SRA Statements
Statement from SRA Board of Directors Regarding the Impact of Recent U.S. Executive Orders on Adolescents
February 10, 2025
Times of political upheaval that threaten the safety, dignity, and well-being of adolescents call for a clear statement of our values and convictions as a Society. Our Society's values are clear in protecting and promoting the health and well-being of adolescents, and when national and global policies contradict those principles, we have an opportunity and responsibility to clarify our position. We recognize we have failed to do so consistently in the past but are committed to doing better.
The Society for Research on Adolescence exists to “advance our understanding of adolescence and enhance the well-being of youth in a globalized world” and promote high-quality research to “shape scientific and public discourse on youth and adolescence in ways that guide parenting, schooling, programs, and policies”. This mission is deeply embedded within and informed by the everyday realities of our global sociopolitical context. The new Presidential administration of the United States unleashed sweeping and, for many, devastating executive orders that have tangible and direct implications for the development, health, and well-being of adolescents and their families. These effects are felt locally, nationally, and globally, as well as among the adults trying to serve them, including researchers in our Society.
Although we cannot control, predict, or prevent the circumstances that arise from political leadership, economic shifts, wars, health outbreaks, and more, we remain committed to living our core values, striving to offer research-informed perspectives to mitigate the consequences of these uncertain times on the lives of adolescents. On this, the science is clear: When safety and security, stability of basic needs (food, shelter, relational care), and sense of community and belonging are threatened or made sparse, young people suffer. Not only are adolescents and youth more vulnerable to experiencing risk and harm under such precarious conditions, but they are also more likely to participate in risky and harmful behaviors, leading to declines in their social and academic well-being and mental and physical health (e.g., Spencer & Dowd, 2024).
Many of the executive orders and actions that have been issued in recent days are a direct threat to the basic needs of adolescents and youth and their communities. Non-partisan research has illuminated policies and practices that harm youth development: forcibly separating families via mass deportations, eliminating funding for essential needs in education, healthcare, and housing, and inciting fear and condoning hatred of diversity and difference not only strip bare the everyday safety nets that millions of families rely on but also promote violence, discrimination, and divisions with compounding consequences for adolescents’ mental, physical, and emotional health. Discrimination harms adolescents in terms of mental health, academic achievement, and odds of risky behaviors, including substance use (Benner et al., 2018). Moreover, policies that undermine the well-being of adolescents and youth come at great economic cost because poor employee mental health in the United States accounts for billions of dollars in lost productivity annually, and young workers already report more mental health challenges (Gallup, 2022).
Our Society is committed to “dismantling systems that result in an inequitable distribution of power, privilege, and resources leading to the marginalization and disempowerment of minoritized communities” and disrupting such systemic harm as it shapes adolescents’ development. This commitment does not waiver with political leadership; it will not change. Our Society certainly responds to the struggles and opportunities of our present sociopolitical moment but does not bend with it. The termination of policies that are designed to “bend the arc toward justice,” such as Affirmative Action, gender affirming care, birthright citizenship, and immigrant rights, will not prevent our collective efforts for building affirming, caring, inclusive, safe, and equitable schools, communities, and systems for our adolescents and youth - here in the United States and around the globe. Cross-national data strongly suggest that multicultural policies benefit both majority and minority groups and facilitate positive acculturation and adaptation of newcomers (Abdi, 2023; APA, 2024; Berry, 2020). Inclusive migrant policies are linked to better public attitudes towards migrants and better migrant well-being (mipex.eu; Pia Juarez et al., 2019), whereas negative attitudes towards migrants create a hostile developmental context for adolescents and youth.
We also draw attention to and condemn the recent removal of health data from the CDC websites, orders from the CDC to retract and censor submitted research papers from medical and scientific journals, and federal communication, hiring, and grant freezes within federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. As a scientific research organization, we oppose the censorship of science. The use of political power to stifle research and degrade knowledge of complex issues affecting adolescents is unacceptable and further erodes public trust in science.
