Identifying the Depressive Profiles of Adolescent Black Boys Who Have Been School-Policed and Disciplined

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Exclusionary Discipline Through Policy and Policy as Practice (Table 39)

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to identify nuanced depressive subgroups among Black adolescent boys who experienced school discipline and policing.

802 Black adolescent boys from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing were used to conduct a latent class analysis to examine the subgroup differences among adolescents regarding school discipline and school policing and the outcome of depressive symptoms.

Our study identified four subgroups of youths: (1) never disciplined or stopped by school police, (2) police regularly stationed and disciplined, (3) moderate discipline and policing climate, and (4) police stationed and saw others stopped.

The educational environments that Black boys traverse are unique in terms of their mental health. Educators, mental health professionals, and policymakers, should identify specific interventions.

Author

• Collin Perryman, Morgan State University