Loneliness Among Racially Minoritized Adolescents: Racial Discrimination and Ethnic-Racial Identity as Risk and Protective Factors

Loneliness is a public health concern. This cross-sectional study investigated whether racial discrimination from adults and ethnic-racial identity were associated with youth loneliness and whether ethnic-racial identity moderated the association between discrimination and loneliness. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted on survey data from 159 racially minoritized early adolescents ( M age = 12.51 years; 50% female, 49% male, 0.6% non-binary), most of whom identified as Black/African American (57%), bi/multiracial (29%) and/or Latinx (12%). Results indicated that more racial discrimination was significantly associated with more loneliness, whereas higher scores on dimensions of ethnic-racial identity, specifically exploration, private regard, and public regard, were significantly associated with less loneliness. Negative ethnic-racial affect was not significantly associated with loneliness. None of the measures of ethnic-racial identity interacted significantly with youth’s reported level of racial discrimination in predicting loneliness. These findings suggest important roles of racial discrimination and ethnic-racial identity in racially minoritized adolescents’ social well-being.