Howard C. Stevenson

Relationship of Adolescent Perceptions of Racial Socialization to Racial Identity.

The reklaonship between racial sociadization attitudes and racial identity stages is the subject of this article, with racial socialization hypothesized as one key variable to link the literatures in childhood racial awareness ad young adult racial identity. A teenage sample was selected to compare measures of racial socialization and racial identity processes. The Scale of Racial Socilizationfor Adolescents and the 50-item Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS) based on Nigrescence theory were administered to 287 African American adolescents between the ages of 14 and 15 years. A principal components analysis was conducted on the RIAS to assess its appropriateness with a younger adolescent population. The factor analytic procedure yielded a three-factor solution with moderately reliablefactors. Thefactors corresponded to the Nigrescence stages of preencounter, immersion, and internalization. Results indicate that specific factors of racial socialization differentially predict all of the racial identiy stages for females and the preencounter and internalization identity stages for males. Findings also suggest that racial socialization is multidimensional, and implications for integrating it with revised multidimensional conceptualizations of racial identity are raised.

Development of the Teenager Experience of Racial Socialization Scale: Correlates of Race-Related Socialization Frequency from the Perspective of Black Youth

An adolescents perspective of family race-related socialization is a novel way to understand racial identity and socialization experiences. This article reports on the development of the Teenager Experience of Racial Socialization (TERS), which asks students how often they receive socialization about managing racism, cultural pride, and spirituality. A factor analysis was conducted with 260 African American youth. The results revealed five meaningful and reliable factors, including Cultural Coping With Antagonism, Cultural Pride Reinforcement, Cultural Legacy Appreciation, Cultural Alertness to Discrimination (CAD), and Cultural Endorsement of the Mainstream (CEM), and one composite factor (combines the first four TERS factors) called Cultural Socialization Experience (CULTRS). Findings reveal that boys experience more CAD communications than do girls, a moderate degree of family conversations about race is associated with greater frequency of racial socialization, family member experiences with racism are associated with higher frequency of CULTRS, and personal experience with racism is associated with lower CEM in girls but not boys. The presence of a small correlation between racial socialization experiences and racial socialization beliefs supports the discriminant validity of the scale. Implications for adolescent and family research are discussed.

Racism Stress Management: Racial Socialization Beliefs and the Experience of Depression and Anger in African American Youth

The psychological effects of living in a racially hostile context are multiple. African American adolescents who respond to racial intolerance with anger and depression are silenced and vulnerable to misinterpretation and misdiagnosis. Adolescents who believe the African American family has the responsibility of raising children to be aware of societal hostilities and cultural strengths are the focus of this article. Gender differences were found, and results suggest that beliefs in various types of racial socialization differentially contribute to positive psychological outcomes for adolescents. A cultural ecological framework is used to discuss the resilience and risk of anger expression.

Validation of the Scale of Racial Socialization for African American Adolescents: Steps toward Multidimensionality

Little empirical work has been initiated that broadens the definition of racial socialization and its measurement to integrate it with current theoretical discussion of racial identity developmentand AfricanAmerican cultural characteristics and strengths. This study reports the development and validation of the Scale of Racial SocializationforAdolescents (SORS-A). A principal components analysis was conducted following administration of the SORS-A and measures of demographics, family communication about racism, and perception of skin color to 200 African American urban teenagers. Four factors were found to be very meaningful and moderately reliable. The racial socialization factors include Spiritual and Religious Coping, Extended Family Caring, Cultural Pride Reinforcement, and Racism Awareness Teaching. A second-order factor analysis to identify underlying themes was also conducted. Themes of protective and proactive racial socialization were found to be supportive of a theoreticalframework for racial socialization that is multidimensional and inclusive of both socially oppressive and culturally empowering experiences.

Raising Safe Villages: Cultural-Ecological Factors That Influence the Emotional Adjustment of Adolescents

The fear of real and imaginary calamity is a detrimental strain on the emotional adjustment of Americas urban youth. This study investigated the relationship of African American adolescent perceptions of calamity fears, kinship social support, and neighborhood social capital to various aspects of depression. Findings indicate that adolescents from urban neighborhoods, where they felt safe and were fearful of potential calamity, showed lower levels of global depressive symptoms. Some interesting gender differences were noted, with adolescent girls from high-risk neighborhoods benefiting the mostfrom high levels of neighborhood social capital and high levels of calamity fear Implications for integrating ecological factors into violence prevention and mental health promotion programs are discussed.

