Discriminatory experiences, critical consciousness development, and well-being among emerging adults in and beyond the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the developmental stage of emerging adulthood, youth may cultivate critical consciousness (CC) to transform oppressive systems. CC development may be influenced by discriminatory experiences and may affect well-being. To better understand longitudinal CC development and its relationship to discrimination and well-being (i.e., perceived stress, anxiety, hopefulness), we studied a U.S. national longitudinal cohort of emerging adult college students between the ages of 18 and 22 at baseline (M_age = 20.0, SD = 1.3) who completed four surveys between April 2020 and July 2021 (N = 684). The analytic sample was 63% women and 37% men (gender-diverse participants were removed due to small sample size) and 26% lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer/questioning, and other minoritized sexual identities. Self-identified race/ethnicity backgrounds were 54% white, 20% Asian/Pacific Islander, 9% Latinx, 5% Black, and 10% multiple races/ethnicities and/or as Middle Eastern/North African. We conducted latent profile transition analysis and identified five patterns of CC development, with a minority of participants in two "growth" transition patterns wherein they increased their CC over time. Maintaining higher levels of CC, and especially developing CC, was associated with more prior experiences with discrimination and with concurrent and subsequent higher levels of perceived stress and anxiety. We recommend institutions of higher education and college-based organizations to build well-being practices and structures into CC-raising spaces to support empowering CC development amid ongoing sociopolitical turmoil. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).