African American Youth Research Articles

Exposure to parental depression in adolescence and proinflammatory phenotypes 20 years later

Although the biological embedding model of adversity proposes that stressful experiences in childhood create a durable proinflammatory phenotype in immune cells, research to date has relied on study designs that limit our ability to make conclusions about whether the phenotype is long-lasting. The present study leverages an ongoing 20-year investigation of African American youth to test research questions about the extent to which stressors measured in childhood forecast a proinflammatory phenotype in adulthood, as indicated by exaggerated cytokine responses to bacterial stimuli, monocyte insensitivity to inhibitory signals from hydrocortisone, and low-grade inflammation. Parents reported on their depressive symptoms and unsupportive parenting tendencies across youths’ adolescence. At age 31, youth participants (now adults) completed a fasting blood draw. Samples were incubated with lipopolysaccharide and doses of hydrocortisone to evaluate proinflammatory processes. Additionally, blood samples were tested for indicators of low-grade inflammation, including IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-α, and soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor. Analyses revealed that parental depression across youths’ adolescence prospectively predicted indicators of proinflammatory phenotypes at age 31. Follow-up analyses suggested that unsupportive parenting mediated these associations. These findings suggest that exposure to parental depression in adolescence leaves an imprint on inflammatory activity that can be observed 20 years later.

Beyond monolithic threat: Understanding risk typology in court-involved Black male youth

Black male youth are at greatest risk of disparate contact and detention in the U.S. juvenile justice system. This study aims to identify recidivism risk/need patterns among African American male youth in the Ohio juvenile justice system, utilizing cluster analysis of risk assessment data from the Ohio Youth Assessment System-Disposition (OYAS-DIS). We found four distinct risk patterns and accompanying recidivism rates in the Black male youth population. Two of the clusters exhibited moderate levels of risk. However, they had significantly different recidivism outcomes, suggesting certain combinations of risk factors have more or less impact the propensity for crime in the Black male sample. Implications for policy and practice are discussed, as well as future directions for research.

Revisiting the correlates of youth attitudes toward the police: The role of conservative and liberal crime ideology

Two fairly consistent findings in the attitudes toward the police research are: (1) White citizens hold more favorable attitudes than citizens of color and (2) youth, particularly African American youth, possess less favorable perceptions than adults. However, only recently have scholars begun to explore the impact of political ideology on youths' perceptions of law enforcement. Using data collected through a survey of urban high school students, the current study extends the prior research by exploring the role conservative and liberal crime ideologies play in explaining the attitudes of adolescents toward the police. The findings indicate that conservative crime ideology and, contrary to expectations, liberal crime ideology both have significant and positive relationships with attitudes toward the police. Other measures commonly found in the existing literature, such as race, negative police-initiated contact, and vicarious police conduct, remained significant after controlling for both types of crime ideology. As a result, in the future, scholars must include ideology when examining youth attitudes toward the police or risk misspecified models.

Physical Activity and Health in African American Youth

Promoting individuals' participation in physical activity (PA) holds significant significance in the field of public health due to the demonstrated preventative impact on diverse metabolic disorders, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. There is a lack of research on how race and ethnicity affect people's propensity to exercise and how to best encourage them to get moving. However, the research that is currently available suggests that a sizeable percentage of African American (AA) Youths do not achieve the levels of PA that are suggested. The primary objective of this study is to give a preliminary examination of the demographic features and health disparities that are experienced by AA adolescents. Additionally, it aims to explore the various factors influencing their engagement in PA and propose viable interventions to address these issues.

Different Mechanisms Link Internalized Racism to Externalizing Symptomology Among Black American Adolescent Boys and Girls

