What’s Race Got to Do With It? Racial Socialization’s Contribution to Black Adolescent Coping

Abstract

While youth generally experience stressors from developmental milestones, Black youth also face racialized stressors. Racial socialization has been found to help Black youth cope with racialized stressors, but research has yet to show its contribution to coping beyond general socialization practices. This study examines how racial socialization contributes beyond that of general coping socialization to coping behaviors. Fifty-eight third–eighth-grade (M_age = 11.3, SD = 1.54) youth reported general coping socialization and racial socialization practices and coping behaviors. Results indicate that for engagement coping, racial socialization messages contributed significantly to parent-provided engaged socialization strategies. Implications are considered for the ways in which Black youth experience stress and require culturally specific practices for successful coping with frequently encountered stressors.

Stressful experiences occur throughout the lifespan, and, for youth, the development of coping strategies is an important element of their psychological development (Compas, Gruhn, & Bettis, 2017). General coping socialization, or the ways in which parents coach their children via a set of coping behaviors or strategies (Kliewer, Fearnow, & Miller, 1996), is one way in which youth learn to deal with general stressors. For Black families, the unique stressor of racial discrimination can impact the ways in which parents function, behave, and socialize, and ultimately, how their children react to race-based stressors through internalizing (e.g., anxiety and depressive symptoms; Anderson et al., 2015) and externalizing (e.g., aggression and delinquency) problems. Thus, racial socialization (RS), or the verbal and nonverbal racial communication between families and youth about race (Lesane-Brown, 2006), is often heralded as a strategy for youth of color to gain coping strategies for racially specific stressors. What is less known, however, are the ways in which general coping socialization and RS strategies contribute to youth coping behaviors, especially as reported by youth. This study investigates the contribution of RS and general coping socialization on youth’s coping behaviors in a sample of Black youth in an under-resourced and high-crime environment.

Adolescent Stress and Coping Behaviors

Emerging adolescence may be a difficult developmental stage for youth given the amount and nature of transitions that may occur. Arnett (1999) describes three major areas that make adolescence such a stressful time period, namely, conflict with parents, mood disruptions, and risk behaviors. For Black adolescents, greater exposure to sociodemographic stressors such as racism, poverty, and neighborhood violence may be especially challenging (Copeland-Linder, Lambert, Chen, & Ialongo, 2011). Racism and racial discrimination have been related to internalizing problems (Anderson et al., 2015), poor sleep habits (Yip, 2015), and psychological distress (Sellers, Caldwell, Schmeelk-Cone, & Zimmerman, 2003; Simons et al., 2002) among developing youth. As such, the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) posits that adolescents of color develop a growing awareness of racial discrimination that may impact their self-concept (Spencer, Dupree, & Hartmann, 1997). Additionally, Black youth are overrepresented in low-income families in the United States (Addy, Engelhardt, & Skinner, 2013), with such economic hardship relating to strained parent–child relationships among Black youth and their caregivers (Anderson, 2018). Finally, Black youth encounter higher rates of neighborhood violence (e.g., homicide; Voisin, 2007), which has been linked to psychological distress and posttraumatic stress syndrome in adolescents (Berton & Stabb, 1996; Kupersmidt, Shahinfar, & Voegler-Lee, 2002).

Black youth’s responses to stressors can have implications for their psychological well-being across many domains including prosocial behaviors (Joyce, O’Neil, Stormshak, McWhirter, & Dishion, 2013), anxiety in the presence of community violence (Edlynn, Gaylord-Harden, Richards, & Miller, 2008), internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Grant et al., 2000), and school self-efficacy (Plybon, Edwards, Butler, Belgrave, & Allison, 2003). Models of coping behaviors used most frequently with Black youth include those focused on engagement (e.g., active/approach behaviors) and disengagement (e.g., avoidant behaviors; Boxer et al., 2008; Dempsey, 2002; Dempsey, Overstreet, & Moley, 2000; Gaylord-Harden, Cunningham, Holmbeck, & Grant, 2010; Grant et al., 2000). Engagement coping includes behaviors that are directed toward the causes of stress or toward one’s emotional response to stressful encounters (Compas, Connor-Smith, Saltzman, Thomsen, & Wadsworth, 2001). Disengagement coping refers to behaviors that are disconnected from the source of the stressors and from one’s emotional response (Compas et al., 2001). In a meta-analysis examining the impact of coping on 80,850 youth outcomes across 212 studies, Compas, Jaser, et al. (2017) and Compas, Gruhn, et al. (2017) found that engagement coping behaviors were associated with lower internalizing symptoms and usage of disengagement coping behaviors was associated with higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, studies have found that disengagement coping behaviors can have a protective effect for Black youth in some contexts (e.g., community violence; Edlynn et al., 2008). As such, the implications of coping behaviors on Black youth’s outcomes may be context- and situation-specific. In all, the findings in the literature suggest that the stressors that Black youth encounter and how they respond to stressors can have important implications for their psychological development. Therefore, understanding how they are taught to cope by parents via coping socialization is imperative to supporting their developmental growth and psychosocial well-being.

