Reimagining Social and Emotional Development: Accommodation and Resistance to Dominant Ideologies in the Identities and Friendships of Boys of Color

Human development is largely studied as a process of internalizing or accommodating to dominant cultural ideologies, with the implicit assumption that such a process is healthy and desirable. Ideologies, however, not only entail positive beliefs (e.g., family is important); they also contain dehumanizing ones (e.g., men are more important than women). Thus, some dominant ideologies must be resisted for healthy development. This paper draws from our longitudinal research with boys of color over three decades to reimagine social and emotional development as a process by which youth accommodate to and resist dominant ideologies in the construction of their identities and friendships. We reveal that patterns of accommodation and resistance are implicit and explicit, change over time, and are associated with adjustment. Framing social and emotional development as a process by which individuals negotiate cultural ideologies offers a more agentic conceptualization of human development and allows for a better understanding of how to help youth thrive.