Racial-Ethnic Protective Factors

Abstract

Alongside developmentally normative stressors, youth of color also cope with racially specific stressors. In fact, a large body of research documents the high prevalence of racial stressors like discrimination among youth of color (e.g., Black and Latinx). Young people of color experience racial injustice across their varied contexts including their schools (Assari and Caldwell, 2018), neighborhoods (Riina et al., 2013), and healthcare settings (Lightfoot et al., 2019). Youth's exposure to race-related stressors has been exacerbated with an increasingly polarized social climate and intensified exposure to racially traumatic events online (English et al., 2020; Tynes et al., 2008). Given the insurmountable prevalence of race-related stressors facing Black and Brown youth in present-day America, it is critically important for researchers and practitioners to thoroughly understand factors contributing to their resilience and uncover the mechanisms that support young people of color in the face of race- and identity-related stressors. This chapter details some of these mechanisms by discussing racial-ethnic protective factors that support the positive development of youth of color, focusing on Black and Latinx populations. Specifically, the chapter focuses on (1) cultural-level protective factors, and (2) familial and individual-level factors that support Black and Latinx youths’ resilience. This concludes with a discussion of the ways in which racial-ethnic protective factors implicate the roles and functions of families, scholars, educators, and practitioners.