Growing up fast, thinking faster: Structural racism, pubertal timing, and executive function in Black American early...

For some Black American adolescents, the chronic stress associated with structural racism may divert resources supporting executive functioning. For other Black American adolescents, those exposed to structural racism may experience increased executive functioning as they recalibrate their behaviors and cognitions to adapt to challenging conditions. This heterogeneity in the association between structural racism and executive functioning may reflect differences in pubertal timing. Specifically, youth's pubertal timing may condition how structural racism is associated with their executive functioning. Thus, we posed two research questions: Is structural racism associated with Black American adolescents' executive functioning, and does adolescents' pubertal timing moderate the association between structural racism and their executive functioning? To test these questions, we used cross-sectional data as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which included 1,744 Black American early adolescents (ages 9-10; 50% female, 50% male) nested across 1,498 families and 17 states. Cluster-robust regression models accounting for family- and state-level clustering illustrated that no significant relation emerged between structural racism and executive functioning. When pubertal timing moderated this association, differential associations emerged between structural racism and executive functioning. Structural racism was associated with lower executive functioning among youth with decelerated pubertal timing and higher executive functioning among youth with extremely accelerated pubertal timing. This heightened executive functioning reflects a compensatory and taxing response to adverse environments rather than a developmental benefit. Findings challenge deficit portrayals of Black American adolescents and suggest interventions should target structural racism rather than rely on individual adaptations to racism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).