Critical Civic Engagement in Black College Students: Interplay Between Discrimination, Centrality, and Preparation for Bias

Critical civic engagement (CCE) refers to interpersonal, community, and political actions to combat and cope with racial inequity. While discrimination and identity are well-known drivers of civic engagement, it is less well-known how parental preparation for bias socialization, which teaches Black youth how to cope with unequal social systems, works in concert with discrimination and identity to predict CCE. Furthermore, there are several ways individuals may be civically engaged, and these factors may be differentially associated with the various types of CCE. This study uses a sample of 186 Black college students ( = 18.72, age range = 18-29; 86% female) to examine how discrimination, ethnic-racial centrality, and preparation for bias socialization interact to differentially predict interpersonal, communal, and political CCE. Discrimination was associated with political CCE, whereas both discrimination and racial centrality were associated with greater communal CCE. A three-way interaction between discrimination, centrality, and preparation for bias socialization predicted greater interpersonal CCE. Findings highlight the importance of attending to sociocultural factors when supporting Black college student activists in public minority-serving institutions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).