Resilience Through Resistance: How Parental Factors Moderate the Psychological Impact of Urban Adolescents’ Anti-Classist Critical Action

Urban adolescents’ mental health is shaped by structural inequities and their engagement in sociopolitical resistance, yet the conditions under which critical action protects rather than harms mental health remain unclear. This study examined whether parental critical motivation, subjective social status, and involvement in anti-classist action moderated associations between adolescents’ anti-classist action and psychological functioning in 228 urban adolescent–parent dyads (adolescents: M age = 15.11, SD = 1.46; 52.2% male). Regression analyses showed that higher parental critical motivation buffered the association between adolescents’ communal action and depressive symptoms, and parental involvement attenuated associations between interpersonal action and both depressive symptoms and well-being. The findings underscore the protective role of family-level sociopolitical engagement and highlight implications for family-centered interventions supporting youth resilience amid systemic oppression.