Coping with stress: General coping socialization.

Parents can play a significant role in identifying the sources of stressors for their children and preparing them to encounter these stressors by coaching or modeling explicit and implicit coping behaviors or strategies, otherwise known as general coping socialization (Kliewer et al., 1996; Skinner & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2007). Parental coping socialization has been found to predict adolescents’ coping strategies (Miller, Kliewer, & Partch, 2010; Smith et al., 2006), internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Smith et al., 2006), and psychopathology (Abaied & Rudolph, 2010). For Black youth in high-risk contexts, parents’ general coping socialization predicted the behaviors that their adolescents used to cope with community violence, such that parental encouragement of engagement-oriented coping was associated with adolescents use of engagement-oriented coping, which in turn positively predicted adolescent’s self-esteem (Kliewer et al., 2006).

Coping with racialized stress: Racial socialization.

A wealth of studies has found that Black parents racially socialize their children to understand the concept of race and navigate racial marginalization unique from general coping socialization efforts (see Hughes et al., 2006). Four types of RS are most prevalent in the verbal or behavioral milieu transmitted from parent to child (Hughes et al., 2006; Lesane-Brown, 2006), including cultural socialization (e.g., racial pride), preparation for bias (e.g., discrimination awareness and coping), promotion of mistrust (e.g., hyper awareness without coping), and egalitarianism (e.g., colorblindness). RS tenets have been associated with a host of developmental outcomes, including psychosocial (Caughy, Nettles, & Lima, 2011; Liu & Lau, 2013), identity (Neblett, Rivas-Drake, & Umaña-Taylor, 2012), academic (Wang & Huguley, 2012), and coping (Gatson, 2011) competencies.

Why is racial socialization important for Black youth?

RS is often used by Black families to buffer the negative consequences of racial discrimination (Neblett et al., 2012) in reaction to a challenging event that is personally experienced (e.g., direct; Stevenson, McNeil, Herrero-Taylor, & Davis, 2005) or witnessed (e.g., vicarious; Thomas & Blackmon, 2015). With up to 90% of Black youth reporting discriminatory experiences (Pachter, Bernstein, Szalacha, & García Coll, 2010), a commensurate percentage of Black parents indicate utilizing RS in their parenting strategies (Hughes et al., 2006). If engagement coping is best understood as addressing the source of the stress, explicit efforts undertaken by parents to help their children understand and prepare for racial encounters is perhaps one culturally normative way of developing engaged coping methods for Black youth. Because race is so important to the concept of racial stress and coping, it is important to note that Black racial membership is not sufficient to cope with stressors; rather, a concerted effort is needed from parent to child via RS (e.g., Stevenson, 1995). Furthermore, youth may not be actively aware that they are stressed, yet multiple indicators (e.g., allostatic load, depression, and anxiety; Brody et al., 2014; Priest et al., 2013) may suggest otherwise. When parents are able to practice strategies with their children to help them prepare for discrimination, youth have reported feeling more efficacious and prepared to combat the negative consequences of racism (Anderson, Jones, et al., 2018; Anderson, McKenny, Mitchell, Koku, & Stevenson, 2018). If racial discrimination is an additional stressor faced by Black youth, RS may be conceptualized as a supplement to the general coping socialization practices for Black families (Stevenson, 2014).

Racial Socialization and Coping Behaviors

While scholars have identified RS as an important factor in promoting Black youth’s ability to navigate racial discrimination, few works have deconstructed the mechanisms by which RS has operated as a protective factor. Gaylord-Harden, Burrow, and Cunningham (2012) proposed the Cultural-Asset Framework, which conceptualized how Black youth successfully adapt to stress by identifying culturally relevant mediators (e.g., RS, racial identity, and culturally specific coping) of discriminatory experiences and psychosocial outcomes. In addition to promoting youth’s ability to navigate racialized stressors, cultural assets can directly promote youth’s positive psychological outcomes (e.g., low rates of substance abuse) and ability to navigate general stressors (e.g., community violence; Gaylord-Harden et al., 2012; Neblett et al., 2012). RS, then, operates much in the same way as general coping socialization and may be important for Black youth who navigate social environments laden with environmentally and racially specific risk (Copeland-Linder et al., 2011). Empirical and theoretical evidence supports this framework, in that more frequent use of RS in the face of high levels of discrimination for Black young adults is related to the adaptability of (Brown & Tylka, 2011) or resistance to (Bynum, Burton, & Best, 2007) psychological stress.

There is also evidence linking RS messages to youth’s coping strategies. Preparation for bias and racism messages have been found to relate to engagement coping behaviors for Black youth (Scott, 2003) and Latinx college students (Sanchez, Smith, & Adams, 2017). However, in a sample of Black college students, preparation for bias messages was negatively associated with engagement coping (Blackmon, Coyle, Davenport, Owens, & Sparrow, 2016). In addition, cultural pride messages were positively associated with spiritual-centered, collective, and ritual-centered engagement coping strategies and negatively associated with high-effort and prolonged coping, which are often conceptualized as less engaged coping behaviors (e.g., John Henryism; Blackmon et al., 2016). Likewise, in another sample of college students, greater culturally based RS messages were related to engagement coping behaviors (Womack & Sloan, 2017). Less is known about RS and disengaged coping behaviors for Black youth (see Scott, 2003), though disengagement coping behaviors in the face of discrimination have been related to depressive symptomatology (Seaton, Upton, Gilbert, & Volpe, 2014).

The Present Study

Although studies have assessed the relationship between general coping socialization, RS, and coping behaviors, few studies have assessed the constructs together for Black youth. Indeed, many studies include college-aged samples, yet socialization processes occur most frequently during young adolescence when parents are still the primary socialization agents of youth (Hughes et al., 2007). Thus, this study seeks to examine how youth reports of RS contribute beyond that of general coping socialization to youth’s coping behaviors. Despite the culturally relevant contribution that RS has had in relation to culturally specific stress and coping, RS is expected to provide a unique contribution to more general coping behaviors. Specifically, we expect RS to be positively related to engagement behaviors above and beyond general coping socialization. We also aim to explore RS’s relationship with disengagement behaviors and coping behaviors, but do not have an a priori hypothesis given the lack of research in this area.

METHOD

Participants

Participants were part of a larger study designed to identify protective factors for Black and Latinx youth and families in an under-resourced, high-crime community (e.g., “high-risk”) in a large metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. The Black population comprises approximately 25% of residents within this community and is concentrated primarily within four census tracts. The sample was composed of 58 Black youth in Grades 3–8 (57% female; M_age = 11.3, SD = 1.54). With respect to schooling, the largest proportion of youth reported being in the sixth grade (N = 15; 25.9%). Additionally, three youth were in eighth grade, 11 were in seventh grade, 13 were in fifth and fourth grades, respectively, and two were in third grade. Approximately 68.6% of the families reported an annual income of $30,000 or less and 95% of the youth were eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Procedures

The larger study was granted ethical approval by a university-based institutional review board (IRB). Black and Latinx families from a community-based, family support center were invited to participate in data collection, and Black participants were selected for this current study. Participants were recruited through center-based family nights, monthly parenting groups, after-school programs, center-sponsored community-based resource fairs, and other center events. All parents provided written consent for the study, and youth who received parental consent to participate signed an assent form. Youth were asked to complete a packet of pencil-and-paper surveys. Data were collected individually from each youth participant who received a movie pass for completion of the surveys. Families received a $15 gift card for each child who participated in the study.

Measures

Coping behaviors.

To assess youth coping strategies, the Responses to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ; Connor-Smith, Compas, Wadsworth, Thomsen, & Saltzman, 2000) was utilized. The RSQ is a 57-item measure that assesses both voluntary and involuntary responses to stress in youth. Youth are asked to “think of a situation that has been a problem for you” and to indicate “how much you do or feel these things when you have problems like these.” Although youth were able to self-identify their primary stressors through an open-ended written response, identified stressors related mainly to interpersonal or school issues and none were explicitly cited as race-related. The associated subjective responses to these primary stressors were captured in a 4-point Likert scale (ranging from not at all to a lot) that indicated the frequency each response was utilized by the individual. Voluntary stress responses reflect coping activities that are within an individuals’ conscious control, and as such were the focus of this investigation. These stress responses are further stratified into engagement (e.g., approach strategies) and disengagement (e.g., avoidance strategies) coping. Engagement coping consists of primary control items (centered on changing the situation or one’s emotions) and secondary control items (centered on adapting to the situation). Confirmatory factor analyses across three independent samples indicated a consistent factor structure across sample, gender, and type of stressor. The RSQ has been found to have strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability and good criterion validity (Connor-Smith et al., 2000). Although limited empirical data supports use of the RSQ with children, the original manual indicates intended use for children and adolescents (Compas et al., 2001).

In this study, the primary and secondary control engagement items were aggregated to create the broader domain of engagement coping. In this way, the engagement coping scale consisted of 21 items (e.g., I try to think of different ways to change the problem or fix the situation [primary]; I tell myself that everything will be all right [secondary]), and the disengagement coping scale consisted of nine items (e.g., I try to stay away from people and things that make me feel upset or remind me of the problem). Higher scores indicated higher levels of coping. Internal consistency in the current sample was .89 for engagement coping and .81 for disengagement coping. Although youth were able to self-identify their primary stressors, identified stressors related mainly to interpersonal or school issues and none were explicitly cited as race-related.

Coping socialization.

To assess youth’s perceptions of parental socialization of coping, the 30 items reflecting voluntary responses to stress on the RSQ were modified. Specifically, items were slightly reworded or truncated to reflect coping suggestions rather than coping behavior. Youth were asked to identify the primary caregiver and indicate how often the identified individual suggested that they use the coping behaviors presented. Similar procedures for modifying the RSQ to assess perceptions of parent coping socialization have been reliably used in other analyses (e.g., Abaied & Rudolph, 2010). The items were again grouped into engagement coping socialization (e.g., Tells me to get help from other people when I’m trying to figure out how to deal with my feelings), and disengagement coping socialization (e.g., Tells me to try not to think about it, to forget all about it). Internal consistency in the current sample was .92 for socialization of engagement coping and .85 for socialization of disengagement coping.

Racial socialization.

The Racial Bias Preparation Scale (RBPS; Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000) was used to assess youth perceptions of RS. The RBPS is a 30-item self-report inventory designed to assess the frequency with which youth perceive the reception of messages from their primary caregivers regarding racial experiences. The instrument assesses elements of experiences and messages that can be related to a multiethnic sample, rather than focusing on the unique elements that distinguish particular ethnic groups. Participants respond to questions on a 3-point Likert scale from never (1) to a lot (3). In their initial investigation, Fisher and colleagues outlined proactive items (e.g., representing ethnic pride reinforcement, or cultural socialization), reactive items (e.g., representing ethnic prejudice awareness, or preparation for bias), and contrast items. Although not initially described as such, these “contrast” items have been generally associated with egalitarian messaging in subsequent analyses. However, given that our primary interest was understanding whether parental RS had a unique impact on coping behavior without specific hypotheses about message content, we decided to aggregate across all 30 items of the RBPS, creating a composite score of RS message frequency. Notably, this approach was deemed appropriate by the developer of the measure (C. Fisher, personal communication, March 30, 2018). Reliability for the composite measure was very strong (α = .92).

RESULTS

Descriptive Statistics and Correlational Analyses

The means, standard deviations, and correlations for study variables are presented in Table 1. Results of the bivariate correlational analyses revealed that engagement and disengagement coping strategies were moderately correlated (r (56) = .52, p < .01). In addition, engagement coping was significantly associated with youth report of coping socialization, with stronger associations between congruent socialization messages and coping strategies (e.g., engagement socialization and engagement coping behavior); however, disengagement coping was only associated with disengagement socialization (see Table 1). Youth report of RS messages were positively associated with engagement coping strategies (r(56) = 29, p < .05); however, RS messages were not significantly associated with disengagement coping.

