Ethnic socialization and racial socialization were examined as discrete concepts using a semistructured interview to assess message content for each form of socialization. We were interested in whether adolescents distinguished between these forms of socialization. Fifty-five African American 11th- and 12th-grade students were asked separate…

Research examining the association between body image and sexual risk-taking has been mostly limited to clinical and/or White female samples. It is unclear whether body image plays a role in sexual risk-taking among African American early adolescent females. Moreover, research has neglected to consider body image within a cultural and ethnic…

Racial identity attitudes, a construct proposed as a measure of the world view of Blacks (Cross & Vandiver, 2001), and academic performance of a group of Black females attending a high-poverty, failing high school with a 42% graduation rate were examined. These young women were either pregnant or parenting and attended a parenting support group at…

African-American adolescents have lower rates of alcohol consumption than White youth. However, African-American youth suffer disproportionately more adverse social, mental, and physical health outcomes related to alcohol use. Affiliating with negative peers is a risk factor for alcohol initiation and consumption. Cultural variables have shown…

The cultural compatibility hypothesis suggests that black children attending an Afrocentric school (the culturally compatible condition) should have more positive outcomes, as indicated by ethnic identity, future expectations, and optimism, than black adolescents in a mainstream school (cultural incompatibility condition). Adolescents from an…