POOR URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS:
THE INFLUENCE OF STRESS ON BLACK AMERICAN MEN
By
Rome Darwin Meeks

A THESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Human Development & Family Studies- Master of Science
2014

ABSTRACT

POOR URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS:
THE INFLUENCE OF STRESS ON BLACK AMERICAN MEN
By
Rome Darwin Meeks
Research is often conducted that reports the effects of poor urban life and the various
experiences one has in these economically deprived communities. Illegal activities, drugs,
gambling, prostitution, inadequate teachers, and the lack of resources are normative for poor
urban environments (Kiser, 2007; Murry et al., 2011). However, the stories of Black men who
live in these environments are often untold and their perceptions and how those perceived
stressors affect them are unknown.
This exploratory study examines the lives of Black men growing up in the city of Detroit
to better understand who they are and the stressors they were exposed to in the home, school and
communities they lived in. Furthermore, the study will consider previous research that identifies
urban stressors and how often these men are exposed to those stressors while ranking them, in a
qualitative photo analysis, to give a better understanding of what is most stressful to them and
the reasons why.
For the male participants the study found that the stressors mentioned in urban research
are normative in the lives of those who live there yet there are different ways of interpreting
those “stressors.” When examining which stressors or themes were most relevant, for the Black
males, the chaos or disorganization in the home, school, and community was easily identified
and received higher points of exposure.

This work of art is dedicated to my parents, grandparents, the Griffin’s and to the Thomas’
(Mary & Isom Thomas), for which without the Thomas’ life would have been much more
difficult. I can’t thank you enough for the encouragement and sacrifice.
To my siblings for which my work and passion for youth was birthed. I love you!
And to my friends, all of whom I love and appreciate.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my Savior and friend, Jesus:
Thank you for first loving me, supporting me, and showing me through each moment, how a life
yielded to you can allow me to accomplish great tasks.

To my committee members Dr. Adrian Blow, Dr. Christopher Dunbar, Dr. Deborah Johnson,
committee chair and advisor, Dr. Francisco Villarruel:
I am forever humbled by your encouragement, patience, and constructive critiques. Each of you
challenged me in ways I had never been challenged and never discouraged me or suggested I
take a different path in the pursuits of my research.

To Dr. V (Villarruel) I want to personally thank you for believing in me and introducing me to
individuals that would be interested in my research and allow me to reach levels I could not have
by myself.

Forever grateful- to each of you.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………………...…...ix
LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………...…..…x
CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1
Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................... 6
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .................................................................................. 6
Socioeconomic Factors and Health ......................................................................................... 6
Behavioral and Emotional Outcomes ..................................................................................... 7
Inner-city Homes .................................................................................................................... 8
Inner-city Schools ................................................................................................................. 10
Inner-city Communities ........................................................................................................ 10
CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................. 12
METHODS AND PROCEDURES ............................................................................................ 12
Research Approach ................................................................................................................ 12
Participant Selection .............................................................................................................. 13
Researcher Reflections........................................................................................................... 14
Data Collection ...................................................................................................................... 19
Phase 1.............................................................................................................................. 19
Phase 2.............................................................................................................................. 19
Phase 3.............................................................................................................................. 21
Analytical Framework ........................................................................................................... 22
Interview Analysis........................................................................................................... 22
Photo Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 23
Main Participants & Focus Groups ................................................................................. 23
CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................. 25
FINDINGS: CASE STUDIES OF FIVE URBAN/INNER-CITY BLACK MALES ................ 25
First Case Study, David ......................................................................................................... 26
Participant Profile ............................................................................................................. 26
Home ...................................................................................................................................... 28
Disorganized Home .......................................................................................................... 28
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 29
School .................................................................................................................................... 30
Disorganized School ........................................................................................................ 30
Learning Environment...................................................................................................... 31
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 32
v

Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 33
Community ............................................................................................................................ 33
Disorganized Community ................................................................................................ 33
Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 34
David’s Final Thoughts.......................................................................................................... 35
David’s Final Thoughts: Researcher’s Reflection ................................................................. 37
Second Case Study, Dontae ................................................................................................... 38
Participant Profile ............................................................................................................. 38
Home ...................................................................................................................................... 39
Disorganized Home .......................................................................................................... 39
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 41
School .................................................................................................................................... 41
Disorganized School ........................................................................................................ 41
Learning Environment...................................................................................................... 42
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 43
Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 44
Community ............................................................................................................................ 44
Disorganized Community ................................................................................................ 44
Economic Deprivation ..................................................................................................... 45
Dontae’s Final Thoughts ........................................................................................................ 45
Dontae’s Final Thoughts: Researcher’s Reflection ............................................................... 47
Third Case Study, Nate .......................................................................................................... 48
Participant Profile ............................................................................................................. 48
Home ...................................................................................................................................... 49
Disorganized Home .......................................................................................................... 49
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 51
School .................................................................................................................................... 51
Disorganized School ........................................................................................................ 51
Learning Environment...................................................................................................... 52
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 53
Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 54
Community ............................................................................................................................ 54
Disorganized Community ................................................................................................ 54
Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 55
Nate’s Final Thoughts ............................................................................................................ 56
Nate’s Final Thoughts: Researcher’s Reflection ................................................................... 58
Fourth Case Study, Sabastian ................................................................................................ 59
Participant Profile ............................................................................................................. 59
Home ...................................................................................................................................... 60
Disorganized Home .......................................................................................................... 60
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 62
School .................................................................................................................................... 62
Disorganized School ........................................................................................................ 62
Learning Environment...................................................................................................... 63
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 64
vi

Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 64
Community ............................................................................................................................ 65
Disorganized Community ................................................................................................ 65
Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 65
Sabastian’s Final Thoughts .................................................................................................... 66
Sabastian’s Final Thoughts: Researchers Reflection ............................................................. 67
Fifth Case Study, Richard ...................................................................................................... 68
Participant Profile ............................................................................................................. 68
Home ...................................................................................................................................... 70
Disorganized Home .......................................................................................................... 70
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 71
School .................................................................................................................................... 72
Disorganized School ........................................................................................................ 72
Learning Environment...................................................................................................... 72
Social Development ......................................................................................................... 73
Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 73
Community ............................................................................................................................ 73
Disorganized Community ................................................................................................ 73
Economic Deprivation...................................................................................................... 74
Richard’s Final Thoughts ....................................................................................................... 74
Richard’s Final Thoughts: Researchers Reflection................................................................ 76
CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................................. 77
FINDINGS: CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 77
Participant Profile .................................................................................................................. 78
Parental Context ............................................................................................................... 78
Home ...................................................................................................................................... 79
School .................................................................................................................................... 81
Community ............................................................................................................................ 82
Participants Final Thoughts ................................................................................................... 84
Protective Factors................................................................................................................... 87
Family Functioning and Risk-Protective Factors ............................................................. 87
Parental Monitoring.......................................................................................................... 87
Parental Support ............................................................................................................... 88
Parental Rituals and Routines .......................................................................................... 88
CHAPTER 6 ................................................................................................................................. 92
FINDINGS: PHOTO ANALYSIS BY INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS ................................. 92
CHAPTER 7 ................................................................................................................................. 99
FINDINGS: TOP COMBINED STRESSORS AMONG PARTICIPANTS ............................. 99
CHAPTER 8 ............................................................................................................................... 115
FOCUS GROUP ANALYSIS .................................................................................................. 115
vii

