Police discrimination among Black, Latina/x/o, and White adolescents: Examining frequency and relations to academic functioning

Abstract

Introduction: Concerns regarding police brutality and violence against people of color in the U.S. remain high in the current sociohistorical moment in which the recent murder of George Floyd by a police oficer is highly salient. Although the prevalence and consequences of such experiences for Black and Latina/x/o adults have been documented in the literature, there is a limited understanding of youths' negative experiences with police. Methods: Utilizing a sample of 1378 adolescents (M age = 16.16 years, SD = 1.12), the current study examined Black, Latina/x/o, and White youths' self-reports of ethnic-racial police discrimination and linked these experiences to youths' academic engagement and academic grades.Results: Black and Latina/x/o youth reported signiicantly greater experiences of ethnic-racial police discrimination than their White counterparts; nearly 24% of Black youth and 20% of Latina/x/o youth experienced at least one instance of ethnic-racial police discrimination in the last year, compared to only 2.9% of White youth. Differences by gender emerged among Latina/ x/o youth. Police discrimination was associated with lower academic engagement and lower academic grades among all youth. Conclusions: Findings demonstrate that the greater prevalence of ethnic-racial police discrimination in the lives of youth of color, relative to their White counterparts, mirroring the experiences of adults. Furthermore, coupled with the signiicant links with academic adjustment, the current indings demonstrate an additional factor that is likely implicated in the Black and Latina/ x/o vs. White academic achievement gap. Ethnic-racial discrimination remains a salient stressor for youth of color in the U.S. and has been consistently linked to their academic functioning (Benner et al., 2018). Most work examining experiences of ethnic-racial discrimination, however, has focused on general experiences, oftentimes not distinguishing the speciic source of discrimination (Benner et al., 2018). Recent media accounts of police brutality and violence with youth and adults of color have garnered increased attention around ethnic-racial discrimination from police (e.g., Goldsmith, 2010). There remains, however, a lack of empirical studies that provide information on the prevalence

A systematic review and meta-analysis on the associations between perceived teacher-based racial-ethnic discrimination and student well-being and academic outcomes:

“…Previous work among adults shows that men report higher levels of harassment from police than women and report differential effects on health behaviors (Brodish et al, 2011). Conversely, other studies conducted among African American youth did not show any significant differences in the overall frequency of discrimination between boys and girls (English et al, 2020) and that racial-ethnic discrimination had similar effects on their school engagement among Blacks (S. M. Cooper et al, 2013) and Latinx (Zeiders et al, 2021).…”

Systems of Oppression: The Impact of Discrimination on Latinx Immigrant Adolescents’ Well‐Being and Development

“…Within BIPOC communities, systemic discrimination has led to policing practices, such as stop‐and‐frisk and racial profiling (Garcia‐Hallett et al., 2020; Rios et al., 2020). Moreover, certain policing practices, including arrest and brutality, are common among BIPOC communities and research has shown that Latinx adolescents experience higher rates of ethnic‐racial discrimination perpetuated by police officers in comparison to their non‐Hispanic White counterparts (Zeiders et al., 2021). Among BIPOC adolescents, criminalization and policing are associated with legal cynicism, psychological distress, and stigma (Geller & Fagan, 2019; Jackson et al., 2020).…”

Adolescents' views of defunding the police, abolishing the police, and “The Talk”

“…Following the police killings of young Black people, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the release of videos of police violence against community members and protestors (Buchanan et al, 2020), demands to either defund or abolish the police reverberated throughout the United States in 2020 (Buchanan et al, 2020; Joseph‐Salisbury et al, 2020). Of particular concern is police treatment of adolescents of color, who experience disproportionate amounts of unfair and unwarranted police contact (Pollard, 2017; Stevens & Morash, 2015; Zeiders et al, 2021) and distress following exposure to police stops (Del Toro et al, 2019, 2021; D. B. Jackson et al, 2021). It is unsurprising, then, that because adolescents of color have more negative direct and vicarious encounters with law enforcement than their White peers (Cobbina, 2019; Shedd, 2015), many non‐White parents engage in socialization practices that prepare their adolescents for potential bias from law enforcement.…”

“…. Of particular concern is police treatment of adolescents of color, who experience disproportionate amounts of unfair and unwarranted police contact (Pollard, 2017;Stevens & Morash, 2015;Zeiders et al, 2021) and distress following exposure to police stops (Del Toro et al, 2019D. B. Jackson et al, 2021).…”