The Mediating Role of Biculturalism in the Association Between Discrimination and Adolescent Adjustment

Ethnic-racial discrimination poses a significant threat to psychosocial adjustment among immigrant and ethnic-racial minoritized adolescents. This study examines how biculturalism mediates the discrimination-adjustment link, focusing on bicultural harmony, blendedness, and facility. Guided by cultural ecological and cognitive-developmental frameworks, we tested whether discrimination erodes adolescents' capacity to integrate ethnic-racial and national identities, thereby undermining adjustment. Participants were 145 minoritized and immigrant-identifying 9th graders (Mage = 14.1; 42.1% male; 83% with at least one immigrant parent) surveyed three times across the school year. Multivariate path analyses revealed that higher perceived discrimination at Time 1 predicted decreases in bicultural blendedness at Time 2, which in turn predicted decreases in psychosocial adjustment at Time 3. No other bicultural dimensions mediated these effects. Findings highlight bicultural blendedness as a key mechanism in how discrimination disrupts youth development, emphasizing the need to support identity integration during major developmental transitions like the transition to high school.