Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Children's Exposure To Violence Across Contexts: Profiles Of Family, School, And Community Witnessing And Victimization, Catherine Mary Rice

Master's Theses

Children residing in low-income, urban neighborhoods are at a disproportionately higher risk of exposure to violence (ETV) across multiple contexts compared to their peers, including witnessing violence and direct victimization. The many negative effects of ETV are compounded when youth experience ETV across multiple settings and when these experiences are chronic. Despite this, much of the research on ETV during childhood focuses on a single form of violence (e.g., family victimization or witnessing community violence). The current study examines patterns of frequency of ETV, including witnessing and victimization, across family, school, and community contexts, using person-centered methods to elucidate the …

An Integrated Model Of Safer Sex Practices Among African-American Gay And Bisexual Men, Brian D. Zamboni, Isiaah Crawford, Fred B. Bryant

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Models of safer sex enable researchers to identify specific constructs that can be used to promote health behavior and are more effective than interventions without a theoretical base. This study tested basic and modified forms of the Theory of Reasoned Action and Information Motivation Behavioral Skills models among 151 African American gay/bisexual men. Gay socialization was added to an integrated model to see if this minority-specific contextual variable would improve the model. Self-efficacy was tested as an independent variable and a mediating variable. The results suggest that an integrated model of safer sex practices should include benefits/barriers to condom use, …

Haitian Representation In The Media: A Comparative Analysis Between An African American Owned Newspaper And A Mainstream Newspaper, Stephanie Jean-Baptiste

Master's Theses

Are the portrayals of Haitian immigrants in an African-American owned newspaper, different from their portrayal in a white owned newspaper? In this paper I examine newspaper articles covering Haitian immigrants and refugees. The articles selected were published in 2004 and sampled from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Defender. Although the journals have distinctive goals and market reach, there were similarities in their portrayal of Haitian immigrants. Both journals referred to Haitian immigrants as victims of Haiti’s failed democracy. However, each journal advertised the reception of this migrant group differently. The African American owned newspaper advertised inclusion, while the white-owned …

Profiles Of Protective Factors In Urban African American Youth Exposed To Community Violence: A Prospective Study Of Resilience, Devin Colleen Carey

Dissertations

The broad purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between exposure to community violence and adjustment in an urban sample of African American youth living in Chicago. After years of research on community violence, there has been a call to understand the influences of all levels and systems on child adjustment, as well as to use research to promote positive outcomes and prevention of future violence (Aisenberg & Herrenkohl, 2008). With this in mind, this project used latent profile analysis to create profiles of protection based on individual, family, peer, and community factors, as well as evaluate the …

Posttraumatic Stress, Family Functioning, And Adjustment In Urban African American Youth Exposed To Violence: A Moderated Mediation Model, Kyle Deane

Master's Theses

Exposure to community violence is a pressing public health issue that disproportionately impacts poor, urban, and ethnic minority youth. It has been associated with a multitude of negative externalizing and internalizing symptoms, most frequently with posttraumatic stress. This study investigates the role that posttraumatic stress has in mediating the relation between exposure to community violence and other adjustment difficulties. Moreover, because not all adolescents experience these difficulties in the face of significant violence exposure, the study examines the moderating role of family cohesion and support in buffering the effect of violence and posttraumatic stress on later adjustment. A sample of …

The Effects Of Racial Identity On African American Youths' Psychosocial Adjustment: A Conceptualization Of The Literature And Meta-Analytic Review, Corinn Elmore

Dissertations

There is a general assumption of the positive effect of racial identity on the psychosocial adjustment of African-American youth. Despite this assertion, research findings for racial identity are unclear. The disparate measures of racial identity were organized into a cohesive framework with eight categories. Using this conceptual framework, a meta-analytic review was conducted on the effects the components of racial identity on African-American adolescents' psychosocial adjustment. There were 58 independent samples from 34 published journal articles and 14 unpublished papers (dissertations) including a total of 14,209 youth included in the study. Results of study highlight the importance of racial pride …

Toward The Development Of The Stereotypical Roles Of Black Young Men Scale, Amber Hewitt

Dissertations

There is a significant amount of literature on identity development in general, but there is a dearth of research focusing on identity development in relation to how other processes and constructs influence the identity development of African American young men. One such construct is the presence of stereotypical roles. The primary purpose of this study was to create a reliable and valid measure of the stereotypical roles of African American young men. This study explored the relationship between the endorsement of stereotypical roles, stigma consciousness, and masculinity of African American young men. African American young men (n = 164) between …

Remembering The Cultural Trauma Legacies Of Slavery: African American Young Adult Perceptions On Racism, Ethnic Identity, And Racial Socialization, Kimya Pearl Barden

