Black and White Adults' Racial and Gender Stereotypes of Psychopathology Symptoms in Black and White Children.

Adults' judgments of children's behaviors play a critical role in assessment and treatment of childhood psychopathology. Judgments of children's psychiatric symptoms are likely influenced by racial biases, but little is known about the specific racial biases adults hold about children's psychiatric symptoms, which could play a critical role in childhood mental health disparities. This study examined one form of such biases, racial stereotypes, to determine if White and Black adults hold implicit and explicit racial stereotypes about common childhood psychopathology symptoms, and if these stereotypes vary by child gender and disorder type. Participants included 82 self-identified Black men, 84 Black woman, 1 Black transgender individual, 1 Black genderfluid individual, 81 White men, and 85 White women. Analyses of implicit stereotypes revealed that White adults associated psychopathology symptoms more strongly with Black children than did Black adults (p < .001). All adults held stronger implicit racial stereotypes for oppositional defiant disorder, anxiety, and depression than for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (p < .001). For explicit stereotypes, White adults generally associated psychopathology symptoms more with Black children than did Black adults but effects varied across child gender and disorder type. As the first study to examine racial and gender stereotypes across common childhood psychopathology symptoms, these findings point to a need for further investigation of the presence and impact of racial biases in the mental healthcare system for Black youth and to identify interventions to mitigate the impacts of racial biases to inform racial equity in mental healthcare in the United States.

Female peer mentors early in college have lasting positive impacts on female engineering students that persist beyond graduation.

Expanding the talent pipeline of students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM has been a priority in the United States for decades. However, potential solutions to increase the number of such students in STEM academic pathways, measured using longitudinal randomized controlled trials in real-world contexts, have been limited. Here, we expand on an earlier investigation that reported results from a longitudinal field experiment in which undergraduate female students (N = 150) interested in engineering at college entry were randomly assigned a female peer mentor in engineering, a male peer mentor in engineering, or not assigned a mentor for their first year of college. While an earlier article presented findings from participants' first two years of college, the current article reports the same participants' academic experiences for each year in college through college graduation and one year post-graduation. Compared to the male peer mentor and no mentor condition, having a female peer mentor was associated with a significant improvement in participants' psychological experiences in engineering, aspirations to pursue postgraduate engineering degrees, and emotional well-being. It was also associated with participants' success in securing engineering internships and retention in STEM majors through college graduation. In sum, a low-cost, short peer mentoring intervention demonstrates benefits in promoting female students' success in engineering from college entry, through one-year post-graduation.

The impact of communal learning contexts on adolescent self-concept and achievement: Similarities and differences across race and gender.

Misalignment between students' communal values and those expressed in classrooms is an obstacle to academic engagement, especially in mathematics, and especially for racial ethnic minority and female students. Using 10 schools across the United States, we conducted a longitudinal field study in 8th grade mathematics classes to investigate: (a) how perceptions of communally oriented classrooms influence student outcomes in early adolescence, (b) what psychological processes mediate these relations, and (c) whether the influence of perceived communal practices in classrooms have similar or different effects on students with varying social identities based on race, ethnicity, and gender. Results showed that middle school classes that emphasize communality (both social relevance of math and peer collaboration) significantly predicted stronger math self-concept, more behavioral engagement, and better performance in math. These associations were mediated through three psychological processes-belonging, challenge, and self-efficacy. Among racial ethnic minority adolescents, feelings of belonging and challenge in math class were key psychological processes that enhanced math learning outcomes. These processes were activated when classes connected communal values to math. Finally, communal learning contexts benefited girls and boys equally. In sum, communal values practiced by emphasizing social relevance of academic content and using collaborative learning practices engage all students, especially students of color, at a formative period of academic learning in mathematics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Are Black Women and Girls Associated With Danger? Implicit Racial Bias at the Intersection of Target Age and Gender.

We investigated whether stereotypes linking Black men and Black boys with violence and criminality generalize to Black women and Black girls. In Experiments 1 and 2, non-Black participants completed sequential-priming tasks wherein they saw faces varying in race, age, and gender before categorizing danger-related objects or words. Experiment 3 compared task performance across non-Black and Black participants. Results revealed that (a) implicit stereotyping of Blacks as more dangerous than Whites emerged across target age, target gender, and perceiver race, with (b) a similar magnitude of racial bias across adult and child targets and (c) a smaller magnitude for female than male targets. Evidence for age bias and gender bias also emerged whereby (d) across race, adult targets were more strongly associated with danger than were child targets, and (e) within Black (but not White) targets, male targets were more strongly associated with danger than were female targets.

