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

摘要。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性压力源之下， 包括警察对黑人施暴的公开事例，与黑人的紧张的个人互动， 敌对的警察和压迫性的移民政策系统性种族主义和种族歧视的结合， 冠状病毒-19大流行（COVID-19）--被称为“孪生大流行”--正在将黑人和拉丁裔 青少年，特别是那些生活在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、学校中断以及亲人生病和死亡。累积压力源 青春期的关键发育期增加了长期情绪和行为问题的风险 因此，我们迫切需要：（1）了解累积的种族相关压力对 在流行病期间和之后，边缘化的青少年（2）确定促进他们的保护因素， 恢复力和幸福感研究人员提出理论，其中一个保护因素可能是批判意识， 或者是对社会不平等的认识和促进社会正义的行动。我们缺乏严格的纵向 然而，关于边缘化青年批判意识发展的研究， 随着时间的推移，情绪和行为健康（EBH），以及其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， 巴尔的摩黑人、拉丁裔和白色青少年中的EBH。我们将利用参与者和数据， NICHD资助的试验，在COVID之前的四个时间点收集了种族多样性的纵向数据 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增加这个样本， 总共有650名14-18岁的年轻人，其中黑人、拉丁裔和白色的人数大致相等 参与者我们将跟踪这些年轻人超过四年（直到18-22岁）。参与者将完成 每年两次在线调查，评估与种族有关的压力暴露，批判意识，以及三个 EBH领域（情绪健康，心理健康问题和物质使用）。深入开展 与黑人和拉丁裔青年的一个子集进行访谈，并分别与他们的照顾者进行访谈，以获得更多的见解 青年如何参与批判意识/行动主义及其影响。定性主题将丰富我们的 批判意识及其对种族歧视危害的潜在保护作用的定量分析 应力我们会成立一个青年顾问委员会，让目标人口中的青年人提供意见， 在这项研究的所有阶段。我们还将利用我们以前工作中行之有效的程序， 与青少年参与者进行定性访谈，以增强信任和融洽关系。研究分析将 对于扩大边缘化青少年过渡到边缘化青少年的风险和弹性理论至关重要 成年调查结果还将直接为促进青少年心理健康的政策和干预策略提供信息 公平，包括采取干预措施，促进青年的批判意识和社会正义行动。

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.