Dissertations

The purpose of this research investigation is to explore cultural trauma theory on African American young adult development. Cultural trauma theory asserts the adverse cross-cultural encounter, North American slavery, reproduces intergenerational psychosocial legacies for contemporary African Americans. Accordingly, cultural trauma theory is used to explore with African American young adults three "slave" legacies: ethnic identity formation, perceptions of racism, and racial socialization experiences. A qualitative case study approach is used for (N=26) participants enrolled in either college or a GED program. Each young adult participates in either an individual or focus group interview. To aid in data triangulation, older African …

The Interactive Effects Of Coping Strategies, Gender, And Stress In The Prediction Of Internalizing Symptoms In African American Youth: An Application Of The Specificity Model, Cynthia Pierre

Master's Theses

The current study utilized a specificity framework in the examination of interactions among coping strategies, stressor domains, and participant gender in the prediction of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Participants were 273 African American adolescents (6th - 8th; mean age = 12.9; 58% female). Participants completed measures of universal and culturally-relevant coping strategies in response to a stressor. Stressors were coded by raters across dichotomous domains: interpersonality (interpersonal vs. non-interpersonal), duration (acute vs. chronic), controllability (controllable vs. non-controllable), and sexuality (sexual vs. non-sexual). T-tests were conducted to examine differences in reported coping across stress domains. Inconsistent with predictions, mean differences of …

Exposure To Community Violence And Social Maladjustment Among Urban African American Youth: The Role Of Emotion Dysregulation, Devin Colleen Carey

Master's Theses

The goal of the present study was to further previous research that has focused on the detrimental outcomes of violence exposure by identifying the mechanisms that influence children's psychosocial vulnerabilities. Specifically, it examined emotion regulation as a possible mediator of community violence exposure to social adjustment. Moreover, because of the evidence that children living in inner city communities are chronically exposed to violence, this study longitudinally explored the reciprocal and perpetuating relationship between exposure to violence and child social maladjustment. Participants were 268 African American students (M age = 11.65 years, 40% males and 60% females) from six inner city …

Towards A Multidimensional Model Of Adaptation For African American Adolescents Exposed To Racial Discrimination, Jamila Cunningham

Dissertations

The purposes of the current study were to 1) examine the associations of racial discrimination to internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms and perceived life satisfaction in African American adolescents, and 2) determine Africultural cluster profiles based on indicators of racial socialization, racial identity and culturally relevant coping strategies 3) examine whether cluster profile buffers stress exposed African American adolescents from increased internalizing symptoms, anger and decreased life satisfaction. One hundred-fifty-one African American adolescents (grades 9th - 12th) from four high schools and a community group from a major Midwest city and a major city from the Southeast reported on exposure to …

Predictors Of Academic Achievement And Failure Among Low-Income Urban African American Adolescents: An Ecological Perspective, Israel Moses Gross

Master's Theses

Predictors of academic achievement among urban low-income African American adolescents have primarily been investigated by examining "main effects," or limited interactions with conventional statistical techniques. This paper adds to the literature by examining the factors that influence academic outcomes among this population within an ecological systems framework. This allowed for a comprehensive understanding of how numerous protective and risk factors, across ecological settings, interact to influence academic outcomes.

Optimal Data Analysis (ODA) was employed to create prediction models for mathematic and reading achievement. ODA allowed for the examination of a vast number of variables in one statistical model without increasing …

Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Clusters And Externalizing Problems In Young Urban African American Adolescents, Maria Ann Horn-Rollins

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between five posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) clusters and two forms of externalizing problems within and across the middle school years in a low income urban sample of young adolescent African Americans. A secondary aim of this study was to explore moderation effects by gender. Total PTSS positively predicted a little over 58% of the cross-sectional externalizing outcomes and uniquely explained between 5 and 12% of the variance in these outcomes over and above gender and exposure to violence. Total PTSS significantly and positively predicted one-third of the longitudinal outcomes and …

The Relations Among Parental Monitoring And Warmth, And Adolescent Externalizing And Internalizing Distress: The Effects Of Parent And Adolescent Perception Of Neighborhood Danger, Jonathan Goldner

Dissertations

Parental monitoring and warmth have traditionally been studied in the context of white, middle-class families. This paper adds to recent research that has begun to explore what levels of these parenting behaviors are optimal for the prevention of adolescent psychopathology in impoverished, urban high crime areas. It also takes into account parent and child perceptions of neighborhood danger. This study employs a longitudinal design, with data collected at two times points one year apart, among a sample of 240 African American young adolescents and their parents in urban, high crime neighborhoods. It aims to study parental monitoring, parental warmth, parent …