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Civic Engagement as an Adaptive Coping Response to Conditions of Inequality: An Application of Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST)
Abstract
In this chapter we use Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (P-VEST) to consider civic engagement as a coping response to systems of inequality faced by racial minority children. After a brief introduction we present a historical and theoretical overview of civic engagement with regard to children and adolescents and racially marginalized communities. We then introduce the P-VEST framework and examine civic engagement as a proactive reactive coping method to counteract the vulnerability and stress of systematic racial injustice. Following a discussion of the current empirical literature we explore the utility of civic engagement programs (e.g., Youth Participatory Action Research) as interventions to support positive development of minority youth. We conclude with policy implications and future directions for research to leverage civic engagement as a coping strategy for the positive development of minority children and their communities.
... Recognition of the problems with traditional PYD models has led to a growing interest in adapting PYD approaches to center the experiences of minoritized youth, particularly YOC. Many have called for critical models that work toward social justice (e.g., Barbarin et al., 2020;Gonzalez et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Lerner et al., 2021;Smith & Lee, 2020). Critical consciousness (Barbarin et al., 2020;Gonzalez et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Seider et al., 2017) and civic engagement, such as participatory action research and community organizing (Barbarin et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Smith & Lee, 2020), are two proposed tools to encourage the development of protective and adaptive strategies. ...
... Many have called for critical models that work toward social justice (e.g., Barbarin et al., 2020;Gonzalez et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Lerner et al., 2021;Smith & Lee, 2020). Critical consciousness (Barbarin et al., 2020;Gonzalez et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Seider et al., 2017) and civic engagement, such as participatory action research and community organizing (Barbarin et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Smith & Lee, 2020), are two proposed tools to encourage the development of protective and adaptive strategies. These strategies allow youth to build skills and strengthen their social group identities while directly addressing oppressive conditions in their communities. ...
... Many have called for critical models that work toward social justice (e.g., Barbarin et al., 2020;Gonzalez et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Lerner et al., 2021;Smith & Lee, 2020). Critical consciousness (Barbarin et al., 2020;Gonzalez et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Seider et al., 2017) and civic engagement, such as participatory action research and community organizing (Barbarin et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Smith & Lee, 2020), are two proposed tools to encourage the development of protective and adaptive strategies. These strategies allow youth to build skills and strengthen their social group identities while directly addressing oppressive conditions in their communities. ...
Positive youth development (PYD) is a strengths-based approach to support young people as they build on their collective assets, allowing them to thrive and contribute to their communities. Emphasis on the strengths and assets of youth has been shown to improve the overall mental and emotional well-being. Yet, traditional PYD models (i.e., five/six Cs models) were developed to meet the circumstances of primarily White cisgender heterosexual youth while not considering the experiences and developmental needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth of color (YOC) with mental health concerns (MHCs), including how mental health status interconnects with other systems of oppression that may impede their development. We integrate healing justice and intersectionality frameworks to address violence, trauma, and harm LGBTQ+ YOC with MHCs experience due to the intersecting systems of oppression reflected in U.S. social policy, health care, and other systems of care—while recognizing and promoting their resilience, joy, and power. The resulting healing-centered PYD model reconceptualizes the six Cs—competence, confidence, character, connection, caring/compassion, and contribution—of PYD to respond to the experiences and needs of LGBTQ+ YOC who are more likely than other youth to experience MHCs due to systemic oppression.
... neighbourhood levels (Bailey et al., 2017). These systemic barriers contribute to interpersonal experiences of ethnic-racial discrimination, and this dual exposure to unequal social systems and interpersonal discrimination may spark the development of critical consciousness (CC): the process of analyzing structural oppressions and building agency to enact change (Diemer et al., 2022;Freire, 1973), which can be an avenue of coping and resilience in people of colour in response to the oppression they face (Hope & Spencer, 2017). ...
... Originating from Freire's (1973) work on consciousness raising among the poor and oppressed in South America, CC has evolved to encompass a broader understanding of how individuals across the world perceive, reflect, and act upon social inequities plaguing their respective societies (Watts et al., 2003). Hope and Spencer (2017) married these two theoretical perspectives, advancing a nuanced understanding of CC as an adaptive coping response to conditions of inequality within the PVEST framework. At the core of this framework is the recognition of critical action not merely as an act to improve and contribute to society but also as a vital and necessary coping response to survive and persevere in the face of racial inequalities. ...
... At the core of this framework is the recognition of critical action not merely as an act to improve and contribute to society but also as a vital and necessary coping response to survive and persevere in the face of racial inequalities. Overall, this framework proposes that critical reflection and critical action may foster resilience among youth who face racial discrimination and might offer psychological benefits to adolescents, such as a sense of empowerment, community belonging, and a heightened sense of control over their sociopolitical environment (Anyiwo et al., 2018;Hope & Spencer, 2017). ...
La conscience critique (CC) est un processus important par lequel les individus analysent leurs expériences et les inégalités sociales (réflexion critique), développent un sentiment de pouvoir pour mettre en œuvre le changement (motivation critique) et prennent des mesures collectives pour remédier aux injustices (action critique). La CC est particulièrement importante pour les personnes de couleur, qui sont directement désavantagées par les systèmes d’inégalité raciale et qui peuvent utiliser la CC pour faire face à ces systèmes. Dans l’ensemble, on sait peu de choses sur les tendances de CC chez les jeunes adultes de couleur et la documentation existante est mitigée en ce qui concerne ses impacts sur la santé mentale. Pour combler cette lacune, nous avons identifié des profils distincts de CC parmi un échantillon national de 308 jeunes adultes canadiens noirs et latins (âge moyen = 24,5; tranche d’âge = 18 à 29) au moyen d’analyses de profils latents, puis nous avons examiné les associations avec des facteurs sociodémographiques, la discrimination et la santé mentale. Quatre profils de CC ont émergé : le spectateur critique (40,6 % de l’échantillon total), l’acteur interpersonnel critique (31,2 %), l’acteur libéré (15,3 %) et l’acteur critique (13,0 %). Tous les profils ont fait preuve d’une réflexion critique et d’une motivation élevées, mais ils se distinguent surtout par leur action critique. Les trois profils d’« acteurs » ont signalé un taux de discrimination plus élevé que les spectateurs. Le sexe et la race varient d’un profil à l’autre. Enfin, les acteurs libérés ont signalé des niveaux plus élevés de symptômes de dépression et d’anxiété par rapport à tous les autres profils. Les résultats démontrent l’existence de modèles distincts de CC dans le passage à l’âge adulte et soulignent l’importance de fournir un soutien en matière de santé mentale aux jeunes adultes noirs et latins fortement impliqués dans le travail de justice sociale.
... The Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) posits that critical consciousness can diminish the harmful impact of racism on youth's mental health by fostering feelings of control and the capability to challenge racism actively (Hope & Spencer, 2017). As such, there has been a growing interest in critical consciousness and its association with mental health outcomes in youth of color, especially regarding critical reflection and critical motivation. ...
... Despite these conflicting findings with respect to reflection and motivation, the mental health impacts of critical action have been vastly neglected in the literature . Discriminatory experiences can indeed be catalysts for anti-racist activism among Black youth (Anyiwo et al., 2018;Hope & Spencer, 2017). Anti-racist activism offers a vital means for individuals, particularly Black youth, to resist and cope with racial injustices that they, their families, and their communities face (Hope & Spencer, 2017). ...
... Discriminatory experiences can indeed be catalysts for anti-racist activism among Black youth (Anyiwo et al., 2018;Hope & Spencer, 2017). Anti-racist activism offers a vital means for individuals, particularly Black youth, to resist and cope with racial injustices that they, their families, and their communities face (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Racially marginalized youth harness activism as a coping mechanism, seeking refuge from oppression through selfexpression, community bonds, and societal transformation (Anyiwo et al., 2020). ...
To resist and cope with oppression, youth of color may use the process of critical consciousness which involves understanding racial injustices (critical reflection), developing motivation to fight these injustices (critical motivation), and taking action to enact sociopolitical change (critical action). However, little is known about how each dimension of critical consciousness affects mental health in adolescents of color. In a sample of 367 ethnically and racially diverse American adolescents of color (age range = 13–17; 68.9% girls, 28.6% boys, and 2.5% gender minority; 84.4% US‐born), we conducted multivariate regressions in Mplus to examine the cross‐sectional links between each critical consciousness dimension (reflection, motivation, and action) and mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression, and stress) over and above the impact of everyday discrimination. We also investigated the interaction between critical consciousness and discrimination in predicting mental health outcomes. Controlling for age, gender, nativity, and social class, we found that discrimination and critical action were both positively associated with anxiety, depression, and stress. For our covariates, girls and gender minority adolescents reported worse outcomes. No interactions were significant. Overall, critical action, while necessary to enact societal change, may have a complex relationship with youth's depression, anxiety, and psychological stress symptoms and warrants careful exploration. Future research should focus on understanding the longitudinal mechanisms of critical action and how we can maximize the benefits by protecting youth from those negative effects.
... A recent theoretical application of the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST; Spencer, 2006) is useful for understanding the proposed processes in the current study. Specifically, Hope and Spencer's (2017) application is titled "civic engagement as an adaptive coping response to conditions of inequality: an application of a phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST)." In the application of PVEST, it is proposed that civic engagement is a coping mechanism for youth whose racial group has been disenfranchised socioculturally, politically, and economically. ...
... Guided by Hope and Spencer's (2017) Civic Engagement as an Adaptive Coping Response to Conditions of Inequality: An Application of Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST), the current study tested ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, resolution, and affirmation as mediators of the association between cultural socialization and civic engagement. We hypothesized that greater cultural socialization would positively affect emerging adults' ERI. ...
... Research on how interactive factors promote civic engagement remains relatively limited among emerging adults, despite the current need to strengthen civic engagement in communities (Huyser et al., 2017). To address these gaps, the current study was guided by a theoretical application of PVEST that frames civic engagement as an adaptive coping response (Hope & Spencer, 2017), and aimed to understand these processes among diverse students of color. Overall, hypotheses were partially supported and provided important insights into mechanisms underlying civic engagement, such as the roles of cultural socialization, PMNRC, and ERI. ...
Understanding the factors that promote civic engagement among emerging adult college students is crucial, especially considering its association with positive youth development. The current study examined ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, resolution, and affirmation as mediators of the relation between cultural socialization and civic engagement. Additionally, the extent to which students were raised in predominantly minoritized neighborhoods (i.e., predominantly minoritized neighborhood racial composition; PMNRC) was included as a moderator of the associations between cultural socialization and ERI components. Last, we tested whether findings varied based on students’ ethnic-racial backgrounds (i.e., differences in the model for Asian, African American, Latinx, and Multiracial students of color; N = 1036). Results indicated that there was a significant mediation path, such that cultural socialization predicted greater ERI exploration and, in turn, greater civic engagement. Cultural socialization was also positively associated with greater ERI resolution and affirmation. The racial composition of the neighborhoods that individuals were raised in was not significantly associated with any ERI component; however, PMNRC moderated the relation between cultural socialization and ERI affirmation. Specifically, cultural socialization predicted more ERI affirmation at higher levels of PMNRC, but this relation was not significant at low levels of PMNRC. There were no significant ethnic-racial differences in relations we tested in the model. These findings highlight the importance of cultural processes in civic engagement among diverse emerging adults.
... Understanding the complexities of SPD and wellbeing among EACS requires a developmental and contextual lens (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Suzuki et al., 2023). EACS who were in their first and second years of college in 2020 contended with developmental tasks of emerging adulthood within the COVID-19 pandemic and a sociopolitical climate characterized by historically rooted and ongoing structural racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and sexism (Quiles et al., 2023;Wilf et al., 2023). ...
... We employed the phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST; Spencer, 2006) to reflect EACS' developmental experiences and meaning-making processes of their wellbeing and SPD within sociocultural context. PVEST scholars posit that sociopolitical engagement can be a reactive coping strategy through which marginalized youth can enact agency and proactively counteract the harms of systemic oppression, ultimately suggesting that SPD may protect and strengthen wellbeing (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Suzuki et al., 2023). Sociopolitical engagement can furthermore help marginalized youth to establish their civic, vocational, and social (e.g., racial/ethnic, gendered) identities, propelling SPD throughout the lifespan (Hope & Spencer, 2017). ...
... PVEST scholars posit that sociopolitical engagement can be a reactive coping strategy through which marginalized youth can enact agency and proactively counteract the harms of systemic oppression, ultimately suggesting that SPD may protect and strengthen wellbeing (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Suzuki et al., 2023). Sociopolitical engagement can furthermore help marginalized youth to establish their civic, vocational, and social (e.g., racial/ethnic, gendered) identities, propelling SPD throughout the lifespan (Hope & Spencer, 2017). We contribute to this scholarly conversation by positing wellbeing as a mechanism through which youth process and make sense of their net vulnerabilities and strengths. ...
