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The Art of Social Justice: Examining Arts Programming as a Context for Critical Consciousness Development Among Youth

Journal of Youth and Adolescence volume 51, pages 409–427 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Critical consciousness has been linked to a range of positive outcomes, particularly among marginalized youth; yet, evidence on its developmental antecedents remains limited. The current study examines whether arts participation is associated with positive change in critical consciousness, and whether these associations differ by youth’s social group status. The sample consisted of high school youth (N = 2537; 10% Latinx, 7% Multiracial; 4% Black; 5% Asian; 72% White; 2% Other; 53% Female; Mage = 15.69; age range = 10–20). The results showed that youth with higher arts participation demonstrate higher growth in critical reflection and action, adjusting for baseline critical consciousness, other types of extracurricular participation, and demographic characteristics. The association between arts participation and critical action was significantly stronger for youth of color than for white youth, and the association between arts participation and critical reflection was marginally significantly stronger for white youth than for youth of color. These findings suggest that it is crucial to extend opportunities for arts involvement to all students, and to expand the ways in which arts involvement can promote critical consciousness for youth of varying dimensions of oppression and privilege.

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Fig. 1

Data Sharing Declaration

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not yet publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge those who contributed to this research study, including all the participants who dedicated their time, the Principal Investigator, Paul Poteat, the Co-Investigators, Jerel P. Calzo and Hirokazu Yoshikawa, and the GSA Research Consortium team.

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01MD009458 (Principal Investigator: V. Paul Poteat; Co-Investigators: Jerel P. Calzo and Hirokazu Yoshikawa). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Psychology, New York University, New York City, NY, USA

    Deanna A. Ibrahim, Erin B. Godfrey & Elise Cappella

  2. Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Esther Burson

Authors
  1. Deanna A. Ibrahim
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  2. Erin B. Godfrey
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  4. Esther Burson
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Contributions

D.I. conceived of the study, performed statistical analyses, interpreted results, and drafted the paper; E.G. participated in the design of the study, the interpretation of results, and editing of the paper; E.C. participated in the interpretation of results and editing of the paper; E.B. participated in the conceptualization and performance of statistical analyses, interpretation of results, and editing of the paper. All authors read and approved the final paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deanna A. Ibrahim.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Boston College and was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 5, Table 6

Table 5 Attrition analysis: critical reflection and political efficacy
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Table 6 Attrition analysis: Arts and Critical Action Club participation
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Ibrahim, D.A., Godfrey, E.B., Cappella, E. et al. The Art of Social Justice: Examining Arts Programming as a Context for Critical Consciousness Development Among Youth. J Youth Adolescence 51, 409–427 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01527-8

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