The Loss of Friends to Homicide and the Implications for the Identity Development of Urban African American Teen Girls

Abstract

Homicide is the leading cause of death of African American youths in the United States. The loss of their friends to these deaths challenges the identity development of many urban African American teen girls. To understand the implications of such a loss on the psychosocial task of identity development of urban African American teen girls, 21 African American girls, 16–19 years old, living in a large Northeastern city in the United States, participated in a qualitative study. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. A grounded theory, constant comparative approach, is used to analyze the narrative data. The findings show (a) the presence and pressure of psychosocial stress on the participants’ identity development process, (b) the adaptive functions of foreclosed religious identity commitments, (c) the potential for this event to inform, in complex ways, racial identity development examined through racial group orientation, and (d) natural avenues of resistance to marginalization and race devaluation that may be experienced from societal responses to this event. How the teens make meaning of this experience informs their identity development. The article promotes the inclusion of identity-informed psychosocial interventions in bereavement work with this population.