CHAPTER 9 ............................................................................................................................... 133
FINDINGS: COMPARISON OF TOP 15 ECOSYSTEM CATEGORIES BY GROUP ........ 133
CHAPTER 10 ............................................................................................................................. 138
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION .................................................................................... 138
Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 138
Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 145
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 147
Appendix A: Interview Questions ....................................................................................... 148
Appendix B: Main Participants: Preliminary Photo Critique .............................................. 152
Appendix C: Focus Group: Photo Critique ......................................................................... 155
Appendix D: Areas of Stress Defined ................................................................................. 158
Appendix E: Protocol for Calculating Top 15 Stressors per Category ............................... 160
Appendix F: Photos of Perceived urban/inner-city stressors .............................................. 163
Appendix G: Information Letter and Consent Form………………………………………230
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 234

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Home: Combined Stressors among Participants ............................................................ 99
Table 2: School: Combined Stressor among Participants ........................................................... 105
Table 3: Community: Combined Stressors among Participants ................................................. 110
Table 4: Photo Selection by Category ........................................................................................ 113
Table 5: Focus Group 1: Home Commentary............................................................................. 116
Table 6: Focus Group 1: School Commentary ........................................................................... 119
Table 7: Focus Group 1: Community Commentary ................................................................... 122
Table 8: Focus Group 2: Home Commentary............................................................................. 125
Table 9: Focus Group 2: School Commentary ........................................................................... 127
Table 10: Focus Group 2: Community Commentary ................................................................. 130
Table 11: Home: Top 15 Stressors ............................................................................................. 133
Table 12: School: Top 15 Stressors ............................................................................................ 135
Table 13: Community: Top 15 stressors ..................................................................................... 136

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Individual Participants Selection by Theme…………….….……………..…….…..…95
Figure 2: Who’s affected by Context………………………..…………………..……..….….…97
Figure 3: Stress Type by Context…….………………..…………………………...….….……..97
Figure 4: Frequency of Exposure……………………….…………………………..……...…...100
Figure 5: Death due to violence .................................................................................................. 164
Figure 6: Limited interaction/Felt like criminals ........................................................................ 164
Figure 7: Lack of adult supervision ............................................................................................ 165
Figure 8: Disorganized neighborhoods ....................................................................................... 165
Figure 9: School closings ............................................................................................................ 166
Figure 10: Abandoned houses/open lots ..................................................................................... 166
Figure 11: Unsafe play areas/abandoned buildings .................................................................... 167
Figure 12: Peer influences .......................................................................................................... 167
Figure 13: Absent mother ........................................................................................................... 168
Figure 14: Increased exposure to law enforcement .................................................................... 168
Figure 15: Lack of male role mentors ......................................................................................... 169
Figure 16: Lack of creativity....................................................................................................... 169
Figure 17: Increased exposure to firearms .................................................................................. 170
Figure 18: Lack of male role models in education ..................................................................... 170
Figure 19: Exposure to graffiti .................................................................................................... 171
Figure 20: Lack of two parent homes ......................................................................................... 171
Figure 21: Increased incarceration .............................................................................................. 172
Figure 22: Unsafe work environments ........................................................................................ 172
x

Figure 23: Not belonging ............................................................................................................ 173
Figure 24: Teenage mothers........................................................................................................ 173
Figure 25: Increased police presence .......................................................................................... 174
Figure 26: Lack of academic interest .......................................................................................... 174
Figure 27: Unsafe/abandoned homes .......................................................................................... 175
Figure 28: Lack of adequate transportation ................................................................................ 175
Figure 29: Lack of role models ................................................................................................... 176
Figure 30: Abandoned homes ..................................................................................................... 176
Figure 31: Dilapidated housing ................................................................................................... 177
Figure 32: Increased exposure to crime ...................................................................................... 177
Figure 33: Prostitution ................................................................................................................ 178
Figure 34: Abandoned homes ..................................................................................................... 178
Figure 35: Presence of liquor ...................................................................................................... 179
Figure 36: Exposure to disabled individuals ............................................................................... 179
Figure 37: Increased drug activity .............................................................................................. 180
Figure 38: Increased drug activity near school grounds ............................................................. 180
Figure 39: Increased noise level due to fire, ambulance, or police sirens .................................. 181
Figure 40: Unsafe play areas. Exposure to unlivable living conditions ..................................... 181
Figure 41: Inadequate nutrition or lack of necessities ................................................................ 182
Figure 42: Lack of grocery stores in urban/inner-city areas ....................................................... 182
Figure 43: Increased exposure to homeless ................................................................................ 183
Figure 44: Increased exposure to abandoned buildings including schools ................................. 183
Figure 45: Increased fear/anxiety................................................................................................ 184
Figure 46: Graffiti ....................................................................................................................... 184
xi

Figure 47: Increased exposure to illegal gun use ........................................................................ 185
Figure 48: Increased unemployment in urban/inner-city neighborhoods .................................. 185
Figure 49: Increased homeless ................................................................................................... 186
Figure 50: Increased hopelessness .............................................................................................. 186
Figure 51: Increased exposure to social services ........................................................................ 187
Figure 52: Transportation ........................................................................................................... 187
Figure 53: Lack of identity ......................................................................................................... 188
Figure 54: Lack of role models/motherless homes ..................................................................... 188
Figure 55: Incarcerated parent .................................................................................................... 189
Figure 56: Lack of community resources ................................................................................... 189
Figure 57: Hopelessness ............................................................................................................. 190
Figure 58: Lack of academic support.......................................................................................... 190
Figure 59: Hopelessness/academic disinterest ............................................................................ 191
Figure 60: Unsafe play areas due to violence ............................................................................. 191
Figure 61: Fatherless home ......................................................................................................... 192
Figure 62: Over exposure to emergency services ....................................................................... 192
Figure 63: Walking the streets/fear of neighborhood ................................................................. 193
Figure 64: Increased exposure to gang activity .......................................................................... 193
Figure 65: Grocery store ............................................................................................................. 194
Figure 66: Loneliness .................................................................................................................. 194
Figure 67: Bars on windows (unsafe housing) ........................................................................... 195
Figure 68: Increased exposure to unemployment ....................................................................... 195
Figure 69: Disinterest in school curriculum................................................................................ 196
Figure 70: Increased exposure to death ...................................................................................... 196
xii

