A mixed methods investigation of Black college-attending emerging adults' experiences with multilevel racism.

Abstract

Experiences of racism contribute to the mental health burden of Black individuals in the United States, and during emerging adulthood, these impacts may be especially intensified. The majority of research on racism captures individual-level experiences and utilizes frequency-based measures. This mixed methods investigation examines convergence and divergence between a measure of recent experiences of racism and a measure of worst experiences of racism at multiple levels (individual, cultural, institutional). A sample of 186 Black college-attending emerging adults (Mage = 19.36; 62.7% female) reported their recent experiences using a quantitative measure and their worst experiences via a qualitative open-ended response, which were analyzed via convergent parallel design. The results indicated that a majority of reported worst experiences had an institutional-level component. Although the quantitative measure of recent experiences corresponded with reports of individual-level worst experiences, the institutional- and cultural-level worst experiences were rarely fully captured by the recent experiences measure. Implications for the mental health of Black college-attending emerging adults are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).