Few existing studies have examined the impacts of racism on adolescent development specifically with regard to Indigenous youths. Dr. Bep Uink and colleagues conducted a review of present literature to gain greater insight into the state of current research on this topic and to identify associations between racism and adolescent development among Indigenous adolescents. They present their findings in an article titled “Racism and Indigenous Adolescent Development: A Scoping Review” and featured in JRA’s Special Series: Dismantling Systems of Racism and Oppression during Adolescence.

We received our first respective peer-reviews in what seems like last century, shedding copious tears when reviewers asked basic questions like if we knew the difference between mg and ug. When invited to be associate editors, we loftily imagined dismantling systemic inequalities of peer review[i][ii][iii], offering sage advice to budding scientists, contributing to the communication and promotion of excellent science in our disciplines, and illuminating enlightening insights to lightly castigate reviewer 2. Broken down by the challenges of keeping up with manuscript submissions and reviewer recruitment, our sights are perhaps more realistic. Below, we offer catchy idioms and 15 hypothetical retorts we’d say to those wondering how to help editors as they decide whether to click "accept" or "decline" in that invitation to review. 

There is a gap in research wherein Black youths’ experiences of racism in routine spaces are sparsely documented. In their latest article titled “Using ecological momentary assessments to understand Black youths’ experiences of racism, stress, and safety”, Anna Ortega-Williams and colleagues aim to fill this gap through an ecological momentary assessment of emotions, racism, and social support among Black youths.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) once said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” The famous wit may have intended an irreverent quip, but this sentiment holds truth. The two are inextricably intertwined. From the first oral traditions that passed learned information down through the generations, storytelling cuts through life. It binds groups, transmits experiences, and guides understanding. But does storytelling also have a place within the individual, helping them broadcast and understand their own experiences as narratives?

Adolescents spend much of their time online, which can be detrimental for young people who experience race-related distress within this context. Alarmingly, research suggests that negative online experiences linked to race (e.g., racial discrimination, race-related traumatic events) are associated with psychological distress among Black youth. In their recent paper titled Exposure to Online Racial Discrimination and Traumatic Events Online in Black Adolescents and Emerging Adults, Drs. Ashley D. Maxie-Moreman and Brendesha M. Tynes probe these associations further by examining how online racial discrimination and traumatic events online relate to trauma symptoms of discrimination after accounting for gender identity and the college racial ethnic setting.

Full of Pomp and Prestige, most conference business meetings are – let’s be honest—a total snooze fest. No amount of free gut retching coffee and stale pastries can ever give you back that hour. This year's SRA meeting felt different, though. I’m wondering if the conference organizers and leadership got into the spirit of laissez les bon temps rouler of the crescent city. 

Every year, nearly 3 million students in the U.S. get suspended or expelled from school. Suspension or expulsion from school ­are forms of school pushout, which refers to punitive school policies and/or practices that make it difficult for students to be successful in school.  School pushout is disproportionately experienced by students of color, (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer) LGBTQ youth, and other underrepresented and underserved youth. Yet, there are several supportive strategies schools can use that keep students in school and learning. In our research, we explored how supportive versus punitive strategies might impact school pushout for LGBT youth of color.

School is one environment which may help facilitate youths’ exposure to a variety of attitudes towards race and diversity, and such attitudes may impact adolescents’ educational experiences in both positive and negative ways. It is therefore vital to understand how attitudes towards race are expressed in school settings, particularly by White teachers towards youth of color. Dr. Alexandra Davis’s recent article, Understanding racial attitudes among students and teachers in a ethnically/racially diverse high school, examines the role of racial attitudes among teachers within the high school setting.

Much of the existing research on subjective adulthood (i.e., feeling like an adult) among adolescents has been conducted with participants from wealthy countries. In their recent article on this topic, Erick Axxe and his colleagues instead examined subjective adulthood among youth from less frequently studied settings—specifically, Jalisco, Mexico, Gaza Province, Mozambique, and Chitwan Valley, Nepal.

