Understanding the Leaders of Tomorrow: The Need to Study Leadership in Adolescence

Leadership traits and behaviors are observed early in human development, and although an improved understanding of youth leadership would usefully inform many real-world contexts (e.g., education, parenting, policy), most empirical work on leadership has been limited to adult populations. The purpose of the current article is to add a developmental perspective to leadership research that has so far been absent. Here, we (a) highlight adolescence as a critical developmental period for leadership emergence and development, (b) argue that leadership among youths is poorly understood and critically understudied, (c) provide exemplars of synergy between research on leadership and adolescent development that are ripe for focused inquiry, and (d) underscore some of the positive consequences of accelerating empirical research on leadership in adolescence, including implications for a deeper understanding of leadership in adult working populations.

Ethnic Cultural Features in Organized Activities: Relations to Latino Adolescents' Activity Experiences and Parental Involvement

Cultural responsiveness is a key aspect of the quality of organized activities, yet has rarely been examined. Based on developmental theories and a theoretical framework for culturally responsive activities, the current study investigated the prevalence and correlates of two ethnic cultural features (i.e., ethnic cultural content & ethnic cultural respect) in organized activities. Using data from 154 Latino adolescents (M_age = 12.36, SD = .53; 59% Female) and parents, we examined associations between adolescent perceptions of both ethnic cultural features and their activity experiences; and associations between parent perceptions of both ethnic cultural features and parental involvement in the activity. Latino adolescents and parents in general perceived lower than average ethnic cultural content and moderate to high ethnic cultural respect in the reported activity. Both adolescents and parents were more likely to perceive ethnic cultural content and respect in activities where Latino youth were the numerical ethnic majority than in activities where Latino youth were the numerical ethnic minority. Latino adolescents' perceptions of ethnic cultural respect were associated with more positive activity experiences, whereas their perceptions of ethnic cultural content were associated with more negative feelings. Latino parents' perceptions of ethnic cultural content predicted higher involvement. To design culturally responsive activities, ethnic cultural features should be incorporated in a thoughtful, meaningful way that reflects both adolescents' and parents' perspectives.

How Discrimination Shapes Social Identification Processes and Well-Being Among Arab Americans

The increasingly xenophobic U.S. climate warrants a close investigation of Arab American responses to discrimination. We conducted secondary analyses of two large data sets to examine social identity processes and their relationship to well-being. In a representative sample of Muslim Arab Americans (Study 1, n = 228), discrimination was related to decreased American identification, which in turn predicted lower well-being. Another large sample of Arab Americans (Study 2, n = 1,001) revealed how social identity processes differ by religious group. For Christian Arab Americans, discrimination predicted an indirect negative effect on well-being through decreased American identification. Muslim Arab Americans showed the same pattern, but also stronger religious and ethnic identification the more they experienced discrimination, which partially buffered the harmful effects on well-being. These data present a social cohesion challenge where the maintenance of national identity necessitates less discrimination and injustice against minorities.

Muslims' tolerance towards outgroups: Longitudinal evidence for the role of respect

We employed a longitudinal design to test two hypotheses concerning Muslims' respect for and tolerance towards disapproved outgroups. In support of the outgroup respect-tolerance hypothesis derived from the disapproval-respect model of social tolerance, our results strongly suggest that respect for disapproved outgroups is not just a correlate of tolerance towards those groups, but a causal antecedent. In support of the intergroup respect-reciprocity hypothesis, we identified respect from disapproved outgroups as an effective source of respect for disapproved outgroups and therefore also as a (distal) source of tolerance towards those groups. Normative and political implications are discussed.

Reaching across group boundaries: Respect from outgroup members facilitates recategorization as a common group

Two laboratory experiments tested the hypothesis that (equality-based) respect from outgroup members facilitates recategorization of the original ingroup and outgroup as a common group. In Experiment 1, we varied respect from outgroup members (low vs. medium vs. high) and measured recipients' willingness to recategorize. As predicted, high respect from an outgroup source increased willingness to recategorize as a common group relative to low respect. In Experiment 2, we orthogonally varied respect (low vs. medium vs. high) and its source (ingroup members vs. outgroup members) and employed a more differentiated recategorization measure including an intermediate or nested-group option (i.e., two subgroups of a common group). While the recategorization effect of high versus low respect from outgroup members was replicated, no such effect was observed for respect from ingroup members. Instead, there was some indication that, when it comes from ingroup members, a medium level of respect may be optimal for inducing a shift towards recategorization as a common group. Implications of the present research for the conceptualization of respect are discussed.

