This dissertation examines the landmark case Larry P. v. Riles and its impact on addressing the disproportionality and overrepresentation of Black and/or African American students in special education within California. Despite the court's ruling, which prohibited the use of IQ tests for Black students for special education placement due to…

Black students of Barbers Hill Independent School District wear their natural hair in locs as an outward expression of their Black identity and culture. When the students' locs grew long, the district advised them that they would need to cut their locs to comply with the district's hair length policy. Seeking to maintain their culturally…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the moderating effect of discrimination experiences on the association between civic engagement and sleep in youth of color. Participants included 125 college students (M[subscript age] = 20.41, SD = 1.41, 22.6% cisgender male). Most of the sample (28%) identified as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin;…

Black students in K-12 settings are facing heightened rates of discrimination from their peers. Although discrimination may primarily be racial in nature, other aspects of students' racialized experience (e.g., wealth status, gender, nationality, etc.) are often targeted as well. Despite rising issues of peer discrimination toward Black students…

Aligned with critical scholarship and upholding minoritized populations' agency and power, this survey research study addresses Latinx college students' resistance strategies in two Nuevo South states by examining the social issues that students are aware of, engage with, and the nature of their interactions with these issues. We apply Southern…

This dissertation traces the way hair is framed in judicial texts about dress code policy in the U.S. between 1969 and 2023. Using 46 court cases from district, appellate, state supreme, and federal supreme courts, the study first considers how dress code is brought to courts over these 54 years, and the kinds of legal claims made in these cases.…

African American adolescent suicidality has become more prevalent, and urban school counselors are positioned uniquely to intervene. This research studied the overarching societal factors in the sociocultural, economic, and political spheres that influence increased suicidality behaviors in African American adolescents from the perspective of…

The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between experiences of racial discrimination and private regard (i.e., feelings about being Black and other Black people) among 346 Black early adolescents who completed four assessments over two years. Between-person (interpersonal) and within-person (intrapersonal) effects were…

Social anxiety disorder (SAD), a highly prevalent and impairing psychological condition in adolescents, is characterized by persistent fear of social and performance situations. Existing evidence suggests that racism and discrimination may heighten risk for SAD and present barriers to treatment in Black youth. Yet, intervention research on SAD in…

This research explored the lived experiences of Black girls in schools with a focus on racial discrimination and the impact it has on their mental health. Grounded in Black feminist thought and phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST), this study used qualitative research to understand the lived experiences of Black girls.…

Black American collegiate women encounter microaggressions. The need to constantly regulate intense emotions in a sanctioned way to avoid further gendered-racial ramifications may increase emotional distress and lead to the use of high effort coping, such as the Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema. This anonymous online mixed-data study explored the…

Racial disproportionality in disciplinary practices has persisted in United States schools for decades. Students of color are consistently overrepresented in school discipline referrals, suspensions, and expulsions. These exclusionary discipline practices alienate students and set them on the pathway to disengagement and potential dropout from…

Racial disparities in school discipline may have collateral consequences on the larger non-suspended student population. The present study leveraged two longitudinal datasets with 1201 non-suspended adolescents (48% Black, 52% White; 55% females, 45% males; M[subscript age]: 12-13) enrolled in 84 classrooms in an urban mid-Atlantic city of the…

Objective: To better understand the current perspectives of Black college and university students in the U.S., it is important to consider the system of injustice they navigate throughout their lifespan characterized by oppression and discrimination. This dissertation examined the impact of racism and discrimination on coping ability, sense of…

Educational inequities between White Americans and Black and Latinx Americans have grown in recent decades. However, the present research documents that many members of the public may be misinformed about this reality. Three initial studies, with 813 undergraduates and online participants, demonstrate that many individuals overestimate the…