Accumulating evidence suggests that African American men and women experience unique challenges in developing and maintaining stable, satisfying romantic relationships. Extant studies have linked relationship quality among African American couples to contemporaneous risk factors such as economic hardship and racial discrimination. Little research,…

Dominant theoretical explanations of racial disparities in criminal offending overlook a key risk factor associated with race: interpersonal racial discrimination. Building on recent studies that analyze race and crime at the micro-level, we specify a social psychological model linking personal experiences with racial discrimination to an…

AIDS is the leading killer of African Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, many of whom became infected when they were teenagers or young adults. The disparity in HIV infection rate among African Americans youth residing in rural Southern regions of the United States suggests that there is an urgent need to identify ways to promote early…

This study investigated how early experience with racial discrimination affected the subsequent risky sexual behaviors of a diverse sample of African American youths (N = 745). The analyses focused on 3 risk-promoting factors thought to mediate the hypothesized discrimination--risky sex relation: negative affect, affiliation with deviant peers,…

Prior research demonstrates negative consequences of racism, however, little is known about community, parenting, and intrapersonal mechanisms that protect youth. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study illuminated linkages between positive and negative contextual influences on rural African American adolescent outcomes. Quantitative results…

This investigation of the effects of stressful life events on rural African American women's relationship well-being, psychological functioning, and parenting included 361 married or long-term cohabiting women. Associations among stressful events, socioeconomic status, perceived racial discrimination, coping strategies, psychological functioning,…

Hypotheses concerning the extent to which adolescents' cognitions mediate the relation between parenting behaviors and adolescent substance use were examined in a panel of African American adolescents (N=714, M age at Time 1=10.51 years) and their primary caregivers. A nested-model approach indicated that effective parenting (i.e., monitoring of…

This study will address the initial question: Are there ethnic differences in parenting that remain when contextual variables are controlled "and" are related to culture, focusing on two samples of rural African American families. This study is part of a series of coordinated studies presented in this special issue (Le et al., 2008).…

Studies have shown that exposure to discrimination increases the probability that African American adolescents will engage in delinquent behavior, especially acts of violence. The present study extended this research by examining the extent to which supportive parenting buffers a youth from these deleterious consequences of discrimination.…

A randomized prevention trial contrasted families who took part in the Strong African American Families Program (SAAF), a preventive intervention for rural African American mothers and their 11-year-olds, with control families. SAAF is based on a contextual model positing that regulated, communicative parenting causes changes in factors protecting…

This study, an evaluation of the Strong African American Families Program, was designed to determine whether intervention-induced changes in targeted parenting behaviors were associated with young adolescents development of racial pride, self-esteem, and sexual identity. Participants were 332 African American mothers and their 11-year-old children…

A randomized prevention trial was conducted contrasting families who took part in the Strong African American Families Program (SAAF), a preventive intervention for rural African American mothers and their 11-year-olds, with control families. SAAF is based on a conceptual model positing that changes in intervention-targeted parenting behaviors…

Longitudinal links between perceived racial discrimination and later conduct problems and depressive symptoms were examined among 714 African American adolescents who were 10-12 years old at recruitment. Data were gathered 3 times over a 5-year period. Hypotheses were tested via latent curve modeling and multiple-group latent growth modeling.…