Article archive / August 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 12. Source pages: 9.
Jennifer Rious, Xzania White African-American Adolescents Dr. Michael Cunningham
Jennifer Rious and Xzania White, doctoral students in psychology at Tulane will present research co-authored with Dr. Michael Cunningham. Both will present in the “Adolescent and Adult Development” area.
Rious will present, “Prosocial Altruism as a Protective Factor in African American Youth Exposed to Community Violence.” Rious and Cunningham explain that African American adolescents in urban areas are more likely than any other group to be both witnesses to and victims of violence, a condition associated with numerous negative outcomes. However, they point out that this association is “… not causal, nor is it deterministic.” They point to research that shows that the majority of youth exposed to violence continue to be “ok,” and some even thrive.
Past research has looked at protective factors that moderate the effects of community violence but has focused on structural or personality factors that are beyond an adolescent’s control. Rious and Cunningham look at the “… potential compensatory effects of a self- initiated behavior: prosocial altruism.”
In their study of 207 urban African American adolescents, the researchers found that exposure to community violence was positively related to antisocial behaviors, which was inversely related to prosocial behaviors. They found a moderating role of prosocial behaviors between exposure to community violence and antisocial behaviors. The authors explore age and gender pathways.
In another study by first author Xzania White and co-author Cunningham, “Academic Achievement, Substance Use, and the Importance of Valuing School in African American Adolescents,” the researchers explore the relationship between adolescent substance use, school experiences, and a measure of “academic future expectations” in a group of African American adolescents.
The researchers found that older students valued school more than younger and that they experimented with substances more. Academic future expectations approached statistical significance in relation to substance use, and the AFE construct was a significant buffer in the relationship between valuing school and substance use.
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