The existing, primarily quantitative literature suggests that for emerging adult college students (EACS), wellbeing has a complex relationship with sociopolitical development (i.e., the development of one’s awareness of and capacity to transform societal oppressions) that merits further unpacking. This study aimed to understand EACS’ reflections on their wellbeing and sociopolitical development pre-pandemic and during the pandemic, from 2019 to 2022. We conducted participatory, in-depth interviews with 27 diverse EACS across the USA (M age = 21.7; SD = 0.8) in November 2022; 52% cisgender women, 19% transgender and gender diverse; 48% LGBQ+; 33% Asian, 33% White, 15% Black, 11% Multiracial, and 7% Latine. Using thematic analysis, we found that wellbeing, especially mental health, was a precursor for sociopolitical development. Simultaneously, wellbeing in the forms of safety, belonging, and self-actualization motivated and supported sociopolitical development. Ultimately, many participants reported a recursive and reciprocal relationship between wellbeing and sociopolitical development. We also found that participants faced ongoing challenges related to their developmental trajectories through emerging adulthood and contextual experiences within an oppressive sociopolitical context and the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage developing ways to support wellbeing within spaces that aim to foster sociopolitical development.
... The mental health implications of these experiences of racism are bleak for Black adolescents, with racism being related to symptoms of depression, anxiety, traumatic stress, and suicidal ideation in adolescence and into adulthood [5][6][7]. Despite the vulnerability created by a society committed to anti-Black racism, sociopolitical development frameworks and empirical investigations point to the potential of critical consciousness-critical reflection, agency, and critical action for social justice-as an adaptive coping strategy to buffer against the negative effects of racism on mental health [8][9][10]. In essence, to improve their lives and developmental trajectories, Black youth may seek to understand and change the systems of oppression, such as racism, that threaten their health and well-being. ...
... Given the perilous effects of racism on Black adolescent mental health, psychologists and youth mental health practitioners have examined various coping strategies to prepare adolescents to combat the deleterious effects of racism and protect their mental health [4]. Critical consciousness as a coping strategy is a growing consideration [9,10,23]. ...
... Critical action is the behavioral engagement in social and political spaces to eradicate oppression. Scholars have proposed that critical consciousness can support Black adolescents in coping with and healing from racial trauma as they develop within the context of anti-Black racism and other forms of systemic oppression [9,[26][27][28]. Grounded in the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems theory, Hope and Spencer contend that critical civic engagement, or critical action, can serve as an adaptive coping strategy for adolescents [9]. ...
This study examined experiences of individual, institutional, and cultural racism, along with critical consciousness (i.e., critical reflection, critical agency, critical action), and how they are associated with mental health outcomes for Black adolescents (N = 604; Mage = 15.4; 47.4% female). Consistent with previous research, we found that more experiences of racism were associated with more mental health distress for Black adolescents. We also found that the relationship between racism and mental health varied by critical reflection and critical action, in a three-way interaction effect. The positive association between racism and mental health distress was weaker for the Black adolescents in our sample who reported higher than average critical reflection and lower than average critical action. This evidence suggests that the reflection and action components of critical consciousness, together, can serve as an adaptive coping strategy to guard against the harm racism can cause to mental health. Black adolescents experience less mental health distress when they have a deep understanding of oppression, but do not engage heavily in actions to dismantle those unjust systems. These findings have implications for how youth researchers and practitioners can support critical consciousness development in ways that do not compromise adolescent mental health.
... In the USA, marginalizing systems of racism and classism pervade and shape youth development, including how young people engage sociopolitically and their sense of health and ability to thrive [1][2][3]. For youth marginalized by race and class, challenging societal oppressions can be conceived as a healthy response to coping with the stress of systemic injustice and dehumanizing ideologies [2,4,5]. ...
... In the USA, marginalizing systems of racism and classism pervade and shape youth development, including how young people engage sociopolitically and their sense of health and ability to thrive [1][2][3]. For youth marginalized by race and class, challenging societal oppressions can be conceived as a healthy response to coping with the stress of systemic injustice and dehumanizing ideologies [2,4,5]. While challenging societal oppression can foster a sense of agency for social change and healing from oppressive experiences, this process can evoke health challenges like stress and anxiety as youth contend with the magnitude of structural forces [4,6]. ...
... For instance, can youths' sense of agency and the ability to enact change in one's community transcend the adolescent period and foster lifelong sociopolitical engagement in health-promotive ways? In pursuing this question, we conceptualize the descriptor "health-promotive" within an inequitable society as youths' ability to develop assets to resist oppressive forces in ways that fortify their sense of self and ability to thrive [2]. As such, our study aimed to qualitatively analyze the retrospective reflections of the long-term (i.e., 45 year) life trajectories of Black and Latinx individuals who were deeply engaged in a youth program as adolescents in East Harlem, New York, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ...
In the late 1970s, adolescents in East Harlem, New York, participated in a program called the Youth Action Program where they worked collectively to address systemic issues causing inequities in their communities (e.g., inequities in housing and education). In the current study, we integrate the sociopolitical development framework with life-course health development to explore how participation in the program shaped adolescents’ skills and capacities for social transformation in ways that were health-promotive and informative for life trajectories. Data included retrospective interviews and member-checking focus group data of 10 former Youth Action Program members (current Mage = 63; 45% female; 55% male) from predominantly Black and Latinx backgrounds. We used reflexive thematic analysis and adopted a case study approach to highlight how participants’ adolescent experiences of sociopolitical development and resistance against oppressive circumstances propelled healthy life-course development. Specifically, participants were able to establish healthy lives through four health-promotive sociopolitical developmental processes: questioning the system not the self; carving out alternative spaces and pathways; building agency in a dehumanizing society; and finding purpose through committing to social change. Our study suggests that contemporary youth organizing programs can incorporate sustaining practices including the careful vetting and training of adult staff, pursuing tangible opportunities to create change, and embedding youth voice and leadership into programmatic structures to encourage healthy development via sociopolitical development.
... According to Anyiwo et al. (2018), the significance of racial identity and experiences with IERD may serve as a foundation for sociopolitical action (i.e., CC-CA). Specifically, for young racially minoritized individuals who experience IERD, CC-CA in the form of civic engagement can be an approach to challenge sociopolitical systems that uphold racial inequities and a strategy to lessen the negative physical and psychological consequences of IERD (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Critical awareness and understanding of sociopolitical systems not only allow individuals to take action against social injustices and inequality (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Lardier et al., 2020) but also empower marginalized communities to confront social determinants of health (e.g., tobacco use; Christens, 2019). ...
... Specifically, for young racially minoritized individuals who experience IERD, CC-CA in the form of civic engagement can be an approach to challenge sociopolitical systems that uphold racial inequities and a strategy to lessen the negative physical and psychological consequences of IERD (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Critical awareness and understanding of sociopolitical systems not only allow individuals to take action against social injustices and inequality (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Lardier et al., 2020) but also empower marginalized communities to confront social determinants of health (e.g., tobacco use; Christens, 2019). As young people of color enter adulthood and begin to navigate the workforce, they are more likely to experience racial marginalization and IERD (Hope et al., 2015). ...
... As young people of color enter adulthood and begin to navigate the workforce, they are more likely to experience racial marginalization and IERD (Hope et al., 2015). Instances of negative race-related experiences are predictors of civic-related behaviors (Hope et al., 2015) and act as a catalyst in deepening sociopolitical consciousness and civic engagement for racially minoritized individuals (Anyiwo et al., 2018;Hope & Spencer, 2017). ...
Objective: The present study aimed to understand the role of critical action, sociopolitical participation, an essential form of consciousness in the relationship between interpersonal discrimination and the use of tobacco products. Method: The present study was part of a more extensive longitudinal study on students’ genetic and environmental experiences. To examine these associations, 164 racially minoritized college students (Mage = 19.86, SD = 0.28) were surveyed for this study. Results: Findings indicated that the relation between interpersonal ethnic–racial discrimination (IERD) and tobacco products was moderated by critical action. Specifically, IERD was associated with greater use of tobacco products when students had low critical consciousness—critical action. The relation between IERD and the use of tobacco products became nonsignificant when students had high critical action. Conclusions: Critical action was protective in mitigating increased tobacco use in the context of discrimination experiences. Research, clinical, and policy implications are discussed in efforts to reduce tobacco-related disparities among racially minoritized college students.
... Youth who are engaged in civic actions during an election season may be likely to report higher sociopolitical stress due to personal investment in, and direct exposure to, election news and outcomes. However, to the extent that civic action may serve as an adaptive coping response for some youth [19], it is also possible that civic action mitigates feelings of sociopolitical stress. ...
... There are also clear inequities in sociopolitical stress and well-being during dramatic societal events, such as elections [20]. Supported by the phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) [19], we explore how the trajectories of sociopolitical stress, and perhaps thereby the psychological consequences of the election, differ among youth with different social identities. PVEST underscores the embeddedness of structures of oppression within the developmental system, and how the individuals' phenomenology (i.e., how young people make meaning of their experiences as they move through these structures) shapes their lives. ...
... Our two exploratory aims examining how sociopolitical stress trajectories relate to the civic action and the social identities of the participants were informed by the PVEST framework [19]. PVEST underscores how development occurs within a bioecological system that intersects with sociopolitical structures, including structures of oppression that perpetuate inequalities by race, gender, and other social identities [19]. ...
Sociopolitical stress arises in reaction to awareness of, exposure to, and/or involvement in political events. Among a longitudinal cohort of 628 college students from 10 universities across the U.S., we explored trajectories of sociopolitical stress during the 2020 United States presidential election season and examined relationships to psychological well-being. Growth mixture modeling classified our sample into four subgroups each with distinct trajectories of sociopolitical stress: High and Decreasing, Moderate and Increasing, Consistently Low, and High-to-Low. Participants with lower levels of sociopolitical stress expressed higher psychological well-being (high flourishing, high optimism, low anxiety symptoms, low depressive symptoms). The High and Decreasing subgroup was associated with the highest levels of civic action. Participants in the High and Decreasing trajectory were 20 times more likely to identify as LGBQ+, and 4 times more likely to be a woman or a transgender/gender diverse student, compared to participants in the Consistently Low subgroup.
... According to PVEST, social positioning factors, such as legal and socioeconomic status and gender, may buffer or create risks due to intersecting systems of oppression (Velez & Spencer, 2018). PVEST also situates the development of critical analysis and engagement in sociopolitical action as adaptive coping responses to interconnected contexts and systems of oppression (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Velez & Spencer, 2018). Thus, in a climate where migrants from Latin America are dehumanized, the development of a systems-level analysis of oppression may help Latinx migrant young adults cope with the adversity they face and engage in efforts to change these oppressive circumstances. ...
... Developing a critical social analysis of social systems and engaging in critical action is a potential asset for marginalized youth to heal from and challenge systemic oppression (Chavez-Dueñas et al., 2019;Hope & Spencer, 2017). Yet, more research is needed to understand how migrant youths' perceptions and experiences with immigration policies and rhetoric may promote critical analysis and action to challenge unjust immigration policies (Terriquez & Villegas, Villalobos, et al., 2020). ...
Migrant youth from Latin America who arrive in the United States are faced with a social and political context that dehumanizes migrants of color. These anti‐immigrant sentiments become reflected in federal and state policies that deny migrants rights to freedom and safety. The present paper examined how the U.S. immigration context informed migrant young adults' structural analysis of immigration policies and rhetoric (critical reflection) and actions to challenge exclusionary immigration‐related policies and rhetoric (critical action). We further examined facilitators and barriers to action. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with migrant young adults from Latin America living in Virginia ( N = 30; M = 20.93; SD = 2.03; 53% female). We employed constructivist grounded theory strategies to analyze the data. Findings showed that migrant young adults offered a range of structural and individual‐level attributions for unjust immigration policies. For some migrant young adults, their critical reflection informed decisions to engage in critical actions. Yet, many migrant young adults also noted constraints that impeded their engagement. By more thoroughly understanding migrant young adults' critical reflection and factors that may facilitate or impede action, researchers and practitioners may be better positioned to support migrant young adults who seek to dismantle systems of oppression.
... Parents continue to play an important role in their offspring's civic development even during emerging adulthood (Wray-Lake et al., 2020). Parents' socialization messages around the issues of religion, culture, and civic responsibilities can impact how their children internalize these values and practice them in their lives (Nelson et al., 2011) and help to raise awareness of structural inequalities and social injustice (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Although there are some limited studies which have examined the co-occurrence of parental political socialization and ethnic racial socialization with Asian and Latin American families, no study to date has explored the associations between parental civic and religious socialization, and Muslim American emerging adults' civic engagement. ...
... Civic engagement becomes more salient during emerging adulthood (Finlay et al., 2010), a developmental period when individuals want to make a difference, have greater access to civic opportunities, and explore their life choices more autonomously. Civic engagement is crucial for minoritized groups, such as Muslim Americans, because it is an empowered response to systemic injustice that can provide opportunities to redress social injustice and inequities experienced by their group (Balkaya-Ince et al., 2020;Hope & Spencer, 2017). ...