Emerging research and theory suggests that the internalization of racist ideas and attitudes, internalized racism, poses a significant threat to Black American adolescents' and increases their risk of externalizing symptomology. Prospective, empirical research linking internalized racism to externalizing symptoms among Black American adolescents and the mechanisms explaining this link is scarce. We hypothesize that internalized racism will forecast externalizing symptoms indirectly, via effects on poor self-regulation and depressive symptoms. We also examine potential sex differences in the pathways linking internalized racism to externalizing symptoms. A random sample of 445 Black American adolescents and their primary caregivers were recruited from 8 counties in rural Georgia. Participants provided survey data annually when adolescents were aged 13, 14, 15, and 16 years. Direct, indirect, and multigroup hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling. Internalized racism assessed at ages 13 and 14 years forecast increased externalizing at age 16, both directly, and indirectly, via increases in poor self-regulation and depressive symptoms. Sex moderated the indirect pathways linking internalized racism and externalizing. Poor self-regulation significantly mediated the path between internalized racism and externalizing symptoms among Black American male youth. Depressive symptoms significantly mediated the pathway between internalized racism and externalizing symptoms among Black American female adolescents. Findings suggest behavioral treatment directions for male and female Black American adolescents experiencing depressive symptoms. Little is known about the influence of internalization of racist ideas and attitudes, often referred to as internalized racism, on Black youths' development of externalizing symptoms. In this study, the authors surveyed 445 Black youths annually at ages 13, 14, 15, and 16 years. Internalized racism at ages 13 and 14 predicted increased externalizing symptoms at age 16. Among boys, depressive symptoms mediated the path between internalized racism and externalizing symptoms. Among girls, struggles with self-regulation mediated the path between internalized racism and externalizing symptoms.

“They're scared that somebody's gonna judge them”: Female African American youth in foster care's perspectives on sexual and reproductive health communication with caregivers

BackgroundObtaining accurate information is critical for youth's sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Youth not in foster care often learn about SRH from their biological parents. Separated from their biological parents, youth in care depend on healthcare providers and caregivers for SRH information. However, they often receive insufficient information and feel unsupported in meeting their needs for SRH information. PurposeThis study explored female African American adolescents in foster care's perspectives on effective SRH communication with caregivers to help them avoid sexual risks. MethodsA qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews. We used purposive sampling to recruit 16 adolescents aged 18 to 20 years old with a history of foster care placement. The transcribed interviews underwent inductive thematic analysis. The Positive Youth Development theory underpinned this research. ResultsTwo prominent themes emerged: establishing a relationship and preferred communication approach. Youth reported that for caregivers to engage in effective SRH communication, they must first establish a relationship by being aware of the youth's childhood trauma, building trust, having patience, and being vulnerable. Youth also appreciated caregivers who ensured comfortability and were honest and straightforward. DiscussionCaregivers should be trained on adverse childhood experiences, trauma-informed approaches, SRH knowledge, and communication. Implications to practiceHealthcare providers should make use of the time spent with youth and discuss SRH topics during clinical encounters. This time spent with youth may be their only chance to obtain accurate SRH information. Youth's perspectives regarding communication about SRH should be implemented in future SRH communication interventions.

Racial Discrimination and Delinquent Behavior among Black American Youth: A Dynamic, Within-person Approach

Racial Discrimination and Delinquent Behavior among Black American Youth: A Dynamic, Within-person Approach

Blind and Deaf Together: Cross-Disability Community at Virginia's Residential School for Black Disabled Youth

Disability history has embraced the cultural model of Deafness which argues that residential schools fostered a common identity unified around the use of sign language. This article argues that this model was built on examinations of primarily (and exclusively) white institutions, resulting in scholarship that erases the distinct experiences of deaf African Americans. Cross-disability experiences were central to the lives of Black children at the Virginia State School, a residential school for deaf and blind African American youth. Far from a statistical outlier, the majority of Southern states used this cost saving measure to educate blind and deaf African Americans. Though not exclusively utilized for African Americans, the disproportionate use of combined schools reflects a Jim Crow approach to disability designed to reduce state expenditures at the cost of services rendered to the Black community. Relying on previously unused sources of the Virginia State School, including surviving records of administrators and a school bulletin with student contributors, this article explores a community where nearly every aspect of life involved cross-disability relationships. Oral histories with former students add to this narrative, revealing how young people who came to identify as culturally Deaf, communicated with partially blind students through sign language and with fully blind students through spoken English. This approach to deaf and blind education regularized cross-disability interactions among African Americans in Virginia, producing a community at the school defined by their categorization as disabled and Black, more so than by specific disabilities.

