Adolescent Stress, Critical Consciousness, and Resilience Trajectories in the Context of Structural Racism

抽象的。系统性种族主义使黑人和拉丁裔青少年暴露在一系列创伤应激源之下， 包括公开的警察对黑人的暴行，与黑人紧张的个人互动 充满敌意的警察和压迫性的移民政策。系统性种族主义和 冠状病毒-19大流行(新冠肺炎)--被称为“双胞胎大流行”--将黑人和拉丁裔 青少年，特别是资源不足社区的青少年，家庭经济风险特别高 紧张、粮食不安全、学校中断以及亲人的疾病和死亡。期间的累积应激源 青春期的关键发育期会增加长期情绪和行为问题的风险 进入成年期；因此，我们迫切需要：(1)了解与种族有关的累积压力对 在大流行期间和之后被边缘化的青少年以及(2)确定促进他们的 适应力和幸福感。研究人员推测，一个保护因素可能是批判性意识， 或对社会不平等和促进社会正义的激进主义的认识。我们缺乏严谨的纵向 然而，关于边缘化青年的批判意识发展及其关联的研究 随着时间的推移，情绪和行为健康(EBH)及其再次保护种族有害影响的潜力- 相关压力。拟议的纵向研究将评估种族相关的压力、批判意识和 巴尔的摩黑人、拉丁裔和白人青少年中的EBH。我们将利用参与者和来自 NICHD资助的试验，在COVID之前的四个时间点收集了不同种族的纵向数据 巴尔的摩市的青少年。我们将通过招募更多的巴尔的摩青少年来扩大这个样本， 总样本为650名14-18岁的年轻人，黑人、拉丁裔和白人的人数大致相同 参与者。我们将对这些年轻人进行为期四年的跟踪调查(直到18-22岁)。参赛者将完成 每年进行两次在线调查，评估种族相关的压力暴露、批判意识和三次 EBH领域(情绪健康、精神健康问题和物质使用)。我们将深入开展 采访黑人和拉丁裔青年的一部分，并分别采访他们的照顾者，以获得更多的洞察力 青年如何参与批判性意识/激进主义及其影响。定性主题将丰富我们的 批判意识的量化分析及其对种族危害的潜在保护 压力。我们会成立青年谘询委员会，吸纳年青人参与我们的目标人口。 这项研究的所有阶段。利用我们先前工作中有效的程序，我们还将培训年轻人 对青少年参与者进行定性访谈，以增强信任和融洽。研究分析将 对扩展边缘青少年的风险和复原力理论至关重要 成人期。研究结果还将直接为促进青少年心理健康的政策和干预战略提供参考 公平，包括促进青年批判意识和社会正义行动主义的干预措施。

ABSTRACT. Systemic racism exposes Black and Latinx adolescents to a range of traumatic stressors, including publicized instances of police brutality toward Black people, stressful personal interactions with hostile police officers, and oppressive immigration policies. The combination of systemic racism and the coronavirus-19 pandemic (COVID-19)--termed the “twin pandemics”—are placing Black and Latinx adolescents, especially those in under-resourced communities, at particularly high risk for family financial strain, food insecurity, school disruption, and illnesses and deaths of loved ones. Cumulative stressors during the critical developmental period of adolescence increase risk for long-term emotional and behavioral problems into adulthood; thus, it is urgent that we: (1) understand the impact of cumulative race-related stress on marginalized adolescents during and after the pandemic and (2) identify protective factors that promote their resilience and wellbeing. Researchers have theorized that one protective factor may be critical consciousness, or the awareness of societal inequities and activism to promote social justice. We lack rigorous longitudinal research, however, on the development of critical consciousness among marginalized youth, its association over time with emotional and behavioral health (EBH), and its potential to protect again harmful effects of race- related stress. The proposed longitudinal study will assess race-related stress, critical consciousness, and EBH among Black, Latinx, and White adolescents in Baltimore. We will leverage participants and data from an NICHD-funded trial with longitudinal data collected at four time points prior to COVID with ethnically diverse adolescents in Baltimore City. We will augment this sample by recruiting additional Baltimore adolescents, for a total sample of 650 young people ages 14-18, with approximately equal numbers of Black, Latinx, and White participants. We will follow these young people over four years (until ages 18-22). Participants will complete online surveys twice per year assessing race-related stress exposures, critical consciousness, and three domains of EBH (emotional wellness, mental health problems, and substance use). We will conduct in-depth interviews with a subset of Black and Latinx youth and, separately, with their caregivers to gain more insight into how youth engage in critical consciousness/activism and its effects. Qualitative themes will enrich our quantitative analyses on critical consciousness and its potential protection against the harms of race-related stress. We will develop a Youth Advisory Board to engage input from young people in our target population at all stages of this research. Using procedures effective in our prior work, we will also train young people to conduct the qualitative interviews with adolescent participants to enhance trust and rapport. Study analyses will be critical for expanding theory on risk and resilience among marginalized adolescents transitioning into adulthood. Findings will also directly inform policy and intervention strategies to promote youth mental health equity, including interventions to promote youth critical consciousness and social justice activism.