Community-based resilient peer treatment of withdrawn maltreated preschool children

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate differences in the social play of maltreated and nonmaltreated preschool children and the effectiveness of a resilient peer treatment (RPT) for socially withdrawn victims of physical abuse and neglect. RPT is a peer-mediated classroom intervention based on a developmental-ecological model. It involves pairing withdrawn children with resilient peers in the natural classroom under the supervision of a parent assistant. Forty-six Head Start children, of whom 22 were maltreated, were randomly assigned to RPT and control conditions. Outcome variables were observational categories of social play and standardized teacher ratings. Before treatment, maltreated children were significantly more isolated and less interactive in peer play than nonmaltreated children. RPT resulted in a significant increase in positive interactive peer play and a decrease in solitary play for maltreated and nonmaltreated, socially withdrawn children. Moreover, treatment gains in social interactions were validated 2 months following treatment. Findings are discussed in terms of a developmental-ecological model.

Racial/Ethnic Socialization Mediates Perceived Racism and the Racial Identity of African American Adolescents

Racism and racial/ethnic socialization are proposed as interactive risk and resilience factors that promote the development of multiple dimensions of racial identity among African American youth are the focus of this study. One-hundred and eight African American students responded to questions about their racial identity and socialization. Controlling for demographic characteristics of ecological support (from family, friends, and neighbors), neighborhood racial composition, and gender, findings revealed that racism exposure significantly explained the variance of several racial identity components and ideologies but that racial/ethnic socialization mediated that influence. We discuss the implications for future study of racism experience on the racial identity development of African American youth.

Missed, dissed, and pissed: making meaning of neighborhood risk, fear and anger management in urban black youth.

The risk factor, stress engagement, and coping experiences of African American youth are not well understood. Given the stressors of racism, hopeless perceptions of urban youth, and violence experience and exposure, anger experience and expression are reasonable resilient and risky reactions to this atmosphere of hostility. This study analyzed the impact upon the anger management of adolescents when calamity fears, neighborhood social capital, and kinship social support are known. The findings suggest that when the calamity fears of youth are high, their anger experience and expression is minimized. This finding was prominent for adolescents living in high-risk neighborhoods. Kinship social support showed a positive relationship to anger suppression for youth in high-risk environments. Implications for understanding the phenomenological stress and coping experiences of African American youth are discussed.

They Wear the Mask: Hypervulnerability and Hypermasculine Aggression Among African American Males in an Urban Remedial Disciplinary School

Abstract Interpersonal violence represents a serious health risk for African American male adolescents, especially those in urban environments. Given the nature of potentially high-stress inner-city contexts, perhaps it is not surprising that many young Black males engage in hypermasculine behavior, particularly aggression, to cope and earn respect from peers. Using theoretical frameworks that appreciate cultural, developmental, and gender differences, this study examines relationships between the hypervulnerable qualities of depression, rejection sensitivity, and fear and the hypermasculine outcome of aggression among young Black males in a remedial disciplinary context. Results suggested that depression and rejection sensitivity significantly correlated with anger- and aggression-related responses and can be argued to be potential exacerbators of aggression among these youth. Implications for anti-aggression intervention efforts with young Black males in urban contexts are discussed.

Kinship Social Support and Adolescent Racial Socialization Beliefs: Extending the Self to Family.

This study explored the relationship between adolescent reports of the level of kinship support they experience as members of an extended family network and racial socialization beliefs. A large grupofAfricanAmericanadolescents(n = 229) was administered the Scale ofRacial SocializationforAdolescents (SORS-A), the Kinship Social Support Scale (KSS), and a question regarding the amount of parental communication about racism. MANOVA results indicate significant differences between adolescents with high, moderate, and low levels of kinship support across three offour SORS-A factors (i.e., spiritual and religious coping, extended family caring, and cultural pride reinforcement). These factors make up the proactive dimension of adolescent racial socialization beliefs. The protective dimension (i.e., racism awareness teaching) was nonsignificant in relationship to kinship support. Future research on the importance of the relationship of ecological networks and racial socialization attitudes is discussed.