This study expanded on the existing literature by examining the unique associations between maternal religious socialization, as a form of cultural socialization, along with civic socialization practices, and Muslim American emerging adults' civic engagement. In addition, the mediating role of Muslim American emerging adults' religious identity in the association between maternal socialization practices and their civic attitudes and behaviors were assessed. Participants included 329 self‐identified Muslim American emerging adults (Mage = 21.4, SDage = 1.9, 63% female). Path analysis results revealed indirect associations between maternal religious socialization and civic behaviors through religious identity private regard and a direct link between maternal civic socialization and civic attitudes. Thus, Muslim American emerging adults whose mothers engaged in transmitting their heritage values, beliefs, and virtues reported a greater sense of pride about their religious group and subsequent higher engagement in informal helping and lower engagement in political actions. Additionally, discussions about social and political issues with their mothers directly fostered Muslim American emerging adults' civic responsibility. Our findings revealed specificity in how civic engagement can be promoted and provided insights into efforts to build civic capacity for minoritized emerging adults.
... In these contexts, activism may both relate to shift-and-persist coping, while also incorporating facets of both primary (changing the stressor) and secondary (changing oneself to fit the stressor) coping, which may be crucial when discrimination is at very high levels. Consistent with this idea, experiencing discrimination has been theoretically posited (Anyiwo et al., 2018;Hope & Spencer, 2017) and empirically shown (Briggs et al., 2022;Christophe, Martin Romero, Hope, & Stein, 2022;Hope et al., 2020) to be associated with increased activism among Black youth and emerging adults. Future research should examine shift-andpersist and activism in tandem to understand whether and how these factors may work together or supplement one another to provide psychological resilience across all levels of exposure to discrimination. ...
... Researchers should explore more methods to dismantle systemic racial oppression that serves as the fundamental source of such discrimination. One such avenue may be additional exploration of youth anti-racist activism, which has been empirically linked to shift-and-persist and serves as both a way for minoritized youth to cope with discrimination (Hope & Spencer, 2017) and work to dismantle unequal and oppressive social systems (Diemer et al., 2016). Another source of future work can revolve around understanding whiteness and allyship in adolescence. ...
Ethnic‐racial discrimination has pervasive negative effects on Black youth's mental health; therefore, it is crucial to identify factors that provide resilience against discrimination. Two promising factors to help youth cope are ethnic‐racial identity (how one feels about their ethnicity/race) and shift‐and‐persist coping (reappraising and accepting an uncontrollable stressor while remaining optimistic about the future). While there is existing scholarship on ethnic‐racial identity among Black youth, this work has not yet assessed the impacts of shift‐and‐persist in this population. Using a sample of 155 Black youth (ages 13–17), the current study examined the interplay between discrimination, ethnic‐racial identity, shift‐and‐persist coping, and internalizing symptoms. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were positively associated with discrimination and negatively associated with shift‐and‐persist. Significant interactions between discrimination and shift‐and‐persist predicting both depressive and anxiety symptoms revealed significant negative associations between shift‐and‐persist and internalizing symptoms at low and average, but not high discrimination levels. Effects are, thus, protective‐reactive; the protective effects of shift‐and‐persist are not significant for youth facing high levels of discrimination. Ethnic‐racial identity, surprisingly, was not significantly associated with either depressive or anxiety symptoms, nor did it interact with shift‐and‐persist as it has in studies of Latinx youth. By understanding the protective benefits of shift‐and‐persist and ethnic‐racial identity in Black youth, during a pivotal period for mental health, we can provide this growing population with tools to lessen the maladaptive outcomes associated with discrimination.
... Critical reflection and agency may be related to mental health through these same mechanisms. Youth may confront adversity and injustice through critical consciousness as an adaptive, empowering coping strategy that uses problem-solving skills and autonomy in the face of challenges [20,58]. Ballard and Ozer [15] argue that the connections between activism and health can be promotive for some people in some circumstances, such that activism can support flourishing, psychological well-being, and better health. ...
... For example, adolescents with heightened flourishing may seek out more critically conscious friend groups, as having purpose may translate into greater interest in friends who reflect on and challenge inequalities in their community and society. Furthermore, adolescents who experience more psychological distress may seek critical action as a coping mechanism [58], and youth with lower flourishing may engage in critical reflection as part of seeking meaning. Longitudinal models can clarify the directionality of effects to some extent. ...
Scholars have documented positive and negative relationships between adolescents’ critical consciousness and mental health. This study aims to clarify the role of friendship networks contributing to these associations. Using egocentric network data from a nationwide adolescent sample (N = 984, 55.0% female, 23.9% nonbinary, 72.7% non-white), regression analyses examined whether adolescents’ psychological distress and flourishing were predicted by their friend group’s average critical consciousness and the difference between adolescents and their friends on critical consciousness dimensions (sociopolitical action, critical agency, and critical reflection), accounting for network and demographic covariates. Higher friend group critical consciousness positively predicted flourishing, and higher friend group sociopolitical action negatively predicted psychological distress. Adolescents who participated in sociopolitical action more frequently than their friends had higher psychological distress and lower flourishing. Those with higher agency than their friends had lower flourishing. At the individual level, adolescents’ sociopolitical action predicted higher psychological distress and flourishing, critical agency predicted higher flourishing, and critical reflection predicted higher psychological distress and lower flourishing. Adolescent mental health is uniquely related to their friends’ critical consciousness. Findings highlight the utility of social network analyses for understanding social mechanisms that underlie relationships between critical consciousness and mental health.
... Black young adults' activism is a response to inequitable systems that shape their lived experiences [4,27,28]. Systemic exclusion from political life, such as the institution of slavery and colonialism, Jim Crow laws, and present-day inequitable laws and practices propelled Black individuals to assert themselves politically via group demonstrations, policy advocacy, and using community and political organizing to effect social change [29][30][31]. Black young adults continue this legacy of activism through social movements like Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name, which consists of social media advocacy, grassroots organizing, and protests to address ongoing issues such as racism, poverty, sexism, and queerphobia [32,33]. ...
... Black individuals are exposed to societal messages and experiences that lay the foundation for their understanding of society and their positionality within it [34,37,38]. Oppressive social structures can disrupt their development, and scholars have described SPD as an antidote for the oppression of Black people that promotes their ability to maintain a positive sense of identity and effectively heal from and resist racism [13,27,37]. Additionally, activism can serve as a form of collective healing, as Black young adults come together to address shared experiences of oppression and work toward collective liberation [13]. ...
Black young adults participate in activism to challenge and transform oppressive systems. In this qualitative study, we employed thematic analysis and used the framework of sociopolitical development (SPD) to explore their motivations and challenges to participation amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the summer of 2020 in the United States. Semi-structured interviews with 22 Black young adults in early 2022 revealed that social identities, sense of legacy, impact, and morals drove their participation. Further, contending with systemic oppression, impact, harm, and working with others challenged their participation. This study holds valuable insights for stakeholders as they support and empower young Black activists navigating social justice efforts in our dynamic and evolving sociopolitical landscape. Further, this work highlights the enduring tradition of activism within the Black community and emphasizes the need to empower young Black activists as change agents in the pursuit of a more equitable society.
... Sociopolitical development is linked with health and well-being, especially among populations marginalized by systems and structures [1][2][3], and may be a tool for promoting both individual and community health and the pursuit of health equity [4,5]. Sociopolitical development refers to the processes primarily during adolescence and adulthood whereby people, especially those from historically marginalized groups, gain understanding of cultural and political systems that shape their status in society and eventually take action to transform and reclaim power in those systems [6,7]. ...
... Based in ecological and sociocultural perspectives of human development [1,[22][23][24], the experiences that young people have in their micro-contexts of development-such as family, schools, jobs, and neighborhoods-affect their developing civic attitudes (e.g., [25]) and behaviors (e.g., [26]). Young people's social positions based on their racial and socioeconomic backgrounds interact with their developmental contexts to shape exposure to civic opportunities and civic interests [27]. ...
The objectives of the present study were to describe civic attitudes and behaviors among Latinx child farmworkers in North Carolina, examine civic outcomes across relevant demographic characteristics, and discuss the implications for research on sociopolitical development among Latinx child farmworkers and for developmental theory. Descriptive statistics (count, percent, or mean, standard deviation as appropriate) were calculated for demographic and civic variables. Associations between the demographic variables and the four civic summary variables were calculated using Generalized Linear Models, the Kruskal–Wallis test, t-tests, or Chi-Square tests. Latinx child farmworkers in North Carolina (N = 169; ages 11–19, Mage = 15.8, 62.7% boys) endorsed relatively high levels of beliefs that society is fair and connections/efficacy in their communities. They reported relatively low involvement in volunteering and political activity. Future work should examine how the daily lives and experiences of child farmworkers inform their developing ideas about civic life in the US and their behavioral participation as they mature.
... Linkages are less clear with public regard and have been hypothesized to differ based on the group's positionality and sociopolitical history in the United States (Mathews et al., 2020). Lower levels of public regard may make individuals feel that change is not possible and function as a barrier or fuel even greater action as a way of coping, a phenomenon found among Black civically engaged youth (Hope & Spencer, 2017). In sum, relations between ERI and critical consciousness dimensions are theorized to be complex, with potential varying effects depending on dimension and level of identity, racial-ethnic group membership, and the aspect of critical consciousness under investigation. ...
... It is possible that the importance of race-ethnicity alone is not enough of a factor to galvanize taking action toward change; other factors may also be needed, such as exposure to discrimination. Specifically, feeling that one's racialethnic group is under threat (evidenced by individual and/or vicarious experiences of discrimination) is theorized to spur critical action for those with higher centrality (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Mathews et al., 2020). This was corroborated in a study of Black college students, where discrimination was associated with greater engagement in antiracism action, centrality promoted greater communal antiracism action after accounting for discrimination, and centrality interacted with both discrimination and preparation for bias socialization to predict greater interpersonal forms of antiracism action such as challenging peers and teachers who make derogatory remarks (Christophe, Martin Romero, et al., 2022). ...
Parents of color’s critical consciousness development (understanding of and actions to redress societal inequalities) is an important yet understudied area, especially relative to the burgeoning literature on youth’s critical consciousness development. As with youth of color, ethnic–racial identity, or the meaning and importance placed on one’s ethnic–racial group membership, likely plays a notable yet complex role in parents’ critical consciousness. Specifically, parents’ participation in activities that engage them in the culture of their racial–ethnic group (exploration), the importance they place on race–ethnicity (centrality), and their perceptions of how society views their group (public regard) may each be differentially associated with understanding of inequalities (critical reflection), motivation toward ending inequalities (critical motivation), and the behaviors parents engage in to address inequalities (critical action). Further, it is possible that associations may vary across racial–ethnic groups given different sociocultural histories, experiences (including immigrant experiences), and positionality within the United States. In the present study, we employ multigroup structural equation modeling among a sample of 203 Black, 193 Asian American, and 188 Latinx parents (total N = 584, Mage = 44.46, SD = 2.49, 59.6% mothers) of an adolescent child between the ages of 13 and 17 to examine associations between ethnic–racial identity and critical consciousness across groups. Results indicate highly complex, group-specific relations between identity and critical consciousness: public regard was most consistently predictive of critical consciousness dimensions among Black parents. Exploration and centrality were most predictive among Asian American and Latinx parents, respectively. Implications for relations between ethnic–racial identity and critical consciousness in light of different group experiences are discussed.
... Certain types of civic engagement, such as political activism, can come with social, physical, and personal risks (McAdam, 1986), and individuals who are part of racial/ethnic, immigrant, or sexual minority groups may bare the burdens of civic engagement as disproportionate rates (Ballard & Ozer, 2016;Santos & VanDaalen, 2018). At the same time, political activism may serve as an active coping strategy and buffer the negative effects of discrimination on well-being for people of color (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Research should continue to build empirical evidence for how, for whom, and under what conditions civic engagement is good for the individuals who choose to engage. ...
... Experiences of exclusion and discrimination are systematically higher for racial/ethnic minority groups, immigrants, sexual and gender minority groups, individuals in poverty, and other marginalized groups within and across nations (Sanchez-Jankowski, 2002;Vogt et al., 2016;Wrench et al., 2016). Experiences of exclusion can damage physical and mental health, damper feelings of belonging, create barriers to traditional forms of civic engagement, and heighten awareness of injustice (Barrett & Brunton-Smith, 2014;Carter et al., 2017;Hope & Spencer, 2017). Youth who experience exclusion based on social status may respond by disengaging from civic life, and others may respond through political action, particularly when they are aware of injustice, have civic efficacy, and feel connected to a collective (Diemer et al., 2016;Jemal, 2018;Wray-Lake & Abrams, 2020). ...
... PVEST emphasizes how ethnic and racial group membership is made meaningful by individuals' subjective appraisals of their own experiences and perspectives across and within ecological levels. Divergent outcomes among those from similar social/ized 7 groups (e.g., race, class, gender) are expected as individual constructions of self are subjective, shift over time, and reflect a balance between vulnerability (e.g., stress, risk) and resilience (e.g., coping) (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Murry et al., 2011;Velez & Spencer, 2018). In other words, analyzing how youth engage with, and make meaning of, the multiple contexts they encounter is foundational to understanding, for example, why one sibling may be incarcerated while the other graduates from high school or why someone from a well-resourced community has poor outcomes despite privilege (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Swanson et al., 2002). ...
