Critical consciousness (CC) is associated with beneficial developmental outcomes among youth contending with oppression, yet we know little about how CC develops and how the three dimensions of CC (i.e., critical action, critical motivation, and critical reflection) interrelate over time. Therefore, this study employed second‐order latent growth modeling to illuminate the longitudinal interplay between the three dimensions of CC among 518 youth activists (Mage = 16; girls = 53%; 11% Asian, 20% Black, 39% Latinx, 8% Multiracial, and 6% White). Youth demonstrated significant growth in critical reflection and action over time, but not in critical motivation. Participation in community‐based activism was positively associated with CC development. Altogether, these findings illuminate channels for fostering youth CC and increase our understanding of CC's dynamic development.

We explore the interaction of different types of school ethnic-racial socialization, youth’s perceptions of the messages that schools and their agents broadcast about race and ethnicity, as it shapes Black youth’s critical action, the individual and collective action that youth engage in to combat oppression and racism. In particular, the co-occurrence of critical consciousness socialization (emphasizes racial inequity; CCS), cultural socialization (celebrates youth’s culture/s; CS), and color evasive socialization (de-emphasizes and thus delegitimizes the importance of race; CES) are explored. The adaptive culture and Mustaffa’s conceptualization of Black lifemaking, an aspect of freedom dreaming in which Black people define and care for themselves in ways (such as critical action) that counter dominant, anti-Black ideologies, serve as the overarching theoretical frameworks. As both the adaptive culture paradigm and critical action necessitate a target of resistance, we hypothesize that CES, in providing Black youth something to resist against, may actually serve as a positive moderator between CCS and/or CS and their critical action. We investigate these questions among a sample of Black adolescents (n = 285, M = 15.09 years, and SD = 1.38 years). Benjamini–Hochberg corrected hierarchical moderations with age as a covariate and socialization type and interaction between types as predictors revealed that the interaction between CCS and CES significantly predicted critically conscious action [β = 0.25, SE = 0.08, t(193) = 2.54, and p < 0.05] and political anti-racist action [β = 0.21, SE = 0.09, t(193) = 2.38, and p < 0.05]. Critically conscious action was more frequent among Black youth who perceived greater CES. The relationship between CCS and political anti-racist action was stronger among those who perceived greater CES. These findings may provide comfort to those worried about CES’ impact. Black youth simultaneously socialized with CCS seem to develop a critical consciousness that allows them to trouble CES and to be critically active despite it. Engaging in varied, frequent critical action allows Black youth to continue the life-making which improves the Black American experience and drives their freedom dreaming.

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