Development and risk behavior among African American, Caucasian, and mixed-race adolescents living in high poverty inner-city neighborhoods.
Youths growing up in low-income inner-city neighborhoods are at substantial risk for initiating substance use, violent behavior, and sexual intercourse at early ages; these risk behaviors continue at comparatively high rates through adolescence. Hopelessness has been implicated as a risk factor for these behaviors. In this paper, we consider how race influences this process. African Americans form a demographic minority within the United States, but they are often the majority within inner-city neighborhoods. For Caucasians, the opposite typically holds. Mixed-race populations form a minority within both contexts. Using longitudinal data, we examine the relationship between race and risk behaviors in several impoverished inner-city neighborhoods where African Americans form the distinct majority and Caucasians and people of mixed racial heritage form a small minority. We also consider how race moderates the relationship between hopelessness and risk behavior. Our findings show that compared to Caucasian or mixed-race adolescents, African American adolescents are less likely to engage in risk behaviors, and that hopelessness has a less important impact on their behaviors.
Bolland
John M
JM
Department of Health Behavior, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 45294-0022, USA. bollandj@uab.edu
Bryant
Chalandra M
CM
Lian
Bradley E
BE
McCallum
Debra M
DM
Vazsonyi
Alexander T
AT
Barth
Joan M
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011203:Poverty; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012931:Social Environment; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*