TABLE 1.

Mean, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Relevant Study Variables

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1. Child Age	–
2. Child Gender	−.09	–
3. Annual Family Income	−.15	.05	–
4. Engagement Coping Socialization	−.15	.04	.25	–
5. Disengagement Coping Socialization	.10	−.28*	.13	.57**	–
6. Racial Socialization	−.04	.03	.17	.14	.16	–
7. Engagement Coping Behaviors	−.14	.04	.14	.68**	.33*	.29*	–
8. Disengagement Coping Behaviors	−.06	−.10	.10	.24**	.54**	.18	.52**	–
M	11.31	1.61	3.06	56.05	20.34	2.06	57.90	21.19
SD	1.54	.49	1.84	14.16	6.77	.43	11.97	6.77
N	55	56	51	58	58	58	58	58

^*p < .05;

^**p < .01.

Contribution of General Coping and Racial Socialization on Coping Behavior

A stepwise linear regression analytic approach was used to assess the relative prediction between more general (i.e., engagement and disengagement) and race-specific socialization on both engagement and disengagement coping strategies (see Table 2). For youth engagement coping, engagement socialization was selected at Step 1 and was significantly related to engagement coping behaviors F(1, 56) = 48.30, p < .001. This model accounted for approximately 46% of the variance in youth’s engagement coping. The RS composite was selected at Step 2, and both coping socialization and RS significantly predicted engagement coping practices F (2, 55) = 27.52, p < .001. This model showed a significant 5% increase in R², explaining approximately 51% of the total variance in coping behaviors. Comparison of the standardized betas in this model indicated that general coping socialization (B = .65, p < .001) had roughly three times the strength of association as RS (B = .19, p = .048), however, RS was still significantly associated with engagement coping. For disengagement coping behaviors, disengagement coping socialization was selected at Step 1, significantly predicting disengagement coping behaviors F(1, 56) = 22.67, p < .001, R² = .29, B = .54. However, RS did not significantly contribute to the model or explanation of variance for disengagement coping behaviors and therefore was not added into the model (p = .39).

TABLE 2.

Stepwise Regression Results for Coping Behaviors

Variable	Engagement				Disengagement
	Step 1		Step 2		Step 1
	B	β	B	β	B	β
Constant	25.64		15.89		11.26
Eng. Coping Socialization	0.58 (.08)	.68***	0.55 (.08)	.65***		[−.09]
Diseng. Coping Socialization		[−.09]		[−.11]	0.54 (.11)	.54***
Racial Socialization Messages		[.19]	5.36 (2.66)	.19*		[.10]
R 2	.46		.50		.29
Adjusted R2	.45		.48		.28
ΔR2			.05

Notes. Eng. = engagement; Diseng. = disengagement. N = 58. Standard errors (in parentheses). Variables in [ ] not included at that step.

^*p < .05;

^***p < .001.

DISCUSSION

This study assessed the contribution of RS to general coping socialization in relation to coping behaviors of Black youth living in a high-risk environment. We predicted that RS would account for additional variance in the relationship of coping socialization and coping behaviors, particularly that of engaged coping strategies. Our hypothesis was supported in that Black youth’s engagement coping behaviors were related to general engagement coping socialization and RS. RS significantly contributed to the relationship between general coping socialization and coping behaviors for these youth, as supported by the literature (Blackmon et al., 2016; Womack & Sloan, 2017) and Cultural-Asset Framework (Gaylord-Harden et al., 2012). Given that there was a dearth of research on the association between RS and disengagement coping (e.g., Scott, 2003), no hypothesis was made. RS did not significantly contribute to the relationship between general disengagement coping socialization and disengagement behaviors in Black youth.

The primary observation from these findings is that the majority of RS messages children endorsed receiving from their parents across subscales did not include specific coping strategies (e.g., “Other races can learn much from our race.”). Given this, it is quite impressive that RS significantly accounts for any variance in coping behaviors in a model that also includes socialization messages that explicitly encourage mirrored coping behaviors (e.g., general socialization: “My caregivers have told me to ask other people for help or for ideas about how to make the problem better.”; coping: “I get help from other people when I’m trying to figure out how to deal with my feelings.”). This would at least seem to indicate that RS is an important process in the general coping of Black youth. Such a finding implies that the messages Black youth receive about race may translate to the way they cope with general stressors (Gaylord-Harden et al., 2012), given that neither the stressor nor coping strategies assessed by the RSQ were racially specific.

