Crafting identities and accessing opportunities post-Brown

Bibliographic Data

ID8108317
AuthorsMargaret Beale Spencer (0000-0002-9516-5427, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume60
Issue8
Pages821-830
Publication date2005-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Psychologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-066X • E-ISSN: 1935-990X
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/0003-066x.60.8.821
PMID16351416
OpenAlexW2023689044
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited16

Decades following Brown v. Board of Education (1954), issues regarding the effects of skin color, poverty, and racial differences in the availability of protective factors persist. For a multiethnic sample of mainly African American (56%), female (69%), and high-achieving (65%) youths, a dual-axis model of vulnerability is used to compare four groups of youths identified as high, masked, low, and undetermined vulnerability on the basis of the presence of risk and protective factors. Risks included level of poverty, number of parents in home, and skin-color pigmentation. Protective factors included youths' perceptions of school climate, parental monitoring, and consonance between skin pigmentation and preferred skin color. The author suggests that 50 years post-Brown, issues concerning White privilege, color stereotyping, power discrepancies, and economic disparities maintain "invisible" and persistent hurdles for vulnerable youths who vary on available protective factors. Findings confirm the impact of vulnerability on psychosocial and achievement outcomes

Developmental psychology · Perception · Political science · Poverty · Privilege (computing · Psychosocial · Skin color · Vulnerability (computing · Early Childhood Education and Development · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research