To the educators, practitioners, parents, researchers, community service leaders, advocates, and politicians who devote their lives to serving, supporting, and uplifting adolescents, our Society stands and serves alongside you. As an organization, we also strive to ensure our gaze goes beyond the United States to better understand and advocate for how global policies and practices, including terroristic violence and war, affect adolescents. The mental, social, and physical health toll of broad political disruption is taxing on each of us. Some of us are experiencing the proximal and direct threats in the immediate; others may be observing these harms from some distance. Of course, adolescents are not passive recipients of injustice and oppression; they actively resist in a variety of ways. Because identity development is a critical aspect of adolescent development, there is untapped potential for harnessing the power of social identities in prevention and intervention programs such as the Identity Project and the PRIDE Project that enhance their well‐being and can help to buffer them against the effects of discrimination (Hoffman & Umaña-Taylor, 2023). We invite all our members to join together as we work toward action steps for leveraging relevant policy information and coalition building to support adolescents, youth, and families.
References
Abdi, S. M., Akinsulure‐Smith, A. M., Sarkadi, A., Fazel, M., B. Heidi Ellis, Gillespie, S., Juang, L. P., & Betancourt, T. S. (2023). Promoting positive development among refugee adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12890
APA (2024). Psychological Science and Immigration Today. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/psychological-science-immigration-today.pdf
Benner, A. D., Wang, Y., Shen, Y., Boyle, A. E., Polk, R., & Cheng, Y.-P. (2018). Racial/ethnic discrimination and well-being during adolescence: A meta-analytic review. American Psychologist, 73(7), 855–883. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000204
Berry, J. W. (2020). How shall we all live together? In S. Safdar, C. Kwantes, & W. Friedlmeier (Eds.), Wiser world with multiculturalism: Proceedings from the 24th Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. https://doi.org/10.4087/ORPS1037
Hoffman, A. J., & Umaña‐Taylor, A. J. (2023). The promise of leveraging social identities in interventions to enhance the well‐being and lives of adolescents. Child Development Perspectives, 17(3-4), 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12486
Juárez, S. P., Honkaniemi, H., Dunlavy, A. C., Aldridge, R. W., Barreto, M. L., Katikireddi, S. V., & Rostila, M. (2019). Effects of non-health-targeted policies on migrant health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 7(4), e420–e435. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(18)30560-6
Margaret Beale Spencer, & Dowd, N. E. (2024). Radical Brown. Harvard Education Press.
Witters, D., & Agrawal, S. (2022). The economic cost of poor employee mental health. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/404174/economic-cost-poor-employee-mental-health.aspx
Other Resources
APA Resolution and Task Force Report on Immigration and Health
NASEM Report on Adolescence and Youth
JRA special issues on oppression and resistance among adolescents and their families
SRCD, EARA, and EADP on Positive Development of Immigrant Youth: Why Bother? (Joint mission statement with European partners on the state of the evidence)
SRA’s Response to a Tweet about the SRA Blog
9/23/2022
SRA strongly values work on race and racism, including White racial socialization. Blog posts on similar topics have been published on the SRA website previously. In fact, as you note, JRA published your original paper in a special section on whiteness in our journal and, like all JRA authors, you were invited to submit a blog post.
Based on the correspondence we obtained from the Associate Editors of the blog, editorial changes were requested (as is typical in revise and resubmit processes). One request was to address the examples used as the blog did not afford the context which the full paper provided. We apologize for messaging conveying that SRA is uncomfortable with the discussion of whiteness in a negative light, as this is against the core anti-racist principles of SRA. As the Associate Editors could not reach consensus, they requested the SRA Board to assist with the process. However, because we have an autonomous editorial process for both research articles in JRA and SRA blog posts, we referred it back to the SRA Blog Associate Editors to make the final decision.
We appreciate that the blog process is a unique platform for presenting research. While we tried to model the SRA blog process much like a journal review process, we acknowledge that this medium requires a different set of expertise and skills, and we are carefully evaluating refinements to the blog process as we move forward. We are working closely with our SRA Blog Editorial Board on this and look forward to sharing the new process soon.
