The Association Between Everyday Discrimination and Symptoms of Depression in Adolescents Moderated by Dysfunctional Attitudes

ABSTRACT We integrated perceived everyday discrimination into Beck's cognitive theory of depression, hypothesizing that dysfunctional attitudes moderate the relationship between perceived everyday discrimination and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Participants included 339 ninth‐grade students from a single public high school in the Southern United States. Our findings indicated significant positive associations of perceived everyday discrimination and dysfunctional attitudes with depressive symptoms. Further, a significant interaction effect between perceived everyday discrimination and dysfunctional attitudes on depressive symptoms indicates that adolescents holding dysfunctional attitudes experience more depressive symptoms when experiencing perceived everyday discrimination than other adolescents. Our findings highlight the importance of counselors supporting their clients by validating the unfairness of discrimination, helping them to mitigate the negative effects of discrimination, and preparing them to cope with the potential of future discrimination. Our findings also amplify the importance of counselors promoting social change to reduce discrimination on a broader societal level through advocacy efforts.