A multilevel analysis of racial discipline disproportionality: A focus on student perceptions of academic engagement and disciplinary environment

It's not what you say it's what you do: School diversity ideologies and adolescent mental health and academic engagement

This study examined the relation between schools' color-evasive versus multicultural diversity ideologies, school characteristics, and adolescent development. Across two datasets linking individual-level survey data (N = 1692) and administrative records (N = 300,063; Mage = 12.4, 52% female, 48% male), schools' stated support for diversity (via a pro-diversity mission statement) was related to adolescent mental health and academic achievement, but in nuanced ways depending on individual racial/ethnic backgrounds, the racial/ethnic diversity of the student body and teachers, and the extent of racial disparities in discipline and gifted education. Findings suggest that communicating support for diversity without redressing systemic inequities in school discipline and academic tracking will not reduce racism-related achievement gaps and may instead exacerbate mental health disparities.

Implications of built and social environments on the academic success among African American youth: testing Strong African American Families intervention effects on parental academic racial socialization

Studies exploring widening academic disparities have highlighted the role of racialized school settings, which have given way to incidents of discrimination and unfair treatment for students of color, disproportionately affecting African American youth. Research also shows that family-based preventive interventions may avert negative outcomes for this population through the promotion of protective socialization practices. Consequently, the current study tests the efficacy of a culturally tailored preventive family-based program to foster induced changes in academic promotive parenting practices that prepare youth to advance academically by navigating negative race-related experiences in school settings. Data collected over four time periods from the Strong African American Families (SAAF) efficacy trial (Murry and Brody, 2004) with 667 African American families in rural Georgia were used for this study. Structural equation modeling analyses demonstrated that the SAAF program was associated with positive intervention induced changes in parental academic race-related socialization, which in turn, was indirectly associated with reduced school compromising behaviors through the enhancement of racial pride. While discrimination compromised academic success, our findings highlight the protective nature of racial pride in dissuading academic failure and school dropout through the promotion of academic success. This study confirms that a family-based prevention program holds promise to address academic disparities through the enhancement of parenting and youth protective processes that buffer youth from succumbing to racialized social environments such as schools. Implications for research, educational policy, and preventive interventions are discussed.

School Culture, Racial Composition, and Preventing Violence: Evaluating Punitive and Supportive Responses to Improving Safety

Research on the impact of school climate and culture on campus violence has yielded some promising responses for improving school safety. Evaluations of school policies and practices have shown that strict discipline and enforcement may have negative consequences and a disparate impact on students of color. Using a sample of 2092 respondents from the 2015–2016 School Survey on Crime and Safety from the Department of Education, the present research assessed the effectiveness of supportive programs and the impact of punitive responses to school violence within predominantly minority schools. Results from this study found that there were more statistically significant supportive policies that were associated with reductions in serious violence and disciplinary actions in predominately minority schools as compared to predominately white schools. Policy and research implications are discussed.

Peer Victimization and Mental Health Problems: Racial-Ethnic Differences in the Buffering Role of Academic Performance

Despite research highlighting the importance of academic performance in reducing youth's bullying involvement, little attention has focused on its role in moderating the association between peer victimization and youth maladjustment, further, there have been even fewer studies examining potential racial-ethnic differences in the association. This cross-sectional study examined the function of academic performance, as a moderator, in the associations between peer victimization and youth mental health problems (i.e., internalizing, externalizing, and substance use problems) and whether and how this function varied by the youth's racial-ethnic background. Self-report data were collected from 69,244 middle and high school youth (45.96% were middle schoolers; 49.7% were females; 25.72% were Black and African American youth, 9.64% Latinx American youth, 5.95% Asian American youth, and 10.47% Bi- and Multi-racial youth, and 48.22% White American youth). Multi-level models indicated that academic performance was negatively related to internalizing problems and substance use more strongly in victimized youth than in non-victimized youth, suggesting itself as a buffering factor. Moreover, this buffering function of academic performance in victimized youth was more pronounced in some ethnic groups (i.e., Asian American) than in others (i.e., Black and Latinx American), yet, notably, it was a buffer across all ethnic groups. These findings underscore the importance of academic strength in protecting victimized youth of all ethnicities against mental health difficulties, while recognizing that additional foci on improving academic performance and addressing academic-related norms are needed for racial-ethnic minority subgroups.