Successful rural black adolescents: a psychosocial profile

The purpose of this study was to investigate important psychosocial variables associated with the educational development of black adolescents in a southern rural environment. The study explored factors related to academic and social success among rural black adolescents. The focus of the investigation was on identifying psychological and social variables which may successfully influence the transaction between black youth and the rural educational system. Such success variables are important for research because of the traditional emphasis in the social sciences on concepts of deficit in the person-environment interactions of black youth. This article presents a profile of successful black adolescents in a rural school system in the Southeast. The profile was developed from personal interviews with 68 black students identified by teachers as successful, often despite social or economic hardship. The implications for future research and rural educational policy and program from the profile are discussed.