Poster #154 - Variation in Youth Anti-Racism Engagement: Differences by Type, Setting, and Racial Group

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Background and Significance
In recent years, many college students engaged in anti-racist actions, i.e., “actions youth take to actively challenge racism on the different levels through which racism permeates (e.g., individual, community, institutional, structural)” (Bañales & Rivas-Drake, 2022, p. 999). Monoracial youth of color, particularly Black youth, have received more scholarly attention; Latinx, Asian, White, and Multiracial youth less so. Additionally, although different types of anti-racist actions have been examined (e.g., Aldana et al., 2019), a nuanced description of these actions; the settings they occur in; how youth engage on social media around race and social justice; and whether the actions differ across racial groups, is largely missing from the literature. Thus, informed by Aldana et al.’s typology of anti-racist action (2019), we sought to provide a detailed descriptive analysis of college students’ anti-racism engagement activities during the most recent social unrest coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method
Undergraduate students (N= 466 [19.1% Asian, 9.9% Black, 13.3% Latinx, 20.8% Multiracial, 36.9% White; Mage =20.26, SD=1.61; 77.3% cis-female) enrolled at a Northeastern public university reported their race; interpersonal (𝛂 =.79), communal (𝛂 =.75), and political (𝛂 =.80) anti-racist action via the 18-item Anti Racism Action Scale (Aldana et al., 2019, see Figure 1 for items); the settings of these actions (social media, in person, virtual meeting); and using an 8-item checklist developed for this study, their social media-specific actions (e.g., “read a post,” “shared a post” related to race, discrimination, and social justice) via a Qualtrics survey in Spring 2021.

Findings & Future Directions
We computed frequencies, means, standard deviations, and conducted ANOVAs in SPSS v. 28 to explore college students’ anti-racism engagement. Few participants reported not engaging in any actions at all (n = 10) or engaging in all 18 anti-racist actions (n = 13). Of the three types of anti-racist actions, participants engaged the most in interpersonal action; and of the three settings, mostly in person (see Table 1). Interpersonal action, communal action, and political action, respectively, did not significantly differ across the five racial groups. However, when comparing monoracial students of color (MSoC)(Black, Asian, and Latinx Americans grouped together), White students, and Multiracial students, we found a significant group difference in the mean level of communal action [𝛈2=.02, F(2, 413) = 3.32, p = .04)]. On average White students reported lower levels of communal action than MSoC (MWhite = 1.27 vs. MMSoC = 1.65). Additionally, students engaged in 4 out of 8 social media-specific anti-racist actions (top 4: read a post (17%), comment on a post (15%), repost information (15%), and create an original post (13%). Findings of this study suggest college students engage in a wide range of anti-racist actions and across settings including on social media, and some differences in actions between White and monoracial students of color. Studies with larger samples are needed to detect further racial group differences. Implications of the findings for college counseling and campus policy makers will be discussed.

Authors

• Sabrina Uva, University of Connecticut

• Annamaria Csizmadia, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author