Perceived discrimination and young people’s health and wellbeing in Ireland: A longitudinal analysis

Discrimination, defined as the unfair treatment of groups based on
intrinsic characteristics, has pervasive and long-lasting consequences
for the individuals who experience it. Previous research has found that
individuals who experience discrimination have worsened physical and
mental health outcomes (Williams et al., 2019; Schmitt et al., 2014;
Benner et al., 2018). Furthermore, Schmitt et al. (2014) find that there
is a stronger relationship between discrimination and poor wellbeing
for children than for adults. Young people’s self-esteem and identities
are continually developing at this stage, and discrimination may have a
broader impact on their development (Marks et al., 2015).

This research fills an identified gap in studying discrimination using the
Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data (Philippe et al., 2025). GUI is a
longitudinal study of children and their families in Ireland. We focus on
Cohort ’98, born in 1998, and explore their experiences of
discrimination at the key development periods of age 17 and 25.
Discrimination is measured in this research through perceived
discrimination, the individual’s perception that they are treated less
favourably than others (Paradies, 2006). The GUI dataset collects this
using the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) (Williams et al., 1997).
The scale used in the GUI survey consists of five items, and asks
respondents:

In your day-to-day life, how often have any of the following things
happened to you:

• You are treated with less courtesy or respect than other people
• You receive poorer service than other people at restaurants or
stores
• People act as if you are not smart
• People act as if they are afraid of you
• You are threatened or harassed~

Those who record any of these experiences more than a few times a
year are also asked what they think was the reason for this treatment
(e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, appearance, education/income level).
Perceived discrimination as measured by the EDS differs from the Irish
legal definition of discrimination, which protects individuals from
discrimination in accessing goods and services and in the workplace
under specific grounds which does not include appearance, social
background, or in the case of those aged under 18, age-related
discrimination.

The GUI dataset presents a unique opportunity to study how young
people experience discrimination over time. The longitudinal nature of
the data allows for examination of the prevalence of perceived
discrimination across key developmental stages, and examination of
how this discrimination relates to key outcomes. In this study, we use
five different variables to examine these outcomes: subjective general
health, life satisfaction, self-esteem, depression and alcohol
consumption. These variables were chosen as they reflect different
dimensions of health and wellbeing, considering data availability and
policy relevance.