Examining the Risk and Protective Factors of School Behavior Problems and Suspension/Expulsion in Black Girls

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

Black girls comprise 8% of K-12 enrollment, but 13% of all suspended students (Epstein et al., 2017). Many studies investigating racial disparities in disciplinary action focus on Black boys (Ispa-Landa, 2013; Morris, 2012). Fixating on the school-to-prison pipeline for Black boys mitigates the negative experiences of Black girls. Black girls are more likely to receive office referrals for subjective behaviors like disobedience, defiance and assault than other children (Annamma et al., 2019; Epstein et al., 2017). The Integrative Model (Garcia-Coll et. al, 1996) and Critical Race Theory (Evan-Winters and Esposito, 2010) suggest that there are protective and risk factors of school behavior problems and suspension/expulsion for Black girls. Some studies suggest that perceived discrimination is positively associated with school behavior problems and suspensions/expulsions (Koonce, 2012; Murphy et al., 2013; Butler-Barnes and Innis-Thompson, 2020). Other work shows that positive parent-child relationships (PRC) and ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) are negatively associated with school behavior problems and suspensions/expulsions (Bean et al., 2006; Hair et al., 2008; Marcucci, 2020; Varner et al., 2019). The current study’s goal is to investigate whether perceived discrimination, ethnic-racial socialization, and the parent-child relationship act as protective or risk factors for Black girls’ school behavior problems and suspensions/expulsions. We hypothesize that discrimination will be positively associated with the outcomes, whereas ERS and PCR will be negatively associated with the outcomes. Also, we hypothesize that ERS and PCR will moderate the impact of discrimination on school behavior problems and suspensions/expulsions.

Data for the current study were drawn from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (Eccles, 1997) and included 410 Black girls (Mage =12.24, SD=0.55), from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds (comprised of the highest level of education, occupation status, and family income) Adolescents and caregivers responded to interviews and questionnaires. See Table 1 for present study measures.

Planned analyses include: (1) bivariate correlation tests to examine whether there are associations among variables of interest (2) two hierarchical regression analyses conducted in SPSS—school behavior problems and suspension/expulsion (logistic) as dependent variables and perceived discrimination as a risk factor. ERS and PCR (protective) will be the predictors as well as their interactions with discrimination. Covariates include SES and youth age. The data analysis will be completed before the SRCD conference as this is part of an ongoing McNair research project which is due in November. The co-authors will support data analyses.

In sum, this study places more emphasis on Black girls’ experiences and may reveal if PRC, ERS and discrimination impact their school behavior and the consequences. If hypotheses are supported, this study has implications for how teachers can work to better understand Black girls and create more positive environments focused on family-school collaboration, which may help reduce racial disparities in school disciplinary actions.

Authors

• Victoria Francois, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Dawn Paula Witherspoon, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meeta Banerjee, University of South Carolina
  Non-Presenting Author