The Strain of Being Black in School - Understanding School Deviance as a Coping Response

• In Event: Childhood Strain and Crime: Empirical Approaches

Abstract

In the education system, African American youth are confronted by deficit-based narratives of intellectual inferiority and defiance that inform teaching pedagogies, curricula, and classroom management strategies, such as school discipline practices. This study applies general strain theory and race-based traumatic stress to examine the complex associations between perceptions of differential treatment by teachers, negative emotions, and deviant behavior and grades for a nationally representative sample of African American youth. Using data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), Adolescent Supplement for 2001-2004, results from this study suggest that perceptions of differential treatment from teachers is a risk factor for the underachievement of African American youth, particularly for those youth who ‘act out’ in response to their negative emotions. Given this, findings from this study reinforce the need to eradicate deficit-based narratives of underachievement and failure through counternarratives of resilience and success and improvements to school climate.

Author

• Frank Wood, Bethune-Cookman University