“We Dem Folks . . . To Be Continued”: Disrupting the Negative Social Imagery of African American Youth Through a Close Study of the To Be Continued Brass Band Across Screen Media

Abstract This article examines the potential of screen media to disrupt the negative social images of African American youth projected in mainstream culture. Black youth in America have historically been negatively misrepresented and misread within our society through mass-mediated images on television and film. The “negative social imagery” of African American youth across media continues to contribute to their marginalization and plight within society. Recent scholarship suggests that problematic values and behaviors of inner-city Black youth—violence, hypermasculinity, misogyny, drug addiction, educational failure, unemployment—is attributed to their near-total immersion in the mainstream mass media. This supports the notion of “they will be what they see.” But what if we offer them something different? Something more positive? Something within a Black cultural history rooted in a strong tradition and legacy. Drawing from such social media platforms as YouTube and Vimeo, in conjunction with ethnographic fieldwork and music analysis, this study investigates the potentially positive outcomes of presenting an alternative representation of Black youth through a jazz tradition that extends back to the great Buddy Bolden. Recreating the image of African American youth requires a multidimensional paradigmatic shift, disrupting mythological narratives that invoke further harm and misconceptions. To successfully redirect this pathology, I draw on Tyrone Howard, Terry Flennaugh, and Clarence Terry's (2012) lead and incorporate the views, ideas, and perspectives of the Black males themselves in re-creating their own mediated images. This project offers a model suggesting a more profound and critical approach to narratives, histories, and ethnographies of African American youth across screen media.

Establishing international optimal cut-offs of waist-to-height ratio for predicting cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents aged 6–18 years

BackgroundWaist-to-height ratio (WHtR) has been proposed as a simple and effective screening tool for assessing central obesity and cardiometabolic risk in both adult and pediatric populations. However, evidence suggests that the use of a uniform WHtR cut-off of 0.50 may not be universally optimal for pediatric populations globally. We aimed to determine the optimal cut-offs of WHtR in children and adolescents with increased cardiometabolic risk across different countries worldwide.MethodsWe used ten population-based cross-sectional data on 24,605 children and adolescents aged 6–18 years from Brazil, China, Greece, Iran, Italy, Korea, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and the USA for establishing optimal WHtR cut-offs. We performed an external independent test (9,619 children and adolescents aged 6–18 years who came from other six countries) to validate the optimal WHtR cut-offs based on the predicting performance for at least two or three cardiometabolic risk factors.ResultsBased on receiver operator characteristic curve analyses of various WHtR cut-offs to discriminate those with ≥ 2 cardiometabolic risk factors, the relatively optimal percentile cut-offs of WHtR in the normal weight subsample population in each country did not always coincide with a single fixed percentile, but varied from the 75th to 95th percentiles across the ten countries. However, these relatively optimal percentile values tended to cluster irrespective of sex, metabolic syndrome (MetS) criteria used, and WC measurement position. In general, using ≥ 2 cardiometabolic risk factors as the predictive outcome, the relatively optimal WHtR cut-off was around 0.50 in European and the US youths but was lower, around 0.46, in Asian, African, and South American youths. Secondary analyses that directly tested WHtR values ranging from 0.42 to 0.56 at 0.01 increments largely confirmed the results of the main analyses. In addition, the proposed cut-offs of 0.50 and 0.46 for two specific pediatric populations, respectively, showed a good performance in predicting ≥ 2 or ≥ 3 cardiometabolic risk factors in external independent test populations from six countries (Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the USA).ConclusionsThe proposed international WHtR cut-offs are easy and useful to identify central obesity and cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents globally, thus allowing international comparison across populations.

Post traumatic stress disorder in African American men exposed to violent trauma

Research has shown strong association between exposures to violence resulting in post traumatic stress symptoms. Despite the high lifetime prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and exposure to violence among African American men, research outcomes are limited and inconsistent. African American youth who live in low-income urban areas routinely face various contextual specific risks factors that leave them susceptible to loss and trauma in their lifetime resulting in persistent PTSD over time. Personas of resilience found in African American men exposed to chronic violence often mask trauma symptoms raising concerns on the evaluation of PTSD symptomology among African American men as well as the process of resilience and coping methods within this population. Limitations to research include convenience sampling limited to specific cities and exclusion of incarcerated African American men. In addition, there is a lack of longitudinal studies detailing the physiological and psychological course of PTSD and rates of recovery in African Americans. Health care systems and providers must be equipped, informed, and prepared to responding to mental health needs of African American men. The understanding of the expression and presence of PTSD among African American men will result in improvements of healthcare professionals' ability to evaluate, diagnose, and provide treatment for PTSD among this group whose symptoms of trauma may be misinterpreted or overlooked.

A Pandemic Adaptation and Its Aftermath: Using AI and In-Person Facilitation for Community Health Education in Liberia and the United States.

