Resilience and Coping: An Example in African American Adolescents

Abstract

The study addresses how African American adolescents are resilient when exposed to discrimination. We examine racial identity as a buffer between cumulative stressful events and aggression attitudes in 285 adolescents (M = 15.41, SD = 1.38). Boys report more general beliefs about aggression than girls. Girls with low racial identity are more vulnerable for general beliefs about aggression when exposed to greater negative youth experiences. However, boys with high racial identity have greater general beliefs about aggression as their negative youth experiences increase. Racial identity has a protective-enhancing buffering affect for adolescent girls and a protective-reactive effect for boys.

Notes

¹ The current study examines resilience and coping in adolescents from a southern city that experienced the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina. Although direct and indirect trauma or stressors are not measures in the current study, this context is a critical backdrop to the sample populations’ lived experiences. Therefore, the current study operationalizes cumulative stress inclusive of catastrophic negative life events in order to examine the associations among cumulative stress and coping styles in African American adolescents.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Tulane University (US) Carol Lavin Bernick Faculty Fund [N/A].