African American Middle School Students Research Articles

Problematic Situations Associated with Dating Experiences and Relationships Among Urban African American Adolescents: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study focused on the identification of problem situations associated with adolescent dating experiences and relationships, including those that placed youth at risk for dating violence perpetration or victimization. Interviews were conducted with 44 African American middle and high school students in an urban school system. Qualitative analysis identified 18 individual themes representing six categories of problem situations: (a) approach and initiation; (b) conflict, conflict resolution, and break-ups; (c) communication, connection, and emotion; (d) aggression and victimization; (e) the role of others; and (f) media and technology. Identification of these problem situation themes has important implications for developing and evaluating prevention efforts designed to foster healthy adolescent dating relationships.

Incentivizing education: Seeing schoolwork as an investment, not a chore

Most American children expect to attend college but because they do not necessarily spend much time on schoolwork, they may fail to reach their imagined “college-bound” future self. The proposed identity-based motivation model helps explain why this gap occurs: Imagined “college-bound” identities cue school-focused behavior if they are salient and feel relevant to current choice options, not otherwise. Two studies with predominantly low-income and African American middle school students support this prediction. Almost all of the students expect to attend college, but only half describe education-dependent (e.g., law, medicine) adult identities. Having education-dependent rather than education-independent adult identities (e.g., sports, entertainment) predicts better grades over time, controlling for prior grade point average (Study 1). To demonstrate causality, salience of education-dependent vs. education-independent adult identities was experimentally manipulated. Children who considered education-dependent adult identities (vs. education-independent ones) were eight times more likely to complete a take-home extra-credit assignment (Study 2).

Middle School Youth: Satisfaction With and Responses to a Dating Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Program

This study examined how group composition influences students' level of satisfaction with a dating violence and sexual assault prevention program. A 10- to 12-session program was presented to 396 urban African American middle school students in mixed- and same-gender groups. Both males and females were significantly more satisfied with the mixed-gender program than the same-gender program; females in both programs were significantly more satisfied than the males in both programs. Students especially liked the class activities, discussion, and teacher involvement in the program. The study findings support the importance of taking group composition and gender into consideration, as well as, students' reactions and recommendations when developing prevention programs for young adolescents.

Educating Urban African American Children Placed At Risk: A Comparison of Two Types of Catholic Middle Schools

Although the number of urban Catholic schools has declined in recent years, Nativity model middle schools, first developed by the Jesuits over 35 years ago, have appeared throughout the nation to address the need for effective alternative education for urban children placed at risk. The present study compares the effectiveness of two types of high-poverty Catholic schools for 322 African American middle school students. Result show that Nativity schools are more successful than traditional Catholic schools in effecting student gains in standardized test score performance. Results also suggest that features such as small school and class size, small student-teacher ratios, and an extended academic day contribute to these gains. The quality of the school and classroom environment, as perceived by students, that contributed to the amount of engaged learning time also may have contributed to their stronger academic performance. Implications for urban schooling for African American middle school children placed at risk are discussed.

The BRAVE (Building Resiliency and Vocational Excellence) Program: Evaluation Findings for a Career-Oriented Substance Abuse and Violence Preventive Intervention

This article examines the effectiveness of a career-oriented intervention for preventing involvement with alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATODs) and violence and for promoting resilient behavior among eighth-grade, African American middle school students (N=178; n=92 intervention and n=86 comparison) through the implementation of the Building Resiliency and Vocational Excellence (BRAVE) Program. Students were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. Students in the evaluation participated in the school-based BRAVE Program intervention and the standard public school curriculum. Comparison students participated only in the standard curriculum. Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and violent behavior were assessed for 178 students at baseline, post-test, and one-year follow up (one year after baseline). Results revealed a beneficial effect of the intervention on participants' frequency of use of alcohol (p<.04) and marijuana (p<.05), but no effect for violent behavior.

