Is she worth it? A qualitative analysis of Black adolescent girls’ responses to peer conflict

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Black girls are disproportionately disciplined (suspensions, expulsions) in U.S. public schools compared to their White and Hispanic same-sex peers (Slate et al., 2016). Further, this exclusionary discipline may be explained by biased teacher interpretation of students’ behavior (Skiba et al., 2002). For example, teachers often describe Black girls’ assertiveness or dominance as un-feminine and overly aggressive (Morris, 2007). When teachers misread normative behaviors as combative, Black girls are unfairly pushed out of school, creating a crisis in public education. In light of these findings, there has been a call for teacher professional learning as well as culture-specific social emotional learning (SEL) curricula for students. However, there is little foundational study of normative social cognition in Black children and adolescents (Coll et al., 1996), including how Black teenage girls think about conflict. Our team was invited into a school that used “no excuses” discipline; administrators there were concerned about interpersonal conflicts among ninth-grade Black girls. We conducted a series of talk sessions, reflected, and simply asked the girls to describe in writing their thought processes when addressing conflict with other girls at school. We used thematic analysis to explore the strategies 48 Black female adolescents used when responding to culturally-appropriate, hypothetical social dilemmas. Girls used either approach or avoidance strategies to reach their goal of either preserving or terminating the relationship. Importantly, girls’ strategy choices were influenced by the closeness of the hypothetical relationship. They tended to approach the conflict, whether to continue or end the relationship, when the dilemma featured conflict with a “best friend” as opposed to a “friend.” Moreover, approach strategies required participants to expend more energy as they actively engaged with the conflict longer. This suggests Black girls are more willing to engage with their best friend, as opposed to a friend or acquaintance, to come to an understanding about the actions and feelings of both parties. For example, when discussing a dilemma in which the best friend lied about them, girls tended to give the best friend the benefit of the doubt and were more willing to hear her out, demonstrated in the theme “Best Friends are Best Friends for a Reason” (see Table 1). Whereas, when there was a similar betrayal by a mere friend, girls expressed relief that the lie provided clarity about the poor quality of that relationship. Sometimes girls used an approach strategy for this dilemma, but it was to quickly terminate the relationship, exemplified by the “It’s Over” theme presented in Table 2. These findings challenge deficit-based stereotypes by demonstrating that the girls’ response to conflict was to encode, interpret, and evaluate situations before reacting. This study highlights the benefit of listening to Black adolescents’ narratives to learn about their specific experiences and values. Particularly notable here was the relevance of close relationships for these students’ decisions about allocation of energy. This study adds to our understanding of Black girls’ cognitive processing of social conflict, a necessary foundation for the creation of culturally responsive SEL programs.

Authors

• Taylor McGee, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author

• Josephine Grant Lindsley, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Johari Harris, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebekah Pollock, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paris Ball, University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joel Meyers, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann Cale Kruger, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author