The Influence of Parental Neglect on Adolescents' Experience of Discrimination: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Depression and Moderated Mediating Effect of a Prosocial School Environment

Objectives This study examined the mediating effect of depression and the moderated mediating effect of prosocial school environment on the relationship between parental neglect and the experience of discrimination among adolescents. Methods Data obtained from the 2022 Children and Youth human rights survey of Korea National Youth Policy Institute which covered 2,788 middle school students were analyzed using PROCESS macro Model 4 for the mediating effect and Model 7 for the moderated mediating effect, and the bootstrapping method was employed to verify the significance of each model effect. Results It was found that depression has a partial mediating effect in the relationship between parental neglect and the experience of discrimination. In other words, parental neglect not only directly affects the experience of discrimination, but also indirectly through depression. In addition, it was found that the more positive the prosocial school environment perceived by students was, the more the effect of depression on the experience of discrimination. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that it is necessary not only to intervene in negative parental raising attitudes and discriminating behavior caused by it but also to consider the influence of the school environment to prevent discrimination harming adolescents.