Identification and impact of risk and protective factors for drug use among urban African American adolescents.

Identified 10 risk and 12 protective factors associated with drug use among African American 8th graders (N = 994) in an urban school system. Regression analyses identified 7 risk and 7 protective factors with minimal overlap. The total number of risk factors was significantly related to the prevalence of use for cigarettes, beer or wine, liquor, marijuana, and a composite measure of drug use. The Protective Factor Index (PFI) was a significant moderator of the relation between risk and use of beer or wine, liquor, marijuana, and the composite measure. Longitudinal analyses of data on 650 students across the transition from middle to high school indicated that the sum of risk factors predicted changes in all drug use categories except the composite. The PFI significantly predicted changes in beer or wine, liquor, and composite drug use over this 1-year period. It also moderated risk for cigarette use, but not for other drugs. Results replicated prior studies and highlighted the importance of protective factors such as adaptive functioning in school and family influences.     

Risk and protective factors among youth offenders

This exploratory study examined the risk and protective factors of youth offenders and their relation to recidivism. The sample consisted of 76 male and female juvenile probationers within a large metropolitan area. Archival records on probationers provided data on prior offenses, personal characteristics, familial conditions, drug use, peer selection, school performance, role models, and activities and hobbies. It was found that protective factors, specifically personal characteristics, familial conditions, and peer selection, differentiated nonrepeat offenders and repeat offenders. The present body of findings supports the adaptive model of resiliency and reinforces the importance of enhancing protective factors in youth offenders as a means of deterring delinquent behavior.     

Developmental origins of perfectionism among African American youth

The present study used a person-centered latent variable approach to classify types of perfectionism among 6th-grade African American children living in an urban setting. In particular, the authors were interested in determining whether an adaptive subtype could be found and validated against external criteria. The authors also attempted to identify any developmental precursors that could reliably differentiate the perfectionist subtypes. A social learning and competence framework was used to select potential 1st-grade risk and protective factors for future perfectionism profiles. Four classes best described the children's perfectionism scores in 6th grade. Three of these classes resembled the profiles most commonly seen in prior perfectionism research (Non-Critical/Adaptive, Critical/Maladaptive, and Non-Perfectionist). The fourth class, Non-Striving, was characterized by extremely low levels of reported personal standards. Sixth-grade correlates confirmed the distinctiveness of these classes. In particular, the Critical/Maladaptive and Non-Striving classes had higher rates of internalizing symptoms and disorders. Additionally, several 1st-grade predictors suggested unique developmental origins of these classes. The Critical/Maladaptive class was characterized by lower academic skills and elevated teacher-rated attention problems, hyperactivity, shyness, and peer rejection. The Non-Striving class had higher rates of family alcohol problems and lower levels of parent praise. Implications regarding the universal and culture-specific origins and effects of perfectionism are discussed.     

Psychosocial correlates of substance use behaviors among African American youth

Cross-sectional data were collected on substance use behaviors and potential correlates in 1,494 African American students enrolled in grades 5-12 in eight schools in a central Alabama school district. Using a risk and asset framework, self-reported recent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use were analyzed by identifying and measuring levels of influence, including individual, family, and school. For alcohol and marijuana use, recurrent risk factors were age, being hit by a parent, affiliation with gangs, and a tolerant attitude of peers toward drug use. For cigarette use, risk factors were peer-oriented: associations with gangs or cohorts holding lenient attitudes about substance use. For all substances, salient asset factors were academic achievement and parental monitoring. Findings suggest that efforts to reduce substance use behaviors should be directed at adolescents in terms of academic achievement and grade level as well as their social environments. For the latter, peer/family risks and family/school assets should be the foci for programs to minimize the short- and long-term consequences of these behaviors. Hence, the emphasis should be placed on modeling attitudes, preventing gang and family violence, encouraging parental supervision, and building positive teacher-student interactions.     

The prevalence of perceived discrimination among African American and Caribbean Black youth

The present study examined ethnic, gender, and age differences in perceived discrimination and the association between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being in a nationally representative sample of Black adolescents. Data are from the National Survey of African Life (NSAL), which includes 810 African American and 360 Caribbean Black youth. Results indicate that the majority of Black youth perceived at least 1 discriminatory incident in the previous year. Adolescents at later stages of development perceived more discrimination than those at earlier stages, and African American and Caribbean Black males perceived more discrimination than their female counterparts. Perceptions of discrimination were positively linked to depressive symptoms and were negatively linked to self-esteem and life satisfaction, regardless of ethnicity. However, Caribbean Black youth appear to be more vulnerable when they perceive high levels of discrimination.     

