Stress associated with antiracism advocacy among racially/ethnically minoritized individuals: The role of racial-ethnic socialization.

Abstract

Antiracism advocacy has been identified as a culturally relevant form of self- and community care that allows racially/ethnically minoritized individuals to persist, heal, and resist systems of oppression in the United States. Despite the benefits, recent research has found that engaging in antiracism advocacy may be emotionally draining and exhausting. It is important to examine factors that can contextualize, explain, and address the stress of engaging in antiracism advocacy. Thus, we examined whether types of racial-ethnic socialization (cultural socialization, promotion of mistrust, preparation for bias, and silence about race) from parents about racism and race-related issues would moderate the relationship between antiracism advocacy and stress. We conducted latent moderated structural equation modeling to analyze online convenience data from 407 racially minoritized adults (Mage = 34.12; 40% Black, 23% Asian, 20% Latine, 9% multiracial, and 8% other). Engaging in institutional (but not individual) antiracism advocacy was significantly associated with psychological distress, and this association was exacerbated among those who received average to high levels of messages, reflecting promotion of mistrust, preparation for bias, and silence about race from their parents. Conversely, stress was not significant for those who received low levels of these three messages. Cultural socialization was not found to be a significant moderator. Implications include translating these findings into a more nuanced support system and care for those engaging in antiracism advocacy and incorporating the context of racial-ethnic socialization in understanding the nature of the associated stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).