A Two-Way Street: The Association Between Justice System Contact, Self-Efficacy, and Sense of School Belonging for Black Girls
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ith urban youth, specifically Black and Latino/a youth, having concentrated levels of law enforcement within their communities, exposure directly and vicariously to police is a common experience (Rengifo & Pater, 2017). Exposure, which includes arrests, experiences staying in juvenile or detention centers, and referrals for arrests by school systems, has produced extensive research regarding its effects on youth academic outcomes. Findings suggest a significant association between exposure to the justice system and academic outcomes that negatively impact youth. For example, Novak (2019) examined the association between justice system contact in childhood (i.e., contact by the age of 12) and later outcomes and found that youth who experienced their first justice system contact by age 12 had a proportional increase in dropping out of high school by age 18. Similarly, research has shown that youth arrested as juveniles were 9.65 times more likely to drop out of high school (Hirschfield, 2009). Such findings suggest that the heavily concentrated levels of law enforcement within urban communities have a negative impact on youth’s education, which subsequently impacts long-term outcomes. Particularly, through an ecological lens, it is important to examine these experiences by assessing the individual, their context, as well as the systems that the individual navigates to challenge existing research that overemphasizes the individual as the problem that needs intervention (Javdani, 2013). Ultimately, this framework could provide a more nuanced understanding of how the individual and their context are interrelated and, in effect, shift how we approach strategies and efforts to decrease negative academic and long-term outcomes for urban youth. The Significance of Context on Self-Efficacy Research has examined how youth develop protective factors to overcome adversity, such as exposure and contact with the justice system. Findings report that adolescents who have supportive parental relationships and feel safe in their neighborhoods tend to remain positive about their potential for future success compared to those that feel unsafe and have less parental support
Ja”Chelle Ball
(McCoy & Bowen, 2015). Ultimately, this suggests that the social and environmental contexts urban youth are faced with influence long-term outcomes; however, it is important to understand how these contexts are simultaneously associated with and significant to the individual. Hence, research has examined self-efficacy, or one’s own belief in their ability to face adversity, as an important factor that predicts how individuals cope and adapt in the face of stress and challenges (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995). Self-efficacy has been linked to students remaining positive about their future, goal setting and attainment, and sense of school membership (Carroll et al., 2013; Kapoor & Tomar, 2016; McCoy & Bowen, 2015). This finding suggests that perceived self-efficacy is a form of resilience for youth who face adverse circumstances, including exposure to law enforcement. Notably, attitudes and beliefs about the self, others, and the world (e.g., cynicism, mistrust in law enforcement) that impact behaviors can be prevalent in urban youth (Geller & Fagan, 2019; Jackson et al., 2020). Thus, perceived selfefficacy, which may balance or prevent such detrimental patterns of thought from developing, is an important factor in better understanding the various trajectories of youth who encounter law enforcement in their childhood and adolescence. The Role of Psychological Sense of School Membership Based on an ecological framework, the social context one finds themselves in is interrelated and mutually affects one another (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Thus, another relevant factor regarding academic outcomes is one’s psychological sense of school membership. Psychological sense of school membership, or the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment (Goodenow, 1993), has been shown to benefit students positively (Gray et al., 2018). Research has found that when students felt a sense of belonging in a particular class, they were more motivated and confident about achieving their academic goals (Freeman et al., 2007). Yet, for Black students, their racial identities place them at an increased risk of feeling displaced and not belonging in educational
