A Contextual Examination of Ethnic-Racial Identity and Critical Consciousness among Diverse College Students

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在西北大学的Leoandra Onnie Rogers博士和加州大学圣克鲁斯大学的Margarita Azmia博士的赞助下，这项博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家研究社会政治背景在即将上大学的年轻人的种族认同和批判意识发展中的作用。当前的社会政治气候令人担忧，可能会给每个人带来心理负担，尽管它对一些人的影响比另一些人更可怕。自2016年以来，举报的仇恨犯罪数量急剧上升(联邦调查局，2018年)。在大学校园里，针对边缘化群体的暴力也有所增加(Watt，Costa，&Amp；Quiason，2018)。在冠状病毒大流行之后，针对亚裔美国人的种族主义激增(Coates，2020)，黑人、土著和其他少数人患病和死亡的比例不成比例(Dyer，2020)。需要更好地理解来自不同族裔、种族和政治背景的年轻人如何在当地和国家背景下交替支持、接受或抵制此类活动。在他们的认同感和世界观中，他们的反应如何？如果年轻人在网上或当面参与社会政治事件，这看起来是什么样子，他们从中得到了什么意义？本项目研究这些问题，将日常生活的微观层面与社会政治氛围的宏观层面联系起来，考察大学毕业生身份、信念和行为的发展。本项目特别关注批判意识(CC)，这一概念最初由Paolo Freire(1970)提出，包括对社会不平等的认识和抵制。族裔-种族认同的正当性和清晰性都可以缓冲歧视的负面影响(Diemer，Rapa，Park，&Amp；Perry，2016；Yip，Wang，Mooto，&Amp；Mirpui，2019)，并与无数积极的结果联系在一起，包括学业成就和幸福感(El-Amin等人，2017；Rivas-Drake等人，2014)。然而，ERI和CC很少被同时调查，他们的发展在大学生中仍然没有得到充分的研究(Mathews等人，2019年)。该项目使用纵向、混合方法解决了这一经验差距，数据收集在2020-2021学年的四个时间点进行。调查数据将使用以人为中心的纵向转变分析(LTA)进行分析，首先根据对ERI和CC措施的响应创建聚类，然后检查谁可能属于哪个聚类，谁发生变化，以及这些变化与政治保守主义和归属感等额外变量的关系。此外，将收集为期十天的开放响应提示，要求参与者描述他们对实时事件的参与并说明其意义。回答将使用叙事方法进行分析，阐明人内和人与人之间的差异。这种方法和分析的结合允许在背景下对ERI和CC的发展进行丰富的调查，推动理论并在具有不同身份和经历的年轻人中促进以公平为导向的结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Leoandra Onnie Rogers at Northwestern and Dr. Margarita Azmitia at University of California Santa Cruz, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist examining the role of the sociopolitical context in the development of ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness among college-going young adults. The current sociopolitical climate is fraught and can be psychologically taxing for everyone, though its implications are more dire for some individuals than others. Since 2016, the number of reported hate crimes has risen sharply (FBI, 2018). On university campuses, violence against marginalized groups has also increased (Watt, Costa, & Quiason, 2018). In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, racism against Asian Americans has spiked (Coates, 2020) and Black, indigenous, and other minoritized individuals are getting sick and dying at disproportionate rates (Dyer, 2020). A better understanding is needed of how young adults from diverse ethnic-racial and political backgrounds alternately endorse, accept, or resist such events in both the local and national contexts. How are their responses situated within their sense of identity and their views on the world? If young people engage with sociopolitical events online or in person, what does this look like and what meaning do they draw from it? This project investigates these questions, linking the micro-level of daily life with the macro-level of the sociopolitical climate, examining the development of college-going young adults’ identities, beliefs, and behaviors in context.This project focuses specifically on critical consciousness (CC), a construct originally developed by Paolo Freire (1970), which includes an awareness of and resistance to societal inequity. Both CC and clarity about one’s ethnic-racial identity (ERI) can buffer the negative effects of discrimination (Diemer, Rapa, Park, & Perry, 2016; Yip, Wang, Mootoo, & Mirpuri, 2019) and link to myriad positive outcomes, including academic achievement and wellbeing (El-Amin et al., 2017; Rivas‐Drake et al., 2014). ERI and CC have rarely been investigated in tandem, however, and their development remains understudied among college students (Mathews et al., 2019). This project addresses this empirical gap using a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach, with data collection occurring at four time points across the 2020-2021 academic year. Survey data will be analyzed using person-centered longitudinal transition analysis (LTA), first creating clusters based on responses to ERI and CC measures, then examining who is likely to be in which cluster, who changes, and how these changes relate to additional variables such as political conservatism and sense of belonging. Additionally, open-response prompts will be gathered for ten day periods, asking participants to describe their engagement with and make meaning about real-time events. Responses will be analyzed using narrative methods, illuminating within- and between-person differences. This mix of methods and analyses allows for a rich investigation of ERI and CC development in context, advancing theory and promoting equity-oriented outcomes among young people with diverse identities and experiences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.