Figure 71: No true interaction with people ................................................................................. 197
Figure 72: Dehumanized/unsafe schools .................................................................................... 197
Figure 73: Lack of community resources ................................................................................... 198
Figure 74: Bars............................................................................................................................ 198
Figure 75: Unsafe neighborhoods/empty lots/abandoned buildings ........................................... 199
Figure 76: Metal detectors .......................................................................................................... 199
Figure 77: Community resources ................................................................................................ 200
Figure 78: Increased crime.......................................................................................................... 200
Figure 79: Status/having the latest brand names......................................................................... 201
Figure 80: Inadequate heating and cooling and have young children near by............................ 201
Figure 81: Inadequate heating and cooling ................................................................................. 202
Figure 82: Parental concern ........................................................................................................ 202
Figure 83: Increased exposure to ................................................................................................ 203
Figure 84: Lack of finances ........................................................................................................ 203
Figure 85: Pollution .................................................................................................................... 204
Figure 86: Abandoned areas ....................................................................................................... 204
Figure 87: Unsafe play areas....................................................................................................... 205
Figure 88: Increased police activity ............................................................................................ 205
Figure 89: Vacant lots ................................................................................................................. 206
Figure 90: Peer influences .......................................................................................................... 206
Figure 91: Inadequate sleeping quarters ..................................................................................... 207
Figure 92: Sagging ...................................................................................................................... 207
Figure 93: Sagging ...................................................................................................................... 208
Figure 94: Increased exposure to food banks ............................................................................. 208
xiii

Figure 95: Unsafe schools ........................................................................................................... 209
Figure 96: Imprisoned ................................................................................................................. 209
Figure 97: Lack of grocery stores in urban/inner-city environments ......................................... 210
Figure 98: Increased exposure to alcohol and drugs ................................................................... 210
Figure 99: Lack of community ................................................................................................... 211
Figure 100: Abandoned buildings............................................................................................... 211
Figure 101: Lack of male role models for young boys ............................................................... 212
Figure 102: Unclean environments ............................................................................................. 212
Figure 103: Lead paint exposure................................................................................................. 213
Figure 104: Lack of school resources ......................................................................................... 213
Figure 105: Lack of prenatal care ............................................................................................... 214
Figure 106: Disinterest in school ................................................................................................ 214
Figure 107: Abandonment .......................................................................................................... 215
Figure 108: Increased exposure to domestic abuse.................................................................... 215
Figure 109: Urban/inner-city pollution ....................................................................................... 216
Figure 110: Inadequate nutrition................................................................................................. 216
Figure 111: Inadequate nutrition................................................................................................. 217
Figure 112: Increased exposure to alcohol ................................................................................. 217
Figure 113: Lack of positive opportunities ................................................................................. 218
Figure 114: Absent parents ......................................................................................................... 218
Figure 115: Raised by grandmother ............................................................................................ 219
Figure 116: Lack of finances ...................................................................................................... 219
Figure 117: Exposure to false masculinity.................................................................................. 220
Figure 118: Exposure to increased parental stress ...................................................................... 220
xiv

Figure 119: Lack of play area ..................................................................................................... 221
Figure 120: Exposure to smoking while an infant ...................................................................... 221
Figure 121: Lack of a positive role model .................................................................................. 222
Figure 122: Abandonment .......................................................................................................... 222
Figure 123: Neighborhood disorganization and trash exposure ................................................. 223
Figure 124: Outdated and torn books in inner-city ..................................................................... 223
Figure 125: Increased noise level ............................................................................................... 224
Figure 126: Increased exposure to alcohol and smoking ............................................................ 224
Figure 127: Smoking while pregnant .......................................................................................... 225
Figure 128: School stress due to home life ................................................................................. 225
Figure 129: Lack of positive male role models .......................................................................... 226
Figure 130: Lack of adequate nutrition ....................................................................................... 226
Figure 131: Parental discipline ................................................................................................... 227
Figure 132: Over-crowded inner/city classrooms ....................................................................... 227
Figure 133: Exposure to mercury through contaminated water.................................................. 228
Figure 134: Lack of outside play due to unsafe play areas ......................................................... 228
Figure 135: Exposure to mercury and lead on playgrounds ....................................................... 229
Figure 136: Raising siblings ....................................................................................................... 229

xv

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Children living in urban/inner-city neighborhoods face various dangers and stressors that
exist in their homes, schools, and local communities (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). These
neighborhoods expose children to illegal activities at alarming rates including, but not limited to,
prostitution, drugs, gambling, gang activity, and random acts of violence. These neighborhood
stressors may also include over-exposure to the misuse of weapons (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002;
Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005; Kiser, 2007). These aforementioned exposures, result in
a disproportionate number of children developing behavioral, physical, and emotional
challenges, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, which may interrupt the ability
to think clearly and effectively solve problems (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Leventhal & BrooksGunn, 2000; Youngstrom, Weist, & Albus, 2003).
Not only are the behavioral, physical, and emotional well-being of a child threatened, but
the physiological reactions to the stressors to which children are exposed lend themselves to
several health complications in adulthood as well. Prior life stress is strongly associated with
cardiovascular disease, sudden cardiac death, seriousness of chronic illness, and birth
complications. Prior stress, as well as perceived stress, alter immune functions, affect mood, and
cognitive processing (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Kiser, 2007; Lupien, King, Meaney & McEwen,
2001; Youngstrom, Weist, & Albus, 2003).
Lupien et al. (2001) defined stress as previous or actual exposure to life events requiring
the individual to make some adaptation. Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn (2000) summarized the
outcomes contributing to the realities and stressors of living in poor or low-socioeconomic status
1

(SES) neighborhoods. Exposure to stressors in low SES physical and social environments
influence a person’s developmental outcomes and make them more vulnerable to interpersonal
aggression, violence, and health behaviors including cigarette smoking and lack of physical
activity (Lupien et al., 2001). Additionally, stress can come from urban/inner-city homes,
schools, and neighborhood facilities that are often overly crowded, poorly maintained, and have
inadequate heating or cooling (Kiser, 2007). Children and adolescents from urban/inner-city
neighborhoods are asked to compete for the same opportunities as children who live in more
advantaged neighborhoods without the adverse neighborhood conditions that affect physical,
emotional, and behavioral outcomes. Clearly, where children live matters and the quality of their
home, school, and local community can directly or indirectly affect their developmental wellbeing (Murry, Burkel, Gaylord-Harden, Copeland-Linder, & Nation, 2011).
Girls and boys from urban/inner-city environments are exposed to higher levels of
neighborhood stressors that can have significant effects on their wellbeing. Exposure to violence
for urban/inner-city youth is high compared to children who live in advantaged areas. Similarly,
the impact on gender outcomes has been noted in previous research (Beyers, Bates, Pettit &
Dodge, 2003; Windle, 1992; Youngstrom et al. 2003). Youngstrom et al. (2003) reported that
sixth graders in their study described having had their lives threatened (31% of boys and 14% of
girls) and seeing someone shot (42% of the participating boys and 30% of the girls). The same
study revealed that the majority of the respondents heard gun shots and/or witnessed someone
being beaten or arrested sometime in their lives. Not only is gender pivotal but the ethnic
group(s) studied and represented in low SES neighborhoods matter. Families that live in innercity neighborhoods and are exposed to a variety of stressful living conditions are most frequently
identified as Black American. Furthermore, reports show urban/inner-city environments
2

