Context matters: links between neighborhood discrimination, neighborhood cohesion and African American adolescents' adjustment.
Racial discrimination has serious negative consequences for the adjustment of African American adolescents. Taking an ecological approach, this study examined the linkages between perceived racial discrimination within and outside of the neighborhood and urban adolescents' externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and tested whether neighborhood cohesion operated as a protective factor. Data came from 461 African American adolescents (mean age = 15.24 years, SD = 1.56; 50 % female) participating in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Multilevel models revealed that perceived discrimination within youth's neighborhoods was positively related to externalizing, and discrimination both within and outside of youth's neighborhoods predicted greater internalizing problems. Neighborhood cohesion moderated the association between within-neighborhood discrimination and externalizing. Specifically, high neighborhood cohesion attenuated the association between within-neighborhood discrimination and externalizing. The discussion centers on the implications of proximal stressors and neighborhood cohesion for African American adolescents' adjustment.
National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box 39, New York, NY 10027, USA. riina@tc.columbia.edu
Elizabeth M
EM
Riina
Anne
A
Martin
Margo
M
Gardner
Jeanne
J
Brooks-Gunn
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003467:Cultural Deprivation; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012925:Social Conformity; D012932:Social Facilitation; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology