The role of parents' and adolescents' critical reflection in the development of white youths' commitments to dismantling oppression

Abstract

Given the access that white youth have to privilege and power, it is important to understand how they might develop life goals related to dismantling multiple forms of oppression, which we term critical purpose. Parents may support their children's critical purpose via their own critical reflection (understanding of the root causes of disparities in society), which may be associated with their child's critical reflection. Structural equation models of two waves of data from 351 white youth showed an indirect relationship between parent critical reflection and youth critical purpose through youth critical reflection. Bolstering white parents' critical reflection may be a strategy for supporting the development of white youths' commitments to future social justice action.