Stereotype Threat and School Belonging in Adolescents from Diverse Racial/Ethnic Backgrounds

In this study, we extend research on stereotype threat to adolescents and to school belonging. Stereotype threat refers to the impact of societal stereotypes on individual performance. Participants included adolescents from marginalized racial/ethnic minority groups including African Americans, American Indians, and Latinos and nonmarginalized racial/ethnic groups including Asian Americans and European Americans. A subtle manipulation that involved altering the sequence of instruments on a survey was employed to make identity salient and to activate stereotype threat. Results indicated that marginalized minority adolescents in the threat condition reported lower school belonging scores than their counterparts in the nonthreat condition, with a small to medium effect size. Making identity salient did not affect school belonging in nonmarginalized participants. Findings have implications for academic performance in minority adolescents. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)