Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Shapes Adolescent Brain Connectivity: Social Buffers and Implications for Executive Function

This pre-registered study used moderated mediation to examine the longitudinal effect of racial/ethnic discrimination on executive function via resting state functional connectivity between four neural networks among 4,669 adolescents of color (e.g., 44% Latinx, 43% Black, 13% Asian, 8% Native American). Further, we explored familism and school support as social-environmental buffers. Measures included self-report, experimental, and resting state fMRI methods from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study. Greater racial/ethnic discrimination impeded adolescents’ executive function via longitudinal effects on connectivity between the brain’s attention networks, specifically among youth evincing low familism Among adolescents reporting low school support, greater discrimination was associated with heightened dorsal attention—salience network connectivity. Findings offer initial evidence for the neurobiological processes impacted by discrimination for marginalized youth. Identifying familism and school support as strengths that may “break the link” between discrimination and brain function contributes fundamental insights into brain plasticity and resilience during adolescence.