Differential Effects of Racial Socialization Messages for African American Adolescents: Personal Versus Institutional Racial Discrimination

Racial socialization is one factor known to attenuate the negative consequences of racial discrimination on adolescents’ anger and depressive symptoms. However, little is known about whether racial socialization messages addressing cultural and racial pride and messages preparing youth for racial discrimination and racial barriers function differently depending upon whether adolescents perceive personal versus institutional racial discrimination. Thus, the present study examined whether racial socialization messages emphasizing racial pride and racial barriers protected against anger and depressive symptoms for African American adolescents’ experience of personal and institutional racial discrimination. Participants were a community sample of 106 urban African American adolescents (57 % girls; mean age = 15.41) residing in a large metropolitan area. Regression analyses revealed that personal racial discrimination was positively associated with anger for youth reporting low cultural pride reinforcement, and positively associated with depressive symptoms for youth reporting low cultural alertness to discrimination; there were no associations between personal racial discrimination and anger or depressive symptoms for youth reporting high racial socialization messages. Neither cultural pride nor racial barrier racial socialization message protected against institutional racial discrimination. Findings suggest that the protective effects of racial socialization messages vary based on the type of racial discrimination adolescents experience.     

All employees are equal,but some are more equal than others: dominance,agreeableness, and status inconsistency among men and women

Status inconsistency is a situation in which there is an objective or subjective mismatch between, for example, a person’s education and his/her income. This mismatch may transform into status enhancement, wherein rewards exceed one’s human capital, or into status detraction, wherein one’s human capital exceeds one’s rewards. Although status inconsistency affects employees’ attitudes and behaviours, little is known about individual differences in this variable. The current study investigates whether the relationships of agreeableness and dominance—with objective and subjective status inconsistency vary by gender. We analysed objective and subjective input and return statuses among a sample of 375 employees. We found that men who expressed a gender-non-congruent trait, namely agreeableness, experienced an objective backlash effect compared with dominant men, whereas women who expressed a gender-non-congruent trait, namely dominance, did not experience a backlash effect compared with agreeable women. In addition, our results show that agreeable employees, both men and women, perceive themselves as status-enhanced when in fact they are not. Finally, we show that objective status inconsistency mediates the relationships of agreeableness and dominance with subjective status inconsistency.     

The association of tanning behavior with psycho-tropic medication use among young adult women

Despite its known association with skin cancer, tanning remains popular among young adult women. Indoor tanning behavior has been found to be associated with affective and addictive disorders. To better understand potential psychological and biological mechanisms of tanning behavior, we investigated associations between tanning and medication (psychotropic and other) use among young women. Two hundred and fifty-three women age 18–29 years old were recruited from two northeastern university campus communities. Women self-reported tanning frequency and chronic medication use. In both univariate and multivariate analyses, indoor tanning ≥12 times last year was significantly associated with use of psychotropic medication and anti-depressants in particular. Sunbathing was not associated with medication use. Potential reasons for associations between tanning and psychotropic medication use are discussed. Indoor tanners should be warned that some psychotropic medications are photosensitizing, thus increasing risk for burns and other skin damage from indoor tanning.     

Parental Monitoring,Association with Externalized Behavior,and Academic Outcomes in Urban African‐American Youth: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

African‐American adolescents exposed to neighborhood disadvantage are at increased risk for engaging in problem behavior and academic underachievement. It is critical to identify the mechanisms that reduce problem behavior and promote better academic outcomes in this population. Based on social disorganization and socioecological theories, the current prospective study examined pathways from parental monitoring to academic outcomes via externalizing behavior at different levels of neighborhood disadvantage. A moderated mediation model employing maximum likelihood was conducted on 339 African‐American students from 9th to 11th grade (49.3% females) with a mean age of 14.8 years (SD ± 0.35). The results indicated that parental monitoring predicted low externalizing behavior, and low externalizing behavior predicted better academic outcomes after controlling for externalizing behavior in 9th grade, intervention status, and gender. Mediation was supported, as the index of mediation was significant. Conversely, neighborhood disadvantage did not moderate the path from parental monitoring to externalizing behavior. Implications for intervention at both community and individual levels and study limitations are discussed.     

Managing Emotional Responses in Therapy: An Adapted EFT Supervision Approach

Therapists often encounter experiences in therapy that elicit emotionality, this could be in the form of self-of-the-therapist issues, compassion fatigue, or professional burnout. Whereas approaches to supervision for self-of-the-therapist issues recognize the need for accessing the supervisee’s emotionality, approaches have not focused on how the clinical and professional system could also be part of the cycle. We propose an adapted emotionally focused supervision approach that employs steps one through six of the EFT model. To display how this approach would work, we provide the example of work with longer-term clients. Working with longer-term clients can be a challenge for many therapists, and both the professional and client system come with factors increasing emotional risk to the therapist. Engaging the therapist’s emotionality through supervision has the potential to improve therapeutic outcomes, as well as reduce loss of good therapists in the field to professional burnout.