The unintended impact of smoking-risk information on concerns about radon: A randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Health communications are often viewed by people with varying levels of risk. This project examined, in the context of radon risk messages, whether information relevant to high-risk individuals can have an unintended influence on lower-risk individuals. Two studies assessed whether information about lung cancer risk from smoking reduced concerns about lung cancer risk from radon among nonsmokers. METHOD: American nonsmokers viewed radon messages that varied in what they communicated about smoking's effect on lung cancer risk. Study 1 used a 4-arm factorial, randomized, controlled design in which smoking information was included or excluded from messages assembled from 2 existing radon pamphlets. Study 2 used a 3-arm parallel, randomized, controlled design in which a new radon message excluded smoking information, described smoking as a lung cancer risk, or also described smoking's synergistic effect with radon. RESULTS: In Study 1, the inclusion of smoking information reduced nonsmokers' (n = 462) concern-related reactions to possible radon exposure. In Study 2, nonsmokers' (n = 583) concern-related reactions were reduced in both smoking-information conditions; intentions to test their home for radon and perceived importance of testing were reduced in the synergistic condition. CONCLUSION: People reading health-risk information contextualize their risk relative to the risk of others. For people at midlevel risk, concern and related reactions prompted by a health message may be dampened when the message includes information about others who are more at risk. In the case of radon and smoking risks, the inclusion of smoking information can reduce the impact that radon messages have on nonsmokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Positive Stereotype Validation: The Bolstering Effects of Activating Positive Stereotypes After Intellectual Performance.

Past research has found that members of stigmatized groups may feel more certain of poor performance when negative stereotypes are made accessible after finishing a task (i.e., stereotype validation). However, no research to date has identified the potential effects of activating positive stereotypes after performance. Based on past research and theory, we hypothesized that such positive stereotype validation may serve to bolster-rather than hinder-important beliefs related to one's abilities and future task performance. Across three studies, the accessibility of positive group stereotypes was manipulated after participants completed an initial test on a topic. Consistent with predictions, the activation of positive, self-relevant stereotypes after the initial test was found to increase how certain participants were that they performed well on it. Furthermore, these increases in evaluative certainty predicted more positive ability beliefs, higher expectations for future performance, and better performance on a follow-up test that participants completed.

Does Seeing Faces of Young Black Boys Facilitate the Identification of Threatening Stimuli?

Pervasive stereotypes linking Black men with violence and criminality can lead to implicit cognitive biases, including the misidentification of harmless objects as weapons. In four experiments, we investigated whether these biases extend even to young Black boys (5-year-olds). White participants completed sequential priming tasks in which they categorized threatening and nonthreatening objects and words after brief presentations of faces of various races (Black and White) and ages (children and adults). Results consistently revealed that participants had less difficulty (i.e., faster response times, fewer errors) identifying threatening stimuli and more difficulty identifying nonthreatening stimuli after seeing Black faces than after seeing White faces, and this racial bias was equally strong following adult and child faces. Process-dissociation-procedure analyses further revealed that these effects were driven entirely by automatic (i.e., unintentional) racial biases. The collective findings suggest that the perceived threat commonly associated with Black men may generalize even to young Black boys.

Stereotype validation: the effects of activating negative stereotypes after intellectual performance.

With regard to intellectual performance, a large body of research has shown that stigmatized group members may perform more poorly when negative, self-relevant stereotypes become activated prior to a task. However, no research to date has identified the potential ramifications of stereotype activation that happens after-rather than before-a person has finished performing. Six studies examined how postperformance stereotype salience may increase the certainty individuals have in evaluations of their own performance. In the current research, the accessibility of gender or racial stereotypes was manipulated after participants completed either a difficult math test (Studies 1-5) or a test of child-care knowledge (Study 6). Consistent with predictions, stereotype activation was found to increase the certainty that women (Studies 1, 2, 4, and 5), African Americans (Study 3), and men (Study 6) had toward negative evaluations of their own test performance. These effects emerged when performance-related perceptions were stereotype consistent rather than inconsistent (Studies 1-6) and were found to be most pronounced among those who were highly identified with the stereotyped group (Study 5). Furthermore, greater certainty-triggered by negative stereotypes-predicted lowered domain-relevant beliefs (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 6) and differential exposure to domain-relevant stimuli (Studies 4 and 5).