Investigating Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Adolescents' Developing Commitment to Antiracist Activism Over Four Years of High School

• In Event: Youth Power, Politics, and Activism in Democratic Citizenship Education

Abstract

This mixed methods study considered the development of a commitment to antiracist activism among BIPOC youth over four years of high school. Latent growth models were fit to five waves of survey data to consider change over time in participating adolescents’ (n = 643) commitment to activism. Additionally, four waves of interviews with a subset of adolescents (n = 50) were analyzed to consider participants’ descriptions of their developing commitment to antiracist activism. On average, participating adolescents demonstrated quadratic growth in their commitment to activism over four years. However, five different trajectories of adolescents’ developing commitment to activism emerged from this study’s qualitative analyses as well as insights into the factors that nurtured adolescents’ developing commitment to activism challenging racism.

Authors

• Sidney C. May, Dartmouth College

• Scott Clifford Seider, Boston College

• Aaliyah El-Amin, Harvard University

• Brianna C. Diaz, Boston College

• Daren Graves, Simmons University