Problematic Situations in the Lives of Urban African American Middle School Students: A Qualitative Study

Qualitative methods were used to identify problem situations encountered by adolescents in urban middle schools serving a predominantly African American student population. Interviews focusing on identifying problem situations and the context in which they occur were conducted with 60 adolescents including students and peer mediators at middle schools and adolescents at community centers. Interviews were also conducted with 50 adults, including parents of middle school students, community center staff, and middle school staff including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, teachers, security guards, and school administrators. Qualitative analysis and coding of interview transcripts identified 39 themes representing a diverse array of problem situations, many of which occurred across multiple contexts including peers, school, family, and neighborhood domains.

Fruit, Vegetable and Fat Consumption in African-American Urban Middle School Students

Fruit, Vegetable and Fat Consumption in African-American Urban Middle School Students

Middle School Studentsʼ Stereotypes, Body Image Attitudes, And Behavioral Intentions Toward Thin And Fat Peers

PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to determine middle school students' obesity stereotypes, antifat attitudes, and behavioral intentions. METHODS Students (176 boys, 141 girls) ranged from 11 to 16 years of age (M = 13.18, SD = .98). Of the 317 students, 37% were Caucasian (70 males, 47 females), 52% were Hispanic (88 boys, 76 girls), and 11% were African-American (18 males, 18 females). The Fat Stereotypes Questionnaire (FSQ; Davison & Birch, 2004) was used to assess perceived reasons children and adolescents are fat or obese. Body shape attitudes were investigated by presenting the students a thin or fat silhouette with a series of verbal descriptors (e.g., “Has many friends” versus “Has no friends”) using a visual analog scale format (Hill & Silver, 1995). Finally, the Shared Activity Questionnaire (SAQ; Bell & Morgan, 2000) was used to examine behavioral intentions. RESULTS Fourteen percent of Caucasian, 18% of Hispanic, and 17% of African-American middle school students self-reported being overweight or obese. The top reasons students believed children and adolescents are fat or obese were: (a) they eat too many calories (73%); (b) their parents let them eat junk food (69%); (c) they are lazy, couch potatoes (64%); and (d) they have access to machine dispensed junk food (63%). Overall, students reported negative responses for the fat silhouettes on the dimensions of Sport Ability, Health, and Body Image. Results related to attitudes toward fat or thin silhouettes indicated that Caucasian and Hispanic students had more positive responses toward the thin figures and more negative responses toward the fat figures (for Health, Sport Ability, Body Image, Flexibility, Academics, and Confidence) than African-American students. Results related to intentions to participate in activities with a thin versus fat person indicated that boys were less willing to spend time socially, academically, or recreationally with a person considered fat than girls (P <.001). Race/ethnicity differences were also observed for the willingness to share activities with a thin versus fat person; Caucasian and Hispanic students were less willing (P <.024) to spend time socially, academically, or recreationally with a person considered fat than were African-American students. CONCLUSIONS Antifat attitudes and behavioral intentions are developed in adolescence. Furthermore, perceptions of body image and attitudes are influenced by gender and ethnicity. Developmentally and culturally appropriate interventions administered through early adolescent health programs are needed to encourage healthy perceptions regarding overweight and obesity in youth.

A possible selves intervention to enhance school involvement

We developed a 9-week after-school, small group, activities-based intervention focused on enhancing youth's abilities to imagine themselves as successful adults and connecting these future imagines to current school involvement. We describe and evaluate this programme comparing three cohorts of urban African American middle school students ( n=62 experimental, n=146 control), controlling for sex and previous school involvement. By the end of the school year, intervention youth reported more bonding to school, concern about doing well in school, “balanced” possible selves, plausible strategies to attain these possible selves, better school attendance, and for boys, less trouble at school. Copyright 2002 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of Violence on Problem Behavior Among Adolescents

