Niobe Way

Trajectories of perceived adult and peer discrimination among Black, Latino, and Asian American adolescents: Patterns and psychological correlates.

This article presents results from a 3-year longitudinal study of the growth patterns and correlates of perceived discrimination by adults and by peers among Black, Latino, and Asian American high school students. Results revealed a linear increase over time in levels of perceived discrimination by adults, whereas perceptions of discrimination by peers remained stable over time. Asian American and non-Puerto Rican Latino adolescents (primarily Dominican) reported higher levels of peer and/or adult discrimination than did Puerto Rican youth, whereas Black adolescents reported a steeper increase over time in levels of perceived discrimination by peers and by adults than did Puerto Rican adolescents. Peer and adult discrimination was significantly associated with decreased self-esteem and increased depressive symptoms over time. Ethnic identity and ethnicity were found to moderate the relationships between perceived discrimination and changes in psychological well-being over time. Results underscore the need to include perceptions of discrimination when studying the development and well-being of ethnic minority adolescents.

Experiences of Discrimination among African American, Asian American, and Latino Adolescents in an Urban High School

Interviews and participant observation are used to describe how ethnic minority students in an urban high school experience discrimination. The findings suggest critical variations among students that contributed to a hostile school environment. Asian American students discussed physical and verbal harassment by peers, while Black and Latino students reported discrimination by adults, such as teachers, police, and shopkeepers. Findings suggested a circular process whereby teachers preferred the Asian American students, often basing their preference on model minority beliefs, and the African American and Latino adolescents resented that teacher bias and thus harassed the Asian American students. Asian American and Latino students also expressed intraracial tensions around issues of language, immigration, and assimilation. Findings underscore the importance of exploring adolescents’ subjective experiences of discrimination.

Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities.

Sociologists have tried to analyze adolescents as long as the discipline has existed. However, most studies have focused on suburban youth, ignoring a large segment of the population, the urban adolescent. Urban Girls tries to reverse this trend. The researchers included in this ambitious project realize there is more to adolescence than the suburban experience. The city has unique effects on the people who live there, and they on it. Drawing on experts from across the country, Urban Girls investigates what it is like to be young in an American city. This book also explores the minority experience in America. It is wonderful to see studies of Black and Latina youth that do not automatically label them as future convicts, drug dealers, or with other negative stereotypes. --The American Reporter Traditional psychology textbooks have ignored the normative development of urban girls and the unique situations they face on a daily basis. Lumped together with their suburban, mostly white and middle class counterparts, their voices are frequently subsumed within the larger study of adolescent development. Urban Girls is the first book to directly focus on the development of urban poor and working class adolescent girls. Including both quantitative and qualitative essays, and including contributions from psychologists, sociologists, and public health scholars, this volume explores the lives of a diverse group of girls from varying ethnic and class backgrounds. Topics covered include the identity development of Caribbean-American girls, the role of truth telling in the psychological development of African-American girls, relationships between mothers and daughters of different races and ethnicities, friendships, sexuality, health risks, career development, and other subjects of importance to human development. Filling a gap in the literature of human development, Urban Girls is sure to be of use to psychologists, sociologists, and social workers.

Close and General Friendships among African American, Latino, and Asian American Adolescents from Low-Income Families

Responding to the lack of research on friendships among racial/ethnic minority adolescents, a study of friendships was conducted among 160 African American, Latino, and Asian American adolescents from low-income families. The goals of the study were to (a) assess gender and racial/ethnic differences in the characteristics and quality of close and general friendships, (b) examine the independent and combined influence of individual-level (i.e., psychological well-being) and contextual (i.e., family relationships and school climate) variables on the quality of close and general friendships, and (c) examine the moderating effect of gender and race/ethnicity on the associations between individual-level and contextual variables and the quality of close and general friendships. Findings indicated significant gender and racial/ethnic differences in the characteristics and quality of close and general friendships. Furthermore, the correlates of friendship quality differed across the type of friendship (i.e., close or general) and across gender, underscoring the importance of distinguishing types of friendships and examining the role of gender in friendships.

The role of mothers' and adolescents' perceptions of ethnic-racial socialization in shaping ethnic-racial identity among early adolescent boys and girls

The current study examined relationships between adolescents’ and mothers’ reports of ethnic-racial socialization and adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity. The sample included 170 sixth graders (49% boys, 51% girls) and their mothers, all of whom identified as Black, Puerto Rican, Dominican, or Chinese. Two dimensions of ethnic-racial socialization (cultural socialization and preparation for bias) were evaluated alongside three dimensions of ethnic-racial identity (exploration, affirmation and belonging, and behavioral engagement). Mothers’ reports of their cultural socialization predicted adolescents’ reports, but only adolescents’ reports predicted adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity processes. Mothers’ reports of preparation for bias predicted boys’ but not girls’ reports of preparation for bias. Again, only adolescents’ reports of preparation for bias predicted their ethnic-racial identity. Thus, several gender differences in relationships emerged, with mothers’ and adolescents’ perceptions of cultural socialization, in particular, playing a more important role in girls’ than in boys’ identity processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research.

