Directionality explored: Black Adolescents' awareness of systemic racism and race‐based experiences

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Increases in conversations about race and racial discrimination experiences during adolescence make this a critical developmental period to investigate adolescents' awareness of racism. We examined bidirectional associations between race‐based experiences and awareness of systemic racism—operationalized as understanding systemic causes of racial disparities in education. Adolescents who self‐identified as African American/Black were surveyed in Grade 6 ( n = 317; M age = 11.12; 48% girls) and Grade 8 ( n = 247; M age = 13.15; 56% girls). Cross‐lagged panel analyses revealed that racial barrier messages, but not racial discrimination experiences, in Grade 6 positively predicted awareness of systemic racism in Grade 8. Adolescents' awareness of systemic racism in Grade 6 did not predict racial socialization or racial discrimination experiences in Grade 8.