This article measures the effects of exposure to violence on problem behavior (adjustment outcomes) among 306 African American middle and high school students in the state of Virginia. Relying on recent research examining the relationship between violent events and problem behavior, the study uses structural equation modeling to examine internalizing and externalizing behavioral characteristics (i.e., delinquency, depression, negative self-esteem, and avoidance) among African American youth exposed to violence through direct victimization, witnessing violence, and association with delinquent peers. The results show a strong association between victimization experience and adjustment outcomes including internalizing (i.e., self-rejection, depression) and externalizing (i.e., offenses) problem behavior. The results also suggest a linkage between victimization and avoidance as a coping strategy. With regard to gender differences, the findings indicate a greater influence of victimization on offenses, self-rejection, and avoidance among men and a stronger influence of victimization on depression among women in the sample. Implications for intervention and future research are discussed.

“Get Up Offa That Thing”: African American Middle School Students Respond to Literature to Develop a Framework for Understanding Social Action

The use of children's literature in urban social studies classrooms to facilitate students' engagement in literate behaviors and simultaneously develop a framework for understanding social action is an under -researched area. This paper discusses the use of literature for children and young adults in an urban middle school language arts and social studies block as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate understandings of social action. The African American students' responses to literature supported a development of a working definition of social action and ideas about action/inaction in their urban community contexts. These issues and others offer guidance for how literature can be used as an extension of citizenship education with the development of critical consciousness, political identity, and social action as the objectives.

The Vocational Interests of Hispanic, African American, and White Middle School Students

Relatively little is known about the vocational interests of middle school students, particularly those of minority students. In this study, the Strong Interest Inventory was administered to 570 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students in an urban middle school. The major racial groups studied were African American, Hispanic, White, and Spanish Primary Language (SPL) students. Comparisons among racial groups indicated that Spanish Primary Language students expressed significantly higher interests on several of the General Occupational Themes when compared with Hispanic and White students.

Successful Teaching Strategies: Findings from a Case Study of Middle School African Americans Learning Arabic

ABSTRACT A six month case study of ten African American Middle School students in an inner‐city school setting provided the data for the article. Successful strategies were based on theories of discovery learning and synergistic learning styles. The classroom allowed for free physical movement, bonding and multisensorial activities. Students were incorporated into planning lessons and activities, as well as in teaching. Students visited sites in the community where they used the language in real life situations. Contrary to previous research findings on L1 L2 transfer, the study showed that the students' L1, (African American English), facilitated the learning of Arabic.

Violence Prevention Among African American Middle School Children

The description of violence and recommendations for prevention stated here are based on findings of an ethnographic research project carried out in a middle school in an area with high rates of recorded violent crime. Open-ended interviews with African American middle school students were recorded, transcribed, and content analyzed. A quantitative data base recording incidents was established. Research findings indicate that “opening moves” in violent incidents are generally offensive touching, interfering with possessions, hurtful play (including teasing), “backbiting,” (or reported talking against another,) or insults. Most incidents took place in the school or home. This violence is generally attributed to retribution, which holds a number of implications for school-based violence prevention. Practitioners could work to reduce the “opening moves,” aim to change values about punishment responses, and teach non-violent ways of seeking compliance.

Daily Hassles Mediate the Relationship Between Major Life Events and Psychiatric Symptomatology: Longitudinal Findings from an Adolescent Sample

