ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of perceived discrimination in shaping children's and adolescents' academic outcomes. One framework that has influenced the study of discrimination is Eccles and Wigfield's expectancy-value model. According to this framework, expectations for future academic success are partially informed by students' ability-related beliefs, or their judgment about their current ability in academic subjects. In the study of discrimination, researchers have focused on a social component of academic outcomes: perceived school belonging. Most of the research on the academic consequences of perceiving discrimination in childhood and adolescence has focused on ethnic discrimination. Steele and Aronson first described stereotype threat in the mid-1990s; a robust body of research has found ample evidence for the negative academic consequences of stereotype threat. As Steele states, "Disidentification offers the retreat of not caring about the domain in relation to the self", and is how many students may adapt to the chronic threat of discrimination.
