Ethnic Identity and Adverse Mood Related Symptoms

 Multiple regression and logistic regression were used to test the second

hypothesis: There is a relationship between ethnic identity and mental health functioning

in minority adolescents. The assumptions for linear regression include residual

homoscedasticity (i.e., equal variance of the dependent variable at each level of the

independent variable), normal distribution, and linearity. Also, all pertinent variables

must be included, and all irrelevant variables are excluded. Lastly, measures must be

reliable and observations must be independent (Licht, 1997). These assumptions were

met with the exception of linearity. Transformation of the data and/or use of a non-linear

model were not appropriate due to the large number of zero scores. However, multiple

regression is robust to the effects of violations of the error assumptions (Licht, 1997).

Table 4-7. Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure by Ethnic Group
 a Mean SD
 African American .74 3.55 .61
 European American .75 3.33 .53
 Hispanic .83 3.47 .59
 Other .85 3.59 .67

 Three subscales of the MAYSI-2 (angry/irritable mood, depressed/anxious mood,

and somatic complaints due to anxiety) were summed to create one dependent variable (a

= 0.86). This variable was normally distributed. This sub-divides the general construct of

adverse mental health symptoms and creates two more specific constructs. The constructs

are mood related adverse mental health symptoms and substance use. The alcohol/drug

use measure was not normally distributed and this measure was analyzed separately

using logistic regression. The rationale for this separation is detailed in the following

section.