Amidst glaring evidence of racism and social inequities brought to the forefront in the recent past, there is heightened urgency to explore how youth gain critical consciousness about social issues, and growing interest in supporting youth engagement in positive social change. The Peace of Mind-Social Justice (PoM-SJ) curriculum integrates skills typical in mindfulness-based programs—mindfulness and compassion—with social justice elements in order to develop racism awareness, increase agency to engage in anti-racist actions, and promote inclusive, caring classroom and school climates. The proposed research examines mindful awareness and compassion as foundations for awareness of bias, agency to act against injustice, and social action against injustice in a school implementing the PoM-SJ curriculum. Given the lack of developmentally appropriate measures designed to assess bias awareness, agency, and social action among youth, the initial step in this research is to develop a measure to assess these constructs. Next, we will examine whether youth participating in PoM-SJ realize increased bias awareness, agency, and intention to act against injustice, and if mindfulness awareness and compassion skills help facilitate these social justice outcomes. Understanding how young people develop awareness and agency to act against racism and injustice can advance our ability to cultivate compassionate communities.
