Minoritized youth encounter racial and ethnic prejudice and discrimination in a variety of settings, including schools. Prejudice refers to harboring negative attitudes and beliefs toward targeted social groups; discrimination reflects translating those attitudes into actions that marginalize targeted groups. Exposure to racial and ethnic discrimination has been associated with numerous detrimental outcomes for youth, including poorer mental health outcomes and lower levels of academic performance. This article describes the nature of racial and ethnic discrimination encountered by minoritized youth as well as its impact on these populations. It also reviews research on prejudice reduction interventions for youth, with a focus on those interventions designed for school settings. In light of existing research, several policy recommendations support high-quality, evidence-based programming in schools.
School psychology is experiencing a personnel shortage crisis, and scholars suggest that a possible contributing factor is its underrepresentation in undergraduate psychology curricula. Most school psychology trainers do not teach at the undergraduate level, thus undergraduate psychology students may not be adequately exposed to school psychology during undergraduate training. Research suggests that increased knowledge and exposure to school psychology are associated with increased intentions for school psychology. In the current study, 55 undergraduate students completed measures of knowledge, exposure, selfefficacy, outcome expectations, and choice intentions at the beginning and end of professional psychology courses. Results indicated that students enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses did not demonstrate significant increases in the aforementioned areas for school psychology. Efforts such as creating school psychology-specific courses or infusing material should be made to increase the representation of school psychology in undergraduate psychology curricula.
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