title: Thriving Among African-American Adolescents: Religiosity, Religious Support, and Communalism.
abstract: While research has identified some positive factors in the lives of African-American adolescents, there is limited, yet growing, empirical research examining how positive factors foster thriving for these youth. Using a positive youth development framework, we examined naturally occurring factors that promote thriving among African-American adolescents. This cross-sectional study included 152 youth who were surveyed at five Black churches in a large Midwestern city. Using MPlus, the structural regression model results revealed support for a model that demonstrated religiosity, religious support, and communalism are significantly and directly related to thriving among African-American adolescents. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed. Moving from a deficit lens to a strengths-based approach can facilitate understanding of developmental processes and provide a foundation for supporting and enhancing positive outcomes among African-American adolescents.
authors.affiliation: The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Adia S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Gooden
authors.affiliation: DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Susan D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: McMahon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D002641:Chicago; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D065840:Protective Factors; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011594:Psychometrics; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012922:Social Change; D012933:Social Identification; D012944:Social Support
keywords: Adolescents; African Americans; Positive youth development; Thriving