influence boys differently than girls from the same environment (Beyers et al. 2003; Windle,
1992; Youngstrom et al. 2003.
Adolescent boys are at greater risk for low attendance, low achievement in school, and
high aggression (Beyers, Bates, Pettit & Dodge, 2003). The relationship between adolescents and
their parents is pivotal. Communication between Black American parents and their adolescent
children is significant especially for Black boys. Several researchers have concluded that poor
outcomes for communication relate to delinquency and depression for adolescent Black males
but not girls (Taylor, Rodriquez, Seaton, & Dominquez, 2005; Windle, 1992).
If society expects urban/inner-city youth, especially youth of color, to practice acceptable
behavior, maintain acceptable performance in academics and remain emotionally stable, then
scholars and practitioners must be aware of mechanisms that are most pivotal to their outcomes.
Awareness of these risk factors may enable youth development professionals to influence the
trajectory for youth who experience high levels of mental dysfunction, unemployment, academic
challenges (i.e. school dropout), involvement in illegal activities, incarceration, and other at-risk
activities.
This study examined the lives of college-age Black American men who grew-up in
urban/inner-city neighborhoods. The purposes of the study were four-fold: 1) to better
understand the individual experiences for these men in their homes, schools, and communities, 2)
to identify stressors associated with their homes, schools, and communities, 3) to determine with
the use of photos which experiences were most stressful, and 4) to identify themes of resilience
or protective factors. This study also aimed to increase understanding about the relationship
between these individuals and their environments, and to identify solutions to improve their
conditions through changes targeted at the micro-level and macro-level. My personal goal with
3

this paper is to encourage readers to review urban/inner-city stressors in an effort to convince
policymakers and others to recognize the value of these young men as individuals. Making a list
of stressors inner-city individuals encounter is admirable while knowing how stressors affect the
development of individuals can help determine appropriate interventions which are more
important (Bronfenbrenner, 1986).
Being born into low-SES urban/inner-city neighborhoods increases the risks for birth
defects, cognitive deficits, behavioral, emotional, and academic failure (e.g., school dropout and
under education), under or unemployment and an increased likelihood of this cycle being
repeated in subsequent generations (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Crosnoe et al., 2002; Zaff &
Smerdon, 2009).
This study explored the lives of Black men who grew up in Detroit, Michigan. The study
explored three main questions:
(1) Do the experiences of these Black men and what they were exposed to confirm
current research?
(2) What are the top perceived stressors, depicted through photo analysis, in the home,
school, and community context and participants’ thoughts of Detroit and a future
family?
(3) What, if any, themes of resilience occur in the life on these young men?

4

Theoretical Framework
There are many variables that influence child and adolescent development. Research
illustrates that there is no single risk or protective factor responsible for negative or positive
outcomes; it is an accumulation of factors (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Therefore, a
human ecological approach is best suited for exploring the factors influencing the lives of
children as well as the relationships among family members, peers, the neighborhood, and the
local community (Bronfenbrenner, 2005; Granger, 2002).
Research has described interactions that exist through bidirectional relationships between
adolescents, their families, and the neighborhoods where they live and play. The human
ecological approach involves individuals and families in relation to the totality of their
environment. This study focused on the experiences of Black college-aged men who grew up in
urban/inner-city, low-income environments. The aim was to better understand how perceived
stressors collectively influenced their development through an examination of micro, meso, and
exo-system levels.

5

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
While one in four children, within the United States, lives below the poverty level, 75%
of these children live in urban neighborhoods (Kiser, 2007). This body of literature supports the
view that low SES urban/inner-city neighborhoods create a dynamic that, unlike advantaged
neighborhoods, is correlated with negative outcomes related to health, behavior, emotional
wellbeing, and academic performance (Beyers et al. 2003; Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Gutman,
McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005). First, I summarize how living in urban/inner-city neighborhoods
exposes one to increased stressors that adversely influence mental or physical health; then I
identify two developmental outcomes associated with poor emotional health or behavior that is
inconsistent with societal norms. Next, stressors are detailed that youth in urban/inner-city
neighborhoods encounter in their homes, schools, and communities that affect growth,
development, and adjustment (Levanthal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000).
Socioeconomic Factors and Health
Socioeconomic factors influence children’s health and wellbeing. One factor is living in
low SES neighborhoods. Research has demonstrated that low-SES neighborhoods are related to
poorer health for adults and children (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Lupien et al., 2001). As a result,
people from low SES neighborhoods are usually exposed to high rates of instability and change,
producing even higher levels of individual distress (Lupien et al., 2001). Individuals from low
SES neighborhoods have high rates of exposure to stressful life events that correlate with disease
risks, mortality rates and crime rates (Allgood W.C., 2006; Anderson, Sabatelli, & Koustic,
2007).
6

The effects of living in low SES environments impacts children in utero (Allgood, 2006;
Lupien et al. 2001; Zaff & Smerdon, 2009). These children are more likely to be born
prematurely and with various birth defects (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Infants living in
economically distressed neighborhoods are likely to experience poor natal care, maternal
substance abuse, and poor nutrition. Research has documented that children who lived in poverty
for the first three years of their lives compared to children who did not live in economically
distressed neighborhoods showed delayed growth rates, had more health problems, and
demonstrated more behavioral challenges (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002).
Anxiety-induced stress has been associated with low performance on complex tasks and
the inability to use semantic cues in recall (Lupien et al., 2001). Children from low SES
environments are at higher risk for exposure to lead paints which have been linked to high rates
of anemia and ear infections; and learning, emotional, and behavioral disorders (Allgood, 2006;
Lupien et al. 2001). Conversely, individuals living in high SES communities experience better
physical and mental health compared to those who live in low SES neighborhoods (Lupien et al.
2001).
Behavioral and Emotional Outcomes
Neighborhood resources impact behavioral and emotional wellbeing. Outward or external
(acting out and aggressive) and inward or internal (depressive and withdrawn) behaviors have
the strongest effect on child and adolescent mental health; the behavioral and emotional effects
have different consequences (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Zaff & Smerdon, 2009).
Between 70% and 100% of children living in poor inner city communities have been exposed to
some form of trauma yet fewer than 20% develop psychiatric disorders (Kiser, Medoff & Black,

7

2010). Traumas are defined as stressors causing threats to life or to the physical integrity of the
child, causing feelings of helplessness (Kiser, 2007).
As neighborhood contact increases, the threats to life also increase by approximately 75%
between infancy and early childhood (Hart, Atkins, & Matsuba, 2008). As infants grow they are
exposed to more environmental stressors that include increased participation in day care, school,
and church attendance; visiting other people; and engagement in sports, music, dance or other
recreational activities. While most children are exposed to stressful life events at some time in
their childhood, youth and adolescents from low SES neighborhoods experience higher risk of
stress and trauma. This exposure to stress and trauma has been linked to mental and physical
health problems (Edin & Kissane, 2010). Children living in economically distressed
neighborhoods are at increased risk of being victims of child abuse, peer aggression, and
community violence compared to children who live in high SES neighborhoods (Bradley &
Corwyn, 2002). As a young child, the home is the most influential environment and the risks in
low-SES homes are impactful due to the amount of time spent in the home. Conversely, the older
the child becomes, the less time he or she spends at home. Exposures to other people, places, and
things are broadened.
Inner-city Homes
Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn (2000) observed that the physical home environment of
children in low SES communities is related to a child’s health and wellbeing. The home
environments in which these children live are usually dilapidated, have inadequate heating,
unprotected stairwells, cracked floors, open heating appliances, overcrowding, and lead paint,
(Bradley & Corwyn, 2002), which impact children’s health, intellectual, and social wellbeing
(Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000).
8

The lack of neighborhood resources has also been reported to influence the mental health
of families (Clark, Barrett, & Kolvin, 2000; Crosnoe, Mistry, & Elder, 2002). These researchers
note that the parenting is positively influenced by access to community resources. The lack of
access to community resources in low SES neighborhoods negatively affects the quality of
parent-child interactions (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000).
Parents who experienced stress due to unstable unemployment have reported low selfesteem. Parents with low self-esteem have also reported high expressions of anger, depression,
and lack of self-control (Beyers et al. 2003; Petterson & Albers, 2001). The distress among poor
parents has also been correlated with low warmth and responsiveness, negative control strategies,
and an inability to monitor children appropriately (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002).
Research has documented additional negative impacts for children growing up in low
SES households. For example, Edin and Kissane (2010) reported that children who were treated
harshly by their parents at age three demonstrated decreased cognitive abilities and increased
externalizing problems including aggression or depression during their adolescence. Another
study found that adolescents growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods reported higher levels
of depression. These respondents also reported strained parent-child relationships (Murry,
Berkel, Gaylord-Harden, Copeland-Linder, & Nation, 2002) because of restrictive parenting
practices, resulting in tighter bonds and more reliance upon peers than parents. Low SES families
experience events that are uncontrollable, threatening. Additionally, they are disproportionately
exposed to environmental hazards and violence resulting in family dissolution and household
moves (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002).

9

Inner-city Schools
Neighborhood SES is positively associated with adolescent’s achievement and negatively
associated with educational risks (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). It is important to note that
neighborhood SES has been shown to have stronger effects on adolescent male academic
achievement than for females. Moreover, Black American (34%) and Latino (31%) youth are at
increased odds of living in low resourced neighborhoods (Murry et al. 2011).
Compared to children from high SES backgrounds, children from disadvantaged
backgrounds are less likely to graduate from high school and attend college (Crosnoe, Mistry, &
Elder, 2002). SES remains one of the most consistent predictors for school attendance and early
high school dropout (Bradley & Corywn, 2002).
The quality of the home environment negatively correlates with adolescent problems in
school (Bradley & Corwyn 2002). Moreover, children from low SES environments do not have
equal access to materials that stimulate cognitive functioning. Therefore, learning material and
the exposure to socially and culturally diverse opportunities increase social exchanges and allow
for more productive children and a lessening of negative adolescent behaviors like aggression,
and difficulty in academia.
Inner-city Communities
Urban/inner-city communities are considered unsafe and insecure , characterized by
multiple stressors with limited resources that counter the pressures associated with living in these
communities (Anderson, Sabatelli, & Koustic, 2007; Zaff & Smerdon, 2009). Community
exposures begin when children start preschool. Oftentimes in urban/inner-city communities,
preschool facilities often lack resources to stimulate children positively. Child and adolescent
development may be influenced by the availability of institutional resources in the community
10

including learning, recreational, and social activities involving child care, medical facilities and
other free and affordable resources. The presence of libraries, family resource centers, and
museums are beneficial resources that parents can take advantage of that have positive
implications for a child’s well-being especially in the areas of learning stimulation and school
readiness. Unfortunately, resources in many low-income neighborhoods are scarce.
Lastly, a major community resource is the availability of employment for youth.
Employment can provide access to resources otherwise unavailable, as well as decrease
behavioral problems and substance abuse. Also, be mindful that a lack of opportunities due to
unemployment has a huge influence on a child’s and adolescent’s ideas for education, work ethic
and his/her future (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Moreover,
children who are exposed to stressful life events due to neighborhood stressors are at increased
risks of developing mental disorders as well as health complications in adulthood.
These stressors hinder youth in areas of academics, which result in a number of barriers,
creating perpetual cycles of defeat for these youth and generations to come. Therefore it is
important to answer the following research questions to determine: 1) if the experiences and
exposure to stressors are the same as current research suggests; 2) what the perceived stressors
are and why participants think they exist as well as their thoughts of their future in Detroit with
families; and 3) what, in the midst of their environments, protected them from becoming another
negative statistic.

11

CHAPTER 3
METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Research Approach
This study explores the lived experiences of college-age Black American men who grew
up in urban/inner-city neighborhoods that further describe the perceived neighborhood stressors
within these environments. The study included three distinct phases: identifying and defining
home, school, and neighborhood stressors from black and white photos, ranking these stressors
from most-to-least stressful, and explained how these pictures depicted their lived realities. An
aim of this study was to better understand how the represented stressors contributed to risk or
protective factors in their lives.
The first phase of this study explored neighborhood stressors for five Black American
undergraduate participants who were raised in urban/inner-cities. Information for this phase was
collected in a semi-structured, face-to-face interview. Participants responded to questions about
their experiences in their home, schools and local community.
The second phase of the study randomly assigned the same five participants to one of two
different photo critique trials. Each of the five participants, individually, viewed 130 photos (all
retrieved from Google Images) of urban/inner-city stressors. Half of the participants saw the
photos with brief descriptions of the context, whereas there were no defining words in the second
trial photos were identified based on literature that described stressors in urban/inner-city
environments (e.g., gang violence, prostitution, increased noise levels). From the 130 photos,
each participant selected a total of 45 photos - 15 photos that depicted each of three ecosystem
categories: household, school and neighborhood/community. Next, each participant rank-ordered
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the photos from most-to-least stressful. Participants then reported on their exposure to each
stressor (e.g., all the time, frequently, infrequently, or never) and discussed reasons for their
selection of the most stressful photo in each category. Participants also reported whether the
perceived stressor most affected the individual, family, or both. Lastly, participants identified
which stress most affected an individual’s developmental well-being. Concluding the photo sort
of each individual participant, the top 15 photos in each ecosystem category were calculated,
presenting an overall top 45 photos in the collection.
Participant Selection
Ten male, Black American, Michigan State University (MSU) undergraduate students
were recruited through various university sponsored programs (e.g., Advantage and Black
Caucus). Each organization was asked to allow me 5-minutes to introduce myself and to give an
overview of my thesis. At the start of these sessions, I asked attendees to share ideas of
differences between urban and suburban communities. I then summarized my thesis project
explaining that my interest was on developing a better understanding on how urban
neighborhood impact the well-being of Black American men. I further explained that a goal of
my thesis was to better understand the lived experiences of men who grew within urban/innercity neighborhoods and to explore their exposure to various issues (i.e., violence, vacant homes,
prostitution, and no heat in school during the winter). At the conclusion of my presentation I
passed out contact cards and asked interested individuals to fill them out if they were interested
and willing to participate in this study.
Each person that expressed an interest in participating was contacted via e-mail or by
phone to further explore their willingness to participate. Upon consent, the investigator: 1)
introduced the purpose and background of the study, 2) explained the potential contributions
13

