The growing community violence literature has shown that exposure to community violence has been associated with adverse outcomes such as poor psychological well-being and lower academic achievement (Overstreet, 2000; Scarpa, 2003). Since many of the youth exposed to community violence tend to be ethnic minority youth, Aisenberg and Herrenkohl (2003) suggest culturally relevant interventions are necessary to offset the effects of community violence. Racial socialization is a parenting process in African American families that underscores the promotion of cultural heritage and pride as well as providing youth awareness of barriers as well as effective coping strategies (Hughes et al., 2006). Racial socialization has been found to buffer the effects of racial discrimination and mental health risks in African American samples on both academic outcomes and psychological well-being (Bannon et al., 2009; Harris-Britt et al., 2007; Neblett et al., 2006). The present study seeks to understand how racial socialization moderates the effects of community violence exposure on academic and psychosocial outcomes in 281 African American college students at a large university in the Midwest. Two main models were proposed in this study. The first model examined if racial socialization attenuated the effects of community violence exposure on psychosocial outcomes. Psychological well-being was measured via reports of symptoms of depression, symptoms of post-traumatic stress, reports of anger, hostility, verbal aggression and physical aggression. The second model investigated how racial socialization buffers community violence exposure on academic outcomes. Academic achievement was assessed using self-reports of grades in college, academic engagement in college and academic self-concept. Results from this study showed that there were significant main effects of racial socialization on both psychological and academic outcomes. These results indicate that racial socialization provides a promotive effect with regards to certain outcomes. Counter to the hypothesis, the moderating model was not supported. The findings from this study suggest that life-long messages of racial socialization are an important factor in the developmental trajectories of African American populations. This study indicates that the adaptive effects of racial socialization on academic achievement and psychological well-being can be seen even in college aged samples. The results imply that racial socialization practices may be a point of intervention for both younger and older populations of African American youth who may live in communities that are faced with community violence.
Read
