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 (M-age = 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. Public Policy Relevance Statement Experiencing discrimination is cross-sectionally associated with greater civic engagement to address social injustice among Black college students at a majority-minority institution. For communal civic engagement, valuing Blackness as a central part of oneself played a role. For interpersonal civic engagement, both race-central identity and having received preparation from parents on how to cope with racism were important.