Daily Hassles Mediate the Relationship Between Major Life Events and Psychiatric Symptomatology: Longitudinal Findings from an Adolescent SampleJeffrey G. Johnson and Martin F. ShermanJeffrey G. JohnsonSearch for more papers by this author and Martin F. Sherman1 Columbia University and The New York State Psychiatric Institute2 Loyola College of MarylandSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:January 2011https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.1997.16.4.389PDFPDF PLUS ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations About Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Cited byCited by1. Assessment of Microstressors in Adults: Questionnaire Development and Ecological Validation of the Mainz Inventory of MicrostressorsOnline publication date: 24 February 2020. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar2. Do resettlement variables predict psychiatric treatment outcomes in a sample of asylum-seeking survivors of torture?Online publication date: 24 August 2017. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar3. The Protective Role of Self-Compassion on Risk Factors for Non-suicidal Self-Injury in AdolescenceOnline publication date: 2 August 2016. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar4. Ethnic Clusters in Public Housing and Independent Living of Elderly Immigrants from the Former Soviet UnionOnline publication date: 27 August 2015. Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarNicholas A. Hazel and Benjamin L. Hankin5. A Trait-State-Error Model of Adult Hassles Over Two Years: Magnitude, Sources, and Predictors of Stress ContinuityOnline publication date: 3 February 2014. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar6. Depressive symptoms in native and immigrant adolescents: the role of critical life events and daily hasslesOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar7. Daily life mechanisms of stress spillover among early adolescents experiencing academic difficultyOnline publication date: 17 March 2011. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar8. How does Socio-Political Context Shape Daily Living: The Case of Jews and Arabs in IsraelOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar9. Moderating effects of dispositional resilience on associations between hassles and psychological distressOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar10. Problematic Situations in the Lives of Urban African American Middle School Students: A Qualitative StudyOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar11. Cultural Orientation, Ethnic Affiliation, and Negative Daily Occurrences: A Multidimensional Cross-Cultural Analysis.Online publication date: 1 January 2004. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar12. Acculturative Hassles and Immigrant Adolescents: A Life-Domain Assessment for Soviet Jewish RefugeesOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar13. Aerobic fitness and leisure physical activity as moderators of the stress-illness relationOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar Volume 16Issue 4Dec 1997 Information© 1997 Guilford Publications Inc.PDF download

Irrational beliefs that can lead to academic failure for African American middle school students who are academically at-risk

This article describes how rational emotive behavior therapy and other cognitive-behavioral therapies can be used to improve the achievement of academically at-risk African American students at the middle-school level. Definitions of at-risk and a review of relevant literature are provided. This article offers an outline of several main irrational beliefs that can lead to academic failure for African American students at the middle-school level. This author suggested that escalating preferences for justice, acceptance within the African American community, and acceptance by European Americans are at the core for causing academic failure for many of these students. The author describes empirical data which show that once these students learn a realistic philosophy of life—to be more rational, tolerant, nonutopian, and nondemanding—the students improve in their academic self-concept and achievement.

A Prospective Analysis of the Influence of Parents' Behaviors and Values on the Adjustment of African-American Middle School Students

A Prospective Analysis of the Influence of Parents' Behaviors and Values on the Adjustment of African-American Middle School Students

Physical growth, nutritional status, and dietary intake of African-American middle school students from Philadelphia.

As part of an integrated program of academically based participatory action research, measurements of nutritional status and dietary intakes were collected from 11- to 15-year-old African-American youth attending an innercity Philadelphia middle school. Statures and weights were collected on 136 individuals and 24-hr recalls, distributed across the week, on 113. Using the U.S. reference data, statures were not significantly different from U.S. age/sex means, but weights were significantly greater. With the U.S. Black population (NHANES I and II) serving as a reference for the body mass index, 23.5% of the sample were classed as obese, with a BMI >90th centile. This is greater than has been reported for Philadelphia Whites, for U.S. Blacks in general, or for other samples from the U.S. and Canada. Intakes of vitamins were at or above two-thirds of RDAs except for vitamin D, with a median of 28.1% of the recommended allowance. Low intakes were also recorded for dietary fiber (36.9% RDA) and zinc, with a median intake of 63% RDA. The median intake of fat was 101.3% RDA, of saturated fat, 102.2% RDA, of cholesterol, 76% RDA, and of polyunsatured fat, 48.2% RDA. The median intake of sodium was 2701 mg, 112.5% RDA. Overall, the data indicate a population with a very high prevalence of obesity, and diets high in saturated fat and low in polyunsaturated fat. Also of potential concern is the indication of low intakes of zinc and high intakes of sodium. Given the increased health risks of urban African-Americans, these findings on young adolescents suggest the need to develop programs designed to improve diets and enhance health in general in this age group. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.