Health promotion commonly focuses on supporting youth wellness, as health behaviors acquired in childhood and adolescence tend to have a significant impact on an individual's future. Adolescent health education is associated with positive health and educational outcomes, yet young people experience barriers to fully engaging in learning about health issues that are often unique to their social location. Barriers for successful engagement in health education for African diaspora youth in North American and European contexts may include school initiatives built around engagement models that do not center Black youth; for Black youth in majority-Black societies, barriers may include access to resources or exclusionary practices based on other social characteristics. Global health promotion has used a variety of multimodal educational tools from radio to more recently online engagement, especially in African contexts, to reach young people. This essay shares experiences using AI and in-person facilitation to engage in community health education with youth in Liberia and the United States. In our practice, we found that there are far more underlying systemic and structural similarities to the inequities experienced between African and Black American youth and that utilizing AI tools alongside of in-person discussion may contribute to better outcomes for youth health education.

The Information Behavior of African American Teens

Research on the information-seeking behavior of teens has produced numerous articles over the past decade. Although a good number of research articles list sociocultural factors, such as identity, as playing a critical role in teen’s information-seeking behavior, very few explicitly cover racial identity. The goal of this study is to examine the everyday life information-seeking behavior of African American teens, using previously applied information-seeking models. Though African American teens are not alone in their ethnic experience, they are unique in that decades of systemic racism and inequality impacts their academic standing. The literature review examines research on the everyday life information-seeking (ELIS) behavior of teens, sources of teen information acquisition, modes of information-seeking, and factors that impact teen information-seeking behavior. Additionally, limited existing research on the information behavior of African American communities is reviewed. The findings are that the existing information-seeking behavior research has noticeable contradictory results in regard to African American communities. This mixed-method study will use observations, interviews, and online surveys of African American teens and librarians. The findings will be compared to previous teen information behavior research to see if and how African American teens’ information-seeking behavior is impacted by socio-cultural factors such as cultural beliefs, norms, and institutional barriers. This research would assist in clarifying the information behavior of African American youth and potentially influence information literacy education to be more inclusive and culturally responsive, and thus more impactful in lifelong learning for all youth.

My brother’s keeper: A case study examining a mentoring relationship between African American males

ABSTRACT Prepare2Nspire (P2N) is a near-peer mentoring and tutoring program dedicated to creating dynamic mathematical experiences for urban learners. P2N’s mission is multi-fold. The program acts as an extracurricular outlet for in-school mathematics learning, providing students of color with social support from adult mentors. Additionally, P2N aligns education and community development by focusing on social and institutional improvements in the host neighborhood. This paper used case study methodology to examine African American male mentoring relationships at P2N. Through a mentoring and tutoring approach, middle school participants related to adult mentors through shared lived experiences, essential norms were enforced within the learning community, and emphasis was given to team collaboration. Moving forward, P2N will continue to promote African American male mentorship to disrupt deficit-based perspectives and increase social and academic motivations of African American youth.

Youth Lens methodology: Critical participatory action research with youth in Cleveland, Ohio

Research on youth well-being is often driven by adult researcher voices, while youth experiences are neglected. Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is a distinct and powerful approach to capture youth experiences unique to particular social settings and leverage these voices to produce action and change through research. YPAR can be used to challenge oppression, mitigate the researcher-participant hierarchy, and build a social justice-oriented methodology, particularly when it uses a critical and intersectionality lens, rooted in a wider understanding of racial oppression. This methodology paper analyzes our Youth Lens methodology, which uses Critical YPAR to explore African American youth perceptions of how the neighborhood environment shapes health and well-being in Cleveland, Ohio. We describe, in detail, our methodology which was used to examine the history of redlining and systemic racism in the city and how it has driven present-day health and socioeconomic disparities. Further, we reflect in this paper not only on the methodology, but on our own role in the research. We end with implications for collaborative research with youth.

Parental psychological control and child anxiety in a multiethnic sample of youth with autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundThis study examined the relation between parental psychological control (PC) and child anxiety in a sample of white non-Latin American (WNLA), Hispanic/Latin American (H/LA), and African American (AA) youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It was hypothesized that for youth with higher IQs, PC would be positively associated with anxiety for the WNLA group, but not for the H/LA and AA groups. MethodsArchival data from 603 youth diagnosed with ASD were used to test hypotheses. PC was measured by summing responses to items on an intake form indicative of parenting practices reflecting PC. ResultsResults of a hierarchical regression predicting child anxiety indicated a significant three-way interaction between PC, ethnicity (WNLA vs AA), and IQ. The graph of the interaction and tests of slopes showed that in the high IQ group, PC was positively associated with anxiety for the WNLA group and negatively associated with anxiety for the AA group. In the low IQ group, PC was positively associated with anxiety for the WNLA and AA groups. ConclusionsThese findings indicate that cultural variations in the relation between PC and child anxiety found in typically developing youth are applicable to youth with ASD but only for those with higher IQs.

