Racial identity and academic achievement in the neighborhood context: a multilevel analysis.
Increasingly, researchers have found relationships between a strong, positive sense of racial identity and academic achievement among African American youth. Less attention, however, has been given to the roles and functions of racial identity among youth experiencing different social and economic contexts. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors examined the relationship of racial identity to academic outcomes, taking into account neighborhood-level factors. The sample consisted of 564 African American eighth-graders (56% male). The authors found that neighborhood characteristics and racial identity related positively to academic outcomes, but that some relationships were different across neighborhood types. For instance, in neighborhoods low in economic opportunity, high pride was associated with a higher GPA, but in more advantaged neighborhoods, high pride was associated with a lower GPA. The authors discuss the need to take youth's contexts into account in order to understand how racial identity is active in the lives of African American youth.
Byrd
Christy M
CM
Combined Program in Education & Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259, USA. cmbyrd@umich.edu
Chavous
Tabbye M
TM
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000850:Anomie; D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D012933:Social Identification; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires