# Adolescent Stress, Critical Consciousness, and Resilience Trajectories in the Context of Structural Racism

> **NIH NIH R01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $655,853

## Abstract

ABSTRACT. Systemic racism exposes Black and Latinx adolescents to a range of traumatic stressors,
including publicized instances of police brutality toward Black people, stressful personal interactions with
hostile police officers, and oppressive immigration policies. The combination of systemic racism and the
coronavirus-19 pandemic (COVID-19)--termed the “twin pandemics”—are placing Black and Latinx
adolescents, especially those in under-resourced communities, at particularly high risk for family financial
strain, food insecurity, school disruption, and illnesses and deaths of loved ones. Cumulative stressors during
the critical developmental period of adolescence increase risk for long-term emotional and behavioral problems
into adulthood; thus, it is urgent that we: (1) understand the impact of cumulative race-related stress on
marginalized adolescents during and after the pandemic and (2) identify protective factors that promote their
resilience and wellbeing. Researchers have theorized that one protective factor may be critical consciousness,
or the awareness of societal inequities and activism to promote social justice. We lack rigorous longitudinal
research, however, on the development of critical consciousness among marginalized youth, its association
over time with emotional and behavioral health (EBH), and its potential to protect again harmful effects of race-
related stress. The proposed longitudinal study will assess race-related stress, critical consciousness, and
EBH among Black, Latinx, and White adolescents in Baltimore. We will leverage participants and data from an
NICHD-funded trial with longitudinal data collected at four time points prior to COVID with ethnically diverse
adolescents in Baltimore City. We will augment this sample by recruiting additional Baltimore adolescents, for a
total sample of 650 young people ages 14-18, with approximately equal numbers of Black, Latinx, and White
participants. We will follow these young people over four years (until ages 18-22). Participants will complete
online surveys twice per year assessing race-related stress exposures, critical consciousness, and three
domains of EBH (emotional wellness, mental health problems, and substance use). We will conduct in-depth
interviews with a subset of Black and Latinx youth and, separately, with their caregivers to gain more insight
into how youth engage in critical consciousness/activism and its effects. Qualitative themes will enrich our
quantitative analyses on critical consciousness and its potential protection against the harms of race-related
stress. We will develop a Youth Advisory Board to engage input from young people in our target population at
all stages of this research. Using procedures effective in our prior work, we will also train young people to
conduct the qualitative interviews with adolescent participants to enhance trust and rapport. Study analyses will
be critical for expanding theory on risk and resilience among marginalize...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10890718
- **Project number:** 5R01HD106654-04
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Laura Kathleen Clary
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $655,853
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-06 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10890718

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10890718, Adolescent Stress, Critical Consciousness, and Resilience Trajectories in the Context of Structural Racism (5R01HD106654-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10890718. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*