3-048 - Racial Coping Among Black and Latino Youth

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

A majority of Black and Latino youth frequently experience racial discrimination and stress (e.g., Fisher et al, 2000; Flores et al., 2010). Although these experiences’ adverse effects on youths’ development have been established (e.g., Priest et al., 2013), few studies have examined youths’ coping behaviors related to racial stressors, which may buffer the negative effects. The four papers presented in this symposium explore racial coping among Black and Latino youth beyond an adaptive/maladaptive dichotomy. The first paper explores the influence of parents’ coping and racial socialization on Black youths’ racial coping. Socialization significantly predicted engagement and disengagement coping behaviors. The second paper investigates the psychometric properties of the Discrimination Coping Strategies Scale (DCSS) (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2008) and its validity, using longitudinal data from Latino youth. Factor analyses and correlations with another coping measure provided evidence for the measure’s validity. The third paper identifies clusters of Black youths’ situation-specific coping strategies in response to educational discrimination. Clusters identified for educators’ negative grade and behavioral expectations were associated with sociodemographics, and sociodemographics were related to academic outcomes. The final paper investigates how acculturative stress contributed to changes in Latino youths’ academic well-being and examined the buffering effect of coping and social support. Higher levels of coping buffered the effect of acculturative stress on grades. After considering the implications of the presented papers, the disscussant will provide recommendations on advancing racial coping research.

Sub Unit

• Cultural Processes

Chair

• Judith C. Scott, Boston University

Discussant

• Enrique W. Neblett, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Individual Presentations

• What’s Race Got to do with it? Racial Socialization’s Contribution to Black Adolescent Coping - Presenting Author: Riana Elyse Anderson, University of Southern California; Shawn C.T. Jones, University of Pennsylvania; Nkemka Anyiwo, University of Michigan; Monique McKenny, University of Miami; Noni Gaylord-Harden, Loyola University Chicago

• Measuring Latino Adolescents’ Coping with Ethnic-Racial Discrimination - Presenting Author: Elana R. McDermott, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Stefanie Martinez-Fuentes, Arizona State University

• Coping with Teachers’ Racial Discrimination: Links to Academic Outcomes among Black Youth - Presenting Author: Judith C. Scott, Boston University; Ellen E. Pinderhughes, Tufts University; Sara K Johnson, Tufts University

• Acculturative Stress and Academic Well-Being among Latino Youth: Evaluating the Impact of Coping and Social Support Processes - Presenting Author: Rajni L. Nair, Arizona State University; Melissa Delgado, University of Arizona; Lorey A Wheeler, University of Nebraska-Lincoln