7/14/2022
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson is an egregious attack on bodily autonomy, removing a pregnant person’s right to autonomous decision making over the most personal and most consequential of life decisions. While this is devastating for all persons, adolescents and young adults will suffer greatly from this decision. This ruling reversed nearly 50 years of legal precedent, issued a direct assault on reproductive justice and the public’s health, and curtailed the status of pregnant persons as free and equal citizens (as noted in the dissenting opinion). We are collectively opposed to this violation of human rights, which will be especially harmful to vulnerable and marginalized populations including adolescents and young adults. We object to any restrictions placed on the reproductive rights of adolescents and young adults. Access to safe abortion is a basic part of comprehensive reproductive health care. This ruling contradicts the broad medical and scientific consensus that abortion is a fundamental component of healthcare, abortion is safe, and abortion is a human right.
Adolescents and young adults already face more barriers than adults in accessing comprehensive reproductive healthcare services and abortion care, such as cost, confidentiality concerns, and limited knowledge and experience seeking healthcare. This ruling means that abortion services will be either obliterated or severely limited in many geographic areas. Remaining avenues for accessing abortion care will be difficult if not impossible for young people, putting their futures, health, and safety at risk. Marginalized individuals and communities and those who experience systemic oppression are also uniquely vulnerable.
Adolescents and young adults deserve a health system that meets their needs and healthcare professionals who offer comprehensive reproductive health care. As professionals, we will continue to affirm young people in their pursuit of confidential and comprehensive reproductive health care, generate scientific evidence on how to optimize and support their physical and psychological well-being, and advocate for their basic rights. We are vehemently opposed to this ruling’s infringements on human rights. We support and defend the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and young adults.
Signed,
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology
Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
Society for Family Planning
Society for Research on Adolescence
Society for Research in Child Development
UCLA Center on the Developing Adolescent
Gun Violence:
SRA Response to Mass Shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX
SRA mourns the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. This shooting is the most recent and deadly in a staggering number of mass shootings occurring in many communities across the United States, including shootings this month at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY, in Koreatown in Dallas, TX, and at a Presbyterian church in Irvine, California (Gun Violence Archive, 2022; NPR, 2022). Our condolences go out to all affected by these heinous acts, including families, friends, and community members. SRA acknowledges that this new wave of grief is occurring in a context of decades of mass shootings, and occurred as we mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, one of the deadliest school shootings in the history of the United States. These mass shootings reverberate across the nation, as youth, parents, and communities are all impacted by the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. These events have resounding consequences for adolescent development and wellbeing. No one should have to fear becoming a victim of gun violence.
SRA calls for action from elected officials to address the gun violence epidemic, including:
- Expansion of research that begins to identify factors at multiple levels that account for recent increases in the frequency and severity of mass shootings in the United States.
- Funding of evidence-based programs and research to address gun violence prevention and effective responses to mitigate the negative impacts of gun violence when it occurs
- Increased funding for screening and treatment of mental health concerns and issues, especially among adolescents and young adults, and particularly among those seeking access to firearms. This is imperative because for many individuals, mental health concerns and issues first emerge during these developmental periods.
These calls for action are only a few of many research-based recommendations on gun violence prevention that have also been proposed by organizations such as the American Psychological Association (2013), American Public Health Association (2021), and American Medical Association (2022).
Talking with children and adolescents about safety and concerns related to guns and school shootings is crucial in helping them navigate these tragedies. The following list of resources may help adults talk to their children about gun violence.
Anti-Racism:
SRA is committed to promoting anti-racism within our organization, developmental science, and society at large. We define anti-racism as racial equity created and maintained by interactions between equitable psychological factors, such as beliefs, feelings, and behavior rooted in equity, and equitable sociopolitical factors, such as laws, policies, and institutions that ensure equity for all (Roberts & Rizzo, 2020). Having an anti-racist perspective means challenging, interrupting, and eliminating all forms of racism within ourselves and our spheres of influence (Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997).
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