Michael Cunningham

Influence of Perceived Contextual Stress on Self-Esteem and Academic Outcomes in African American Adolescents.

The study investigated factors that influence academic success among highachieving African American students who are exposed to many stressful life events that are often associated with life in many urban neighborhoods. The participants were 84 public high school students in a large urban southwestern city. The results indicated that adolescent-perceived hassles were indications of parental monitoring in high-risk neighborhoods. Also, parental monitoring was positively related to self-esteem. Within an area-specific examination of selfesteem, the school component mediated the relation between stressful life events and grade point average.

Where We Live The Unexpected Influence of Urban Neighborhoods on the Academic Performance of African American Adolescents

Adolescents who live in low-income neighborhoods face numerous unique challenges. Examining their resilience in multiple contexts sheds light on what contributes to the diverse outcomes of these youth. The current study examines how adolescents’ reports of structural and experiential neighborhood characteristics buffered the impact of exposure to community violence on academic performance. A total of 206 African American high school students completed a series of questionnaires; some of the item measures covered by the questionnaires include the following: exposure to community violence; opportunities for involvement and actual engagement in neighborhood-based structured activities; and self-reported grades for the school year. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that structural and experiential factors buffered the impact of exposure to community violence on academic performance. These findings suggest that in the face of exposure to community violence, adolescents who are involved in neighborhood activities, even when opportunities for involvement are minimal, have better academic outcomes.

Why Do Good Kids Do Bad Things? Considering Multiple Contexts in the Study of Antisocial Fighting Behaviors in African American Urban Youth.

This study aims to identify which contexts are related to antisocial fighting behaviors in African American adolescents. Eighty-eight urban high school students (75% female; ages 14 to 18) participated in a study aimed to assess the relation between their social contexts (family, neighborhood, peers, and school) and fighting behaviors. Results supported the hypothesized relation between negative peer influence and antisocial fighting behaviors. As expected, the combination of all 4 negative contexts was directly related to fighting behaviors. Additionally, males behaved more aggressively than females. Suggestions are offered for future research concerning the influence of extended kin on antisocial fighting behaviors in this population. Understanding precursors to juvenile delinquency is an important and timely topic. Recent years have witnessed a punitive stance towards youth and juvenile justice policy (Bortner, Zatz, & Hawkins, 2000). Furthermore, policies for harsher penalties and juvenile incarceration, as well as other forms of social control, have been on a sharp rise (Krisberg et al., 1987; Snyder & Sickmund, 1995). However, the effects of these public policies have not fallen equally among all youth involved in the juvenile justice system. African American and Hispanic American youth are candidates most likely to be detained and confined in secure facilities (Krisberg et al., 1987; Snyder & Sickmund, 1995). What is needed is information about precursors to events that lead youth to participation in the juvenile justice system. For example, researchers have documented how African American adolescents have been impacted by negative perceptions of them by community and school officials (Cunningham, 1999; Ford, 2001, 1998; Irvine, 1990). These negative perceptions of youth often lead to internal and external coping responses that are precursors to involvement in the juvenile justice system (Spencer, Cunningham, & Swanson, 1995; Stevenson, 1997). One external response is fighting behaviors. Antisocial fighting behaviors are a regular occurrence in many urban environments. Because they often occur out of the presence of responsible adults, fighting behaviors have long been considered unavoidable and harmful parts of growing up in these environments. Identifying the characteristics of youth who display these behaviors is important in order to minimize the growth of youth violence and potential juvenile justice system involvement. The majority of available literature on this topic, however, often exposes the characteristics of young White males while overlooking females and minority populations entirely (Brame, Nagin, & Tremblay, 2001; Nagin & Tremblay, 1999). When researching African American urban youth, methodology developed for the study of White children should not be generalized. Although development probably progresses similarly across different racial populations, researchers must consider the interaction between individuals and their unique environments. Therefore, understanding the development of minority youth requires precise attention to the unique situations these youth face (Garcia Coll et al., 1996). All individuals develop within a variety of environmental contexts, which in turn, influence how they will respond to various stimuli. One response method is adaptive coping, which is how individuals meet significant threats to stability and function effectively (Anthony, 1974). Antisocial fighting behaviors, for instance, may be adaptive coping mechanisms utilized by many urban youth, although these behaviors have maladaptive connotations, which lead to increased involvement with the juvenile justice system. Not all youth within these communities display these behaviors, however. For example, Spencer (1995, 1999) demonstrated that many African American adolescents sharing the same environment commonly had different outcomes as far as behavioral resilience. Her research findings complimented the work of other researchers who have argued that adolescents who display resilience positively adapt within adverse contexts (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000). …

The Importance of Family: The Impact of Social Support on Symptoms of Psychological Distress in African American Girls

The study examines social support and ego-resiliency as buffers for the development of symptoms of psychological distress of urban African American female adolescents. The participants were 136 high school students who resided in a large southern city. Students completed measures examining negative life events, family support, ego-resiliency, and symptoms of psychological distress. Although perceptions of social support from mothers were highest of all domains of support, support from fathers appeared to be especially important, in that girls with lower levels of ego-resiliency experienced fewer symptoms of psychological distress when perceptions of support from fathers were high. The results indicate that resilience in African American girls is associated with the combination of supportive family relationships as well as the ability to adjust to new and challenging environmental demands.

