Examining the Roles of Relationships in the Association between Black Youth's Activism and Stress

Background and Purpose: Black youth’s activism is considered a coping strategy that alleviates them from the psychological harm of racial oppression, allowing them to directly address racism (Hope & Spencer, 2017; Watts et al., 1999). Black youth describe activism as a tool to redefine their destinies, galvanize collective power, and promote intergenerational healing (Ortega-Williams, 2024). However, Black youth’s activism has also been seen to exacerbate the impact of discrimination on their mental health (Hope et al., 2024). Black college youth describe balancing the desire to combat racism with burnout from continuously defending their humanity (Wilson et al.., 2025). Yet, Black and other youth of color have identified that the supportive relationships they have in activist spaces create emotional care and a sense of home that alleviates the strain of activism (DeBower et al., 2021; Ortega-Williams, 2020; Ortega-Williams, 2024).This study examines the relationships between activism to support Black communities, supportive relationships, and stress.

1. We predict that Black youth’s engagement in activism will be associated with stress. As an exploratory question, we examine whether there are differential effects across types of activism. We examined two forms of activism: formal (e.g., contacting political officials or attending political meetings) and low-risk (e.g., wearing a button or signing a petition).
2. We anticipate that youth who use relational strategies to cope with racism or who use relational forms of self-care will have lower stress when engaging in activism.

Methods: Our study comprised 695 Black youth ages 18-25 who participated in an online survey examining their sociocultural and wellness experiences. Activism was measured using the Black community activism scale (Hope et al., 2019). Relational care was measured using a subscale of the Mindful Self-care Scale (Cook-Cottone & Guyker, 2018), and relational coping was measured using a subscale of the Africultural Coping Systems inventory (Utsey et al., 2004). We conducted a hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses. The first model included the control variables (Gender, income, and age). The second included the direct effects (activism and relationship variables). The final model included two-way interactions between activism and relational variables.

Results: Contrary to our hypothesis, formal activism was not significantly associated with stress. However, low-risk activism was positively associated with stress (𝛽 = .238, p <.01). Youth engagement in relational coping strategies was positively associated with stress (𝛽 = .236, p <.001). Youth engagement in supportive relationship self-care practices was negatively associated with stress (𝛽 = -.234, p <.001).

Conclusion and Implications:The findings suggest that the type of activism that Black youth engage in may have different implications for their stress levels. Youth's preemptive actions to care for themselves through supportive relationships may be more critical in cultivating lower stress than their relational coping strategies after racially distressing events. Surprisingly, relational coping and self-care did not impact the relationships between activism and stress levels, highlighting a need to understand better the relationship dynamics that support youth in managing the strain of activism. Importantly, there is a need for longitudinal analysis to clarify the directionality of this analysis.