Interrogating “Trouble”: An Ecologically Centered Approach to Race-Related Socialization Factors as Moderators of Disruptive Behaviors and Achievement Outcomes Among African American Boys

Abstract

Schools should be promotive not inhibitive environments. Parents send their children to neighborhood schools with the expectation of safety not only of their bodies but of their psychological well-being. Bias in the classroom is a threat to the development and well-being of children of color. New research indicates that teachers are either unaware or fearful of managing racial encounters and their own biases in the classroom (Ladson-Billings, 1995; White & Young, PRIDE project, 2016). This leaves children quite vulnerable in their daily interactions with their teachers but also with their classmates. African American boys demonstrate more verve in the classroom (Boykin, 1978). Some of this verve is captured in the externalizing behaviors of boys. Some of this externalizing behavior can be associated with responses to bias in the classroom climate. In this chapter we investigate racialized protective factors and the perspectives of teachers on the externalizing behaviors of African American boys. The present study examined moderating effects of race-based socialization factors on the relationship between ecological influences, externalizing behaviors, and academic outcomes in a sample of 176 African American children from third to fourth grade (NICHD SECC). Moderating effects of racial/ethnic identity and cultural socialization on the ecological factors and academic outcomes of African American boys were tested using a series of regression analyses. In the analysis of academic outcomes, there were only main effects for racial identity. However, a significant interaction effect between teacher race and racial identification relating to externalizing suggests that racial identity can buffer the differential effects of teacher race and ratings of the child’s externalizing behaviors. Our interpretation of these findings falls between the buffering effects of cultural continuity as represented by racial identity and whether same-race teachers and racial-ethnic identity act as, in part, cognitive conduit contributing to learning outcomes.