Poster #36 - Critical Consciousness for Young People of Color and the Emotional Processes that Undergird its Development

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Developmental scholars are beginning to emphasize the importance of promoting positive outcomes for youths of color, arguing the need to cultivate resilience through strength-based approaches and to identify positive trajectories (Tyler et al., 2020; Hart, 2020).For example, these positive trajectories involve processes of youth’s perceptions and agency in their societal context. Promising research examining critical consciousness development investigates how young people—particularly disenfranchised youths—analyze, critique, cope with, and act on systems of oppression (Heberle, Rapa, and Farago, 2020).The scholarship broadly defines critical consciousness as people's observations, interpretations, and understanding that oppression creates advantages for some while perpetuating disadvantages for others (Ginwright and Cammarota, 2002; Watts and Flanagan, 2007).There is limited research on how critical consciousness emerges across individuals, times, and contexts, though the construct is associated with psychological benefits (Heberle, Rapa, & Farago, 2020). Given the benefits of critical consciousness, it is important to investigate the emergence and maintenance of the construct, with particular emphasis on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes aimed at targeting its development in young people. Critical consciousness development has primarily focused on young people's cognitive processes, with less attention to the role of emotional processes involved in shared goals towards social and political action. Much scholarly attention has been given to how young people understand and critique the societal conditions of structural oppression and inequality, known as critical reflection (Rapa, Diemer, & Bañales, 2018; Diemer et al., 2015; Heberle et al., 2020). However, it is not only the influence of critical reflection, but critical action—the behaviors in which an individual or a collective engage and regulate in social, political, or community action—that may be particularly effective in allowing young teens of color to thrive (Diemer et al., 2021). Emotional processes are a likely key mediator of the relationship between critical reflection to critical action, impacting positive outcomes for youths of color.
The present theoretical review explores the idea that emotional processes emerge from analyzing and reflecting on systems of oppression drive the connection between critical reflection and critical action Theory and research in related fields (e.g., political psychology) suggest that emotions are the critical predictors of social and political action behaviors (Iyer, Schmader, & Lickel, 2007; Diemer et al., 2021). Better understanding critical consciousness sub-domains (i.e., reflection and action), emotions, and developmental processes holds promise for scholars and practitioners who want to advance positive youth development while promoting anti-oppressive systems. Thus, this review addresses two central questions: first, how do emotions undergird critical consciousness development, driving critical action in young people of color? Second, how can critical consciousness interventions leverage these emotional processes to aid in promoting increased psychological outcomes in youths of color combatting the experiences of oppression? These questions may guide a new integrative model to leverage and strengthen existing critical consciousness interventions. Through this integrative approach, critical consciousness interventions may account for the emotional processes that have important practical implications for emotion regulation and psychological health, driving critical action for better mental health and wellbeing (Castro, Wray-Lake, & Cohen, 2022).

Authors

• Nabila Jamal-Orozco, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh