Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Resilience Factors in African American Youth Mental Health

Abstract

Racism constitutes a significant risk to the mental health of African American children, adolescents, and emerging adults. This review evaluates recent literature examining ethnic and racial identity, ethnic-racial socialization, religiosity and spirituality, and family and parenting as racial, ethnic, and cultural resilience factors that shape the impact of racism on youth mental health. Representative studies, purported mechanisms, and critiques of prior research are presented for each factor. Recent studies of racism and resilience revisit foundational resilience factors from prior research while reflecting new and important advances (e.g., consideration of gender, cultural context, structural racism), providing important insights for the development of prevention and intervention efforts and policy that can alleviate mental health suffering and promote health and mental health equity for African American youth. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Volume 19 is May 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

A preliminary investigation of longitudinal associations between ethnic–racial identity and critical consciousness among Black and Latinx youth.

“…Racially/ethnically minoritized youth in the United States are raised in a country deeply rooted in and continuously shaped by White supremacy, xenophobia, colonialism, and other systems of dominance (García Coll et al, 1996; Neblett, 2023; Spencer et al, 1997). Within these systems, youth are tasked with developing positive and central ethnic–racial identities (ERI; Rivas-Drake et al, 2022; Umaña-Taylor, et al, 2014).…”

“…ERI is an important developmental asset among racially/ethnically minoritized youth. For example, ERI may reduce the negative impact of racial/ethnic disparities in formative developmental outcomes (Neblett, 2023; Umaña-Taylor & Rivas-Drake, 2021). ERI is a multidimensional phenomenon that consists of content dimensions, or the attitudes and beliefs youth have toward their racial/ethnic groups, and process dimensions, or the processes by which youth develop these beliefs and attitudes toward the racial and ethnic groups to which they belong (Umaña-Taylor, et al, 2014).…”

The Ecological Resilience Framework: The Justice Ambassadors Youth Council as a model for community-based resilience

“…In summary, there is growing consensus about the importance of the three concepts we have reviewed in how resilience is both understood and cultivated: The critical investigation into how resilience is contextualized and measured, the importance of understanding how resilience manifests at particularly sensitive developmental time points such as emerging adulthood, and the need to view resilience as inherently rooted in social connectedness and relational resources. Our approach builds on scholarship that highlights the importance of considering how intersectional identities, systems of oppression, and cultural contexts serve as shaping factors for populations facing racism and/or discrimination (Neblett, 2023a(Neblett, , 2023b.…”