2021/06/25 by Katharine H. Zeiders, Adriana J. Umaña‐Taylor, Selena Carbajal +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Policing Practices and Perceptions #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Education Discipline and Inequality
paper · doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2021.06.001
openalex publication_date 2021/06/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
INTRODUCTION: Concerns regarding police brutality and violence against people of color in the U.S. remain high in the current sociohistorical moment in which the recent murder of George Floyd by a police officer is highly salient. Although the prevalence and consequences of such experiences for Black and Latina/x/o adults have been documented in the literature, there is a limited understanding of youths' negative experiences with police. METHODS: = 16.16 years, SD = 1.12), the current study examined Black, Latina/x/o, and White youths' self-reports of ethnic-racial police discrimination and linked these experiences to youths' academic engagement and academic grades. RESULTS: Black and Latina/x/o youth reported significantly greater experiences of ethnic-racial police discrimination than their White counterparts; nearly 24% of Black youth and 20% of Latina/x/o youth experienced at least one instance of ethnic-racial police discrimination in the last year, compared to only 2.9% of White youth. Differences by gender emerged among Latina/x/o youth. Police discrimination was associated with lower academic engagement and lower academic grades among all youth. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate that the greater prevalence of ethnic-racial police discrimination in the lives of youth of color, relative to their White counterparts, mirroring the experiences of adults. Furthermore, coupled with the significant links with academic adjustment, the current findings demonstrate an additional factor that is likely implicated in the Black and Latina/x/o vs. White academic achievement gap.