Using Growth Mixture Modeling to Investigate Associations Between Hope and the Development of Critical Consciousness

• In Event: Examining How Critical Consciousness is Fostered, Facilitated, and Performed Among Young People Across the US

Abstract

Research has found that youth of color in the United States encounter pervasive racism (NASEM, 2019). Importantly, youth of color engage in processes of critical consciousness (Freire, 1970/2016) whereby they analyze and act against systems of oppression. Their interrogation of inequality from a systemic lens (critical reflection) can be supported by feelings of sociopolitical control to result in critical actions, or behaviors aimed at combating injustice in society (Diemer et al., 2016). However, engaging with systemic oppression is difficult—there are setbacks and pushback, and the road is long (Gorski, 2019a, 2019b). Furthermore, becoming critically aware of the endemic nature of disparity may lead to disengagement from racist systems (Fine, 1991; Ogbu, 2003). Thus, it is important to consider ways that youth of color can sustain their critical consciousness.

This study examines the role of hope (Schmid & Lopez, 2011) for youth engaged in the challenge of dismantling oppressive systems in society. Hope, as optimistic expectations for the future, has been identified as an individual asset that predicts positive developmental outcomes (Schmid et al., 2011). As youth of color develop their understanding of oppression, hopeful expectations about one’s future may support engaging in social justice efforts.
Using data from 618 youth of color (56.47% female, 60.36% African-American or Black, 21.20% Latino/a/x or Hispanic, 18.45% multiple races/ethnicities), we examined associations over the high school years between hope and critical reflection, sociopolitical control, and critical action. We first established longitudinal measurement invariance of our constructs: hope, measured using five items from the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth (Park & Peterson, 2006); critical reflection, assessed with three items from the Structural Attribution for Racial-Ethnic Inequality Scale (Gurin et al., 1980) and two items from the Awareness of Racism Scale (Oyserman et al., 1995); sociopolitical control, indexed with five items from Peterson and colleagues’ scale (2011); and critical action, measured using four items from the Activism Orientation Scale (Corning & Myers, 2002).

Growth mixture modeling (Ram & Grimm, 2009) was conducted for the three critical consciousness constructs, and statistically significant differences in the average level of hope between trajectories were examined using the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars procedure (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2020). For critical reflection, three trajectories were identified (see Figure 1). Hope was statistically significantly higher in trajectory 1 compared to trajectory 2 (see Figure 2). This result suggests youth with levels of critical reflection that are increasing over their high school years reported higher levels of hope compared to youth with critical reflection that decreased over their four years of high school. For sociopolitical control, a two-trajectory model was the best-fitting model, and youth associated with these two trajectories had statistically significant differences in hope at all five time-points. A six-trajectory model was identified for critical action, and trajectories with consistently higher levels of critical action had statistically significantly higher levels of hope, but only at earlier time points. Overall, our present analyses suggest youth of color may draw on hope as an internal asset in their critical consciousness engagement.

Authors

• Sara Suzuki, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Sidney May, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Scott Seider, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author