“I Internalized a Lot”: Identity-Based Risk Factors and Depression Symptoms in Biracial Girls and Young Women

Biracial Black-White girls and young women in the U.S. navigate a unique landscape of racial stress including experiences of racial identity invalidation (RII) that may expose them to additional risk factors such as racial identity challenges (RICs) and feelings of inauthenticity. Independent lines of research have linked RII, RICs, and inauthenticity with disparate mental health outcomes among Biracial adults. However, there is a dearth of research exploring these processes concurrently and within the younger female demographic. The current study addresses this gap by exploring whether RICs and inauthenticity moderate or mediate the relationship between RII and depressive symptoms amongst 283 Biracial Black-White girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 25 (M = 18.95, SD = 3.75). RII, RICs, and inauthenticity were correlated with increased depressive symptoms aligning with preliminary literature. The path analysis further revealed that RII was directly and positively associated with depression symptoms, but it did not impact RICs or inauthenticity dismissing our mediation hypotheses. Instead, RICs and inauthenticity moderated these relationships. There was a notable vulnerability to depressive symptoms among those less challenged by their racial identity. Moreover, inauthenticity, although weakly correlated with RII, significantly exacerbated its impact on depressive symptoms. There were also developmental differences between the participants with young women reporting higher amounts of RII, RICs, inauthenticity, and depression symptoms than adolescent girls and the moderation effects varying slightly by age. These findings highlight the nuanced dynamics of race, inauthenticity, and depression symptoms for Biracial females. Implications for research and practice are discussed.