Research on Resiliency in African American Families

1
Research on Resiliency in African American
Families

• Carolyn E. Cutrona
• Frederick X. Gibbons
• Iowa State University
• Ron Simons
• University of Georgia

2
What is resiliency?

• Overcoming adversity
• Achieving despite disadvantages
• Doing better than expected, given the
  circumstances

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Goal of this Presentation

• To describe examples of resiliency among African
  American families who are currently participating
  in a large study The Family and Community Health
  Study

4
The Family and Community Health Study (FACHS)

• Who is in the study?
• 897 African American youths and their families
• Where were the families recruited?
• Iowa (Des Moines and Waterloo)
• North Central Georgia

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The Family and Community Health Study (FACHS)

• When were families interviewed?
• When the target child was in
• Fifth grade
• Seventh grade
• Tenth grade
• Currently preparing to interview youth at age
  17-18

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The Family and Community Health Study (FACHS)

• What is unique about the FACHS study?
• It is the largest study ever conducted that
  follows African American families over time
• It does NOT focus on inner-city African
  Americans, but includes families from
  moderate-sized cities, suburbs, small towns, and
  rural areas.

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The Family and Community Health Study (FACHS)

• What is unique about the FACHS study?
• The study includes families with a wide range of
  incomes from poverty to affluence.
• Most previous studies have focused exclusively on
  poor African American families.
• Effects of poverty often attributed to race.

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Stressors

• Racial Discrimination
• Family Poverty
• Neighborhood Poverty and Disorder
• Work Stress

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Resiliency Factors

• High quality parenting
• Youth involvement in activities
• Sibling prosocial behavior
• Family routines

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Parenting Behaviors, Racial Discrimination, and
Child Conduct Problems

• Ron Simons
• University of Georgia

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When do stressful events increase risk for
negative behaviors?

• Exposure to stressful life events increases
  delinquent behavior when the events are
• Viewed as unjust
• Threaten important activities or identity
• Uncontrollable
• (Agnew, 2001)

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Effects of Experiences of Perceived Racial
Discrimination

• Perceived discrimination increases an
  individuals risk for
• Conduct problems
• Delinquency
• Crime
• (DeBois, et al., 2002 McCord Ensminger, 2002
  Simons et al., 2003)

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What can parents do?

• Warmth and support
• Reduce childs feelings of worthlessness and
  powerlessness
• Reasoning
• Help child understand that discrimination
  reflects immorality by the perpetrator, not
  inferiority in himself
• Argue against aggression as a response to
  frustration

14
What can parents do?

• Encourage development of the childs skills
• Combats feelings of worthlessness
• Encourage activities that promote belonging and
  social integration
• Combats feelings of being an outsider

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Predictions

• Parental warmth, reasoning, and support for
  extracurricular activities will reduce the
  probability that youth experiences of racial
  discrimination will lead to delinquency among
  boys at ages 10 and 12.

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Discrimination Measure

• Measured perceived discrimination with 13-item
  scale (Example How often has someone yelled a
  racial slur or racial insult at you just because
  you are African American?)

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Delinquency Measure

• Bullying
• Initiating fights
• Physical cruelty to person or animal
• Stealing with confrontation
• Setting fires
• Destroying property
• Using a weapon

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Parenting Measures

• Well-validated measures of
• Warmth and support
• Inductive reasoning
• Discipline by explaining, reasoning
• Explaining reasons for rules
• Encouragement of extracurricular activities
• Helped or encouraged child to become involved in
  scouts, sports, music, etc.

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Discrimination Findings

• 67 of youth had experienced racial insults
• 43 had been unjustly accused of wrongdoing
• 33 had been excluded from an activity
• 18 had been physically harmed
• 48 reported that family members had been treated
  unfairly because of race

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Delinquency Findings

• Between ages 10 and 12
• 39 had been in a fight
• 11 had hurt someone else
• 10 had bullied
• 5 had destroyed property
• 4 had mistreated animals
• 3 had used a weapon
• 1 had stolen with confrontation

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Predicting delinquent behaviors between age 10
and age 12

• The strongest predictor
• Amount of perceived discrimination was the
  strongest predictor of an increase in delinquent
  behavior (B .27).
• Also significant
• Parental warmth predicted lower delinquency (B
  -.14)
• Parental inductive reasoning predicted lower
  delinquency (B -.10)

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The effect of discrimination on delinquency is
WEAKER

• If parents
• Are warm
• Use inductive reasoning
• Encourage participation in extracurricular
  activities
• Conclusion
• Parents can be an important source of resiliency

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Perceived Discrimination and Substance Use

• Frederick Gibbons, Meg Gerrard, Michael
  Cleveland, Thomas Wills Gene Brody

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Racial Discrimination and Substance Use

• Perceived racial discrimination causes emotional
  distress
• Some people use substances to cope with the
  negative emotions caused by discrimination
• Perceived racial discrimination may produce
  negative attitudes
• Alienation, rejection of conventional values, and
  acceptance of deviant behavior.

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Substance Use Results (Tobacco and alcohol only)

• Age 10
• 89 none
• 8 low
• 3 high
• Age 12
• 78 none
• 10 low
• 12 high

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What happens when both parents and children
experience discrimination?
27
Results

• 1. For both parents and children, racial
  discrimination predicted higher substance use.
• 2. Parents reacted to racial discrimination
  against their child with higher substance use.
• 3. Children reacted to racial discrimination
  against their parents with higher substance use.

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What can parents do to prevent child substance
use?

• Effective parenting
• Monitoring
• Communication
• Warmth
• Good parenting can
• Reduce child distress
• Discourage alienation and acceptance of deviant
  behavior

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Results

• Among youth, discrimination increased distress
  and substance use.
• Effective parenting decreased youth alienation
  and acceptance of deviant behavior
• Effective parenting decreased youth substance use
• Once again, good parenting was a resilience
  factor.

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Parenting and Older Sibling Behaviors Predicting
Conduct Problems

• Gene Brody,
• University of Georgia
• Frederick Gibbons, Meg Gerrard
• Iowa State University

31
Multiple family members can serve a resiliency
function

• As shown in previous slides, good parenting is
  associated with less delinquency and drug use.
• In addition, an older sibling can have a positive
  effect on youth.

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Older Sibling Influence - Results

• 10 year old youth are less likely to have conduct
  problems if their older sibling
• Gets good grades in school
• Does not use tobacco, alcohol, or drugs
• Does not endorse anti-social attitudes
• Sibling influence can counteract low quality
  parenting

33
Maternal Work Demands, Child Adjustment, and
Family Routines

• Teru Toyokawa
• Vonnie McLoyd
• University of Michigan

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Work Demands

• A very high proportion of African American
  mothers work outside of the home
• High work demands can demoralize workers
• Demoralization can impede parenting quality,
  which leads to poor behavior by the child

35
Family Routines

• Child does household chores regularly
• Same bedtime every night
• Homework at the same time each day
• Mother helps with homework
• Family eats meals together

36
Resiliency from family routines

• Especially among families headed by a single
  mother, even when work demands are high, regular
  family routines predict
• Fewer behavior problems in child
• Less depression in child

37
Conclusions
38

• African American families encounter many forms of
  stress
• Racial discrimination
• Poverty
• Heavy work burdens

39

• Despite these sources of stress, African American
  youth show resiliency when they have
• Warm, involved parents
• Parents who supervise, explain, and communicate
  well
• Older siblings who model good behavior
• Families who follow regular routines