Nearly all Black teenagers experience racism and anticipatory stress of discrimination, which is shaped in complex ways by the way they internalize and perceive their racial identity, a study from North Carolina State University finds.
The survey asked 442 Black teenagers between ages 14 and 17 about their experiences with racism and related stress. Overall, 94 percent reported experiencing racism to some degree.
“We know that racism is stressful,” North Carolina State University psychology professor Elan Hope said in a press statement. “Part of that stress is anticipatory—waiting for the next racist thing to happen. But not everyone experiences this stress the same way. We wanted to know how racial identity may influence the way teens experience this stress. Can racial identity buffer them from this type of stress? Can it make it worse? The answer is complicated.”
Hope’s research examined how teenagers perceive and value their racial identity and sense of self, and also how they believe others view their race. It also looked at how the teens experience stress by anticipating racial discrimination and mitigate their behavior to try and reduce or prevent harm.
Those who viewed being Black as more central to their identity reported feeling higher stress across the board. While the study found that teens who believe others view Black identity favorably experienced less anticipatory stress, it showed that they also had a tendency to blame racist actions on themselves even when they did nothing wrong.
“We found that racial identity is a mixed bag when it comes to its relationship with anticipatory stress,” Hope says. “Ultimately, the study highlights that while racial identity can help, there is a limit to what Black adolescents can do to protect themselves from the stresses associated with racism. And that, in turn, underscores the need for us, as a society, to address racism in a meaningful way.”
Check out the full study here.
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