Hello SRA community! Are you looking for another opportunity to get involved with a great new initiative on adolescent development? We are the newly formed Committee for Adolescent Girls (CAG), a committeebased in APA Division 35 (Psychology of Women). The CAG is a diverse and dedicated team of researchers, practitioners, and educators working collaboratively to promote the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of adolescent girls (and female-identifying youth) through conducting and disseminating scholarly research, resources, and ideas. The following lays out our primary objectives, as well our preliminary plans to address them, which we believe will be of interest to many SRA members:

School is one environment which may help facilitate youths’ exposure to a variety of attitudes towards race and diversity, and such attitudes may impact adolescents’ educational experiences in both positive and negative ways. It is therefore vital to understand how attitudes towards race are expressed in school settings, particularly by White teachers towards youth of color. Dr. Alexandra Davis’s recent article, Understanding racial attitudes among students and teachers in a ethnically/racially diverse high school, examines the role of racial attitudes among teachers within the high school setting.

Adolescents’ sociocultural beliefs may be critical to their reasoning surrounding topics of morality, such as corruption. Cristhian Martínez’s recent article, The influence of sociocultural beliefs on adolescents’ moral and tolerance evaluations toward corruption, seeks to improve our understanding of adolescents’ socio-moral development to help illuminate the contexts in which adolescents are more or less tolerant in their evaluations of corruption.

We might not need research to tell us that giving and receiving affection seems to be ingrained in our very essence. Our mood lifts when a stranger smiles at us; we feel warm when people care about us. It might not come as a surprise that connecting with others have several physical and mental health benefits. Ironically, psychologically distressed people tend to withdraw from and avoid social situations, be rated as less socially skilled compared to others, and have unsatisfactory social functioning. Which begets the question, what comes first? Is it peoples’ negative belief in their ability to successfully interact with others or is it symptoms of anxiety and depression?

Concerns about body image are prevalent among Black youth and are associated with a number of detrimental outcomes on mental health, including onset of depressive symptoms and decreased self-esteem. In their recent article on weight concerns among Black adolescents, Anna K. Hochgraf and her co-authors examined how sociocultural factors—such as racial identity and racial socialization—might help buffer the impact of weight concerns among Black adolescents. Anna kindly took the time to answer some of our questions on this article.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of people across the world, regardless of age, racial and ethnic background, and socioeconomic status (SES). However, some groups (e.g., people from minoritized backgrounds) are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19. Justice system-involved adolescents (i.e., adolescents detained in a residential facility or adhering to probationary requirements) constitute one such group who face increased risk. Despite heightened potential of COVID-19 infection, little is known about justice-involved youths’ concerns about the pandemic. In their 2022 article, Cavanagh, Clough, and Thomas examine the differences in pandemic-related concerns among youth who are and are not justice-involved.

 Schools offer an important context in which adolescents can develop their understanding of and reflection surrounding social inequities. Dr. Miriam Schwarzenthal’s latest paper, Critical consciousness socialization at school: Classroom climate, perceived societal Islamophobia, and critical action among adolescents, examines how critical consciousness, color-evasion, and multiculturalism within the classroom are associated with adolescents’ critical reflection and action.

I am Black and proud of it. I was born this way and I'm really proud of my race because of everything that we've fought for. Brazil was the last country to end slavery. In theory, we've ended slavery but many of us still work hard for food and shelter because we don't have any other option (18-year-old Brazilian student; Harris, 2021).

Adolescence is an important time of identity development and exploration. It is also a time of self-disclosure with regard to sexual orientation. Zhenqiang Zhao’s 2021 paper, Sexual orientation disclosure among Latinx sexual minority high school and college youth, examines how minority stressors might mediate the link between sexual orientation disclosure and elements of well-being, including depressive symptoms and self-esteem, in a sample of Latinx youth.

This #MustReadMonday, we are excited to feature a recent paper by Dr. Myles I. Durkee: Longitudinal Effects of the “Acting White” Accusation and Racial Identity Development among Black College Students. This article examines racial identity development among Black students making the transition from high school to college, addresses the implications of cultural invalidations (specifically, accusations of “acting White”), and provides policy recommendations for combatting the detrimental impacts of such cultural invalidations on college campuses.

Studies suggest that adolescents’ cognitive development may be impacted by elements of socioeconomic status (SES) such as family income, educational attainment, and social status. Dr. Alexis Brieant’s 2020 paper, Socioeconomic Risk for Adolescent Cognitive Control and Emerging Risk-Taking Behaviors examines how SES might impact youths’ cognitive control and, subsequently, youths’ problem behaviors.