Understanding the Traumatic Consequences of Adverse Police Interactions among Black Adolescents

• In Event: Collective Approaches Mitigating the Racialized Public Health Concerns of Policing among Adolescents

Abstract

Adverse police interactions within the Black community are commonplace with Black youth in particular characterizing police interactions as being violent, harassing, and disrespectful at higher rates than White youth (Badolato et al., 2020: Brunson et al., 2006; Foster et al. 2022). Evidence positions direct and vicarious exposure to adverse police interactions as a traumatic stressor (Bryant-Davis et al., 2017; Jackson et al., 2021) that can lead to enduring suboptimal psychological (Tynes et al., 2019) and physiological (Browning et al., 2020) outcomes. Indeed, youth who have chronic interaction with law enforcement (i.e., stopped by police) or indirect exposure to adverse police interactions (e.g., witnessing police violence) have been shown to evidence elevations in emotional distress, psychophysiological reactivity, and posttraumatic stress symptoms (Geller et al., 2014; Jackson et al., 2019; Sosoo et al., 2022). While the traumatic and psychologically burdensome nature of adverse police interactions have been previously reported, research has yet to disentangle its unique effects on mental health apart from other psychosocial traumatic experiences.

Further, consistent with Rutter’s risk and resilience framework (Rutter, 1987), it is equally, if not more important to elucidate factors that may protect Black adolescents from experiencing heightened distress in response to adverse police interactions. Previous research has identified social support as an important buffer against traumatic stress symptoms (Quinn et al., 2020) and psychological distress relating to racism-related encounters and other adverse experiences (Cooper et al., 2013; Folger et al., 2013; Prelow et al., 2006). Racial socialization represents a culturally specific protective factor that can contribute to enhanced coping in Black adolescents in response to stressful life events (Anderson et al., 2019; Hughes et al., 2006), including exposure to adverse police interactions (Threlfall, 2018).

Preliminary analyses included 30 Black adolescents (15 males, 14 females, 1 no response, Mage = 14.00 years, SD = 1.76) recruited from across the US who participated in an online study examining the frequency and psychological implications of adverse police interactions as well as potential protective factors. Participants completed measures related to the key study variables: Police and Law Enforcement Scale (English et al., 2017), Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (Finkelhor et al., 2005), and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1996). Measures assessing protective factors included the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988) and the Racial Socialization Questionnaire (Lesane-Brown et al., 2006).

Preliminary regression analyses revealed that 40% of adolescents directly experienced adverse police interactions, 70% witnessed these interactions in person, and 96.7% had vicarious experiences (e.g., viewing on social media). Higher frequency of direct experiences significantly predicted elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms (t = 4.85, p < .001) after controlling for gender and age (see Table 1). Witnessing adverse police interactions also predicted elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms (t = 2.93, p = .004; see Table 2), but vicarious experiences did not. Additional analyses with the full sample (N = 100) will investigate whether social support and racial socialization can mitigate the negative impact of adverse police interactions above and beyond the influence of other psychosocial trauma.

Authors

• Michelle P Brown, University of South Carolina
  Presenting Author

• Donte Bernard, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Curtisha Shacklewood, University of South Carolina

• Ashley Bucher, Pennsylvania State University

• Stacie Kerbel

• Kariann Sweeney