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Teacher-Based Racial Discrimination: The Role of Racial Pride and Religiosity Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents

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Abstract

This study explored the extent to which private regard and religiosity beliefs serve as protective factors for school bonding among African American and Caribbean black adolescents who experience racial discrimination in school. Findings are drawn from a nationally representative sample of (n = 810) African American and (n = 360) Caribbean black adolescents (52% girls) aged 13–17 (Mage = 15, SD = 1.42) years. Results suggest that perceiving racial discrimination from teachers was associated with lower levels of school bonding for African American and Caribbean black adolescents. For African American adolescents, perceiving more racial discrimination from teachers and reporting lower private regard beliefs was associated with less school bonding. The findings for Caribbean black adolescents revealed that endorsing moderate levels of religiosity and perceiving higher rates of teacher discrimination was associated with less school bonding. The developmental significance and implications for future research are discussed.

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Notes

  1. For the present study, the term “black” encompasses both African American and Caribbean adolescents. We will use “ethnicity” to differentiate between the two racial groups.

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Acknowledgements

The NSAL data are supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; U01-MH57716) with supplemental support from the OBSSR Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research and the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Michigan to Dr. James S. Jackson. Dr. Joe was supported by a Grant (R01-MH82807) from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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  1. George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1196, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Sheretta T. Butler-Barnes

  2. New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Stephanie Cook

  3. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Seanna Leath & Cleopatra Caldwell

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  1. Sheretta T. Butler-Barnes
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Butler-Barnes, S.T., Cook, S., Leath, S. et al. Teacher-Based Racial Discrimination: The Role of Racial Pride and Religiosity Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents. Race Soc Probl 10, 30–41 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-017-9222-0

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