Relative Deprivation

Discussions of the impact of growing inequality have focused on objective indicators. Focusing on what individuals have or do not have can be misleading without understanding how they subjectively interpret the availability of resources. Relative deprivation (RD) occurs when individuals compare themselves with better-off others and conclude that they do not deserve their disadvantage. These upward comparisons, whether imposed or chosen, can damage people’s emotions, behavior, and even mental and physical health. How people respond to RD depends on whether they (a) experience the disadvantage directed toward them as a unique individual or as a member of a group (e.g., ethnic category, occupation), (b) feel anger or another emotion (e.g., sadness), and (c) view the system (e.g., workplace, nation) as open to change. Mobility interventions (e.g., housing and school vouchers) may have unexpected adverse consequences that direct improvements to the local infrastructure and community do not. Costs of RD (including physical illness) increase if people cannot address perceived inequities effectively. RD explains why simply enumerating resources and opportunities does not fully explain how relative disadvantage produces outcomes ranging from social protest to illness. Insights from psychological science that show how individuals respond to social inequities can inform policies for building communities and improving well-being.

No Longer “All-American”? Whites’ Defensive Reactions to Their Numerical Decline

We suggest that Whites’ declining share of the U.S. population threatens their status as the most prototypical ethnic group in America. This prototypicality threat should lead to growing resistance toward diversity, motivated by the desire to reassert Whites’ standing as prototypical Americans. In Study 1, how dramatically Whites perceived their share of the population to decline predicted support for cultural assimilation, mediated by prototypicality threat (controlling for realistic and symbolic threat). This relationship held only among Whites who felt that ethnic groups differ in their prototypicality, not among those who saw all groups representing America equally. Study 2 experimentally manipulated exposure to demographic projections such that Whites who saw their group shrinking showed weaker diversity endorsement relative to those who believed their share to be stable, again mediated by prototypicality threat. These findings reveal Whites’ threatened prototypicality as a novel, emerging source of resistance toward diversity in 21st-century America.

Organizational respect dampens the impact of group-based relative deprivation on willingness to protest pay cuts

Although group-based relative deprivation predicts people's willingness to protest unfair outcomes, perceiving that one's subgroup is respected increases employees' support for organizations. An integration of these perspectives suggests that subgroup respect will dampen the impact of group-based relative deprivation on workers' responses to unfair organizational outcomes. We examined this hypothesis among university faculty (N = 804) who underwent a system-wide pay cut. As expected, group-based relative deprivation predicted protest intentions. This relationship was, however, muted among those who believed university administrators treated their area of expertise (i.e., their subgroup) with a high (vs. low) level of respect. Moderated mediation analyses confirmed that group-based relative deprivation had a conditional indirect effect on protest intentions via participants' (dis)identification with their university at low to moderate, but not high, levels of subgroup respect. Our finding that satisfying relational needs can attenuate responses to group-based relative deprivation demonstrates the benefits of integrating insights from distinct research traditions.

Generational differences in vulnerability to identity denial: The role of group identification

Identity denial, or having one’s group membership go unrecognized by others, is a form of discrimination and a common experience for ethnic minorities whose national identities are routinely questioned. Three studies found that being denied one’s national identity generated greater negative emotions for second+ generation (i.e., U.S.-born) compared to first generation (i.e., foreign-born) Asian Americans, and for those first generation Asian Americans who arrived to the USA earlier in their lives compared to later. Negative emotions in response to identity denial were mediated by American identification, specifically greater self-stereotyping as American, among second+ generation Americans. The present work thus identifies which group members are most vulnerable to the negative effects of identity denial and further suggests that identity denial is a self-definitional threat in which one’s view of oneself is not validated by others.

Perceiving Ethnic Diversity on Campus

A field study tested whether Asian and White students use different criteria when judging the racial and ethnic diversity of their university. The university under study had roughly equal numbers of Asians and Whites, but Asians were heavily concentrated in the student body and had relatively low numbers in high-status university positions (the faculty and administration). Results showed that, as long as the student body was deemed diverse, the status asymmetry did not prevent Whites from regarding their university as diverse or from opposing efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity on campus. Asians, by contrast, were attentive to the status asymmetry: they incorporated faculty/administrative diversity into their judgments of the university and saw diversity in the student body as a reason to increase diversity in high-status positions. The results suggest that people perceive and support diversity in ways that align with the interests of their ethnic in-groups. 

Racial Respect and Racial Socialization as Protective Factors for African American Male Youth

African American adolescents must negotiate the transition to adulthood in a society that makes the achievement of positive cultural identity and self-respect difficult. Frequently, young men turn to violence in an attempt to achieve respect in their communities. This article explores factors that predict the use of violence among African American male youth. Adolescents from 14 through 18 years of age who completed a written survey in group settings in Oregon included 100 youth who were detained in the juvenile justice system and 100 who were members of a community youth development program. A history of witnessing violence strongly predicted the intensity of violent behavior of study youth; however, endorsing positive attitudes toward racial respect significantly moderated the effects of chronic exposure to violence. Additionally, racial socialization was negatively correlated to violence intensity and was marginally significant in moderating the effects of witnessing violence. Implications for practice with male African American youth are highlighted.