Critical Reflection as a Mediator in the Relationship Between School Racial Climate and Anti-Racist Critical Action

• In Event: The Development of Anti-Racism Among Ethnically and Racially Diverse Children and Youth

Abstract

The school environment is intended to be a space for the positive development of youth. However, racial inequities in the school have been associated with detrimental developmental outcomes for racially minoritized youth. Despite this, research suggests that engagement in critical action behaviors is a potential adaptive coping mechanism, which could reduce the potential for negative outcomes. Critical consciousness theories suggest that this relationship may be explained by youth’s increased awareness of system oppression as measured by critical reflection, yet these relationships largely remain unexamined. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined the mediating role of critical reflection in the relationship between school racial climate experiences (equal status, cultural socialization, and critical consciousness socialization) and anti-racist critical action (interpersonal action, communal action, political action).
Participants were 550 Black and Latinx adolescents, ages 13-17, recruited from across the United States. Fifty percent of participants identified as female and 50% identified as male. Path analyses were conducted to examine the indirect relations between school racial climate experiences, critical reflection, and anti-racist critical actions.
Results indicated that critical reflection significantly mediated the relationships between school racial climate experiences and anti-racist critical action behaviors. More specifically, school racial climate experiences were significantly associated with critical reflection including equal status (β= -.13, p< .01), cultural socialization (β= -.26, p< .001), and critical consciousness socialization (β= .51, p< .001). Similarly, critical reflection was significantly positively associated with anti-racist critical action behaviors including individual (β= .16, p< .001), communal (β= .28, p< .001), and political action (β= .27, p< .001). Analyses also highlighted an independent path between cultural socialization and political action in that higher perceptions of cultural socialization were associated with increased political action (e.g., contacting an elected official). Findings have implications for understanding the components of the school environment that foster positive development and coping in racially-minoritized youth.

Authors

• Alexandrea Renee' Golden, University of Memphis
  Presenting Author

• Christy Michelle Byrd, North Carolina State University