... Divergent outcomes among those from similar social/ized 7 groups (e.g., race, class, gender) are expected as individual constructions of self are subjective, shift over time, and reflect a balance between vulnerability (e.g., stress, risk) and resilience (e.g., coping) (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Murry et al., 2011;Velez & Spencer, 2018). In other words, analyzing how youth engage with, and make meaning of, the multiple contexts they encounter is foundational to understanding, for example, why one sibling may be incarcerated while the other graduates from high school or why someone from a well-resourced community has poor outcomes despite privilege (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Swanson et al., 2002). Further, attitudes and beliefs at the macrosystem level are influential, reflecting oft racialized ideals regarding power and justice, including systematic racism, constructs that define the context in which development occurs (Spencer, 2021;Spencer & Swanson, 2013). ...
This mixed method, sequential explanatory study explored the relationship between community-level ethnic and racial composition and belongingness outcomes among young adults with lived adolescent experience in foster care. Little is known about how conditions of foster placement neighborhoods might facilitate a sense of belonging, potentially moderating detrimental effects on youths’ social support networks common to out-of-home (OOH) placement. This research aimed to examine whether, and how, community-level and ecological factors contribute to belongingness among 118 young adults with lived adolescent experience in care (age 16+). The study includes three methodologically integrated but distinct phases, including OLS and logistic regression, reflexive thematic analysis, and joint displays to identify meta inferences from both qualitative and quantitative data sources. Overall, the study finds that, among this sample, placement conditions and geographic community features that promote belongingness for some, can hamper it for others. Study results also suggest that adolescents in OOH care may be most able to find belongingness in settings where they can be assured of emotional support, physical safety, and unconditional acceptance. To better support youth in OOH care as they navigate normative tasks of adolescent development, policy makers and program officials need to evaluate how caregiving contexts and community settings can facilitate, rather than suppress, youths’ need for autonomous self-expression to promote connection and well-being.
... Civic engagement likely has simultaneous costs and benefits for emotional and social well-being (Oosterhoff et al., 2020), and youth of color may shoulder more costs such as exposure to physical risks and psychological burdens ). Yet civic engagement may also hold particular benefits for youth of color as an individual coping strategy in the context of discrimination (Hope & Spencer, 2017) or as a collective strategy for healing after trauma (French et al., 2019). More contextualized research with youth from different racial/ethnic backgrounds and contexts would help to develop a full picture of how and under what circumstances youth civic engagement relates to health and well-being. ...
... For example, voter suppression is rampant across the United States and continually evolves into different forms-from gerrymandering to long lines at polling places to voter ID laws-preventing Black, Latinx, immigrant, and other groups from exercising their right to vote (Anderson, 2018). Historical and contemporary institutional racism shapes daily lived experiences of youth of color, immigrants, and other marginalized groups (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Socioeconomic inequalities in civic engagement have been documented for decades and are rooted in unequal access to quality education and civic opportunities in schools and communities (Gaby, 2017). ...
... Such engagement could be interpreted as an adaptive response to the significant structural injustice faced by TNB individuals, who are accustomed to organizing autonomous mutual-aid networks-and are sometimes forced to operate outside legal frameworks-to mitigate the potential psychological and physical harm caused by repressive policies and to support one another in their survival. Civic engagement thus serves as a source of well-being (Wray-Lake et al., 2019) and resilience against social inequalities (Chan et al., 2014;Hope & Spencer, 2017). As such, it represents a crucial community protective factor that can mitigate the effects of minority stress (Meyer, 2015). ...
Introduction
Structural stigma in public policies exacerbates minority stress for LGBTQIA+ individuals. This study explores the impact of Italy’s political climate on perceived stigma and civic engagement within the LGBTQIA+ population, following the inauguration of a conservative government that made a political agenda with explicit negative references to LGBTQIA+ individuals. Grounded in minority stress, social safety, intersectionality, and relative deprivation theories, the research also explores differences in perceived stigma across community subgroups.
Methods
Data were collected from 619 LGBTQIA+ individuals via an online questionnaire between November and December 2022. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify stigma-related class profiles.
Results
LCA identified two main groups: marginalized (mostly cisgender, monosexual, experiencing no or single form of oppression and congruence between gender identity and ID) and intersectionally marginalized (predominantly transgender/nonbinary, plurisexual/asexual, experiencing multiple forms of oppression and incongruence between gender identity and ID). Intersectionally marginalized individuals reported higher levels of perceived stigma and civic engagement than their marginalized counterparts.
Conclusions
This study highlights the disparities in stigma experiences within the LGBTQIA+ community and the protective role of civic engagement as a resilience strategy against minority stress.
Policy Implications
There is an urgent need for policies and interventions tailored to support Italy’s LGBTQIA+ communities, particularly those intersecting multiple marginalized identities. Comprehensive anti-discrimination laws are needed to protect individuals from hate crimes, and institutions must provide financial support to LGBTQIA+ organizations to empower them in creating community resources that mitigate stigma.
... Scholarly debates around the use of ICTs by non-state actors, such as NGOs, protest groups, insurgents, militant, and terrorist organisations are extensive, addressing issues, such as surveillance and censorship (Zuboff 2015;Bauman and Lyon 2013;Fuchs et al. 2012) and the impact of ICTs on the ideology, organisation, mobilisation, and structures of social movements (Morozov 2011;Coleman and Blumler 2009;Dahlberg and Siapera 2007;Van de Donk et al. 2004;Diani and McAdam 2003;McCaughey and Ayers 2013;Bennett and Entman 2001). Other scholarly debates address the role of digital networks in supporting social movements and protest groups around the globe (Gerbaudo 2016;Castells 2013;Stepanova 2011); the influence of non-state actors on debating ethics and rights-migration, the environment, the rights of cultural, and other minorities-in the digital public sphere (Zuckerman 2013; Karatzogianni and Gak 2015;Hope and Spencer 2017); and the use of ICTs by terrorist groups and online radicalisation (Conway 2012;O'Loughlin and Hoskins 2008). ...
This study investigates the attitudes of young individuals aged 15–35 years toward digital communication, with a focus on digital skills, citizenship, and civic engagement. Utilising data from the European Social Survey (ESS) round 10 (2020), the research explores variations across over 30 European countries, examining responses to the ESS’s rotating module on “Digital social contacts in work and family life.” Key questions, such as exposure to misinformation and online political engagement, are analysed to uncover factors influencing young Europeans’ perceptions of information and communication technology (ICT). The study explores digital scepticism, optimism, and digital skills, linking them to civic participation and socio-demographic factors. Statistical analysis, including chi-square tests and multiple regression analysis, identifies predictors and disparities among countries. Correspondence analysis dissects interrelationships among categories, constructing plots to showcase proximity between factors. Evaluating Internet accessibility, civic engagement, and connectivity issues, the study also compares data with the prior ESS round (round 9, 2018) to assess changes over the past 4 years. Through empirical investigation, this study sheds light on young Europeans’ perspectives on ICT, offering valuable insights into the complex interplay between digital communication, civic engagement, and beneficial Internet time.
... For example, intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1997) figured prominently across several papers, as the authors examined how overlapping identities and experiences of oppression shape youth engagement in sociopolitical action (see contributions 7, 9, and 10). Additionally, Saavedra et al. (contribution 10) and Hope et al. (contribution 6) drew on the Phenomenological Variants of Ecological Systems Theory, which contends that the risk and protective factors associated with sociopolitical action are deeply influenced by sociocultural norms and context (Hope & Spencer, 2017;Spencer et al., 1997). Other contributors, specifically Fernandez et al. (contribution 5), emphasized Healing Centered Engagement (Ginwright, 2015) as an approach to process trauma in oppressive contexts to holistically foster youth empowerment and action. ...
This Special Issue examines the links between sociopolitical action and healthy youth development. The 12 featured studies use diverse conceptual and methodological approaches to advance understanding of how the costs and benefits of youth sociopolitical action are dependent on identity, context, and structural factors. Key findings demonstrate that intersectional identities shape youth experiences of activism and that social contexts can exacerbate or buffer against personal risks, underscoring the importance of supportive environments that are attentive to each young person’s experiences of oppression. The contributing authors propose pragmatic strategies to encourage mutually reinforcing associations between personal well-being and sociopolitical action, such as integrating healing-centered approaches into youth programming and contextualizing resistance to systemic oppression as a component of healthy development. This Special Issue calls for future research to refine theoretical models and develop sustainable, health-promotive strategies to support young people in their vital work to advance justice and equity.
... However, solely focusing on negative outcomes and overlooking strengths creates a deficit perspective of U.S. Latino/a youth development [6,[16][17][18]. Theoretical models of stress and coping suggest individuals' interpretation of stressful situations can impact their ability to cope [19][20][21]. Additionally, cultural scholars have shown that acculturative stress and discrimination foster developmental competencies, such as emotion reappraisal, sympathy, and ethnic identity, fostering prosocial behaviors [6]. ...
U.S. Latino/a college students face distinct stressors, including acculturative stress and enculturative stress, impacting their capacity to engage in prosocial behaviors (voluntary actions benefiting others). Cultural stress can deplete resources essential to engaging in altruistic acts (selflessly motivated helping), yet it can also stimulate selfishly motivated prosocial behaviors. The present study examines how cultural adjustment stressors and cultural identity relate to prosocial behaviors among U.S. Latino/a college students. A sample of 1450 U.S. Latino/a college students (M age = 19.7 years; SD = 1.61; 75.4% women) completed an online survey assessing their levels of enculturative and acculturative stress, ethnic and U.S. identity, and altruistic and public prosocial behaviors. A path analysis revealed that higher enculturative stress is associated with lower ethnic identity, which, in turn, predicts increased public prosocial behaviors. Conversely, acculturative stress is linked with higher ethnic identity, leading to elevated public prosocial behaviors. The discussion underscores the importance of mitigating culture-related stress that can stem from home and U.S. society to enhance the well-being of U.S. Latino/as.
... These experiences can be formative for adolescents' development across various domains, including identity, peer and romantic relationships, and prosocial, moral, and civic concerns (Flanagan & Levine, 2010). Civic engagement, as a critical feature of positive youth development, can also be an important way for minoritized youth to address social problems and counteract the negative effects of discrimination (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Minoritized youth's civic engagement has been shown to have short and long-term positive impacts on self-esteem, academic achievement, and psychological well-being, and can provide them with opportunities for maintaining positive developmental environments through constructive citizenship (Lerner et al., 2014). ...
The role of diverse parenting practices and religiosity in Muslim American youth’s positive adjustment is not well understood. Drawing on a strength-based approach, the present study examined the mediating role of multiple dimensions of religiosity (religious attitudes, practices, and struggles) in the association between maternal promotion of volitional functioning (PVF) and Muslim American adolescents’ civic engagement. Two-hundred and twenty-one Muslim adolescents (13- to 18-year-olds; 59% girls) participated in an online survey and reported on their perceptions of PVF, their religious attitudes, practices, struggles, and their civic engagement. Our results suggested that for adolescents who receive maternal support for acting upon and exploring their interests, religious practices by themselves might be an indicator of the internalization of religious virtues that promote civic behavior. These findings highlight the importance of how maternal support for autonomy can promote specific aspects of religiosity and facilitate Muslim adolescents’ positive development.
... Civic engagement can also be a protective factor for young people facing sociopolitical stress and/or promote positive identity development [34,35]. In particular, there is evidence that engagement in anti-racist civic participation could be a coping mechanism for marginalized youth who experience inequality, such as racial/ethnic discrimination [36]. ...
Throughout history, Black women have taken their unique lived experiences to make changes through civic behaviors. At the same time, they hold a complex position in society, located at the intersection of multiple marginalizing identities that put them at risk of experiencing distinct forms of discrimination. To date, little research has examined the patterns of Black women’s civic behaviors and associations with discrimination experiences and well-being. This may be particularly salient during emerging adulthood, a key period of sociopolitical development and increasing mental health problems. The current study seeks to address this gap, drawing from theories of intersectionality and sociopolitical development. Participants included 103 emerging adult Black women (Mage = 24.27, SD = 2.76) with a range of civic experiences. Overall, anti-racist action was the most prevalent domain of civic behavior. Participants were about twice as likely to engage in traditional political behaviors (e.g., signing petitions, giving money) than political protest. Latent class analysis was used to identify three unique subgroups of civic behaviors: Stably Committed, Traditionally Engaged, or Low Engagement. Findings also showed that emerging adult Black women classified as Stably Committed experienced more discrimination and higher depressive symptoms. The current findings inform the creation of safe spaces for emerging adult Black women to be civically engaged as they navigate racism and sexism and take action to seek racial justice.
... Scholars speculate that activism can buffer against the negative effects of racism by mobilizing an oppressed person to dismantle the structures and institutions that perpetuate their oppression (Ginwright, 2010;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Farago et al., 2019). Activism broadly refers to efforts aimed at bringing formal changes to judicial, legislative, or electoral processes (Dennis, 2016). ...
