Race, academic achievement and the issue of inequitable motivational payoff

As racial inequities continue to pervade school systems around the world, further research is necessary to understand the factors undergirding this pressing issue. Here across three studies conducted in the United States (N = 8,293), we provide evidence that race-based differences in student achievement do not stem from a lack of motivation among Black, Latinx and Indigenous (BLI) students, but a lack of equitable motivational payoff. Even when BLI and non-BLI students have the same levels of motivation, BLI students still receive maths grades that are an average of 9% lower than those of their non-BLI peers (95% confidence interval 7 to 11%). This pattern was not explained by differences in students' aptitude, effort or prior achievement but was instead linked to teachers' diminished expectations for their BLI students' academic futures. We conclude by discussing statistical power limitations and the implications of the current findings for how researchers consider the sources of, and solutions for, educational inequity.

Concern about experiencing downward socioeconomic mobility generates precarious types of motivation among students of color

Students' beliefs about whether they will experience changes in their socioeconomic status influence their academic motivation. We propose that students who are concerned about downward socioeconomic mobility will focus their attention on negative academic outcomes and exhibit motivational goals oriented towards preventing negative possibilities and that this relationship will be particularly pronounced among students of color. Two studies investigated the relationship between college students' concerns about downward socioeconomic mobility and their adoption of academic achievement goals. The more that students of color expressed concerns about experiencing downward socioeconomic mobility, the more they adopted academic mastery-avoidance goals (β = 0.76), whereas there was no significant relationship between concerns about downward socioeconomic mobility and mastery-avoidance goals among White students (β = - 0.24; Study 1). Experimentally induced concerns about downward socioeconomic mobility increased academic mastery-avoidance goals among students of color (β =  - 0.58) but decreased mastery-avoidance goals among White students (β = 0.46; Study 2). Together, results indicate that there is a strong relationship between concerns about downward socioeconomic mobility and mastery-avoidance goals among students of color, highlighting the importance of understating how students of color make sense of their future socioeconomic prospects in order to most effectively support their academic trajectories positively.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11218-023-09763-5.

The Ongoing Development of Strength-Based Approaches to People Who Hold Systemically Marginalized Identities

ACADEMIC ABSTRACT

Personality and social psychology have historically viewed individuals' systemically marginalized identities (e.g., as people of color, as coming from a lower-income background) as barriers to their success. Such a deficit-based perspective limits psychological science by overlooking the broader experiences, value, perspectives, and strengths that individuals who face systemic marginalization often bring to their societies. The current article aims to support future research in incorporating a strength-based lens through tracing psychology's journey away from an emphasis on deficits among people who contend with systemic marginalization and toward three distinct strength-based approaches: the universal strengths, difference-as-strength, and identity-specific strengths approaches. Through distinguishing between each approach, we advance scholarship that aims to understand systemically marginalized identities with corresponding implications for addressing inequality. Strength-based approaches guide the field to recognize the imposed limitations of deficit-based ideologies and advance opportunities to engage in research that effectively understands and values systemically marginalized people.

PUBLIC ABSTRACT

Inequalities, including those between people from higher- and lower-income backgrounds, are present across society. From schools to workplaces, hospitals to courtrooms, people who come from backgrounds that are marginalized by society often face more negative outcomes than people from more privileged backgrounds. While such inequalities are often blamed on a lack of hard work or other issues within marginalized people themselves, scientific research increasingly demonstrates that this is not the case. Rather, studies consistently find that people's identities as coming from groups that face marginalization in society often serve as a valuable source of unique strengths, not deficiencies, that can help them succeed. Our article reviews these studies to examine how future research in psychology may gain a broader understanding of people who contend with marginalization. In doing so, we outline opportunities for psychological research to effectively support efforts to address persistent inequalities.

“Oh, You’re Pretty for a Dark-Skinned Girl”: Black Adolescent Girls’ Identities and Resistance to Colorism

The current analysis explored the relevance of colorism among Black girls enrolled at a predominately Black, all-girls high school, with a specific focus on their identities and well-being. Fifty-nine Black girls ( Mage = 16.97) completed a survey and semi-structured interview. Results from a two-step quant-qual analysis indicate a strong positive association between rejecting colorist ideology and positive self-esteem. Open coding of semi-structured interviews showed that 75% ( n = 44) of the sample spontaneously mentioned colorist ideology when describing their racial and gender identities, including references to skin color (56%), hair texture/style (50%), attractiveness/femininity (38%), and body type (18%). More importantly, 74% of these discussions indicated resistance to colorism illustrating Black girls’ engagement with and denouncement of ideologies of white supremacy, patriarchy, and anti-blackness. This critical qualitative analysis illustrates and offers guidance for practicing anti-racist adolescent research. We offer four insights: (a) consider the research spaces in which Black youth in our research are situated to better represent the diversity (and potential) of Black youth; (b) listen to and and follow the voices of Black girls; (c) attend to agency and resistance in development; and (d) recognize intersectionality as integral to anti-racist research.

"[I]t's hard because it's the cops that are killing us for stupid stuff": Racial identity in the sociopolitical context of Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter (BLM) has profoundly shifted public and political discourse about race in the United States and thus the broader sociopolitical landscape in which children learn about race and their own racial identities. A sample of Black, White, and Multiracial children (N = 100; Mage = 10.18 years old) were interviewed about their racial identities in 2014 and again in 2016. During these 2 years, BLM surged with the National March on Washington, widespread news coverage of multiple cases of police brutality, and a highly racialized presidential election. The current analysis examines longitudinal change in children's racial identity narratives across these two time points with attention to the role of BLM. Qualitative interview analyses show that (a) the importance of racial identity increased among Black and Multiracial (but not White) children, and (b) the content of children's race narratives shifted to include BLM-related themes and more discussions of race as interpersonal and structural (not just individual). We discuss age-related changes and how to conceptualize maturation during significant sociopolitical moments, like the current one, in relation to racial identity development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).