The transition to high school for academically promising, urban, low-income African American youth

In nine urban Ohio school systems, low-income minority students identified as academically promising in sixth grade are eligible to participate in an intervention program. In the present study, twenty-two African American students in the program were asked to provide their perceptions of the transition to ninth grade. Specifically, the role of motivating factors, peers, school, teachers, parents, and neighborhood were examined. These students faced similar stressors, yet some were more able to achieve academic success. Results highlight the salience of mothers, the challenges of the ninth-grade curriculum, and adjustment to a bigger, more complex school environment for high and low performers. The implications for improving cooperation between school and family are discussed.     

Spiritual health locus of control and breast cancer beliefs among urban African American women.

The present study examined the relationship between spiritual health locus of control, breast cancer beliefs, and mammography utilization among a sample of 1,227 African American women from urban public health centers. Spiritual health locus of control was conceptualized as having an active and passive dimension, empowering individuals in their health beliefs and behaviors or rendering them to rely on a higher power (e.g., God) to determine their health outcomes, respectively. The active dimension was negatively associated with perceived benefits of mammography and positively associated with perceived barriers to mammography. The active and passive spiritual dimensions are distinct from internal and external health locus of control. Further study of their associations with other health-related beliefs and behaviors is warranted.     

Violence and minority youth: the effects of risk and asset factors on fighting among African American children and adolescents

This cross-sectional study examined risk and asset factors thought to be associated with fighting among a sample of 1,642 African American children and adolescents in a central Alabama school district. Results show that poor grades, parental abuse, and gang affiliation were significant risk factors associated with higher frequency of fighting. Results also show that parental monitoring and being happy at school were associated with lower frequency of fighting, suggesting the importance of continued support for outreach to parents and further efforts to reduce or eliminate the community factors that promote proliferation of gangs. Programs, either for an entire community or a school system within a community, must be sensitive to the specific risks, assets, and outcomes of that environment so that prevention and intervention are sensitive to cultural, environmental, and demographic distinctions in target populations.     

Empirical fear profiles among American youth

Fears among children can range from relatively innocuous fears of simple objects to significant phobias that affect youths' everyday functioning in the home, school, or community environments. This study investigated empirically derived fear profiles among American youth ages 7-19 (N=556). Based upon youths' scores on the 5 factors of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II (FSSC-II; Burnham & Gullone (Behav Res Ther, 35, 1997)), multistage Euclidean grouping was applied and produced 5 replicable fear cluster profiles with unique contours. Logistic regression odds ratios revealed specific associations of profile group membership with demographic characteristics such as child age, sex, and ethnicity.     

Adolescent alcohol use in context: the role of parents and peers among African American and European American youth

African American youth are less likely to use alcohol than their European American counterparts; however, the greater consequences of use for African American youth highlight the need for greater research attention to this group. Two social contexts that have been linked with adolescent alcohol use are parents and peers, yet these studies have rarely included African American youth or failed to examine potential racial differences. This study examined the main and interactive effects of parents and peers, as well as the moderating role of race on alcohol use, in African American and European American rural adolescents (n=71) identified as at high-risk for alcohol use. Contrary to study hypotheses, however, parents were not a more robust moderator for African American than European American youth. Clinical implications for prevention and intervention programming for both African American and European American youth are discussed.     

Neighborhood & Family Effects on Learning Motivation among Urban African American Middle School Youth

Motivational theorists in psychology have moved away from individual-based approaches to socio-cognitive and socio-ecological models to explain student engagement and motivation for learning. Such approaches consider, for example, the influence of family and neighborhood environments as important constructs in youth behavior. In this study, links between neighborhood condition (e.g. external appearance of the blocks nearest to the respondents’ home), family dysfunction, and motivation for learning are investigated. Data were obtained from two hundred and sixteen (216) urban African American middle school children enrolled in a substance use prevention intervention. Analytic models show associations between poor neighborhood condition, and both family dysfunction and lower learning motivation, and poor neighborhood condition and lower learning motivation. Family dysfunction was also found to mediate the effect of neighborhood condition on motivated learning. Neighborhood and family characteristics are important determinants of urban schoolchildren’s motivation for learning.     

