Examining and Conceptualizing Racial Battle Fatigue Among Black High School Students

Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) literature suggests that coping with negative daily racial experiences at school results in forms of fatigue that may manifest as feelings of hopelessness about the future, mental exhaustion, persistent anxiety, and more (Baker et al., 2019). Such research, however, has been primarily applied to college populations rather than Black adolescents. This presentation addressed such a gap by detailing a study that quantitatively investigated potential developmental contributors to and experiences of RBF among Black high schoolers. This study specifically sought to answer the following inquiries: What are the relationships between the source of racial bias (peers vs educations), racial identity, coping (specifically, seeking understanding of why biases occur), and RBF? and b) Does seeking understanding as a coping mechanism mediate the relationship between sources of racial biases, racial identity, and RBF?