title: Self-evaluation processes of African American youth in a high school completion program.
abstract: In the present study, regression analyses were used to determine whether particular domains of perceived competence, alienation from school, and cultural mistrust of society in general predicted judgments of global self-worth and global self-discrepancy in a group of African American high school dropouts in a compensatory program. The participants were 31 African American high school dropouts between 16 and 24 years of age (M = 17.7 years, SD = 1.81) who were enrolled in a state-sponsored high school completion program. Perceived job competence and peer-related social competence were the most significant predictors of self-evaluations. Cultural mistrust of society was associated with students' self-evaluation and overshadowed alienation from school in the prediction of global self-worth. The implications of these results for interventions with African American high school dropouts in this type of program are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers-State University of New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Whaley
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Smyer
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D013332:Student Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*