Person factors associated with suicidal behavior among African American women and men

This study compared person risk factors among the following groups of low-income, African American adults in an urban, public hospital: (a) suicide attempters and nonattempters, (b) male and female attempters, and (c) all 4 groups (50 female attempters, 50 female nonattempters, 50 male attempters, and 50 male nonattempters). Participants completed psychological distress, aggression, substance use, cognitive processes, religiosity/spirituality, and ethnic identity measures. Compared with nonattempters, attempters reported more psychological distress, aggression, substance use, and maladaptive coping strategies; less religiosity/spirituality; and lower levels of ethnic identity. Male attempters endorsed more substance use than female attempters. No person risk factors differentiated among the 4 groups. Assessment of person risk factors and implementation of commensurate culturally competent interventions are recommended.     

Critical consciousness and career development among urban youth

This study explored the role of critical consciousness as a key factor in predicting progress in career development among urban high school students. Critical consciousness, or the capacity to recognize and overcome sociopolitical barriers, was operationalized through sociopolitical analysis and sociopolitical control. Canonical correlation analysis indicated a statistically significant relationship between critical consciousness and progress in career development, which was supported by estimates of effect size, for a sample of 220 urban adolescents. Participants with greater levels of critical consciousness had greater clarity regarding their vocational identity, were more committed to their future careers, and viewed work as a larger part of their future lives. These results suggest that urban adolescents may best engage the career development process by maintaining a critical awareness of sociopolitical inequity and situating their individual agency within this critical “reading” of the opportunity structure.     

Life-style and substance use among male African American urban adolescents: A cluster analytic approach

Cluster analyzed four variables: school attendance, employment, church attendance, and delinquency, to develop life-style profiles. Data from 218 African-American urban adolescents were used in the study. Five meaningful clusters were retained and subjected to criterion validity analyses using measures of spirituality, participation in a voluntary organization, self-esteem, and friend's substance use. The five clusters were then compared on cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and hard drug use. The results suggest that a life-style that includes an adaptive compensatory behavior component may be more adaptive than a life-style that does not include compensatory behavior. For example, youths who left high school before graduation but were involved in church reported less alcohol and substance use than youths who left school and were not involved in any meaningful instrumental activity. Implications for intervention and future research on high-risk behaviors are discussed.     

Reasons for quitting smoking among low-income African American smokers.

The psychometric characteristics of the Reasons For Quitting scale (RFQ) were assessed among a sample of African American smokers with low income (N=487). The intrinsic and extrinsic scales and their respective subscales were replicated. As hypothesized, higher levels of motivation were associated significantly, in patterns that supported the measure's construct validity, with advanced stage of readiness to quit smoking, greater perceived vulnerability to health effects of smoking, and greater social support for cessation. On the basis of the present study, the RFQ might best predict short-term cessation among older and female smokers. Refinement of the RFQ is needed to assess intrinsic motivators other than health concerns and to identify salient motivators for young and male smokers.     

Evolution of the African American Family Personality: Considerations for Family Therapy

Both internal and external factors help to determine the personality of the African American family. Personality traits of the African American family include adherence to historical values, diversity in family structure, and family communication. A review of the history of the African American family from its African roots to contemporary America is presented here.     

Cognitive-cultural model of identity and violence prevention for African American youth

The author introduces a cognitive-cultural model of identity development to explain the elevated risk for violence among African American youth. The model is an extension of previous conceptual frameworks that address the dynamic interplay among cognition, culture, and self-systems. Specifically, the self is conceptualized as a cognitive structure known as schemata that contain individual and cultural elements corresponding to those aspects of identity. The model has three major components: the individual self, the cultural self, and social roles. The cognitive-cultural model posits that maladaptative behaviors such as violence are a consequence of underdevelopment or imbalance in some aspect of the self or the adoption of social roles that undermine integration of the individual self-schemata and cultural self-schemata. The implications of this cognitive-cultural model for prevention efforts, particularly Afrocentric socialization interventions targeting African American youth, are discussed.