their participation could make in terms of benefits to others living in urban/inner-city
environments, 3) described what participation in the study involved (e.g., length of interview,
types of questions to be asked, recording of the interview), 4) notified them of their rights as
participants, and 5) explained the process of ensuring confidentiality. If they provided verbal
consent to participate, an interview was scheduled for phases one and two of the study.
Researcher Reflections
I view the lives of urban communities and their residents’ through a social justice lens. I
believe these residents are often forgotten and experience a disproportionate number of
challenges that negatively affects their psychological and physiologically wellbeing. Therefore, I
seek to do what I can to examine how to create an equitable experience for all, especially those
living in poor urban neighborhoods. This lens comes from my past, growing up in Detroit, where
I had many experiences that were both positive and negative. I have seen things that I believe are
disproportionately experienced in poor environments, like unrest in the home due to the lack of
financial security, instability in households and in schools. My view of society as a Black male
growing up in the inner-city and comparing resources in my neighborhood to neighborhoods
with predominately White neighborhoods bring up issues of race. Race is very pivotal in my
view of society and how I believe society views me and other Black American males.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan on October 1, 1983 to parents who were young and in
love. My passion for Detroit and the people who live there and in similar cities is one of the
lenses through which I view my inquiry into how youth, particularly young men of color,
experience life. I experienced many stressors while growing up and often wondered how much
of who I am is due to my childhood and the environment where I spent most of my time.

14

Since Detroit is my place of birth it represents a lens through which I view my position in
life. Before my first birthday, my parents’ relationship ended and my mother and I moved with
my maternal grandparents to Atlanta, Georgia. As I reflect on my earliest memories, I recall
having experiences in both Atlanta and Detroit. My mom and I moved back to Detroit, to the
inner-city, when I was approximately four years of age. Later my mom married and the
relationship was a tumultuous one filled with domestic abuse and instability. The violence was
overwhelming and as I would often look outside my second floor bedroom window to dream and
have a mental escape, but many times the view outside was no different. My neighbors were
often fist fighting and pulling out knives on one another. This view became normative; I believe
a particular neighbor was an alcoholic. However, I was a child and wanted to go outside to play,
but because of the neighbors who often fought in the middle of the street, as well as my mom’s
and stepdad’s concern of the neighbor next door who sold drugs and had constant traffic in and
out of his home, I could not.
My attitude about drugs was always negative and sad because I knew the negative impact
it had on families; my mother had a drug habit that often resulted in me being left home alone to
take care of my siblings while my stepdad was away for days at a time. When I was not left
home alone I often frequented “dope houses” with my mom. As my mom’s drug addiction grew
worse, life became more unstable. I moved from family member to family member, and for a
time was separated from my siblings. Partly due to the separation between my siblings and me, I
often wondered about child development, especially in the midst of environmental influences.
Those environmental influences include school. From early childhood, I was taught that
education is to be taken seriously and without it you do not became successful. However, I
struggled in school and never understood how anything I was learning would ever help me with
15

my challenges. It did not help that my peers were often getting into fights and always disrupting
class. Teachers often seemed overwhelmed, no one at home paid attention to me, and when I got
frustrated with school-work I would just get yelled at instead of helped. In class we were always
asked to share books because either we did not have enough or there were pages missing. This is
a manifestation of why there is an academic achievement gap between minority students and
Whites. Therefore, allowing the participants in this research study to talk about their school
experiences having grown up in urban environments was important for me to capture.
If you weren’t distracted by the fights inside the school, the loud music being played by
cars that drove by was a constant distraction. The fear of what would happen when you left
school and had to walk home past abandoned buildings, homeless people, prostitutes, and visit
stores with people behind bullet proof glass, who did not look like me nor my peers framed the
questions and photo depictions of my thesis. The interview questions were formed to probe the
lived experiences of other Black men from Detroit. Moreover, life was not always horrible and I
did not become a negative statistic. Therefore, uncovering protective factors that may have been
in place in the lives of these men was informative. Conversely, choosing college-age men from
poor urban environments gave opportunity for men to reflect on their experiences from an
introspective lens.
I permanently moved to Atlanta with my maternal grandparents after I graduated from
the fifth grade. My grandparents would always take me with them on different road trips every
summer and were always encouraging. I believe stability helped make a significant difference in
my life. However, during this time I would see children whose parents were on drugs, like mine,
but they seemed not to care about their lives and were often disrespectful. What made the
behaviors of some youth from the same environments distinct from mine?
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As I got older I realized that not only were their differences in behavior of people with
similar experiences but there were people, mostly Whites, whose experiences were quite contrary
to mine. I felt somehow betrayed as it seemed that White people’s lives were so much better than
mine; I felt like life was unfair for some people because they may be able to obtain things that I
could not and their future, as a result would be more promising. It was not my fault that I was a
Black kid who grew up in the ‘hood of Detroit with the exposures I did. I began to think about
how people often blamed Black youth from Detroit and felt like these individuals should not be
blamed for their own circumstances or always punished for certain behaviors.
I always wanted to be of help to people because I felt like often times I was alone in a
world that did not accept me. Furthermore, I wanted to be that person to others that could be
counted on. Consequently, I became interested in learning what makes people develop, either
negatively or positively. I always had uncles in and out of jail, often heard my parents and others
talk about friends who had gotten killed, and lastly, they would talk about the “white man.”
Although the “white man” could never be identified, I believed that color did matter and whether
it was the “white man” or some other man, Black Americans were always thought American
society matters to how I was viewed and how hard I must work to be noticed, positively.
My story is not unique and Black men from Detroit and inner-city communities across
America are often given a bad reputation and too often become beneficiaries to a perpetual cycle
of defeat. What do I mean by this? I mean that the experiences that occur in Detroit seem to be
cyclical. Therefore, I decided to focus my research on college age Black men from poor-urban
neighborhoods not only because I identify with their experiences, but also because I often
wonder how I was affected by them. The way I see the world, my introverted ways, lack of trust,
and a defensive stand I take anytime I hear phrases like “equal playing field,” “stop complaining
17

