Examining the Family Context As a Process of Positive Development for African American Youth in High Risk Neighborhoods

Introduction: Substantial research points to the unique risk factors that youth growing up in urban, low resource neighborhoods face including decreased educational opportunities, and increased exposure to violence, trauma, and stress. The empirical research on protective or promotive factors in these populations is limited. A recent review points to the family context as critical to positive development for African American youth (Washington et al., 2015) and worthy of more exploration. However, most studies have focused on younger populations (mean age 10.5 years), risk factors in the family context, and family context in relation to negative outcomes such as youth problem behaviors (Washington et al., 2015). This study examined the promotive role of family context for African American youth growing up in high risk, urban environments.

Methods: Study participants were a predominately African American sample (77.5%) of youth ages 11 to 20 (mean age 15.5) living in high-risk neighborhoods (i.e., characterized by high levels of violence and poverty) in a U.S. southeast city. We conducted latent profile analyses (LPAs) of the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP), to examine the prevalence of promotive factors or assets in individual, family, social, school, and community contexts at both the group and individual levels. We then completed a series of SEM analyses to examine relations between the prevalence of family assets and positive outcomes such as a positive outlook for the future, achievement motivation, efficacy for nonviolence, and negative outcomes such as drug use and delinquency.

Results: Descriptive statistics for the sample overall and by age plus LPA results indicated that assets in the family context were the most prevalent asset for the majority of the sample, when compared with other ecological domains such as community, school, social, and individual. Additionally, family context assets were significantly related to positive outlook, achievement motivation, efficacy for nonviolence, drug use, and delinquency, in the expected directions. Family assets more strongly predicted positive outcomes (particularly positive outlook) for youth than negative outcomes.

Conclusions: First and foremost, it is important to recognize that even in contexts of high risk, African American youth seem to have high levels of protection in the family context. Promotive processes are critical to understanding positive outcomes for youth and how to optimize prevention and intervention programs across adolescence. This study highlights the importance of examining the family context of African American youth growing up in low resource urban neighborhoods.