This study is one of few emphasizing the additive contribution of RS to reported coping practices (see Gaylord-Harden et al., 2012; Womack & Sloan, 2017). Given that young adolescence is the developmental period in which Black youth are most likely to receive RS (e.g., Hughes et al., 2006) and experience residential challenges (e.g., community violence; Gorman-Smith, Henry, & Tolan, 2004), greater exploration of their cultural and familial coping strategies is warranted. Although studies have explored the frequency of RS practices (Hughes et al., 2006, 2007; Neblett, Smalls, Ford, Nguyen, & Sellers, 2009; Stevenson, Cameron, Herrero-Taylor, & Davis, 2002), few have assessed the ways in which RS differs from and adds to other coping socialization strategies explicitly aligned with coping behaviors. As indicated by the change in R², while engaged coping socialization accounted for almost half of the variance in the association between socialization and coping, it is notable that RS explained an additional twentieth of the variance. This finding may indicate that the high incidence of both racially specific stressors and preparatory socialization for Black youth may require more focus in the theorizing of what may be considered “general” stressors for Black youth.

As such, future studies should have measures of stressors and coping socialization that include racially specific items. What may be more commonplace for Black youth (e.g., discrimination and cultural pride) is likely missing from what is considered “general” strategies in measures and parenting programs. Thus, interventions which incorporate RS in coping and emotion socialization strategies (e.g., Strong African American Families; Brody et al., 2004) or focus explicitly on RS as a primary coping strategy (e.g., Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race; Anderson, McKenny, et al., 2018) should also be explored for Black families experiencing racial distress. Additionally, while the coping strategies adopted by adolescents who live in “high-risk” environments may not be generalizable to all youth, they may aid in our knowledge of resilient coping strategies for this vulnerable population, particularly as it pertains to increased familial and communal support yielding improved psychological outcomes (Compas et al., 2001).

Although this study contributes to our understanding of Black youth coping, there are certainly limitations to consider. The relatively small sample size precluded a powered analysis for advanced statistical models. Furthermore, the use of a secondary data set limited our opportunity to assess racial stressors via multiple methods (e.g., survey, interview, ecological momentary assessment, etc.). Likewise, the cross-sectional and youth self-report nature of the data set did not allow for an analysis of the transactional and symbiotic nature of parent–youth socialization, coping, and response to each other over time. Additionally, youth were recruited from the same community center which may impact the ways in which coping is encouraged for this particular community and/or from this youth-resource agency. Finally, responses by younger children who were not within the appropriate age range to complete certain measures resulted in low response rates to desirable outcomes (e.g., ethnic identity and psychosocial well-being). Such variables may have been informative in mediational analyses addressing RS, coping, and overall functioning.

Taken together, the current findings make several important contributions to our understanding of the unique salience of RS in the lives of Black adolescents. First, we provide novel evidence that specific cultural assets (i.e., RS) can offer additive contributions to adaptive youth outcomes above and beyond universal assets (i.e., coping socialization). As such, the findings provide a better understanding of race-related aspects of Black adolescents’ coping socialization and coping behaviors. Our findings suggest that future research should also examine the role of other cultural assets (e.g., racial identity) as contributors to the predictive validity of universal assets. Second, we extended prior research on this topic to young adolescence, a developmental period during which vulnerability to both general and race-related stressors increases. The more we understand about socialization strategies in developmentally appropriate frames, the better our recommendations can be for parents who are still engaging in socialization processes with their children in their proximal environments. The inclusion of parent report in future research may allow for cross-informant tests between adolescents and parents’ reports and provide insight into Black parents’ efforts to socialize their children. Finally, we demonstrated the associations between RS, coping socialization, and youth coping during a time in society of heightened and vast social exposure to discriminatory experiences targeting Black youth. Our findings provide promising insights for intervention efforts to promote adaptive outcomes in Black youth by elucidating the role of a malleable and culturally relevant asset. Undoubtedly, #BlackLivesMatter; however Black Life Matters as well—that is, research on Black youth should also place value on the quality of the life that Black people live. By examining ways in which Black youth can more effectively cope with the stressors of their everyday life, this work is furthering such a value.