School- and community-based associations to hypermasculine attitudes in African American adolescent males

This study examined the role of hypermasculinity as a form of reactive coping among urban African American adolescent males (ages 12-17) and assessed the extent to which hypermasculinity is influenced by youth appraisals of how adults in their school and community perceive them. Two research questions were addressed: (a) Do adolescent males who report negative community and school experiences use hypermasculine attitudes as a coping response? (b) Do the effects of perceived negative school and community experiences persist, if they are present at all? Participants in the study were 241 African American adolescent males who attended public schools in a large southeastern city. Associating youth-reported questionnaires on perceived teacher expectations and perceptions of community challenges from one wave of data on hypermasculine attitudes within the same year and 2 years later, the results indicate that hypermasculinity attitudes stem from negative perceptions in the community and school contexts. Also, hypermasculinity attitudes were associated with these negatively perceived experiences across time. When examined longitudinally, negative experiences in the community had a stronger relation to hypermasculinity than similar experiences at school.

Educating Tomorrow’s Men Perceived School Support, Negative Youth Experiences, and Bravado Attitudes In African American Adolescent Males

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between negative youth experiences and bravado attitudes in African American urban males. In addition, an examination of positive factors, such as school social support, was examined to understand potential resilient pathways. Data were collected at two sites, a science and math center (n = 68) and an academy for academic achievement (n = 58). Using Spencer’s PVEST (2006) model as a framework, the study hypothesized that negative youth experiences would have a positive relation with bravado attitudes, but perceptions of school support would lessen this relationship. The Perceived School Support construct consisted of students’ perceptions of their teachers and administrators. The results partially confirmed the hypothesis. The results also highlight the importance of adolescent perceptions of support in the school context and how this perceived support may decrease bravado attitudes. Further explanation of study’s results, future research opportunities, and policy implications are explored.

Resilience Across the Life Span: A Tribute to Emmy E. Werner

This issue on resilience across the life span honors the enormous contributions that Emmy E. Werner has made to developmental psychology. Her longitudinal work has challenged long-held assumptions concerning the inevitability of adverse adult outcomes for high-risk children. She focused instead on their resilience and interactions between the individual characteristics and the sociocultural context that enabled most to successfully overcome adversity. These articles address individual and contextual influences on resilience in high risk African-American adolescents, and how the long-term effects of combat experience on well-being in later life. The final article presents an overview of resilience at the individual and community levels.

Resilience and Coping: An Example in African American Adolescents

The study addresses how African American adolescents are resilient when exposed to discrimination. We examine racial identity as a buffer between cumulative stressful events and aggression attitudes in 285 adolescents (M = 15.41, SD = 1.38). Boys report more general beliefs about aggression than girls. Girls with low racial identity are more vulnerable for general beliefs about aggression when exposed to greater negative youth experiences. However, boys with high racial identity have greater general beliefs about aggression as their negative youth experiences increase. Racial identity has a protective-enhancing buffering affect for adolescent girls and a protective-reactive effect for boys.

Perceived Teacher Encouragement as Buffer to Substance Use in Urban African American Adolescents: Implications for Disconnected Youth:

The variety of experiences of African American adolescents is still misunderstood and neglected. Empirical and lay reports consistently report that drug use is rampant within African American communities despite the fact that national statistics show that African Americans engage in substance use less than their White counterparts. Thus, the current study investigates the relations between African American adolescents’ school encouragement, academic future expectations (AFE), and substance use engagement. The participants are 206 African American adolescents (females = 65.7%), mean age 15.78 (SD = 1.18), who reside in a southern, urban city. The regression results indicated that there was an inverse, trend level relation between school encouragement and the global substance use assessment (β = −.05, p < .10; ΔR2 = .02). AFE moderated the relation between school encouragement and all of the substance use variables except alcohol. Simple slopes analyses revealed that AFE only significantly moderated the relation between school encouragement and substance use for students who reported low levels of AFE, indicating that increased school encouragement may serve as a protective factor against substance use engagement for those students who may be disconnected from academic achievement.

Boys do(n’t) cry: Addressing the unmet mental health needs of African American boys.

If African American boys are contemplating taking their lives at early ages, the hope for future generations is challenging at best. What is going on in African American communities that there is a lack of safe spaces for boys to express their emotions and to share their travails with supportive networks in lieu of ending their lives? The situation of African American boys (ages 5-11) committing suicide at higher levels-more than any other group-and the recent studies regarding the rising rates of suicide among African American adolescent boys (12 and older) call for greater reflection and more discourse around the mental health challenges faced by this group. We must identify the emotional and psychological reasons that underlie suicidal behaviors for African American boys and work to provide immediate intervention. Families, educators, and community workers play key roles in identifying signs of mental health challenges such as depression and connecting African American boys to mental health care services. In this article, the authors discuss specific ways to better support boys who exhibit early signs of depression and suicidal behavior. Topics discussed include (1) untreated depression among African American youth; (2) looking deeper at the reasons for untreated depression; (3) misunderstanding and denial of mental health challenges; (4) risk factors in schools; (5) harsh discipline practices; (6) low teacher expectations; and (7) disconnection from adults. (PsycINFO Database Record