About this session

Thursday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Listening to Children’s Voices: Racial Coping Resilience and Child Well-being

Inclusive epistemologies concerning research with children have been missing as a fully expressed area of inquiry. In this symposium, our question centers on the well-being of children in resisting, coping with, and navigating discrimination. Collectively, we ask how children manage discrimination and not how do they manage in reference to the Other, an approach that has plagued developmental literature for decades. Each paper provides critical areas of research, innovation, and methods that elevate the voices and experiences of communities of color. The symposium will begin with the chair offering a conceptual and methodological discussion of antiracist researcher-community transactions and data collection methods, followed by a rich set of innovative studies emphasizing prescriptives expressed across unique contexts, but with similar principles guiding the research. We hear the children’s voices in Author 1 et al.’s qualitative study of primarily African American children in middle childhood in which they describe racialized bullying. The children identify their coping strategies and views of parent responses to their discriminatory experiences. Author 2 et al., explore profiles of how children cope with racism from observations of parent-child dyads, their agency, and family relationships. Author 3 et al. examine how sleep in minoritized youth attenuates daytime discrimination experiences associated with lower substance abuse risks. The discussant, with a background in evaluating and providing technical assistance for national family and community centers, will address the implications for new practices for achieving better inclusion, broadening the scope of cultural and community “knowing” in developmental research.

Paper #1
Title	Out of the Mouths of Babes: Centering the Voices of Black Children’s Resistance and Resilience in the Face of Discrimination
Presenting author	Emilie P. Smith, Michigan State University, United States
Non-presenting author(s)	Simone Bibbs, United States, Michigan State University Lavelle Gipson-Tansil, United States, Michigan State University Deborah J Johnson, United States, Michigan State University Angela Stepter, United States, State of Michigan

Paper #2
Title	Children’s Responses to Experiences of Racism: Profiles of Resistance
Presenting author	Margaret O'Brien Caughy, University of Georgia, United States
Non-presenting author(s)	Dominique La Barrie, United States, University of Georgia Mia Smith-Bynum, United States, University of Maryland

Paper #3
Title	Ethnic/Racial Discrimination and Substance Use Intention in Early Adolescence: The Buffering Role of Sleep
Presenting author	Yijie Wang, Michigan State University, United States
Non-presenting author(s)	Zhenqiang Zhao, United States, Fordham University Youchuan Zhang, United States, Michigan State University Elizabeth Jelsma, United States, University of Houston Jinjin Yan, United States, Fordham University Tiffany Yip, United States, Fordham University
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Session chair
Deborah J Johnson, Michigan State University, United States

Discussant
Doré LaForett, ChildTrends, United States

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