The adversity faced by Asian Americans (AAs) due to discrimination is a testament to the ongoing fight for human rights. At the crux of social activism, familial and religious ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) instills cultural values, ethnic identity, belonging to one’s racial group, and a meaningful outlook, navigating generations through these challenges. This study examined the role of family and religion in amplifying social advocacy among AAs by assessing the relationship between race-related stress and social activism, as well as the mediating role of familial and religious ERS via a parallel mediation. Our research, utilizing a cross-sectional, nonexperimental design, involved 254 AA emerging adults identifying as Christian (Mage = 29.06, SDage = 7.55), sourced from Prolific (n = 203) and community sampling (n = 51). Linear regression findings revealed significant positive associations between familial ERS and social action (β = .226, p < .001), as well as religious ERS and social action (β = .085, p = .033). Nevertheless, parallel mediation analysis through bootstrapping demonstrated that neither familial nor religious ERS fully mediated the effects of race-related stress on social activism. These results underscore the significance of applying culturally imbued insights from different contexts to address discrimination within the AA Christian community. Scrutinizing these pathways can safeguard AA Christians, while promoting the amalgamation of Christian theology and psychological science. Future research should address the spectrum of beliefs and practices within Christianity that intersect with AA families and culture, unraveling the foundations of the call for social action.
... Reactive coping responses can be adaptive in ways that support positive development or maladaptive. Activism, and other forms of sociopolitical action, have been proposed as an adaptive coping response within the PVEST framework [63]. In this way, participating in activism may reduce the stress associated with sociocultural risks, and the outcomes of activism may result in structural changes that remove the risk factors entirely. ...
In recent years, girls and young women have become particularly visible as leaders of activist campaigns and social movements. Drawing on data collected from an ACLU summer program for youth activists and advocates, this study explores the costs and benefits cisgender girls incur as a result of their activism. The findings reveal that although girls report more benefits than costs overall from their activism, the costs are correlated with the number of marginalized identities they hold. Queer Black girls report the greatest overall costs from their activism, and queer Multiracial girls report the highest rates of burnout. Queer White girls report significantly greater overall costs and problems as a result of their activism than heterosexual White girls, more burnout than heterosexual Black girls, and more empowerment than heterosexual Latinas. Informed by intersectionality and the PVEST framework, implications for supporting the sociopolitical action of girls with different social locations are discussed.
... Additionally, integrating tSEL elements into YPAR can provide marginalized youth with opportunities to enhance their sociopolitical development by understanding their identity and how it relates to societal structures, cultivating a critical worldview, and acting to change unequal distributions of power. All of these are associated with proactive approaches to coping, which lead to better mental health outcomes when compared to avoidant coping strategies [64]. ...
Young people need opportunities that support their well-being while enabling them to take meaningful action. There has been strong interest in youth participatory action research (YPAR) as a form of sociopolitical action for marginalized youth seeking to address inequities that undermine individual and community well-being. The rapid growth of the YPAR literature in the last decade has involved studies analyzing the impact of YPAR on dimensions of youth empowerment, sociopolitical development (SPD), and well-being. The relatively new framework of Transformative Social Emotional Learning (tSEL) is potentially fruitful in identifying relevant constructs, skills, and strategies to support well-being during the YPAR process. This article seeks to advance our integrative conceptualization and analysis of the impact of YPAR by (1) considering the overlapping and unique dimensions of SPD and tSEL: agency, belonging, collaborative problem solving, curiosity, identity, societal involvement, and worldview and social analysis; and (2) applying this integrative lens to the analysis of novel data from an updated systematic review of U.S. and international YPAR studies (2015–2022). We summarize youth outcomes reported in 25 studies to assess the evidence for YPAR as an approach for promoting youth SPD and tSEL outcomes, identifying limitations and next steps for advancing our understanding of these impacts.
... High values of gender stereotypes negatively impacted individuals' duty toward society, indicating a conservative mindset that might hinder active social participation and perpetuate discrimination against women. This finding aligns with existing literature (Alarcón and Cole 2019;Hope and Spencer 2017;Jenkins 2005;Mappen 2011) and emphasizes the need to combat gender stereotypes to promote social responsibility and equality. Notably, the fairness supporters cluster demonstrated a greater emphasis on addressing gender stereotypes, further supporting the importance of this factor for promoting a sense of responsibility toward society. ...
Aims
Citizens’ perceived values play a decisive role in shaping a responsive society, driving social and political attitudes and behaviors. Understanding these values, influenced by cultural, historical, and personal experiences, is essential for comprehending public perspectives on social, economic, and ecological aspects crucial for sustainable societies. This study investigates perceived values as indicators of citizens’ potential civic engagement, mainly contributing to societal development.
Materials and methods
For the purpose of this study, we analyzed 1012 cases from the European Value Survey/World Value Survey data set of the Republic of Macedonia. In addition to the exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis, we employed XGBoost regression, coupled with SHAP analysis, offering a transparent exploration of the significance of citizens’ perceived values, while emphasizing their role in motivating social responsibility and duty.
Results
We identified 12 factors and categorized Macedonian citizens into 4 clusters. Through the SHAP feature importance method, we determined that perceptions of gender stereotypes, trust in people, civil rights, and job equality strongly influence the idea of social responsibility.
Conclusions
Our findings offer pathways to promote individual accountability and increased participation in societal actions, fostering greater advocacy and policy changes for a responsible, engaged, and sustainable society.
... Given that racial injustice continues to be salient within the social context of the United States (e.g., rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, police brutality and mass shootings targeting Black Americans; Crime Justice Information Services Division, 2017; Han et al., 2023), it is imperative that research better understands the factors that influence young people's participation in antiracism actions or the behaviors that challenge racial injustices (Watts & Hipolito-Delgado, 2015). Combating forms of racial injustice has important implications into young adulthood (Hope & Spencer, 2017), such as alleviating the impact of racism (Anyiwo et al., 2018). ...
Objectives: Research highlights the benefits of critical action on individual and community well-being; however, more needs to be understood about the ways ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) influences emerging adults’ participation in antiracism actions. Method: The present study examined patterns of parental ERS messages received by a sample of 668 racially and ethnically minoritized emerging adult college students (Mage = 18.76, SD = 1.23; female = 81.8%), and their associations with the emerging adults’ demographic characteristics and three forms of antiracism actions. Results: A latent profile analysis revealed a five-profile solution and showed variability in patterns of parental cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages. Participants in profiles reflecting far higher than average frequencies of both messages (high frequency) and those who received mean preparation for bias and above-average cultural socialization (culturally focused) tended to engage most frequently across all forms of antiracism. Conclusions: Our findings suggest the importance of parental ERS messages for fostering engagement in antiracism actions among diverse college students. Results are informative for those who work with minoritized emerging adults navigating racist contexts.
... Em âmbito internacional, verificamos pesquisas de: Hope e Spencer (2017) apresentando a juventude negra (JN), inserida em comunidades marginalizadas, ausentes de políticas públicas, mas que participam civicamente de ações e processos políticos, justamente para combater as desigualdades que afetam a sua comunidade (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Por meio da participação política (PP), foi verificado que, o mundo político-eleitoral americano, o impacto dos usos das redes online nas plataformas eleitorais em 2008, sobretudo, por ser intenso o uso destas redes pelos partidos políticos em suas campanhas, e o uso das redes online e off-line (Castañon, Rank e Barreto, 2011). ...
A obra é caracterizada pela preocupação dos diferentes autores nos mais diversos aspectos que assentam a educação e, em especial, o cenário da sala de aula. Nela, o leitor poderá encontrar discussões que versam sobre experiências didáticas, nas quais partimos desde a introdução de textos, a questão da introdução da inteligência artificial, até a curricularização dos conteúdos de uma sala de aula. Passamos pela problematização dos direitos humanos, os quais em mundo globalizado e multifacetado é de suma importância, para a discussão da relevância da educação especial no mundo escolar atual, no qual a inserção de alunos com necessidades educacionais especiais se apresenta a cada dia mais desafiador.
... Adolescents are encouraged to self-reflect on their cultural and practical norms related to religion, national, and psycho-social aspects with time and space, taking steps toward self-actualization, which acts as a transformational fulcrum (Orenstein & Lewis, 2021). Rigidity towards learned identity perspectives might resist re-learning in changed times and cultural contexts, but they need to be modified through acceptance of diversity in identity traits (Hope & Spencer, 2017). ...
The perspective of multicultural identity enables an individual to acknowledge and respect the prevailing diverse identities individually and socially. This particular approach provides liberty and acceptance towards unique individuals around us. As a practicing community, respect for one's originality and openness towards diverse practices need to be promoted for peace and harmony in any society. This research study aims to enhance the consciousness about multicultural identity through mixed method research, qualitative followed by quantitative research with an experimental intervention. Semantic content analysis of the curriculum of Pakistan Studies designed by HEC enlightened the researcher about existing gaps between the outline and recommended topics and sub-topics in the outline. Triangulation has been performed through focused group discussion to ensure the results and actual influence of the introduced phenomena on the Undergraduate students of B.Ed. (Hons) II (N=46). The findings clearly illustrate the significance of the pretest and posttest results of gender identity and psycho-social identity with effect sizes of r= 0.59 and 0.44, respectively. The research study suggested inculcating the phenomena of multicultural identity at the national level through policymakers and curriculum developers and practiced at the institutional level in educational settings to promote healthy and well-rounded individuals and progressive society.
... Said differently, this loading was low and did not improve through the course of model modifications.3 Although not explicitly intended as a coping with discrimination measure, research points towards minoritized youth's engagement in anti-racist action as a way of coping and fighting against inequality(Hope & Spencer, 2017), and Aldana et al.'s (2019) Anti-Racist Action Scale represents another measure created from the ground up using data from focus group interviews with a diverse group of youth. 4 These think-aloud procedures may also be helpful in the identification of potentially awkwardly worded items, a limitation this curory, item-stem-level adaptation of the general S&P scale may suffer from. ...
Shift‐&‐persist (S&P) coping has been shown to buffer against the effects of discrimination on psychosocial functioning in racially and ethnically minoritized youth. However, existing measures of S&P refer broadly to coping with stress and are not specifically tailored to the type of stressor individuals are coping with (e.g., discrimination). The current study evaluated the measurement properties, utility, and validity of a discrimination‐specific adapted measure of S&P relative to an existing, general measure among a sample of 327 minoritized youth ( M age = 18.80, SD = 1.28, 78.6% female, 50.5% Black) recruited from a large public minority‐serving institution in the southeastern United States. Contrary to our hypotheses, when the item stem was changed to refer to coping specifically with discrimination, the measurement properties of a validated S&P scale (Lam et al., 2018) were worse relative to the original measure. Overall, the general S&P measure produced larger main effects and explained two times more variance in depressive symptoms than discrimination‐specific S&P. Findings do not rule out the idea that context‐specific measures may better characterize coping with discrimination experiences than ‘trait‐like’ general coping measures. However, results highlight that small adaptations to current measures may not be sufficient and may compromise predictive validity. Coping with discrimination measurement recommendations is discussed.
... As we discussed, RES supports critical reflection, motivation, and critical action in Latinx youth, and critical reflection and motivation predict critical action (e.g., . Civic engagement is argued to be an important coping strategy employed by racially ethnically minoritized youth in response to systemic and interpersonal inequality (Hope & Spencer, 2017). Indeed, civic engagement can be a direct response to racial-ethnic discrimination. ...
In the last decade, there has been a surge in research examining racial-ethnic socialization (RES) in Latinx families building upon a research base that has established Latinx culturally resilient processes. Our chapter brings together these lines of work and presents a model for understanding the protective processes of RES in Latinx families. We first discuss the unique factors that may influence RES processes and need further attention (e.g., acculturation, immigration status, country of origin). We then present a model that delineates how RES supports the development of culturally resilient values and beliefs (i.e., racial-ethnic identity, familism values, familial resilience, critical reflection, and motivation) that lead to the enactment of culturally resilient behaviors (i.e., ethnic-racial behaviors, familism behaviors, familial coping and support, and shift-&-persist coping). We argue that together culturally resilient values and behaviors ultimately result in greater self-esteem, school engagement, prosocial behaviors, and well-being for Latinx youth as they face discrimination, marginalization, and oppression. We conclude by considering how these culturally resilient processes can be embedded in prevention and intervention efforts.
... Thus, we also draw from Spencer's (2006) phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST), which emphasizes that systemic racism is a contextually embedded stressor that creates vulnerabilities for BIPOC. PVEST extends on EST by conceptualizing how individuals understand their racial identities, perceive societal inequality, and engage or not in activism as forms of meaning-making of one's ecological contexts (Cunningham et al., 2023;Hope & Spencer, 2017). Some ecological contexts may facilitate critical consciousness development, where people become aware of how structural forces maintain privilege and oppression rather than attributing inequities to individual factors (Watts et al., 2011). ...
Compared to other People of Color in the United States, Asian Americans are often seen as uninterested in activism. Furthermore, the widespread model minority myth (MMM) perpetuates the monolithic image of Asian Americans as successful in society and thus unaffected by racial oppression and uninterested in activism. Despite others’ perceptions, Asian American college students have historically engaged in activist efforts and worked to reject the stereotypical views of their racial group as apolitical under the MMM. However, much remains to be learned about the consequences of the MMM on Asian American college students’ perceptions and engagement in activism, and how such individuals make sense of the MMM and activism through interacting with their ecological contexts. Thus, the present study addresses this gap in the literature and is guided by the question: How do Asian American college students’ perspectives and engagement in activism develop and operate in relation to the MMM? Using a constructivist grounded theory analytic approach, 25 Asian American college students participated in semistructured interviews, and our findings developed a grounded theory of how Asian American college students are embedded within micro- and macrolevel environments (e.g., familial, cultural, and societal contexts) that uphold the MMM and further shape how they make sense of and engage in activism. Results further revealed the consequences of the MMM as a legitimizing ideology on Asian American students’ attitudes toward and involvement in challenging and/or reinforcing the status quo. Implications for future research and practice supporting Asian American activism and the broader pursuit for social justice are discussed.
