Stress mitigation to promote development of prosocial values and school engagement of inner-city urban African American and Latino youth

Somali, Latino, and Hmong Youth Perceptions of School Connectedness

Purpose:

School connectedness positively influences adolescent health outcomes and is a key social determinant of health, yet, contributors to school connectedness for youth from immigrant communities remain poorly defined.

Methods:

This community-based participatory research study uses thematic analysis to identify contributors to Somali, Latino, and Hmong (SLH) adolescents' school connectedness. We conducted nine focus groups with 71 SLH male and female adolescents, the majority aged 13–18 years, in a United States Midwestern metropolitan area.

Results:

SLH students described contributors to their school connectedness that fit within three broad themes: (1) SLH students desire to be known and supported by their teachers as individuals, (2) specific teacher instructional approaches reinforce or undermine SLH student–school connections, and (3) transparency and fairness in school disciplinary practices are especially important for promoting Latino student–school connectedness.

Conclusion:

SLH youth perspectives offer ways for educators to foster increased school connectedness to improve academic and health outcomes among increasingly diverse student populations.

Organized Community Activity Participation and the Dynamic Roles of Neighborhood Violence and Gender among Latino Adolescents

Relative to their peers, Latino youth are underinvolved in organized community activities (e.g., Boys and Girls Club), and their experiences lack examination. This study employed a neighborhood case-study approach to examine the experiences of Latino youth in a neighborhood with high levels of violence and their participation in organized community activities. Employing a cluster sampling design (Lohr, Sampling: Design and analysis. Pacific Grove, CA: Nelson Education, 2009), we used quantitative, spatial, and qualitative data to understand adolescents' participation in organized community activities. Furthermore, to understand how adolescents from the same neighborhood may experience violence differently we examined gender differences. Those who participated in organized community activities witnessed more violence, regardless of gender. General violence (e.g., robberies, shootings) was dispersed throughout the neighborhood, but gender-specific violence was concentrated along the main street of the neighborhood. In qualitative interviews, adolescents reported this concentration of violence a deterrent to their participation: sexual harassment for girls and gang intimidation for boys. Our findings highlight the unique experiences of youth in violent neighborhoods and the importance of examining differential constraints for those within the same neighborhood.

Longitudinal Relations of Economic Hardship and Effortful Control to Active Coping in Latino Youth

How Latino youth cope with stressors may have implications for their adjustment. We examined how a temperamental characteristic (effortful control) and a contextual factor (economic hardship) were associated with Latino youth's coping. Individual differences in effortful control, a core facet of self-regulation, may contribute to coping as effortful control is consistently linked to adaptive behaviors during adolescence. We examined relations of effortful control and economic hardship to active coping in a sample of Mexican-origin youth (N = 674) across three time points (fifth to ninth grades). Although economic hardship negatively predicted coping and effortful control, effortful control positively predicted coping (controlling for prior levels). Findings support a resilience perspective by suggesting that effortful control may contribute to coping and thus counteract the negative effects of economic hardship.

Protective Mechanisms for Depression among Racial/Ethnic Minority Youth: Empirical Findings, Issues, and Recommendations

We (1) review empirical studies that report findings regarding putative protective mechanisms when exposed to risk of depression in African American and Hispanic adolescents; (2) identify key protective mechanisms for different risk contexts that garner empirical support; (3) synthesize the mechanisms identified as protective against depression among racial/ethnic minority adolescents; and (4) discuss improved methods for advancing understanding of resilience against depression in minority youth. The studies were selected from PsycINFO searches that met the following inclusion criteria: participants between 12 and 21 years of age, inclusions of racial/ethnic minority members, examining protection through an interaction with a risk factor, and outcome measures of depression, depressed mood, or depressive symptomatology. We found 39 eligible studies; 13 of which included multiple racial/ethnic groups. The following were supported as protective mechanisms, at least preliminarily, for at least one racial/ethnic group and in at least one risk context: employment, extracurricular activities, father-adolescent closeness, familism, maternal support, attending predominately minority schools, neighborhood composition, non-parent support, parental inductive reasoning, religiosity, self-esteem, social activities, and positive early teacher relationships. To investigate protective mechanisms more comprehensively and accurately across individual, social, and community levels of influence, we recommend incorporating multilevel modeling or multilevel growth curve analyses and large diverse samples.

Future directions for positive development intervention research

The emergence of multiple universal prevention efforts that reduce psychopathology symptoms, along with growing interest in the promotion of healthy development, presents an exciting opportunity for advancing child and adolescent mental health. Multiple frameworks and related construct models of positive development have been developed-and are all driving substantial findings. In addition, efforts under way to understand and systematically review existing interventions as promoting effective development are proving valuable not only for reducing risk but also for improving emotional and social functioning. Principal contributors to this exciting convergence of interests and advancements are described in this article. Moreover, this article presents important challenges and opportunities for moving forward toward a robust integration of positive development and child and adolescent clinical psychology.