For the Health of It: Causes & Consequences of Black Youth Activism

For the Health of It: Causes & Consequences of Black Youth Activism

  1. NCSS Professional Learning
  2. For the Health of It: Causes & Consequences of Black Youth Activism
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When:

Sep 27, 2022 7:00 PM

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In this talk, Dr. Hope examines critical consciousness as a protective factor, and possible coping strategy, against experiences of racism that negatively affect mental health for Black adolescents. Racism has negative mental health implications for Black adolescents (Benner et al., 2018). Critical consciousness (critical reflection, critical agency, critical action) may be one way that Black youth combat oppression and the resulting negative effects (Hope & Spencer, 2017). It is also possible that critical action exacerbates the negative mental health effects of racism. Participants were 604 Black adolescents in the United States (Mage = 15.44). We conducted multiple regression analysis predicting mental health distress and tested for interaction effects. Racism was related to more mental health distress for Black youth who had high critical reflection and critical action, low critical reflection and critical action, and low critical reflection and high critical action. For Black adolescents with high critical reflection and low critical action, there was no relation between racism and mental health distress. These findings highlight the nuance in how critical consciousness and civic education may be leveraged as an adaptive coping strategy to mitigate the negative mental health effects of racism during adolescence. 

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Presenter:

Elan C. Hope, PhD

Dr. Elan Hope is the Director of Research and Evaluation for Policy Research Associates, Inc. Prior to her work at Policy Research Associates, Dr. Hope was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University and director of the Hope Lab. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Smith College and her doctorate in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan. Following graduate school, Dr. Hope completed post-doctoral research (sponsored by the William T. Grant Foundation) in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Dr. Hope takes an assets-based approach to investigate individual and community factors that promote well-being for adolescents and emerging adults who face racism and racial discrimination through qualitative and quantitative methods. Her work has been published in venues including Child Development, Urban Education, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Journal of Social Issues.