... Under intense, changing, and at many times negative social conditions, youth may be faced with an increasing sense of hopelessness . However, youth are not only being affected by their societies' changing contexts, they are also actively involved in striving to change their society's conditions (Bebiroglu et al., 2013;Hope & Spencer, 2017;Jain et al., 2019). Keeping in mind youth's changing contexts, as well as their power to change these contexts, has important implications for future research. ...
With shifts in sociopolitical contexts marked by Trump’s 2016 election and increasing anti-immigrant discourse, the purpose of this study was to explore how immigrant-origin emerging adult college students define and engage in acts of resistance. In 2017, data were collected from 12 semi-structured focus group interviews at an urban Midwestern university. Our sample included 41 participants ( M age = 20.11, SD = 1.35 years) with 32 female and five male participants. Twenty-four participants were born in the U.S., and 13 were first-generation immigrants. 44.2% percent of the participants identified as Asian ( n = 19), 27.9% as Hispanic/Latin@ ( n = 12), 11.6% as White ( n = 5), 7% as Black/African American ( n = 3), and 9.3% identified with multiple racial groups ( n = 4). Through a thematic analysis, we found that participants conceptualized resistance as standing up for themselves, engaging in protests, and unifying with others. Students noted the complicated role of family in facilitating and hindering their resistance and named competing responsibilities and a sense of vulnerability as major hindrances. Implications include developing ways to best support immigrant-origin emerging adult college students’ ability to engage in resistance to foster a critical consciousness and validate their identities, which can promote positive youth development.
Undocumented and DACAmented Latine high school graduates are enrolling in college at a low rate despite being eligible for in‐state tuition in 25 U.S. states. More research is needed about the conditions that support students' journeys to and through their institutions. We conducted this qualitative study with nine Latine students who attended our small, public university in Washington to better understand how to support them throughout their educations and the inequities they confronted in K‐12 schools that impact higher education experiences. Through applying the phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory in a thematic analysis of participants' interviews, we illuminated variable pathways to college, including differential access to supports and challenges in K‐12 spaces, and how such supports/challenges may influence students' meaning‐making and the coping strategies and identity development processes they engaged when confronting stressors in higher education (e.g., relying on strong academic identities, or, alternatively disengaging from school). Findings highlight the complex psychosocial processes Latine youth engage in throughout their academic journeys and ways to support them as they resist oppressive systems.
Background or Context
This research is situated against the backdrop of viral racial violence, global uprisings for racial justice, a polarizing presidential election, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, widespread economic precarity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside such urgent reminders of the need for liberatory education, the daily routines of educators were upended in response to an unprecedented, emergency shift to remote schooling. As such, this study was designed to listen and learn from teachers about their experiences during a historic time.
Purpose, Objective, Research Question, or Focus of Study
Digital pedagogies are often conceptualized and enacted as separate from race-conscious, culturally responsive approaches to teaching and learning. However, the transformative time in which this research took place underscored the importance of weaving these pedagogical approaches together. As such, this study was guided by the following questions: (1) How did the sociopolitical context of teaching and learning during the pandemic impact teachers’ approaches to and development of culturally responsive digital pedagogies? (2) What obstacles and/or successes did teachers encounter as they transitioned to remote teaching while trying to enact culturally responsive pedagogies?
Research Design
We designed this research using a critical, collaborative, and humanizing methodological approach that began with a national survey of K–12 teachers located across the United States ( n = 126). Results from the survey were then used to recruit participants and to contextualize and inform semi-structured follow-up interviews ( n = 58). With the intention of listening and learning from teachers, we also took a constructivist grounded theory approach that allowed us to develop findings that remained grounded in what participating teachers considered most important about their experiences during this time.
Findings
Our data illuminates how multiple, compounding crises made their way into the classroom in ways that contoured and constrained what was possible for teachers’ culturally responsive digital pedagogies. As macro-level events prompted teachers to focus on developing their own racial literacy and prioritizing the health and well-being of their students over academic learning, responses from school and district leadership at the meso/exo-level kept them gravitating toward the technology and pedagogies that felt most familiar. At the micro-level, the virtual nature of teaching and learning blurred everyday boundaries between home and school, causing teachers to develop a greater sense of empathy for the students and families they were serving, while simultaneously experiencing increased surveillance and fears of pushback about topics that could be deemed political. As these contexts converged, we identified how participants chose to prioritize some aspects of culturally responsive teaching over others, while also responding to the tense political landscape and fears of virtual surveillance in agentic, contextual, and idiosyncratic ways.
Conclusions or Recommendations
This research highlights the many layers of complexity and context that shape teachers’ pedagogical decision making, especially during times of crisis, polarization, and upheaval. Although policymakers often pay attention to the meso/exo- and micro-level contexts of teaching and learning, the role of the broader sociopolitical, racial, and economic context is too often overlooked. Therefore, we argue that if we want to improve teaching and learning, we need to invest in structural changes that will improve the lives of students and teachers both inside and outside of school. In addition to underscoring the importance of attending to the full ecology of inequality, our findings also highlight the necessity of shifting toward research, policies, and practices that consider how humanizing, culturally responsive, liberatory, and digital pedagogies can work in tandem with one another to better meet the needs of students in our increasingly unequal and technologically advanced society.
Youth in the U.S. must navigate intersecting systems of oppression as they develop. One potentially adaptive approach to navigating oppressive systems is through engagement in informed action to promote greater justice (“critical action”). This study examined whether a particular kind of action, anti-racism critical action, has protective mental health effects on Black and White U.S. adolescents. The study also examined whether experiences of discrimination such as feeling that one is treated worse than others are associated with greater engagement in anti-racism critical action. We find that, for both Black youth and White youth, experiences of discrimination are associated with anti-racism critical action. Black youth are equally likely to engage in anti-racism critical action if they attribute their discrimination to their race as if they attribute it to other causes. We also find that, for White youth but not for Black youth, some forms of anti-racism critical action attenuate the link between experiences of discrimination and mental health outcomes. We suggest that future research attend to the nuanced ways in which experiences of discrimination may shape engagement in anti-racism critical action as well as other forms of critical action, whether for the benefit of oneself and for others.
An increasing number of scholars suggest the need to enhance the incorporation of diversity and social justice across all areas of family science. Part of this work has seen family science more strongly and explicitly incorporate intersectional theorizing to problematize individual biases and power positions, generally, and of researchers and participants, more specifically. More work is needed to connect theory, method, and methodology to advance the call of scholars. Here, we attend to this call by providing methodological considerations for conducting intersectional phenomenological research in family science. We begin with an overview of phenomenology, including its philosophical and methodological foundations and variations. We then introduce the history of intersectionality, followed by critical methodological considerations for intersectional phenomenological research in family science. This integration of intersectionality and phenomenological research centers the lived experiences of individuals and families with historically marginalized identities while attending to power dynamics often part of scholarship.
Racism and other forms of oppression threaten the well-being of racially and ethnically marginalized youth. Models of risk and resilience for marginalized youth have stressed the importance of addressing contextual and structural risk while emphasizing promotive factors such as cultural capital within their communities. Increasingly, research has focused on collective antiracist action as a form of coping with structural oppression. Importantly, supportive intergenerational relationships that develop within youths’ everyday contexts may play a key role in catalyzing and reinforcing youths’ engagement in antiracist action. This review advances a novel model for understanding how supportive nonparental adults from youths’ everyday lives (i.e., natural mentors) influence youths’ positive developmental outcomes and participation in antiracist action and how collective antiracist action, in turn, fosters liberation and racial justice. The creation of a more just and equitable society contributes to positive development among racially and ethnically marginalized youth.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Volume 20 is May 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Youth sociopolitical development (SPD) is a powerful protective and promotive factor for marginalized adolescents' social, emotional, physical, and academic well‐being. Despite having unique insight and experiential knowledge about SPD processes, youth have been excluded from conceptual framework and model development. As part of a Youth Participatory Action Research project, 11 adolescents (ages 14–19) and one adult ask “How do adolescent community organizers with varying social and political experiences conceptualize youth SPD?” We used a multiple case study design, with a grounded theory analytic approach. The YPAR collective identified four interrelated, experiential domains of youth SPD: thinking, feeling, doing and relating. Within each domain, we identified and defined key constructs and practices. The YPAR collective's qualitative inquiry resulted in more nuance for existing frameworks of critical consciousness and critical action, and the collective pushes the SPD field to better integrate social and emotional aspects of SPD practice. They offer a conceptual framework that is rooted in their experiential, sensory, learned, and social knowledge, from a multiple‐marginalized positionality. These insights enrich the fields of SPD research and practice.
Student development theory has been an important guide in practice; however, few theories focus on both the individual and the influence of the environment. Spencer's (1997) Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) examines the individual, the environment, and the role of environmental feedback on self‐perceptions, with a specific focus on how this feedback influences student experiences and outcomes. PVEST allows for assessing the processes by which an individual can develop strategies to resist negative feedback from oppressive environments, as well as how individuals use different coping mechanisms. In this chapter, we apply PVEST to individual student‐level exemplars, as well as examples within counseling and classroom microcontexts to demonstrate the importance of environmental influence as well as phenomenological individual differences in interpretations and self‐perception. Ultimately, we demonstrate how PVEST is a theoretical mechanism to focus on both the person and their phenomenological experiences (PEs), and offer larger implications for use in higher education contexts.
Practical Takeaways
While critical for student affairs (SA) and higher education (HE) practitioners to consider the influence of the environment on college student development, experiences, and outcomes, there can still be individual, subjective phenomenological differences across individuals who might share similar identities and be in similar contexts.
We encourage practitioners to utilize PVEST—which examines the individual and the environment—with a specific focus on the role of environmental feedback on self‐perceptions, and how these self‐perceptions can impact student experiences and outcomes.
PVEST is useful for understanding an individual's risk and protective factors, their available sources of challenge and support, and the coping mechanisms they use. Ultimately, PVEST can help a SA/HE practitioner assess processes by which the student can develop strategies to resist negative feedback from oppressive environments.
The text summarizes the results of the second wave of research conducted in Poland as part of the ySKILLS project (Horizon 2020), which explored young people's digital skills and online civic engagement from six European countries. The study aimed to answer research questions about gender differences in digital skills and the forms of civic engagement in which young people participate through digital means. Data were collected through a Quantitative Longitudinal Data Collection method (survey), and the sample consisted of 1,340 Polish students aged 12-17 from twelve primary and secondary schools. The results showed that boys reported higher levels of involvement in online civic engagement than girls, especially in two areas: 1) discussing or commenting on social or partial political issues online and 2) joining or following a political group on social networks. Regarding digital skills, students reported higher levels of proficiency in communication and interaction skills and lower levels in programming skills. Regarding Przegląd Badań Edukacyjnych Educational Studies Review ISSN 1895-4308 nr 42 (2023), s. 137-156 ORIGINAL RESEARCH PROJECTS ORYGINALNE ARTYKUŁY BADAWCZE 138 ORIGINAL RESEARCH PROJECTS girls' digital skills, statistically significant differences were noticed in four areas. Boys declared having higher digital skills in technological and operational skills, programming skills, and information navigation and processing skills. It is recommended that schools and policymakers implement measures aimed at reducing gender disparities, for instance, by providing girls with increased chances to acquire programming skills or by highlighting to girls the advantages of engaging in online civic activities .
In the present qualitative study, we draw from a psychological framework of radical healing in communities of color to explore Black mother’s perspectives on what it means to raise free, Black children in the anti-Black racial context of the United States of America. Specifically, we consider the extent to which Black mother’s descriptions about supporting their children’s freedom involve new cultural and social norms that integrate personal wellness with collective social justice practices. We used consensual qualitative research methods to analyze semi-structured interview data from 31 Black mothers (28–50 years, M = 35, SD = 6.03) with children ranging from 6 months to 21 years old. We identified the following themes: promoting pro-Black critical consciousness, encouraging self-authentic expression through socioemotional support, and building strength and resistance through community care. Overall, we found that mothers viewed raising free, Black children as an inherent act of social justice, since they hoped to help their children learn to identify oppressive forces and engage in community-level efforts to promote social change and build a life-affirming future for themselves.
Embedded within the sociocultural context of romantic relationships are features such as race, culture, neighborhoods, the legal system, and governmental policy. Due to the inherent difficulties with studying large structures and systems, little work has been done at the macro level in relationship science. This volume spotlights the complex interplay between romantic relationships and these structural systems, including varied insights from experts in the field. In turn, more diverse and generalizable research programs on the social ecology of relationships can be developed, helping to facilitate advances in theory. Scholars and students of relationship science in psychology, sociology, communication, and family studies will benefit from these discussions. This title is part of the Flip it Open programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.
