Statement from SRA Board of Directors Regarding the Impact of Recent U.S. Executive Orders on AdolescentsFebruary 10, 2025Times of political upheaval that threaten the safety, dignity, and well-being of adolescents call for a clear statement of our values and convictions as a Society. Our Society's values are clear in protecting and promoting the health and well-being of adolescents, and when national and global policies contradict those principles, we have an opportunity and responsibility to clarify our position. We recognize we have failed to do so consistently in the past but are committed to doing better. The Society for Research on Adolescence exists to “advance our understanding of adolescence and enhance the well-being of youth in a globalized world” and promote high-quality research to “shape scientific and public discourse on youth and adolescence in ways that guide parenting, schooling, programs, and policies”. This mission is deeply embedded within and informed by the everyday realities of our global sociopolitical context. The new Presidential administration of the United States unleashed sweeping and, for many, devastating executive orders that have tangible and direct implications for the development, health, and well-being of adolescents and their families. These effects are felt locally, nationally, and globally, as well as among the adults trying to serve them, including researchers in our Society. Although we cannot control, predict, or prevent the circumstances that arise from political leadership, economic shifts, wars, health outbreaks, and more, we remain committed to living our core values, striving to offer research-informed perspectives to mitigate the consequences of these uncertain times on the lives of adolescents. On this, the science is clear: When safety and security, stability of basic needs (food, shelter, relational care), and sense of community and belonging are threatened or made sparse, young people suffer. Not only are adolescents and youth more vulnerable to experiencing risk and harm under such precarious conditions, but they are also more likely to participate in risky and harmful behaviors, leading to declines in their social and academic well-being and mental and physical health (e.g., Spencer & Dowd, 2024). Many of the executive orders and actions that have been issued in recent days are a direct threat to the basic needs of adolescents and youth and their communities. Non-partisan research has illuminated policies and practices that harm youth development: forcibly separating families via mass deportations, eliminating funding for essential needs in education, healthcare, and housing, and inciting fear and condoning hatred of diversity and difference not only strip bare the everyday safety nets that millions of families rely on but also promote violence, discrimination, and divisions with compounding consequences for adolescents’ mental, physical, and emotional health. Discrimination harms adolescents in terms of mental health, academic achievement, and odds of risky behaviors, including substance use (Benner et al., 2018). Moreover, policies that undermine the well-being of adolescents and youth come at great economic cost because poor employee mental health in the United States accounts for billions of dollars in lost productivity annually, and young workers already report more mental health challenges (Gallup, 2022). Our Society is committed to “dismantling systems that result in an inequitable distribution of power, privilege, and resources leading to the marginalization and disempowerment of minoritized communities” and disrupting such systemic harm as it shapes adolescents’ development. This commitment does not waiver with political leadership; it will not change. Our Society certainly responds to the struggles and opportunities of our present sociopolitical moment but does not bend with it. The termination of policies that are designed to “bend the arc toward justice,” such as Affirmative Action, gender affirming care, birthright citizenship, and immigrant rights, will not prevent our collective efforts for building affirming, caring, inclusive, safe, and equitable schools, communities, and systems for our adolescents and youth - here in the United States and around the globe. Cross-national data strongly suggest that multicultural policies benefit both majority and minority groups and facilitate positive acculturation and adaptation of newcomers (Abdi, 2023; APA, 2024; Berry, 2020). Inclusive migrant policies are linked to better public attitudes towards migrants and better migrant well-being (mipex.eu; Pia Juarez et al., 2019), whereas negative attitudes towards migrants create a hostile developmental context for adolescents and youth. We also draw attention to and condemn the recent removal of health data from the CDC websites, orders from the CDC to retract and censor submitted research papers from medical and scientific journals, and federal communication, hiring, and grant freezes within federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. As a scientific research organization, we oppose the censorship of science. The use of political power to stifle research and degrade knowledge of complex issues affecting adolescents is unacceptable and further erodes public trust in science. To the educators, practitioners, parents, researchers, community service leaders, advocates, and politicians who devote their lives to serving, supporting, and uplifting adolescents, our Society stands and serves alongside you. As an organization, we also strive to ensure our gaze goes beyond the United States to better understand and advocate for how global policies and practices, including terroristic violence and war, affect adolescents. The mental, social, and physical health toll of broad political disruption is taxing on each of us. Some of us are experiencing the proximal and direct threats in the immediate; others may be observing these harms from some distance. Of course, adolescents are not passive recipients of injustice and oppression; they actively resist in a variety of ways. Because identity development is a critical aspect of adolescent development, there is untapped potential for harnessing the power of social identities in prevention and intervention programs such as the Identity Project and the PRIDE Project that enhance their well‐being and can help to buffer them against the effects of discrimination (Hoffman & Umaña-Taylor, 2023). We invite all our members to join together as we work toward action steps for leveraging relevant policy information and coalition building to support adolescents, youth, and families. References Abdi, S. M., Akinsulure‐Smith, A. M., Sarkadi, A., Fazel, M., B. Heidi Ellis, Gillespie, S., Juang, L. P., & Betancourt, T. S. (2023). Promoting positive development among refugee adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12890 APA (2024). Psychological Science and Immigration Today. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/psychological-science-immigration-today.pdf Benner, A. D., Wang, Y., Shen, Y., Boyle, A. E., Polk, R., & Cheng, Y.-P. (2018). Racial/ethnic discrimination and well-being during adolescence: A meta-analytic review. American Psychologist, 73(7), 855–883. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000204 Berry, J. W. (2020). How shall we all live together? In S. Safdar, C. Kwantes, & W. Friedlmeier (Eds.), Wiser world with multiculturalism: Proceedings from the 24th Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. https://doi.org/10.4087/ORPS1037 Hoffman, A. J., & Umaña‐Taylor, A. J. (2023). The promise of leveraging social identities in interventions to enhance the well‐being and lives of adolescents. Child Development Perspectives, 17(3-4), 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12486 Juárez, S. P., Honkaniemi, H., Dunlavy, A. C., Aldridge, R. W., Barreto, M. L., Katikireddi, S. V., & Rostila, M. (2019). Effects of non-health-targeted policies on migrant health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 7(4), e420–e435. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(18)30560-6 Margaret Beale Spencer, & Dowd, N. E. (2024). Radical Brown. Harvard Education Press. Witters, D., & Agrawal, S. (2022). The economic cost of poor employee mental health. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/404174/economic-cost-poor-employee-mental-health.aspx Other Resources APA Resolution and Task Force Report on Immigration and Health NASEM Report on Adolescence and Youth JRA special issues on oppression and resistance among adolescents and their families |