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This paper examines theories and concepts relevant to sociopolitical development (SPD). As an emerging theory, SPD expands on empowerment and similar ideas related to social change and activism in community psychology—oppression, liberation, critical consciousness, and culture among them. SPD is the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, analytical skills, emotional faculties, and the capacity for action in political and social systems necessary to interpret and resist oppression. Equally as important is a vision of liberation that is an alternative to oppressive conditions. All of these concepts have been underemphasized in the social change literature of U.S. community psychology. In our view, sociopolitical development is vital to human development and the creation of a just society. As part of identifying and illustrating concepts and processes relevant to SPD theory, we will draw from the words of young African American activists who were interviewed as part of a research study.

Exclusionary discipline is commonly employed in U. S. schools and disproportionately affects students of color. This article describes current approaches to discipline and contextualizes these approaches historically with particular attention to racial dynamics and violence. We identify the harmful effects of exclusionary discipline and describe efforts to move schools away from exclusionary approaches through school-wide positive behavioral intervention supports, social emotional-learning, and restorative practices. We identify limitations of current discipline reform efforts that are hampering progress toward equitable schooling. We explicate the need for integrative and comprehensive culturally responsive approaches to positive student development that are equity oriented and identify implementation challenges and tools for addressing these challenges. Impact Statement The paper guides practitioners in evaluating whether their own school discipline reform efforts have promise or pitfalls for substantially reducing disparities. Practitioners are urged to consider the degree to which their discipline reform efforts may (a) ignore institutional oppression, (b) profess cultural neutrality, (c) neglect to integrate robust social, emotional, and behavioral supports, and (d) fail to include equitable access to academic rigor and challenge. The paper then offers practitioners directions for developing integrative, equity-oriented, and culturally responsive approaches to change.

Despite associations between ethnic-racial identity processes (i.e., exploration and resolution) and positive psychosocial outcomes among adolescents, limited empirical research investigates longitudinal associations between these processes and civic beliefs. To address this gap in the literature, this research explored whether changes in ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution predicted civic beliefs among adolescents. Participants included 400 Latinx (n = 121; 47.1% girls) and Black American (n = 279; 52.0% girls) adolescents in the 6th (n = 210), 7th (n = 113) and 8th Grades (n = 74). Neither initial levels nor changes in ethnic-racial identity exploration predicted civic beliefs across four time-points of the study, or across two years of middle school. Adolescents who demonstrated greater increases in ethnic-racial identity resolution across two years of middle school were likely to have greater civic beliefs by the end of the two years, as compared to adolescents who had smaller increases in resolution. These results suggest that adolescents who have an increasingly clear sense of their ethnic-racial selves may have greater access to cognitive and socioemotional resources that promote their development of beliefs on the need to advance the well-being of their communities.

This study used short-term longitudinal data to examine the contributions of democratic teaching practices (e.g., the Developmental Designs approach) and equitable school climate to civic engagement attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors among 515 Black and Latino middle school students (47.9% male). Concurrent experiences of democratic homeroom and classroom practices, and equitable school climate were associated with higher scores on each civic engagement component. The relation between classroom practices and civic attitudes was more robust when school climate was seen as more equitable. Longitudinally, homeroom practices and equitable school climate predicted higher civic attitudes 1 year later. Discussion focuses on civic attitudes and future research on school experiences that support civic engagement among youth of color.

This essay offers a cursory analysis of the potential of social and emotional learning (SEL) to foster optimal growth among African-American youth. Over the past two decades, the field of SEL has come to encompass a range of programs and practices that promote core social and emotional competencies (e.g., self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making) in schools and communities to support desired developmental outcomes.

The present study examined the effect of caregivers' experiences of racial discrimination on their adolescent children's psychological functioning among a sample of 264 African American dyads. Potential relations between caregiver discrimination experiences and a number of indicators of adolescents' (aged 12–17) psychological functioning over time were examined. It was found that caregiver discrimination experiences were positively related to adolescents' symptoms of depression and negatively related to their psychological well-being. Additional analysis revealed interactions between the effects of caregiver discrimination experiences and family income on all 3 outcomes. Greater caregiver discrimination experiences and lower family income were risk factors for the youth in the sample. These findings underscore the deleterious consequence of caregivers' discrimination experiences on African American youth's psychological health.

Using a person-oriented approach, we explored patterns of self-esteem and achievement among 324 Black college students across the freshman college year and identified four academic identification profiles. Multivariate analyses revealed profile differences in academic and psychological outcomes at beginning and end of freshman year (academic contingencies of self-esteem, anxiety, depressive symptoms, perceived stress), suggesting different conditions under which connections between self-esteem and achievement relate to positive or negative adjustment. Results also suggested a strong, positive racial group identification supports psychologically adaptive connections between self-esteem and achievement. Findings highlight challenges and benefits of connecting self-esteem to achievement for Black college students, heterogeneity within this population, and the relevance of considering race and cultural factors when studying achievement motivation processes among Black students.

Recent recommendations advocate involving young men in reproductive health programs. We know little about how young men perceive their reproductive health needs. For this study, 47 African American young men (mean age, 17.9 years) recruited from four community-based organizations completed a brief survey to explore life priorities and perceptions of health needs across 12 to 14, 15 to 19, and 20 to 25-year-olds. Participants’ life priorities varied by age group with overall top categories, including education, economics, and family members. Health was listed as a salient life priority among older participants aged 15 to 25 years, though it was not highly ranked. Participants’ top health concerns included sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, with limited mention of other reproductive health concerns. Understanding where young men start from when thinking about reproductive health can better help us meet their needs. Future studies warrant examining how health needs change over time among a larger and more diverse sample of young men.

This study explores the influences of communal values, empathy, violence avoidance self‐efficacy beliefs, and classmate's fighting on violent behaviors among urban African American preadolescent boys and girls. As part of a larger intervention study, 644 low‐income 5th grade students from 12 schools completed a baseline assessment that included the target constructs. Boys reported more violent behaviors, and lower levels of empathy and violence avoidance self‐efficacy beliefs than girls. Path analyses revealed that, after controlling for the positive contributions of classmate's fighting, violence avoidance self‐efficacy beliefs were a negative predictor of violent behavior. Communal values had a direct negative relationship with violence for boys, but not girls. Both communal values and empathy were associated with less violent behavior through positive relationships with violence avoidance self‐efficacy beliefs. For girls, classmate fighting had an indirect positive association with violent behavior through its negative relationship with violence avoidance self‐efficacy beliefs. Findings are discussed in terms of implications of basic and applied research on violence among African American youth.

School engagement is important in promoting adolescents' academic and socioemotional outcomes. We explored whether sixth-grade students' (N = 571, M[subscript age] = 11.27, 52% female, 50% racial/ethnic minority) school engagement at the end of the academic school year was facilitated by their perceptions of teachers' classroom practices and support. Data were from a longitudinal study on Developmental Designs (DD)--a community-building and engaged-learning teaching approach designed to meet adolescents' developmental needs for autonomy, belonging, and competence. On average, student-perceived teacher support partially mediated the positive relations between perceptions of teachers' DD classroom practice use and students' school engagement. Results highlight the interrelatedness of teachers' instructional and affective practices in supporting early adolescents' school engagement, and suggest the potential benefits of school-based socioemotional initiatives focused on such teaching practices.