Preventing substance use among urban, African American youth: The potential of mentor-mentee conversations

BackgroundEarly adolescence is a critical time for preventing substance use onset. Mentoring can help protect youth via social influence; however, little is currently known about direct mentor-mentee interactions around substance use. To investigate this topic, interviews were conducted with mentors to explore their comfort with, and perceived barriers and facilitators to, discussions about substance use with youth mentees. MethodsInterviews were conducted with 26 adults serving as mentors to African American youth ages 12–14 in programs in the Baltimore/Washington, DC area. Themes were identified through qualitative analysis and pertained to comfort and engagement, commonly discussed topics, and barriers and facilitators. ResultsAlthough mentors expressed comfort with the idea of talking about substance use with their mentees, there also was an equally salient theme of having not actually done so beyond relatively cursory conversations. Salient expressed barriers to substance use discussions with mentees included fear of overstepping unclear boundaries in the mentor role and concern about having accurate information. Facilitators included training provided by programs, personal or familial experience with substance use, and concern with disparate legal ramifications for youth of color if caught in possession of, using, or selling drugs. Mentors also were in general agreement that a digital app could serve as a useful resource for discussing substance use with mentees. ConclusionsThese results suggest mentors of urban youth of color may benefit from additional training and support for engaging them in discussions about substance use as well as useful topics to address in this regard.

Using Machine Learning to Identify Predictors of Sexually Transmitted Infections Over Time Among Young People Living With or at Risk for HIV Who Participated in ATN Protocols 147, 148, and 149.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among youth aged 12 to 24 years have doubled in the last 13 years, accounting for 50% of STIs nationally. We need to identify predictors of STI among youth in urban HIV epicenters. Sexual and gender minority (gay, bisexual, transgender, gender-diverse) and other youth with multiple life stressors (homelessness, incarceration, substance use, mental health disorders) were recruited from 13 sites in Los Angeles and New Orleans (N = 1482). Self-reports and rapid diagnostic tests for STI, HIV, and drug use were conducted at 4-month intervals for up to 24 months. Machine learning was used to identify predictors of time until new STI (including a new HIV diagnosis). At recruitment, 23.9% of youth had a current or past STI. Over 24 months, 19.3% tested positive for a new STI. Heterosexual males had the lowest STI rate (12%); African American youth were 23% more likely to acquire an STI compared with peers of other ethnicities. Time to STI was best predicted by attending group sex venues or parties, moderate but not high dating app use, and past STI and HIV seropositive status. Sexually transmitted infections are concentrated among a subset of young people at highest risk. The best predictors of youth's risk are their sexual environments and networks. Machine learning will allow the next generation of research on predictive patterns of risk to be more robust.

Implications of built and social environments on the academic success among African American youth: testing Strong African American Families intervention effects on parental academic racial socialization.

Studies exploring widening academic disparities have highlighted the role of racialized school settings, which have given way to incidents of discrimination and unfair treatment for students of color, disproportionately affecting African American youth. Research also shows that family-based preventive interventions may avert negative outcomes for this population through the promotion of protective socialization practices. Consequently, the current study tests the efficacy of a culturally tailored preventive family-based program to foster induced changes in academic promotive parenting practices that prepare youth to advance academically by navigating negative race-related experiences in school settings. Data collected over four time periods from the Strong African American Families (SAAF) efficacy trial (Murry and Brody, 2004) with 667 African American families in rural Georgia were used for this study. Structural equation modeling analyses demonstrated that the SAAF program was associated with positive intervention induced changes in parental academic race-related socialization, which in turn, was indirectly associated with reduced school compromising behaviors through the enhancement of racial pride. While discrimination compromised academic success, our findings highlight the protective nature of racial pride in dissuading academic failure and school dropout through the promotion of academic success. This study confirms that a family-based prevention program holds promise to address academic disparities through the enhancement of parenting and youth protective processes that buffer youth from succumbing to racialized social environments such as schools. Implications for research, educational policy, and preventive interventions are discussed.

Precious: Identity, Adaptation, and the African-American Youth Film

Precious: Identity, Adaptation, and the African-American Youth Film