Alam
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  5. Shiauyun Chong
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  6. Yin Paradies
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  7. Naomi Priest
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Contributions

Priest and Sharif conceptualized and designed the study. Sharif drafted the initial manuscript and conducted the analyses. Truong and Alam collected the data, and Chong led the data management process. All authors contributed to interpretation of data and critically reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mienah Z. Sharif.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Publisher’s Note

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What Is Already Known on This Subject?

Population health research on discrimination has largely focused on experiences of racial discrimination among adults. Racial discrimination is associated with a range of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. There is growing interest in advancing our understanding of the effects of racial discrimination by examining how experiences vary across multiple social categories (e.g. gender, religion) among younger populations.

What Does This Study Adds?

This is one of the first studies to examine the social patterning of racial discrimination across multiple social categories among adolescents. This study underscores the prevalence of racial discrimination among adolescents and how experiences vary by gender, religion and country of birth. Being an immigrant and a religious minority increase an adolescent’s risk of reporting racial discrimination. More public health efforts are needed to address discrimination among adolescents.

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Sharif, M.Z., Truong, M., Kavanagh, A. et al. Social Patterning of Racial Discrimination Among a Diverse Sample of School-Aged Children in Australia. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 9, 830–839 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-01021-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-01021-8

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