This study was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the role of emotions within protest experiences among college students. The study sample consisted of 18 undergraduate students aged 18 to 25 who participated in 2020 Black Lives Matter movement protests. Within the sample, the majority of the participants identified as female (61.11%, n = 11) and were Black (38.89%, n = 7). In-depth interviews were conducted and subsequent data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings distinguished four themes: (1) emotions as motivators for protest participation, (2) emotional residence during protests, and (3) identity development and the way ahead. A substantial portion of the participants experienced negative emotions following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, which motivated them to participate in protests. Interestingly, the majority of participants described experiencing positive emotions, including empowerment and hope while at the protest sites. The protest elements: chanting, listening to protest speakers, and being in community with others were the source of positive emotions. Most participants described protesting as a momentary emotional release. These findings demonstrate that protesting does impact student emotional well-being and is an adaptive emotion-focused coping strategy for negative feelings garnered by the sociopolitical climate.
Urban Ills: Twenty First Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts is a collection of original research focused on critical challenges and dilemmas to living in cities. Volume 1 examines both the economic impact of urban life and the social realities of urban living. The editors define the ecology of urban living as the relationship and adjustment of humans to a highly dense, diverse, and complex environment. This approach examines the nexus between the distribution of human groups with reference to material resources and the consequential social, political, economic, and cultural patterns which evolve as a result of the sufficiency or insufficiency of those material resources. They emphasize the most vulnerable populations suffering during and after the recession in the United States and around the world. The chapters seek to explore emerging issues and trends affecting the lives of the poor, minorities, immigrants, women, and children.
In the United States a “civic engagement gap” persists between low-income youth and their higher-income counterparts. To examine the developmental origins of civic engagement in a sample of U.S. children growing up in poverty, a conceptual model was tested employing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) national data set. Using generalized linear models, we examined the contributions of kindergarten children’s executive function and exposure to classroom based play to participation in different extracurricular activities in 8th grade. Results suggest that executive function is a significant predictor of participation in drama and music clubs, sports and number of hours spent in extracurricular activities. Play was also a significant predictor of participation in school clubs, while controlling for executive function. These findings provide initial evidence of a developmental trajectory toward civic engagement beginning in early childhood.
We examine how Black high school students, participants in a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) program, understand issues of racial discrimination and inequality in their schools. Through semi-structured individual interviews conducted early in the program, eight students (six boys and two girls) recount experiences of racial stereotyping, discrimination from teachers and staff, lack of institutional support for a positive racial climate, and lack of racial diversity in curricular offerings. Further, through evolving critical analysis supported by the YPAR experience, these students describe rationale for and implications of such negative race-based educational experiences. Findings reveal how Black adolescents interpret the racial discrimination and inequality they experience in school and the implications of parental and community socialization on the development of a critical understanding of race-based social inequalities.
Civic engagement in adolescence is encouraged because it is hypothesized to promote better civic, social, and behavioral outcomes. However, few studies have examined the effects of civic engagement on youth development over time. In particular, the long-term association between adolescent civic engagement and development among racial minority youth who are exposed to high levels of risk factors is understudied. Using data from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS; N = 854; 56.6 % were female; 93 % were African Americans and 7 % were Latinos), this study examined the associations between civic engagement in adolescence and outcomes during emerging adulthood among racial minority youth. Regression analyses found that civic engagement in adolescence is related to higher life satisfaction, civic participation, and educational attainment, and is related to lower rates of arrest in emerging adulthood. The findings suggest that adolescent civic engagement is most impactful in affecting civic and educational outcomes in emerging adulthood. The present study contributes to the literature by providing support for the long-term associations between adolescent civic engagement and multiple developmental domains in adulthood among an inner-city minority cohort.
The field of developmental psychopathology has seen growth in research focusing on interdisciplinarity and normative developmental processes, including context-linked coping and adaptations. However, there continues to be an uncomfortable and unarticulated perspective to view others as having culture and "the self" as representing the standard. A call for explicit cultural considerations in research is needed to augment the impact of these new and other significant conceptual contributions noted. Sociopolitical influences on social contexts relevant to the different trajectories associated with youths' opportunities and challenges are presented. We focus on macrolevel factors that frame contexts in which individual development occurs. A federal and educational policy is used to illustrate how unexamined cultural traditions and patterns embedded in research and policy impact development. These examples provide insight in presenting issues of vulnerability, particularly for youth, and afford opportunities to present advances and challenges paralleled in the developmental psychopathology field.
Using structural equation modeling and cross-lagged analyses, this longitudinal study investigates ethnic identification, a group-based coping strategy, as a mediator of the influence of perceived discrimination on psychological well-being and willingness to engage in activism on behalf of one’s ethnic group among Latino students in both their first and fourth years of college. We found cross-sectional evidence for the rejection–identification model (RIM) during both years of college. Further, multiple step bootstrapping analyses of the longitudinal data showed that the relationships between perceived discrimination during Year 1 and both well-being and activism during Year 4 were sequentially mediated by activism during Year 1 predicting ethnic identification during Year 4. These data extend the RIM by including activism as an additional outcome variable that has important implications for Latino students across time.
Because most high schools that can afford to fund journalism programs are located in middle-class suburbs, the majority of research on teen journalists reflects the experiences of middle-class, predominantly white students. By examining two afterschool journalism programs serving youth from inner-city communities, this article discusses teen journalists who are predominantly low-income and racial minorities, examining their views about journalism and news media. In the process, it explores these teens’ notions of democracy and the public good, revealing how class location influences youth attitudes towards news media and civic participation.
Prosocial Reasoning Research on Political Beliefs Contextual Influences on Adolescents’ Civic and Political Beliefs Civic Behavior and Civic Reasoning Conclusions Future Directions
Reviewing the literature on political participation and civic engagement, the article offers a critical examination of different conceptual frameworks. Drawing on previous definitions and operationalisations, a new typology for political participation and civic engagement is developed, highlighting the multidimensionality of both concepts. In particular, it makes a clear distinction between manifest “political participation” (including formal political behaviour as well as protest or extra-parliamentary political action) and less direct or “latent” forms of participation, conceptualized here as “civic engagement” and “social involvement”. The article argues that the notion of “latent” forms of participation is crucial to understand new forms of political behaviour and the prospects for political participation in different countries. Due to these innovations it contributes to a much-needed theoretical development within the literature on political participation and citizen engagement.
In this article, we take a critical look at the growing interest in U.S. political participation as it exists in the youth civic engagement literature. Our critique draws from principles of liberation and developmental psychology, and from the incisive writings of experts in youth organizing. Youth Organizing evolved from the Positive Youth Development (PYD) and Community Youth Development (CYD) perspectives but its addition of social justice activism is consistent with liberation psychology. The essence of our critique is this: Although there is certainly value in the current civic engagement literature, much of it focuses on the maintenance of social and political institutions rather than on action for social justice. To promote a better balance, and one more relevant to the lives of youth of color and other marginalized young people, we offer a framework for empirical research on youth sociopolitical development. The focus is on the relationship between social analysis (including critical consciousness) and societal involvement that includes the full range of service and political work. Because youth is the focus, we also include a brief discussion of a distinctive challenge that adults face in doing just work with young people—namely, adultism. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 779–792, 2007.
Our goal in this study was to better understand racial and socioeconomic status (SES) variations in experiences of racial and nonracial discrimination.
We used 1999 and 2000 data from the YES Health Study, which involved a community sample of 50 Black and 50 White respondents drawn from 4 neighborhoods categorized according to racial group (majority Black or majority White) and SES (≤ 150% or > 250% of the poverty line). Qualitative and quantitative analyses examined experiences of discrimination across these neighborhoods.
More than 90% of Blacks and Whites described the meaning of unfair treatment in terms of injustice and felt certain about the attribution of their experiences of discrimination. These experiences triggered similar emotional reactions (most frequently anger and frustration) and levels of stress across groups, and low-SES Blacks and Whites reported higher levels of discrimination than their moderate-SES counterparts.
Experiences of discrimination were commonplace and linked to similar emotional responses and levels of stress among both Blacks and Whites of low and moderate SES. Effects were the same whether experiences were attributed to race or to other reasons.
Given associations between critical consciousness and positive developmental outcomes, and given racial, socioeconomic, and generational disparities in political participation, this article examined contextual antecedents of critical consciousness (composed of sociopolitical control and social action) and its consequences for 665 marginalized youth's (ages 15-25) voting behavior. A multiple indicator and multiple causes (MIMIC) model examined racial, ethnic, and age differences in the measurement and means of latent constructs. The structural model suggested that parental and peer sociopolitical support predicts sociopolitical control and social action, which in turn predicts voting behavior, while controlling for civic and political knowledge, race/ethnicity, and age. This illuminates how micro-level actors foster critical consciousness and how the perceived capacity to effect social change and social action participation may redress voting disparities.
Although participatory action research has become an increasingly popular method with youth, involving them in problem identification, analysis, intervention, and/or feedback, few PAR projects tend to involve youth in all of these phases-particularly the data analysis phase. Yet involvement in the data analysis phase of a research effort can help to promote critical awareness of the targeted issues, potentially increasing the effectiveness of subsequent PAR stages. In addition, although many YPAR projects aim to promote the critical consciousness of their youth participants, some projects struggle to promote this awareness, often because the methods used are not well matched to the developmental needs of their participants. In this paper we present the ReACT Method, a PAR approach specifically designed to promote local knowledge production and critical consciousness by engaging youth in the problem identification, data analysis, and feedback stages of research. Given the lack of attention in the literature to the methods used for engaging youth in these processes, we provide detailed descriptions of the methods we developed to engage youth in problem identification and qualitative data analysis.
Youth Action Research for Prevention (YARP), a federally funded research and demonstration intervention, utilizes youth empowerment as the cornerstone of a multi-level intervention designed to reduce and/or delay onset of drug and sex risk, while increasing individual and collective efficacy and educational expectations. The intervention, located in Hartford Connecticut, served 114 African-Caribbean and Latino high school youth in a community education setting and a matched comparison group of 202 youth from 2001 to 2004. The strategy used in YARP begins with individuals, forges group identity and cohesion, trains youth as a group to use research to understand their community better (formative community ethnography), and then engages them in using the research for social action at multiple levels in community settings (policy, school-based, parental etc.) Engagement in community activism has, in turn, an effect on individual and collective efficacy and individual behavioral change. This approach is unique insofar as it differs from multilevel interventions that create approaches to attack multiple levels simultaneously. We describe the YARP intervention and employ qualitative and quantitative data from the quasi-experimental evaluation study design to assess the way in which the YARP approach empowered individual youth and groups of youth (youth networks) to engage in social action in their schools, communities and at the policy level, which in turn affected their attitudes and behaviors.
This paper examines theories and concepts relevant to sociopolitical development (SPD). As an emerging theory, SPD expands on empowerment and similar ideas related to social change and activism in community psychology--oppression, liberation, critical consciousness, and culture among them. SPD is the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, analytical skills, emotional faculties, and the capacity for action in political and social systems necessary to interpret and resist oppression. Equally as important is a vision of liberation that is an alternative to oppressive conditions. All of these concepts have been underemphasized in the social change literature of U.S. community psychology. In our view, sociopolitical development is vital to human development and the creation of a just society. As part of identifying and illustrating concepts and processes relevant to SPD theory, we will draw from the words of young African American activists who were interviewed as part of a research study.
This article draws from research conducted with poor and working-class youth in California attending schools that suffer from structural disrepair, high rates of unqualified teachers, high teacher turnover rates, and inadequate books and instructional materials. Arguing that such schools accomplish more than simple “reproduction” of class and race/ethnic inequities, the authors detail the penetrating psychological, social, and academic impact of such conditions on youth and educators, accelerating schooling for alienation. The evidence suggests that these schools not only systematically undereducate poor and working-class youth, and youth of color, but they taint pride with shame, convert a yearning for quality education into anger at its denial, and they channel active civic engagement into social cynicism and alienation. The consequences for schools, communities, and the democratic fabric of the nation are considered.
This paper examines theories and concepts relevant to sociopolitical development (SPD). As an emerging theory, SPD expands on empowerment and similar ideas related to social change and activism in community psychology—oppression, liberation, critical consciousness, and culture among them. SPD is the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, analytical skills, emotional faculties, and the capacity for action in political and social systems necessary to interpret and resist oppression. Equally as important is a vision of liberation that is an alternative to oppressive conditions. All of these concepts have been underemphasized in the social change literature of U.S. community psychology. In our view, sociopolitical development is vital to human development and the creation of a just society. As part of identifying and illustrating concepts and processes relevant to SPD theory, we will draw from the words of young African American activists who were interviewed as part of a research study.
This chapter approaches human development, and thus to vulnerability, risk, and resilience, represents an identity-focused, cultural-ecological perspective. As an organizational strategy for understanding development in context, the chapter presents Spencer's phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST). It considers major conceptual flaws that have marred research on racially and ethnically diverse youth. The chapter highlights how these conceptual flaws have led to misunderstandings about resilience and vulnerability. Next, it presents several theoretical correctives to these flaws in an effort to build toward our comprehensive, racially and culturally sensitive model of human development. This is followed by a discussion on major theoretical traditions that PVEST builds on, including Erikson's and Marcia's theorizing on identity, racial identity theories, symbolic interactionism, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. Finally, the chapter discusses the implications of all of these factors for resilience among racially and ethnically diverse youth.
