Racism and Its Harmful Effects on Nondominant Racial–Ethnic Youth and Youth-Serving Providers: A Call to Action for Organizational Change: The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine

© 2018 Racism can exert negative effects on the self-concepts, health and well-being, and life trajectories of both nondominant racial–ethnic (NDRE) youth and youth-serving providers. In the face of growing nationalism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and overt expressions of racism, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine recognizes the critically important need to address the issue of racism and its impact on both NDRE youth and youth-serving providers. Organizations involved in clinical care delivery and health professions training and education must recognize the deleterious effects of racism on health and well-being, take strong positions against discriminatory policies, practices, and events, and take action to promote safe and affirming environments. The positions presented in this paper provide a comprehensive set of recommendations to promote routine clinical assessment of youth experiences of racism and its potential impact on self-concept, health and well-being, and for effective interventions when affected youth are identified. The positions also reflect the concerns of NDRE providers, trainees, and students potentially impacted by racism, chronic minority stress, and vicarious trauma and the imperative to create safe and affirming work and learning environments across all levels of practice, training, and education in the health professions. In this position paper, Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine affirms its commitment to foundational moral and ethical principles of justice, equity, and respect for humanity; acknowledges racism in its myriad forms; defines strategies to best promote resiliency and support the health and well-being of NDRE youth, providers, trainees, and students; and provides recommendations on the ways to best effect systemic change

School Belongingness and Mental Health Functioning across the Primary-Secondary Transition in a Mainstream Sample: Multi-Group Cross-Lagged Analyses

The relationship between school belongingness and mental health functioning before and after the primary-secondary school transition has not been previously investigated in students with and without disabilities. This study used a prospective longitudinal design to test the bi-directional relationships between these constructs, by surveying 266 students with and without disabilities and their parents, 6-months before and after the transition to secondary school. Cross-lagged multi-group analyses found student perception of belongingness in the final year of primary school to contribute to change in their mental health functioning a year later. The beneficial longitudinal effects of school belongingness on subsequent mental health functioning were evident in all student subgroups; even after accounting for prior mental health scores and the cross-time stability in mental health functioning and school belongingness scores. Findings of the current study substantiate the role of school contextual influences on early adolescent mental health functioning. They highlight the importance for primary and secondary schools to assess students’ school belongingness and mental health functioning and transfer these records as part of the transition process, so that appropriate scaffolds are in place to support those in need. Longer term longitudinal studies are needed to increase the understanding of the temporal sequencing between school belongingness and mental health functioning of all mainstream students