and choices you made,” “pick yourself up by your bootstrap,” “I don’t see color,” and “race does
not matter,” to name a few.
We as Black men continue to be blamed for our actions when rarely do we hear the
stories from the perspective of those who have lived certain lives. In developing my thesis I felt
it was time for people to listen. People can disagree with my interpretations of my experiences.
However, my experiences cannot be disputed. Therefore, I knew that if I expected these young
men to be vulnerable about their experiences, I had to share with them that I was from Detroit
and grew up in a similar environment to theirs. After establishing rapport with study participants
they were more comfortable in sharing, as they would ask me if I knew where a place was
located or end their sentences with “you know how it is.”
Unfortunately, I did know how it was. Whether it was a lack of support at home or
school, I knew how it was. The insight that these young men had about living in Detroit was
more than insightful. I learned that, regardless of their upbringing, they would not have changed
anything about their experiences because they believed they learned some invaluable truths about
who they are and the value of a difficult situation growing up. Moreover, they knew that their
experiences were different from majority Whites, but they were not one’s who complained to the
point of complacency; they acknowledged the unfair treatment from the government and others
and continued to strive toward success.
Lastly, this research allowed me to further understand the importance of urban research
and also how much more research on the topic is needed. I was encouraged by these young men
but yet saddened because they faced challenges that no one seems to care about. Observers just
assume when young Blacks struggle or make “bad” decisions they are thugs or menaces to
society. After speaking with these young men, I should have bluntly asked them what they
18

thought of the negative stereotypes of Detroit and Black men. Why they believe these
stereotypes are perpetuated? And, what needs to happen in order to eradicate them?
Data Collection
Phase 1
Semi-structured open-ended interviews. Interviews were guided by a semi-structured,
open-ended protocol. The areas of inquiry explored within the interview protocol included: 1) a
discussion of their life living in their respective neighborhoods and 2) a general understanding of
their experience in the home, school, and local community. Interviews took approximately two
hours and were digitally recorded. Each participant was required to consent to the digital
recording.
Interviews were conducted on a one-one basis in an environment free from distractions in
a campus office. The structured interview protocol (see Appendix A) was intended to illicit a
discussion of experiences participants believed exemplified life stresses that impacted their
development – positively or negatively.
Phase 2
Photo Critique. As a way to facilitate phase two, I gathered 130 Google Images that
represented stressors identified in the literature, my personal experiences, and experiences of
professors and peers. The photos (Appendix F) may not be an exhaustive list of environmental
stressors, but they were selected as approximations of what previous research has identified as an
urban stressor impacting the development and health of residents. Multiple examples of each
stressor were included, thus creating a situation where participants could help to identify the
most significant stressors in their lived experiences. The ultimate goal of phase two was to

19

reduce the number of photos from 130 to 45 – fifteen photos from each participant that best
depicted household, school, and neighborhood stressors.
Part 2.A: Five participants from the interview phase also participated, after their individual
interviews, in the individual photo sorting phase. The main goal was to narrow the photos from
130 to 45. Each participant would individually be selected to one of two trials. Trail one included
participants to view photos with brief descriptions of the perceived stressor, whereas the other
trial involved participants sorting the photos without captions of perceived stressors. Both trials
sorted through the initial 130 photos. Each photo had a number (1-130) as an identifier placed at
the bottom of the photo (see Appendix F).
Part A1: Participants in both groups were asked to separate these photos into three piles
they believed best represented stressors experienced most in a home, school, or community
context.
Part A2: Participants were asked to examine each pile separately and asked if there were
any stressors that might have been overlooked representing each of these areas of urban/innercity stressors (Pile one represented home stressors, pile two, school stressors, and pile three,
community stressors).
Part A3: Participants were asked to identify their top 15 perceived stressors identified in
the photos in each ecosystem category and mark the photos identification number from what they
believed was the most stressful to least stressful stressor influencing developmental outcomes for
youth and adolescents in an urban/inner-city context.
Part A4: Participants were then asked to identify who they believed was most affected by
the perceived stressor (i.e., family, individual, or both) next to the photo identification number
identified in the previous section.
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Part A5: Participants marked whether they believed the perceived stressor was mental,
emotional, physical, or social. They were allowed to make only one selection according to what
they perceived would be most stressful.
Part A6: Participants were asked to explain the reasons for the “most stressful” photo for
household, school, and neighborhood. Participants were given Form A to identity which photos
they had placed in the three separate piles. See Main Participant Form A: Preliminary Photo
Critique, Appendix B.
Part A7: At the completion of Phase 2 following the five participants selection of their
top 15 most stressful photos from each category (totaling 45 photos selected per participant), I
calculated which photos among the participants would best represent the top 15 overall perceived
stressors in the home, school, and community. The photos I calculated as the top 15 stressors per
category (totaling 45 photos total) were photos used during the focus group that allowed them to
complete their photo critiques. See Appendix E: Top 15 Photos per Category, for how I selected
the top 15 perceived overall stressors.
Phase 3
Focus Group Photo Critique: Five individuals, also from the inner-city of Detroit, who
had not previously been involved in the study were recruited to participate in phase 3 of this
study. These participants were involved in a focus group discussion where they discussed the
most frequently identified photos that depicted stress as rated by participants in phase 2 of this
study.
Part B1) Participants viewed each pile, together, separately; a pile representing perceived
stressors in urban/inner-city homes, schools, and local communities.

21

Part B2) Participants ranked each photo pile of perceived stressors from most stressful to
least stressful.
Part B3) Participants ranked how often, if at all, they have been exposed to the perceived
stressors, (e.g. all the time=1 (Daily), frequently=2 (A few times per month), infrequently=3 (A
few times per year), or never=0).
Part B4) Participants marked either an I for Individual, F for Family, or B for Both
according to who they perceived would be most affected by the stressor in the photo,
Part B5) Participants marked according to the four areas of stress either an M for Mental,
E for Emotional, P for Physical or S for Social, according to how they believed the stressor is
most influential on ones’ development; not the type of stress they believe was depicted in the
photo (i.e., A photo that depicts a dilapidated building is a physical structure. However, the way
the physical dilapidation of the building affects the individual’s development may not be
physical. See Form B, Appendix C.
Analytical Framework
Interview Analysis
Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim. While audio recording I made sure to have a
separate sheet or file open for any thoughts that came to my mind that might or might not be
related to the specific analysis but yet related to the research. I believe that this is very important
as I began the coding process. It was important that I not dismiss any factors or ideas that may
have contributed to the research analyses. I started line by line coding any theme of stress or
experience. I found that it was easiest to do this for each participant by the different levels of the
environment.

