Poster #65 - “I’m More Afraid to Tell my Race Now:” Adolescents Respond to the Election of Donald Trump

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Integrative Statement

Research has shown that political involvement, including awareness of government institutions, community engagement, and volunteer activities, is an important domain of human development (Sherrod, 2015) and that behaviors during adolescence predict adulthood political engagement (Flanagan & Levine, 2010). More recently, scholars have highlighted the political involvement among racial/ethnic minorities (Barber et al., 2013; Wray-Lake et al., 2016). To contribute toward this field, we examined racially/ethnically diverse adolescents’ attitudes toward the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

Participants included 342 adolescents from two public grade 9 to 12 high schools in a Western region of the United States. The high schools were economically (20% and 77% low-income) and ethnically diverse (combined 85% racial/ethnic minority, including 6% Black or African American, 18% Asian, 15% White, 51% Hispanic or Latino, and 10% multi-ethnic/racial). Data were collected in June 2017. Adolescents responded to the following open-ended question: “Has the election of Donald Trump made you act differently?” Responses were entered verbatim and were coded consistent with qualitative analytic methods (Creswell, 2014; Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

The overwhelming majority of adolescent participants responded to the open-ended question (93%, n = 318). The sample was almost equally divided into participants who did not report acting differently following the election (n = 153, 48%) from those who did (n = 146, 46%). The remaining participants reported an ambivalent (n = 10, 3%) or (n = 9, 3%) unintelligible response. Among the participants who did report acting differently, three themes emerged. First, participants expressed political awareness and engagement (n = 47, 15%): “I have become more politically aware,” “I’m more involved,” “I have become more politically active.” Second, participants reported fear or worry (n = 28, 9%): “It's made our country way more hostile. And honestly, I'm terrified,” “I need to be super careful when I go outside,” and “I am more aware of my surroundings.” Third, participants expressed anger (n = 17, 5%): “It makes me mad,” “angry,” “frustrated.” An additional theme that emerged was labeled “ethnicity” and included responses that referenced race/ethnicity (n = 22, 7%): “I look at white people different,” “As a minority…I feel that I have to be more cautious with what I do.”

Understanding how adolescents think about politics is an important topic of research as this developmental group represents the next generation of individuals who may participate in civic society as legal adults (Flanagan & Levine, 2010; Sherrod, 2015). This study examined open-ended responses to show that adolescents were divided as to whether the 2016 presidential election made them act differently. Among the adolescents who did act differently, they reported the election made them more politically aware, fearful, or angry. Consistent with recent scholarship (Barber et al., 2013; Wray-Lake et al., 2016), there was also a subgroup of adolescents who reported on the salience of race/ethnicity. Overall, this study showed that adolescents varied in their response to the election. Future research is needed to determine if their responses were associated with their participation in civic activities.

Authors

• Zena R. Mello, San Francisco State University
  Presenting Author

• Charlotte Tate, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura J Finan, Illinois State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sharon Lipperman-Kreda, Prevention Research Center, PIRE
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie Chandler, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author