Haider, Ali R

Henning, Avery

English

ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University

Recent events in which police officers have killed unarmed black men have led to reduced trust within the black community that its members will be treated fairly by public safety systems. Individual community members vary, however, in the levels of distrust that they experience. In a prior study (Haider, Henning, & Tone, 2015) we found evidence that students in college between 2009-2011 (n=68) who perceived themselves and those around them as experiencing more racial discrimination endorsed significantly higher levels of distrust than did those who saw themselves as less directly affected by such discrimination (p < .05).  Since 2011, however, social media use has become an important aspect of social interaction for college students and this use may increase awareness about and sensitivity to racial discrimination, leading, in turn to higher levels of distrust for authority among heavy social media users.  We are gathering data to test the hypothesis that social media use will moderate the association between perceived discrimination/race-related stress and distrust of others. Specifically, we predicted that individuals with high social media use would show stronger associations between RRS and distrust than would individuals with low social media use. We are currently gathering self-report data from a second set of college students from a diverse urban college setting to test this hypothesis. Implications of the findings for understanding how distrust develops will be explored,   - Ali Haider, Avery Henning 

Social Media as a Factor of Race-Related Stress

https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1590&amp;context=gsurc

Social Media as a Factor of Race-Related Stress

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ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University