Identifying the Mental Health Profiles of Black Adolescents Who Experience School Policing and School Discipline: A Person-Centered Approach.

OBJECTIVE

Educational environments that are structured by race perpetuate poor mental health for Black adolescents. This empirical relationship is pronounced when it is examined through Racial Battle Fatigue theory, which provides a framework that links educational environments and poor psychological health of Black students. School police have a major effect on Black adolescents' educational and health experiences and trajectories. The purpose of this person-centered study was to assess the risk of Black students' depressive symptoms who were stopped by school police, saw other students stopped by school police, or experienced school discipline.

METHOD

Data on Black student youths from the Fragile Families Study Year 15 wave (N = 1,601) were used to conduct a latent class analysis to identify subgroups of school policing (ie, being stopped by school police, seeing other students stopped by school police) and school discipline on the distal outcome of depressive symptoms. Covariates included demographic and school attachment.

RESULTS

We identified 4 distinct Black student subgroups: (1) unscathed [no school policing or discipline reported]; (2) school disciplined; (3) combined school policing; and (4) school policed [arrested by police]. Each subgroup had an incremental increase in mean depressive symptom scores. Compared to the unscathed subgroup, each subgroup also had lower school attachment.

CONCLUSION

This study disrupts the notion that education environments are a social determinant of health and a great equalizer. This study critically exposes how educational institutions complicit with school policing are associated with racism-related mental health conditions of Black youths.