From chat rooms to classrooms and TikToks too: Dr. Brendesha Tynes' contributions to the study of race and development in digital contexts.

For more than a decade, Dr. Brendesha Tynes has been at the forefront of empirical research examining the role of race in youth experiences with technology. Tynes' expansive corpus of research highlights the psychological, academic, and socioemotional implications and impact of online racial discrimination on child and adolescent development, with a particular focus on Black youth. Using explicitly strengths-based frameworks in both her research and mentoring, Tynes' contributions to the fields of psychology and education are vast. Given the American Psychological Association's recent shift to intentionally and urgently address racism, Tynes' scholarship is more timely than ever. Using a narrative review approach, we trace the intellectual contributions that Tynes has made to psychology, specifically, and the study of race and racism more broadly throughout her career. Particularly, we highlight key conceptual, methodological, and empirical work that have influenced the study of race in psychology. We conclude by sharing implications and possibilities for Tynes' research to influence race-conscious practices in psychological research, clinical, and pedagogical spheres. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Race-Related Traumatic Events Online and Mental Health Among Adolescents of Color.

PURPOSE: Viral videos of the detainment of undocumented immigrants in cages and police killings of unarmed citizens are two of the most pressing traumatic events facing adolescents of color. However, little is known about whether these online experiences are linked to mental health outcomes. This study examines the association between exposure to such events online and mental health in a sample of African American and Latinx adolescents. METHODS: Data were collected from a national sample of 302 African American and Latinx adolescents aged 11-19 years. Participants reported their exposure to traumatic events online (TEO), depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and other sociodemographics. Multiple regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Analyses indicated a significant association between TEO and both PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms, indicating that more frequent experiences of TEO were associated with higher levels of PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms. In addition, regression analyses further indicated that girls reported higher PTSD and depressive symptoms than boys. Latinx participants also reported increased depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study extends recent research that suggests police killings, as well as viewing distressing news directed at members of one's own racial-ethnic group or those who share the same immigration status, are related to poor mental health outcomes. Researchers should also explore what protective factors may buffer youth against the outcomes typically associated with these events.