The Relation between Critical Consciousness and Anti-Racism Social Action among Diverse Adolescents

• In Event: 2-016 - Integrating Racially/Ethnically Diverse Adolescents’ Racial/Ethnic Experiences in Critical Consciousness Research

Integrative Statement

Introduction
In theory, Critical Consciousness (CC)-- youths’ capacity to reflect and act upon their sociopolitical contexts-- facilitates social change (Diemer et al., 2006; Watts et al., 1999). Yet, empirically, the relation between CC and youths’ civic and sociopolitical action is mixed (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004; Diemer, 2012). Diemer and Rapa (2016) suggest that distinct aspects of CC--critical action, political efficacy, and critical reflection--may lead to different forms of political action (e.g., voting, protest). More research is needed to examine the relation between CC and domain-specific engagement, such as social action intended to address racism. This study examines the association between distinct aspects of adolescents’ CC and their engagement in anti-racism social action in interpersonal, communal, and political change contexts. Interpersonal Action involves individual responses to racism, such as “checking” friends who make racist jokes. Communal Action is involvement in collective efforts at school or in the community that addressed issues related to race. Political Change Action is political engagement such as contacting political officials or participation in protests to address systemic race-related issues.

Hypothesis:
Adolescents’ critical action, political efficacy, and critical reflection were hypothesized to positively correlate with their anti-racism communal action and political change action. Given the paucity of scholarship on how youths’ CC relates to interpersonal actions, we made no hypothesis for this association.

Study Population: The sample consisted of 384 youth (14-18 years old). The majority of the participants were girls (51.0%) and U.S. born (88.0%). Adolescents’ racial/ethnic identification included White/European American (26.1%), Black/African American (25.6%), Latino/Hispanic (19.3%), Arab/Middle-Eastern (17.5%), Asian/Pacific Islander (13.6%), Multiracial (9.9%), Native American (5.2%) and “other” (.3%).

Methods: Qualtrics Panel Services, an online survey platform, assisted in the administration of 20-minute anonymous surveys and distribution of incentives (e.g., gift cards). The Critical Consciousness Scale (1 = Strongly disagree - 6 = Strongly agree; Diemer et al., 2014) was used to measure critical action, political efficacy, and critical reflection. The Anti-Racism Social Action Scale (ARSA) measured interpersonal action, communal action, and political change action (0 = No, 1 = Yes). Two-tailed Pearson correlations statistics were conducted using SPSS 24.

Results. The results were mixed (see Table 1). Critical action was significantly and positively correlated to interpersonal action (r(374) = .21, p =.00), communal action (r(373) = .42, p =.00) and political change action (r(373) = .51, p =.00). There was also a significant and positive association between political efficacy and interpersonal action (r(376) = .19, p =.00). Surprisingly, political efficacy was significantly and negatively correlated to communal action (r(376) = -.12, p =.01) and political change action (r(376) = -.15, p =.00). There was no significant association between critical reflection and any of the ARSA factors. Findings suggest that there is a differential relation between CC and anti-racism social action, in ways that are not consistent with theory but provide support for empirical evidence that shows how distinct CC dimensions relate (or not) to social action among racially/ethnically diverse youth.

Authors

• Adriana Aldana, California State University Dominguez Hills
  Presenting Author

• Josefina Banales, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katie Richards-Schuster, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author