The rate of incarceration in the United States has increased at an alarming rate in the past 30 years and thus so has the number of children having a household member incarcerated (referred to as ). Associations between experiencing household incarceration in childhood and later negative health and developmental outcomes are well-documented; however, the underlying mechanisms linking this childhood stressor and adult outcomes have been less well studied. Using state Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data ( = 145,102), this study examines how experiencing household incarceration during childhood is associated with mental and physical health in adulthood and mediational pathways through suboptimal sleep (short or long sleep).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol
October 2023
Objectives: This study investigated the moderating roles of contextual racial composition (neighborhood, school, and job) and parent-adolescent gender dyads on the relation between familial racial discrimination experiences and parental racial socialization messages.
Method: The analytic sample included 565 Black parents ( = 44.7; 56% mothers, 44% fathers) who reported on their personal and adolescents' racial discrimination experiences and their communication of cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages.
The development of anti-racist ideology in adolescence and emerging adulthood is informed by parent socialization, parenting style, and cross-race friendships. This study used longitudinal, multi-reporter survey data from White youth and their parents in Maryland to examine links between parents' racial attitudes when youth were in eleventh grade in 1996 (N = 453; 52% female; M = 17.12) and the youths' anti-racist ideology (acknowledgment of anti-Black discrimination and support for affirmative action) 1 year after high school in 1998.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study examined whether Black American fathers' perceptions of their adolescents' experiences of racial discrimination were related to fathers' depressive symptoms and if this association was moderated by fathers' racial identity beliefs and adolescent gender.
Background: Racial discrimination is not only an individual-level but also a family-level stressor for Black families. Racial discrimination experienced by parents can spillover to influence their children; however, fewer studies have examined how adolescents' discrimination experiences relate to parents' psychological outcomes, especially among Black fathers.
Background: African Americans often witness or learn about others' racial discrimination experiences (i.e., vicarious racial discrimination).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol
October 2021
Background: Previous research suggests that parents' characteristics and race-related experiences shape the racial socialization messages they give their children. Parents' beliefs about race may also relate to how they interpret and respond to race-related stressors. The current study drew on the Sociohistorical Integrative Model for the Study of Stress in Black Families to examine the moderating roles of gender and racial identity subscales (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate the extent to which perceived thought control ability (PTCA) promotes the psychological functioning of Black American mothers, as well as moderates the negative effects of key stressors faced by this population, including discrimination experiences, financial strain, and parenting stress.
Methods: An online survey was administered to 305 Black American mothers across the U.S.
Objective: The purpose of the current study was to use the integrative model for the Study of Stress in Black American Families to test whether a set of maternal race-related stressors were related to adolescents' academic and behavioral outcomes through maternal depressive symptoms and involved-vigilant parenting. Gender differences in these relations were tested also.
Background: Research on race-related stressors has predominantly focused on the role of personal racial discrimination experiences on individual outcomes.
The goal of this study was to examine whether, in African American families with adolescents, the associations between adolescents' racial discrimination experiences and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors differed based on involved-vigilant parenting and the genders of the parent and child. The sample included 567 African American parents of adolescents who completed an online survey on parenting, race-related stressors, and adolescent outcomes. Path analyses examining main effects and the interaction between adolescents' racial discrimination experiences, as reported by the parent, and involved-vigilant parenting were conducted in MPlus 8.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study assessed the degree to which the racial composition of one's neighborhood was related to the racial socialization messages parents communicated to their children in a sample of 307 African American families. Linear regression analyses were conducted. Neighborhoods were classified as predominantly African American, predominantly European American, or racially integrated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeer pressure to use drugs and alcohol is one of the strongest predictors of adolescent substance use. In addition to this normative adolescent stressor, African American adolescents often also face race-related stress in the form of racial discrimination, which has been linked to maladaptive coping responses such as substance use. The interaction of these stressors may help explain substance using behaviors for African American adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study examined the potential of relational closeness in the natural mentoring relationships (NMRs) of Black students to counter and protect against the noxious effects of school-based discrimination on academic engagement. The study sample included 663 Black students between the ages of 12 and 19 ( = 14.96 years, = 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol
April 2020
Objectives: Survey data of 155 Midwestern African American adolescents ( = 13.25, 54.8% female) and their parents were assessed to examine whether parents' racial discrimination experiences and adolescents' gender moderated the association between adolescents' racial discrimination experiences and involved-vigilant parenting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The purpose of this study was to test whether parenting profiles based on racial socialization and involved-vigilant parenting would compensate for or moderate associations between racial discrimination experiences and academic outcomes and psychological well-being among African American adolescents.
Method: Participants were 1,363 African American adolescents (M = 14.19; 52.
Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of academic identification and academic persistence, particularly among African American adolescents. The present study investigated how cultural assets (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe assessed whether perceived discrimination predicted changes in psychological distress and substance use over time and whether psychological distress and substance use predicted change in perceived discrimination over time. We also assessed whether associations between these constructs varied by gender. Our sample included 607 Black emerging adults (53% female) followed for 4 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfrican American adolescents are faced with the challenge to be successful academically, even though they may experience racial discrimination within school settings. Unfortunately, relatively little scholarship explores how African American adolescents draw on personal and cultural assets to persist and thrive in the face of discriminatory experiences. Additionally, little research has explored the buffering role of assets (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiscrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11- to 14-year-olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future, whereas mothers of daughters had more gender discrimination concerns. Racial discrimination concerns, but not gender discrimination concerns, were related to lower maternal academic and behavioral expectations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPositive relationships with parents and nonparental adults have the potential to bolster Black adolescents' socio-emotional well-being. Though each type of intergenerational relationship has been linked to more positive youth outcomes, few studies have examined the interactive influences of parenting and natural mentoring relationships on the socio-emotional development of Black youth. In the current study, we examined associations between involved-vigilant parenting and the psychological well-being and social skills of Black early adolescents (n = 259; 58 % female; mean age = 13.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study tested a psychosocial mediation model of the association between subjective social status (SSS) and academic achievement for youth. The sample included 430 high school students from diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Those who perceived themselves to be at higher social status levels had higher GPAs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study assessed 1500 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth to test the hypothesis that African American mothers differentially socialize their girls and boys. The results showed that later-born boys had fewer chores, argued more with their mothers, lived in less cognitively stimulating homes, and were not allowed to make the same decisions as were the girls or firstborn boys at the same age. The later-born boys were also lowest in achievement and highest in externalizing behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effects of changes in marital status on the changes in depressive symptoms of 443 African American mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY) were examined. Results showed that those mothers who exited marriage increased in depressive symptoms relative to continuously married and newly married mothers. Moreover, mothers who entered marriage later experienced the same level of depressive symptoms as continuously married mothers.
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