Parental messages about racism can help buffer Black teens against the psychological consequences of experiencing everyday discrimination, according to new research published in Child Development. The study provides new insight into how different messages about race can have impacts on children.
“I am interested in this topic because I care about the well-being and psychological health of Black adolescents. The many changes and challenges that adolescents go through is hard enough; but in addition to the developmental challenges that all adolescents go through, Black adolescents and other adolescents of color are faced with racial discrimination in their everyday lives,” said study author Bridget Cheeks, an assistant professor at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
“The racial discrimination experiences that I examined in the study include interpersonal experiences from adolescents’ peers or from adults in public spaces. However, we know that adolescents also experience racial discrimination in ways that are much more ambiguous like racial microaggressions, in systematic institutional ways, and also vicariously.”