Citation

DiClemente CM, Rice CM, Quimby D, Richards MH, Grimes CT, Morency MM, White CD, Miller KM, Pica JA. J. Early Adolesc. 2018; 38(9): 1286-1321.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0272431616675974

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Exposure to violence (ETV) poses a serious threat to adolescents' safety and well-being; however, some adolescents who grow up in such toxic environments are able to thrive due to a combination of internal and external characteristics. The current study examines the role of cohesion across contexts (i.e., family, school, and community) as moderating the relation between ETV and positive internal outcomes characteristic of resilient youth (i.e., ethnic identity, positive affect, and self-esteem) in a sample of low-income, urban, African American adolescents (N = 269, 60% female) from seventh grade to eighth grade.

RESULTS indicated that greater cohesion in each context was directly related to more positive outcomes. Family and neighborhood cohesion additionally served as protective enhancing factors for males exposed to high levels of violence. These findings expand the current research on positive youth development and help locate potential environmental targets for prevention and intervention research.

Language: en