Exploring the role of ethnic identity and coping on depressive symptoms in Black and Latinx college students after discrimination.

OBJECTIVES

This study examines the role of ethnic identity as potentially mediating or moderating the relationship between exposure to discrimination and depressive symptoms, and whether the inclusion of other variables, including racial group membership and discrimination-focused coping, might better explain the role of ethnic identity in the relationship between discrimination and depressive symptoms.

METHOD: We administered measures of ethnic discrimination, multigroup ethnic identity, coping with discrimination, and depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Our sample included 178 undergraduate and graduate students from a midsize private Midwestern institution who identified as Black/African American or Latino/Hispanic/Latinx/Latiné.

RESULTS

The results indicated that there was evidence for a moderated mediation through detachment coping. Latinx participants showed that having a strong ethnic identity commitment was associated with less detachment coping and less depressive symptoms at high levels of discrimination, but not at low levels of discrimination. For Black participants, having a strong ethnic identity commitment was associated with less depressive symptoms and less detachment coping at lower levels of discrimination, but not at higher levels of discrimination.

CONCLUSION

This study provides evidence of the role of ethnic identity as a protective factor after experiencing discrimination and shows that the protective role varies between different racial and ethnic groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).