Increased attention in recent years has focused on theoretical orientations, considerations of environmental influences, and progressively nuanced methodological and statistical approaches for analyzing complex phenomena. Despite advances and recommendations, outcomes for many African American youth have declined in education, in physical health, in mental health, and in more general well‐being. To address these contradictory trends, this chapter provides a sociohistorical framing in reviewing research that has informed the field, with specific attention on African American youth vulnerability and resilience.
The phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory affords a strategy for examining the vulnerability status and resiliency patterns of African American children and youth while acknowledging the role of the American Creed and historical contributions on their social contexts and patterned outcomes. An alternative strategy for examining vulnerability and resiliency among African American youth is introduced along with findings on typical and atypical developmental. These reports represent and focus on several central research themes for youth of African American descent that are further considered in explaining methodological controversies. The scope of risk and attributes of resiliency are raised in understanding mechanisms by which protective factors mitigate risks and extend current translational practices.
The History of Civic Engagement Research with Young Children Early Childhood Competences and Later Civic Engagement Executive Functions and Prosocial Skills: Precursors to Later Civic Engagement? Early Childhood Settings as a Context of Development of Civic Engagement Children as Citizens Children'S Right to Play in Early Childhood Challenges to Opportunities for Play Research, Practice, and Policy Implications Conclusion
Civic engagement is important for individual and community well-being. In the current study, we use survey data from a nationally representative sample to examine how sociopolitical attitudes, such as political cynicism, perceptions of institutional discrimination, and political efficacy, along with civic education relate to civic engagement among 593 Black youth, ages 15–25. We found perceived institutional discrimination, political efficacy, and civic education were associated with civic engagement, while political cynicism was not. There is evidence to suggest civic education may strengthen the association between perceived institutional discrimination and civic engagement. The present findings contribute to our understanding of how acknowledging systemic inequity promotes civic engagement among Black youth. Findings are discussed in terms of study limitations and future research directions.
In recent years, American colleges and universities have seen greater diversity among their undergraduate students and greater civic interest and action among these students. In fact, many have argued that meaningful engagement with diversity constitutes an important means of preparing college graduates to participate and flourish in a globalized and rapidly changing society. The current study explores this assertion by conducting a meta-analysis of the relationship between college diversity experiences and civic engagement. The results show that diversity experiences are associated with increases in civic attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors, and the magnitude of this effect is greater for interpersonal interactions with racial diversity than for curricular and cocurricular diversity experiences. The strength of the relationship between diversity and civic engagement also depends on the type of civic outcome and whether changes in that outcome are assessed through self-reported gains versus longitudinal methods.
Civic engagement refers to the ways in which citizens participate in the life of a community in order to improve conditions for others or to help shape the community’s future. This term has been used to date primarily in the context of younger people. But in the past few years, a new movement has emerged to promote greater civic engagement by older adults. This article begins by reviewing existing definitions of civic engagement and concludes that there is no single, widely agreed-upon meaning for the term. The second part of the article looks at attempts to measure how civic engagement is being practiced by Americans of different ages and finds that patterns of civic engagement differ dramatically between younger and older generations. The final part of the article describes some recent initiatives aimed at expanding the civic engagement of older adults.
Prosocial involvement is conceptualized as support for or engaging in behaviors that contribute to or benefit African American communities. The current study examines the relationship between prosocial involvement and race-related factors among 303 African American college students. Using two underlying dimensions of prosocial involvement, prosocial attitudes and prosocial behaviors, models were tested to examine racial discrimination and racial identity as predictors of prosocial involvement. Overall, participants showed strong support for prosocial involvement. Racial discrimination, racial centrality, and private regard were positively related to both dimensions of prosocial involvement. There was also a positive association between nationalist and assimilation ideology with prosocial attitudes. Findings from this study highlight the complexity of prosocial involvement and the relevance of race-related factors among African American college students.
The purpose of this article is to explore new forms of activism among African American youth in the post-civil rights America. Dramatic educational, economic, political and cultural transformations in urban America, coupled with decades of unmitigated violence, have shaped both the constraints and opportunities for activism among black youth and the communities in which they live. The central argument throughout this article is that intensified oppression in urban communities (job loss, unmitigated violence and substance abuse) has threatened the type of community spaces that foster revolutionary hope and radical imaginations for African American youth. Restoring hope requires a radical healing, which is a dramatic departure from radical identity politics of the 1960s and 1970s. Radical healing involves building the capacity of young people to create this type of communities in which they want to live. This article argues for an alternative framework to understand black political and civic life among youth.
Civic involvement is something that all liberal-democratic governments want to encourage among their young citizens. Much of the literature has focused on the individual and what factors influence him or her to become civically engaged. What has been absent from these analyses of civic participation is an investigation of the impact of groups on the individual's perception of, and participation in, civic activities. This article looks at the impact of ethnic group history on perceptions of civic engagement and argues that, instead of there being 1 civic culture in the United States, there are a variety of civic subcultures; each with their own set of attitudes about civic engagement and a set of concomitant behaviors that they understand to be appropriate contributions to civic life.
This paper, drawn from a book in progress, summarizes evidence of a "civic achievement gap" between non-white, poor, and/or immigrant youth, on the one hand, and white, wealthier, and/or native-born youth, on the other. Young people (and adults) in the former group demonstrate consistently lower levels of civic and political knowledge, skills, positive attitudes, and participation, as compared to their wealthier and white counterparts. As a result, they face serious political disadvantages. (Contains 1 table and 33 endnotes.) [This working paper was produced by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE).]
Presents the undergirding theoretical framework known as the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems (PVEST) that drive the author's identity-focused cultural ecological (ICE) perspective concerning school adjustment. An empirical demonstration of the framework is provided. Qualitative and quantitative findings are used in the exploration of predictors and correlates of hypermasculine identity, which is often associated with male youths' troubled social relationships and inadequate school success. The broader issues are discussed that have to do with culture and context more specifically. The shortcomings of current approaches are critiqued and the implications of an ICE perspective are explored for interpreting school adjustment themes and particularly patterned developmental outcomes for culturally diverse American students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We enter the 21st century contending with the end of the Cold War's legacy of political uncertainty, expecting youth to play a significant part in the search for new principles that will bring about stability in the world political order. In forging the future, youth will have to collaborate with adults, but on terms more fitting of the historical circumstances that lie ahead than those of the past. This was the framework adopted by a group of social scientists who held several discussions to reflect on the issues and opportunities that bear on youth's civic engagement and development in the century that has just opened. The present article describes the results of those conversations, starting with the issue of defining civic competence, and the finding that an expansive definition is needed to match the real-world circumstances that affect its development for youth internationally. Specific conditions, such as globalization, information – communication technology, and immigration, are emphasized as forces that affect youth and need to be taken into account by educators and policy makers. In this regard, responsibilities of schools, government, the commercial sector, and community organizations are outlined. Each is viewed as a potential constructive force for promoting engagement insofar as youth's strengths are recognized and focus is placed on building on youth's proven capacities. As always, it is youth’s task to make history in the future and society's obligation to provide youth with sufficient resources and an honest basis for hope in carrying out this task. The authors' policy recommendations are founded on this reciprocal relation that binds the youth generation with its elders in the common task of preserving, while transforming, society for the good of humanity.
The theoretical framework addresses the life course human development of diverse groups. It acknowledges that all humans are vulnerable, and that patterned and unique outcome variations emerge given perception-linked and context-based interactions between culture and ethnicity. The perspective emphasizes not only the “what” or outcomes of development but also the “how.” The theory explores the many paths for obtaining both resiliency (i.e., positive outcomes independent of significant challenge) and unproductive outcomes given structured inequalities. In providing an identity-focused cultural ecological (ICE) perspective as applied to diverse humans, the framework examines the broad patterns of coping processes and identity formation that result.
Keywords:
coping processes;
cultural diversity;
ecological contexts;
human vulnerability and resiliency;
identity formation;
social cognition and perception
Participatory action research is a form of service learning. In addition to delineating the central components of action research, the author highlights how one community's needs were resolved through action research.
We describe two interventions designed to encourage community action with youth in a school and a community service setting. The school intervention took place with a Year 10 class, while the community-based intervention took place with a group of same-sex attracted youth. Using a participatory action research framework, youth in both settings devised a series of community projects to promote personal, group, and community wellness. Projects included drama presentations addressing homophobia, designing an aboriginal public garden, children's activities in a cultural festival for refugees, a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, and a student battle of the bands. We evaluated the various community projects using self-reports, videotapes, and ethnographic data. While goals of personal and group wellness were meaningfully met, wellness at the community level was harder to achieve. Introducing a tool for the evaluation of psychopolitical validity, we examined the degree of both epistemic and transformational validity present in the interventions. Our assessment indicates that (a) psychological changes are easier to achieve than political transformations, (b) epistemic validity is easier to accomplish than transformational validity, and (c) changes at the personal and group levels are easier to achieve than changes at the community level. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 725–740, 2007.
Insights into the development of civic values, attitudes, knowledge, skills and behaviours are greatly demanded by adults worried about a seemingly steady decline in the societal interest of their offspring. Hence, the collection of studies in this special issue on civic engagement in adolescence is not only timely and enlightening, but it also has the potentials to contribute to research in different disciplines on various dimensions, mechanisms and normative models of civic engagement. The studies reveal some promising attempts to bring civil themes into the field of adolescent development. However, to overcome some conceptual, methodological and empirical shortcomings, future developmental studies in the area need to be substantially improved by considering cultural and institutional conditions, by focussing on processes across various everyday life contexts, by merging theories from different disciplinary fields, by conceptualizing adolescents as changeable subjects, and by delineating untested and unwarranted normative assumptions.
Young people should participate in public policy at the municipal level. But because mass media, social science, and professional practice tend to emphasize the deficiencies and disengagement of young people, there is need for more knowledge of their resources and roles as active participants in the policy process. This paper examines the San Francisco Youth Commission as an example of youth participation, including its origins, objectives, activities, facilitating and limiting forces, multilevel effects, and lessons learned from empirically-based practice. The authors—a university professor, commission director, and youth leader—argue that more knowledge of youth participation as a subject of study will contribute to its growth as a field of practice.
In this chapter, the authors consider Paulo Freire's construct of critical consciousness (CC) and why it deserves more attention in research and discourse on youth political and civic development. His approach to education and similar ideas by other scholars of liberation aims to foster a critical analysis of society--and one's status within it--using egalitarian, empowering, and interactive methods. The aim is social change as well as learning, which makes these ideas especially relevant to the structural injustice faced by marginalized youth. From their review of these ideas, the authors derive three core CC components: critical reflection, political efficacy, and critical action. They highlight promising research related to these constructs and innovative applied work including youth action-research methodology. Their conclusion offers ideas for closing some of the critical gaps in CC theory and research.
In response to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education mandate that medical education must address both the needs of an increasingly diverse society and disparities in health care, medical schools have implemented a wide variety of programs in cultural competency. The authors critically analyze the concept of cultural competency and propose that multicultural education must go beyond the traditional notions of "competency" (i.e., knowledge, skills, and attitudes). It must involve the fostering of a critical awareness--a critical consciousness--of the self, others, and the world and a commitment to addressing issues of societal relevance in health care. They describe critical consciousness and posit that it is different from, albeit complementary to, critical thinking, and suggest that both are essential in the training of physicians. The authors also propose that the object of knowledge involved in critical consciousness and in learning about areas of medicine with social relevance--multicultural education, professionalism, medical ethics, etc.--is fundamentally different from that acquired in the biomedical sciences. They discuss how aspects of multicultural education are addressed at the University of Michigan Medical School. Central to the fostering of critical consciousness are engaging dialogue in a safe environment, a change in the traditional relationship between teachers and students, faculty development, and critical assessment of individual development and programmatic goals. Such an orientation will lead to the training of physicians equally skilled in the biomedical aspects of medicine and in the role medicine plays in ensuring social justice and meeting human needs.
Peer- and teacher-reported prosocial behavior of 339 6th-grade (11-12 years) and 8th-grade (13-14 years) students was examined in relation to prosocial goals, self-processes (reasons for behavior, empathy, perspective taking, depressive affect, perceived competence), and contextual cues (expectations of peers and teachers). Goal pursuit significantly predicted prosocial behavior, and goal pursuit provided a pathway by which reasons for behavior were related to behavior. Reasons reflected external, other-focused, self-focused, and internal justifications for behavior; each reason was related to a unique set of self-processes and contextual cues. Associations between prosocial outcomes and sex and race (Caucasian and African American) were mediated in part by self-processes and contextual cues. The implications of studying prosocial behavior from a motivational perspective are discussed.
Civics lessons: The color and class of betrayal Working method: Research and social justice
- M Fine
- A Burns
- Y Payne
- M E Torre
State civic education requirements fact sheet
- S Godsay
- W Henderson
- P Levine
- J Littenberg-Tobias
Democracy remixed: Black youth and the future of American politics
- C Cohen