How Black and Latinx Adolescents’ Awareness of Racism Predicts Sociopolitical Action in Young Adulthood

• In Event: 2-016 - Integrating Racially/Ethnically Diverse Adolescents’ Racial/Ethnic Experiences in Critical Consciousness Research

Integrative Statement

Interpersonal and systemic forms of racism are persistent and long-standing problems in the United States (Bonilla-Silva, 2017). For youth of color, awareness of interpersonal racism entails the recognition that others are likely to define them negatively and treat them inequitably (Oyserman, Harrison, & Bybee, 2001). Awareness of systemic racism entails recognition of how policies, laws, and cultural practices can privilege or obstruct the success of particular racial/ethnic groups over others (Pager & Shepherd, 2008).

Relatively little research that has investigated the relationship between Black and Latinx adolescents’ awareness of these forms of racism and their subsequent commitment to various forms of sociopolitical action. Accordingly, the present study was guided by the following research questions:

1. To what extent does Black and Latinx adolescents’ growth in awareness of interpersonal and systemic forms of racism over four years of high school predict their engagement in sociopolitical action one year after high school?
2. To what extent does Black and Latinx adolescents’ awareness of interpersonal and systemic forms of racism at the end of high school predict their engagement in sociopolitical action one year after high school?
Given scholarship on youth sociopolitical development that posits a bi-directional relationship between youth’s social analysis and societal involvement (Watts & Flanagan, 2007), we hypothesized that awareness of both forms of racism significantly predict youth’s subsequent engagement in sociopolitical action.

To investigate these questions, we administered a survey that included an awareness of interpersonal racism measure (Oyserman, Gant, & Ager, 1995, α = .73) and an awareness of systemic racism measure (Lopez, Gurin, & Nagda, 1998, α = .70) to Black and Latinx adolescents (n = 457) at five time points across their four years of high school. The adolescents were all members of the Class of 2017 at six public high schools located in five northeastern cities. A portion of these adolescents (n = 72) then completed an additional survey one year beyond their high school graduation that included four measures of sociopolitical action: sociopolitical action (Diemer et al., 2017), competence for civic action (Flanagan, Syvertsen, & Stout, 2007), perceived behavioral control (Torres-Harding & Olson, 2012), and comfort in challenging other’s points-of-view (Nagda, 2006).

We investigated the relationship between participating adolescents’ awareness of racism and sociopolitical outcomes by estimating linear latent growth models with distal outcomes. We regressed each of the sociopolitical measures on the growth factors for adolescents’ awareness of interpersonal racism and awareness of systemic racism. Both models fit the data well (see Table 1) and indicated, on average, an increase in awareness of racism over the high school years.

These analyses showed that adolescents’ awareness of systemic and interpersonal racism at the end of high school significantly predicted their scores on three of the four sociopolitical outcome measures (see Table 2). Adolescents’ growth in awareness of both forms of racism did not predict their scores on these outcomes measures, with the exception of a significant negative relationship with students’ comfortability in challenging other’s points-of-view. This paper will consider the implications of these findings.

Authors

• Scott Seider, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Daren Graves, Simmons College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shelby Clark, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author