In this study, the authors examined (a) the protective potential of multiple components of ethnic and racial identity and (b) the aspects of an Africentric orientation for moderating psychobehavioral risk and protective factors for drug use among a sample of 333 urban low-income African American young adults. Ethnic and racial identity and…

In a study of adolescents in the 1970s, girls were high in normbreaking if they attended youth recreation centers "and" were heavily involved with peers or boys (Stattin et al., 2003). The present study investigated whether these results could be replicated on a modern sample, and then examined parent-child relationships and personality…

Forty-four children who had been born preterm and their mothers participated in the follow-up study. At 3 and 14 months (corrected age) cognitive development was assessed using the BOS 2-30, the Dutch version of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. The BOS yields measures of mental and motor development. At 7.5 years, intelligence was measured…

In this study we examined the association of optimism and depressive symptoms with self-reported physical symptoms in 241 low-income, inner-city African American women with or without a chronic illness (HIV). Although optimism was not a unique predictor of self-reported physical symptoms over and above depressive symptoms, optimism interacted with…

A continuous assessment and a categorical diagnosis of the presence (i.e., flourishing) and the absence (i.e., languishing) of mental health were proposed and applied to the Midlife in the United States study data, a nationally representative sample of adults between the ages of 25 and 74 years (N = 3,032). Confirmatory factor analyses supported…

In this study, the author examined whether family system functioning was associated with resilience in children exposed to negative environmental stress. In a sample of 55 low-income, urban families, greater differentiation of self among mothers predicted child competence--that is, better verbal and math achievement scores and lower…

Fifth-graders' (N = 162; 93 girls) relationships with parents and friends were examined with respect to their main and interactive effects on psychosocial functioning. Participants reported on parental support, the quality of their best friendships, self-worth, and perceptions of social competence. Peers reported on aggression, shyness and…

Since the "Brown" decision of 1954, American society has moved from a position of seeing no redeeming value in black culture to acknowledging that African Americans have rich cultures worth celebrating. This article reports the case of Malcolm Moor, an African American teacher who believes it is his responsibility and obligation to nurture…

The topic in the author's mind lately is how activists in the academy can best get their messages across with minimal stress and maximum impact. It is difficult to be an academic activist mainly because the status quo does not want to be challenged. Why is activism important? The answer to this question is obvious and simple: If Natives do not do…

The present study used general growth mixture modeling to identify pathways of antisocial behavior development within an epidemiological sample of urban, primarily African American boys. Teacher-rated aggression, measured longitudinally from 1st to 7th grade, was used to define growth trajectories. Three high-risk trajectories (chronic high,…

Given that children have a strong bias towards their in-group, this study examined how children respond to a group member who is revealed to have negative qualities. One hundred and twenty Anglo-Australian children who were 6, 9, or 12 years of age heard a story about an (in-group) Anglo-Australian boy and a (out-group) Chinese boy who were good…

Many commentators have indicated that our nation is in a crisis of character. This study examined the relationship between cheating and lying behaviors and constructs previous research has shown to be associated with health behaviors. Participants in the study were 700 students in grades 6-12 from a single southern school district. The…

Professionals who work with youth often have many questions about how to use a Positive Youth Development strategy. Your questions are answered in this Q&A.

Positive psychology has recently developed a classification of human strengths (Peterson & Seligman, in press). We aimed to evaluate these strengths by investigating the strengths and life satisfaction in three adult samples recruited from the community (young adult, middle-aged, and older adult), as well as in the surviving men of the Grant study…

This article presents a qualitative study of six families of children with disabilities and their perspectives on humor. The findings revealed that the families had an understanding of humor that went beyond the generalized humor construct. They embraced both the concept of humor and "other types of fun." Furthermore, the families' attempts at…