Hate speech is a current challenge for schools around the globe. At the same time, students worldwide stand up to hate speech by countering it. Guided by a positive youth development perspective, the present study investigated the direct and indirect associations between classroom climate (environmental assets), social skills (personal assets), and countering hate speech (as a proxy of thriving) among adolescents.

Although research investigating hate speech among adolescents is increasing, adolescents are mainly studied from a deficit-related perspective by primarily focusing on risk factors and consequences of being a perpetrator or victim. Adolescents can, however, also play a positive role when it comes to hate speech. This might be the case when adolescents show moral courage by countering hate speech (counterspeech). Counterspeech is defined as a form of citizen-based response to hateful content to discourage it, stop it, or provide support for the victim by, for example, pointing out logical flaws in the hateful content or using facts to counteract misinformation. Due to the lack of research on counterspeech among adolescents, factors explaining counterspeech and their interplay are poorly understood. To this end, this DCU research collaboration investigates the direct and indirect associations among classroom climate (environmental factors), social skills (personal factors), and counterspeech. 

A larger goal of the present study is to contribute to a shift in the current narratives in hate speech research away from a deficit-based perspective to a strength-based perspective directed by the positive youth development (PYD) framework. The findings might help develop empowering prevention programs that enable adolescents to be confident in handling hate speech incidents and inform teachers on how to create a positive classroom environment to promote PYD.