To be or not to be: An exploration of ethnic identity development in context

This qualitative study focused on the intersection of personal and ethnic identities among forty African American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Chinese American high school students. The patterns in content indicated that for the Puerto Ricans, the intersection of their personal and social identities was a series of accommodations to a positive peer climate and a resistance to being Dominican. For the other ethnic groups, the intersection of their personal and social identities consisted of a process of resistance and accommodation to negative stereotypes projected on them by their peers and, for African Americans, themselves.

Early Adolescent Girls’ Perceptions of their Relationships with their Fathers: A Qualitative Investigation

In response to the lack of research on father/daughter relationships in ethnic minority, low-income families, a qualitative, exploratory study was conducted with 20 early adolescent girls to examine their perceptions of relationships with their fathers. The girls predominantly were Latina or African American and came from low-income, two-parent or single-parent households. They participated in one-to-one, semistructured interviews in which they were asked about their relationships with their fathers. The analysis of the interviews revealed four themes: (a) girls had, or expected to have, activity-oriented relationships with their fathers that involved conversations focused on school, sports, or “the world”; (b) girls wanted “more” from their fathers; (c) girls perceived their fathers as “overprotective”; and (d) girls protected their fathers. With the exception of the fourth theme, each theme was detected in more than three-fourths of the girls’ interviews. The findings indicated a need to examine further the standards by which daughters and fathers evaluate their relationships.

Pathways toward educational achievement among African American and Puerto Rican adolescent mothers: Reexamining the role of social support from families

Although a majority of adolescent mothers are graduating from high school, the processes that enhance the educational attainment of adolescent mothers are not well understood. With a sample of 93 African American and Puerto Rican adolescent mothers, we assessed the effects of material support from family (i.e., child care assistance from grandmother and residence with grandmother) and emotional support from family over and above pre- and postpregnancy risk factors (i.e., maternal age at first birth, delayed grade placement before pregnancy, ethnicity, depressive symptoms, stressful life events, and repeat pregnancy) during the first year postpartum on educational attainment at 6 years postpartum. Significant contributors to the explained variance in educational attainment included: delayed grade placement before pregnancy, maternal age at first birth, depressive symptoms, emotional support from family, and residence with grandmother. Unexpectedly, higher perceived emotional support from family and living with grandmother predicted lower educational attainment. Post hoc analysis of qualitative data suggested reasons for these latter findings and point to the need to reconceptualize and broaden the elements of social support that constitute protective factors for adolescent mothers.

Trajectories of Ethnic-Racial Discrimination Among Ethnically Diverse Early Adolescents: Associations With Psychological and Social Adjustment

Using longitudinal data, the authors assessed 585 Dominican, Chinese, and African American adolescents (Grades 6-8, M(age) at W1 = 11.83) to determine patterns over time of perceived ethnic-racial discrimination from adults and peers; if these patterns varied by gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status; and whether they are associated with psychological (self-esteem, depressive symptoms) and social (friend and teacher relationship quality, school belonging) adjustment. Two longitudinal patterns for adult discrimination and three longitudinal patterns for peer discrimination were identified using a semiparametric mixture model. These trajectories were distinct with regard to the initial level, shape, and changes in discrimination. Trajectories varied by gender and ethnicity and were significantly linked to psychological and social adjustment. Directions for future research and practice are discussed.

Individual and Contextual Predictors of Perceived Friendship Quality among Ethnic Minority, Low‐Income Adolescents

This longitudinal study examined the separate, relative, and combined contributions of demographic (i.e., gender and ethnicity), individual-level (i.e., psychological well-being), and contextual (i.e., relationships with parents and perceived school climate) factors on changes over time in perceived quality of general and closest same-sex friendships among 114 Asian American, Black, and Latino adolescents from low-income families. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the increase in reported levels of general friendship support from Time 1 to Time 2 (a 1-year period) was greater for those who reported more positive perceptions of school climate at Time 1. The increase in general friendship support from Time 1 to Time 2 was also greater for those who reported lower support scores from mothers at Time 1. Findings suggest a compensatory model of relationships and draw attention to the importance of exploring the ecological context of adolescent friendships.