Christy M. Byrd

Racial identity and academic achievement in the neighborhood context: a multilevel analysis.

Increasingly, researchers have found relationships between a strong, positive sense of racial identity and academic achievement among African American youth. Less attention, however, has been given to the roles and functions of racial identity among youth experiencing different social and economic contexts. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors examined the relationship of racial identity to academic outcomes, taking into account neighborhood-level factors. The sample consisted of 564 African American eighth-graders (56% male). The authors found that neighborhood characteristics and racial identity related positively to academic outcomes, but that some relationships were different across neighborhood types. For instance, in neighborhoods low in economic opportunity, high pride was associated with a higher GPA, but in more advantaged neighborhoods, high pride was associated with a lower GPA. The authors discuss the need to take youth’s contexts into account in order to understand how racial identity is active in the lives of African American youth.

The Measurement of Racial/Ethnic Identity in Children: A Critical Review

Researchers have long been interested in racial attitudes and preferences of young children with a focus on the implications of societal racism on healthy development. The doll study paradigm popularized by Clark and Clark is the most commonly used measure for children; however, researchers also have adapted paper and pencil measures and projective techniques to capture children’s attitudes. This article reviews multiple measurement approaches, drawing on developmental frameworks, and argues that researchers should draw more on cognitive developmental theories in creating measures that can better capture the unique nature of ethnic minority children’s racial attitudes, how they form, and implications for adjustment.

The Associations of Intergroup Interactions and School Racial Socialization with Academic Motivation.

ABSTRACT School racial climate is an important aspect of the school environment that can have significant implications for youths’ development. However, existing research is limited by conceptual and methodological concerns that restrict the ability of researchers and educators to identify what about and how the racial climate is important. The author addresses existing limitations by articulating school racial climate as a multidimensional construct composed of interpersonal interactions and school racial socialization. The sample consists of 99 Black middle and high school students who completed surveys on their perceptions of the school racial climate and their belonging, competence, and intrinsic motivation. The results showed, for example, that perceptions of more positive cross-race interactions were associated with greater belonging, and perceptions of colorblind messages were associated with lower competence. Overall, the study demonstrated the utility of a multidimensional approach to school racial climate and supported existing research on the importance of climate for adolescents’ motivation.

The Lagged Effects of Racial Discrimination on Depressive Symptomology and Interactions With Racial Identity

Scholars agree on the negative impacts of racial discrimination on the mental health of African Americans (Brondolo et al., 2008). Yet research is needed to explore the impacts of everyday discrimination over time, especially compared to nonracial daily hassles, in an ecologically valid manner. It is also widely accepted that racial identity can moderate the impact of racial hassles (Sellers, Copeland-Linder, Martin, & Lewis 2006), but few studies have examined this moderating effect over time. The current study addresses gaps in the current literature by analyzing the relationship between reported racial and nonracial stressors over the course of four days. Participants were 225 college students at three institutions who participated in a 20-day daily diary study. Each day, participants reported whether they had experienced a stressful event and their depressive symptoms. We compared reports of depressive symptoms the day an event occurred and two days after for racial and nonracial stressors and examined whether racial identity served as a moderator. The results showed that individuals experienced similar increases for racial and nonracial stressors when events occur and similar decreases in the following two days. Additionally, symptom trajectories varied by racial identity. Implications for the understanding of racial discriminations role in the well-being of African Americans are discussed.

Does Culturally Relevant Teaching Work? An Examination From Student Perspectives:

Culturally relevant teaching is proposed as a powerful method for increasing student achievement and engagement and for reducing achievement gaps. Nevertheless, the research demonstrating its effectiveness consists primarily of case studies of exemplary classrooms. In addition, most of the research fails to take student perspectives into account. The current study asks whether culturally relevant teaching works by considering student perceptions of classrooms that vary in the amount of culturally relevant practices. The sample was 315 sixth- through 12th-grade students sampled from across the United States (62% female, 25% White, 25% Latino, 25% African American, and 25% Asian) who completed surveys of their experiences of culturally relevant teaching, cultural socialization, opportunities to learn about other cultures, and opportunities to learn about racism. Elements of culturally relevant teaching were significantly associated with academic outcomes and ethnic-racial identity development. The findings provide support for the effectiveness of culturally relevant teaching in everyday classrooms.

A measure of school racial socialization and quality of intergroup interactions.

Objectives: The current study presents a comprehensive framework of campus racial climate and tests the validity and reliability of a new measure, the School Climate for Diversity Scale—College, in three independent samples. The scale measures 10 dimensions of campus racial climate in the two domains of intergroup interactions (frequency of interaction, quality of interaction, equal status, support for positive interaction, and stereotyping) and campus racial socialization (cultural socialization, mainstream socialization, promotion of cultural competence, colorblind socialization, and critical consciousness socialization). Method: Participants were college students drawn from an online task system and a public university on the West Coast. Results and Conclusions: Study 1 provided evidence of reliability and validity with existing measures of college climate, whereas Study 2 provided evidence of factor stability through exploratory factor analysis as well as additional evidence of discriminant and concurrent validity. Finally, Study 3 replicated the factor structure of Study 2 and provided further evidence of validity.

Comparing Associations Between Perceived Puberty, Same-Race Friends and Same-Race Peers, and Psychosocial Outcomes Among African American and Caribbean Black Girls:

Despite indications that adolescent peer relations is a mediator of associations between early pubertal timing and psychosocial problems, extant studies have not explicitly examined race or ethnic-related variables that shape the peer experiences of early developers. This study compared associations between pubertal timing, same race-friends, same-race peers, and psychosocial outcomes (school bonding, academic grades, externalizing behaviors, and peer deviancy) among a nationally representative sample of African American (n = 412) and Caribbean Black (n = 195) girls aged 13 to 17 years (Mage = 15 years). Results indicated that girls who perceived that their development was early relative to their peers reported better academic grades. Having more same-race friends were associated with school connectedness and fewer externalizing behaviors among girls who perceived that their development was early relative to their peers, whereas late-developing girls felt more bonded to school and engaged in fewer externalizing behaviors when they report fewer same-race friendships. These findings did not vary by ethnic subgroup. Findings suggest race-related variables (in this case number of same-race friends) provide important insight for understanding perceived pubertal timing effects within this population.