Rochelle Parrish Dissertation Proposal Defense, Thursday, May 7, 2026 @ 2:00 pm Central Time

COMMITTEE CHAIR: Dr. Temilola Salami

TITLE: RACIALIZED SURVEILLANCE AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH: A SERIAL MODERATED MEDIATION MODEL OF POLICE CONTACT, EMOTIONAL RESPONSE, AND TRAUMA SYMPTOMS

ABSTRACT: Introduction: Racialized surveillance functions as a structural stressor that shapes adolescent emotional and psychological development, particularly when experienced through police contact (Del Toro et al., 2022; Jackson et al., 2021). This study examines how police encounters are associated with internalizing outcomes using secondary data from Waves 6 and 7 of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (Del Toro et al., 2022; Jackson et al., 2021). Method: Police contact is operationalized as frequency and intrusiveness to capture quantitative and qualitative dimensions of surveillance (Del Toro et al., 2022; Jackson et al., 2021). Emotional response and trauma symptoms are specified as sequential mediators. Emotional response reflects adolescents’ retrospective, self-reported reactions to a police encounter based on recall of the most memorable or impactful incident, particularly when multiple encounters have occurred, and captures fear, anger, and perceived threat within institutional power dynamics (Silvers et al., 2020; Young et al.,2022). Trauma symptoms represent psychological processes that may develop following threatening encounters and include re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and intrusive thoughts (Ford et al., 2021; McLaughlin & Lambert, 2017). This sequential specification is consistent with evidence that threatening, emotionally salient encounters are associated with trauma-related symptom processes and broader mental health vulnerability (Ford et al., 2021; Jindal et al., 2022). Identity profiles, defined as White male, White female, male adolescents of color, and female adolescents of color, moderate the indirect pathway to account for racialized and gendered patterns of surveillance and psychological vulnerability. (Hope et al., 2021; Rogers et al., 2023). Analytic Strategy: A serial moderated mediation model is tested using Hayes PROCESS Model 83 with ten thousand bootstrap resamples (Hayes, 2022). Analyses adjust for socioeconomic status and baseline psychological distress (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Kessler et al., 2010). Missing data are addressed using expectation–maximization procedures, and factor analyses support the construct validity of all composite measures. The analytic sample includes 694 adolescents after exclusions for missing interviews and incomplete responses. Hypotheses: (1) Greater frequency and greater intrusiveness of police contact are expected to be associated with higher levels of internalizing outcomes. (2) Emotional response is expected to mediate the association between police contact and trauma symptoms. (3) Trauma symptoms are expected to mediate the association between emotional response and internalizing outcomes. (4) Identity profiles are expected to moderate the association between police contact and emotional response, with stronger associations anticipated for male and female adolescents of color. (5) Identity profiles are expected to moderate the association between trauma symptoms and internalizing outcomes, with stronger associations expected for female adolescents of color. This study contributes to developmental psychology, trauma-informed practice, and critical policing research by clarifying the emotional and trauma-related mechanisms through which racialized surveillance is associated with adolescent internalizing outcomes.

Keywords: Longitudinal design, police contact, emotional response, trauma symptoms, internalizing outcomes, moderated mediation

Zoom Link:

https://pvpanther.zoom.us/j/7837371645?omn=92785212989

Meeting ID: 783 737 1645