22

Broadly, this study proposed to use within-case study analysis to understand each
individual’s perceptions of the neighborhoods in which they spent most of their lives prior to
their coming to MSU as well as cross-case analysis to identify the possible patterns of themes
across the experiences of participants. Throughout both the coding and analysis process, detailed
notes were taken to describe emotions and other non-verbal cues.
Within-case analysis. Within-case analysis was used in an effort to examine the
individual lived experiences of participants as these pertain to understanding the neighborhood
stressors. I attempted to code inquiries based on home, school, and local community stressors
individually.
Cross-case analysis. Inductive content analysis was used where pre-existing frameworks
were bracketed so that findings were extracted from only the data to discover patterns and
themes across cases. The process involved transcribing the interviews and then open-coding all
of the transcripts to then identify patterns and themes across cases that pertained to the focus of
each research question. Patterns and themes developed as the data were coded and therefore,
over time as coding proceeded, initial coding schemas were revised as the coding continued
across transcripts. An analysis codebook logged the codes identified, the definition associated
with each item and the decision criteria used for each decision along the analysis. A full set of
codes were then applied to all of the transcripts. Next steps involved creating categories called
second-order themes which integrate meaning across codes.
Photo Analysis
Main Participants & Focus Groups
The goal of the photo critique section was to better understand the experiences Black
American men were exposed to in an urban/inner-city context. The photo analysis in this section,
23

Phase 1, helped one to understand which stressors were most frequently experienced in their
home, school, or local community context and how they identified the effects of these stressors.
Participants categorized the photos into three categories. I then calculated the photos that the
main participants selected based on which photo ID numbers appeared most. I recorded how
many times that number appeared across participants, if it appeared among the selections made
by that participant at all. In order to analyze the main participant identified as being most
affected by the perceived stressors, I recorded how many times each participant recorded an I for
Individual, F for Family, or B for both for each individual photo. The same procedure was
followed to determine how participants identified stressors depicted in each photo. Lastly, I
recorded how many times each participant recorded either an M for Mental, E for Emotional, P
for Physical, or S for Social.

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CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS: CASE STUDIES OF FIVE URBAN/INNER-CITY BLACK MALES
The objective of this research was to understand, the lived experiences of young Black
males who have grown up in poor urban environments of Detroit, Michigan. These lived
experiences were analyzed by interviews that asked questions related to home, school and
community exposures while identifying stressors associated with ecosystem categories. Also,
stressors depicted through photos helped to better understand the individual experiences for these
men. In this chapter, findings from the individual open-ended structured interviews with five
Black males are presented.
During each interview session, participants shared their lived experiences related to (1)
their earliest memories of growing up in the home with an emphasis on parental context and
immediate home environment; (2) a descriptive representation of their childhood home and the
surrounding neighborhood; (3) their school experiences including, but not limited to, learning
environment, character development/peer influences (Social development), and exposures; (4)
the local community which focuses on the environment outside of their immediate street. This
included neighborhood resources like grocery stores, access to libraries and other community
resources, visual esthetics and levels of safety and chaos or disorganization; and (5) interviewer’s
personal reflections.
The audiotape of each participant’s interview was transcribed and then coded to identify
emerging themes. Significant themes were then recorded in one of the following six narrative
categories under four major contexts of home, school, community, and personal self-reflections:

25

1. Participant profile: Earliest memories growing up in Detroit; family context, schools
attended and community overview.
HOME
2. Disorganized Home and Social Development (Role Models, Peers, teacher, and other)
SCHOOL
3. Disorganized School, Learning Environments (in and outside of the school
buildings); Social Development (Role Models, Peers, teacher, and other); and
Economic Deprivation (Resources/cultural and academic exposures)
COMMUNITY
4. Disorganized Community and Economic Deprivation (Community resources)
INTERVIEWEE’S FINAL THOUGHTS
5. Interviewee’s final thoughts provide a candid perspective from the voice of the
interviewee’s personal opinions of growing up in Detroit. Additionally, among other
topics, they share what they believe the challenges are in Detroit and if they were to
have children, if they would want their children to grow-up in the same
neighborhoods in which they did.
First Case Study, David
Participant Profile
David is the youngest of two but grew up with other children around him. David recalls
his earliest memories growing up with his little sister, mom, his mom’s best friend and her two
children. David grew up without his father present in the home. David recalls being around four
years old when his dad left. The departing of his father left him, his mom and little sister
struggling to take care of the necessities of life. They had to move in with his mom’s best friend.
26

“We grew up on the impoverished side,” David said growing up in a home on the west side of
Detroit, 7 Mile and Grand River area. The home had three bedrooms. David remembers sleeping
in the attic, which was upstairs and the others slept downstairs.
After a few months of living with his mom’s best friend, David, his mom and sister
moved into their own place which was an apartment with two rooms. David and his sister shared
a room while David’s mom had her own room. David recalls the environment not being that
great but enjoyable because there were children in the area that he and his sister could play with.
Unfortunately, David and his family found themselves having to move again because of
plumbing issues. They moved to 6 Mile and Chatham and later to Outer Drive and Schafer
during his ninth grade year of high school. David assessed these environments as noisy and
impoverished. He was not allowed to stay outside after dark and during the day, when he did go
outside, he could not go past the corner.
David was not able to do most things in the neighborhood he lived in. His mom was often
very restrictive with the things David and his sister were allowed to do. David was not always
passive about being restricted and as a result got into many disagreements with his mom. He also
felt that his mom should have trusted his judgment on certain issues.
Because of his mother’s work schedule, David was able to do what he wanted to do. In
retrospect, he confessed that this involved decisions that were not always in his best interest. He
often hung out with the “wrong crowd”, involving himself in activities to “fit in” with other
peers. Some of the activities he described were running errands for gang members, killing
animals, and doing whatever he was told to do. David believes that never having a real father and
always being around women drew him to being around these young men so he could fit in and
find an identity.
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David’s identity was always something that he struggled with as he went throughout life
and started school. David never attended preschool but recalls having attended Children’s
Learning Institute for kindergarten, Horton Elementary for first grade, Thomas E. Holton second
through fifth, Old Redford Academy for sixth grade, Cherry Hill School of Performing Arts from
seventh through ninth grade and Oak Park High School for the remainder of high school.
The experiences David had, during his academic career, were both positive and negative.
He described his early years of school being disrupted by fights, poor teachers, and realizing that
he did not always have the material/possessions that other kids had. In contrast, his junior high
school experience was different. David shared that Cherry Hill School of Performing Arts
exposed him to experiences outside of Detroit including trips out of the state and a sense of selfworth. Finally, he described his high school experience as good and bad but experiences that he’s
grateful for.
Home
Disorganized Home
Each neighborhood is unique in its own right and the perspective that one has about
his or her environment may vary. I asked David to paint a picture for me of his neighborhood
as if he were to be standing on his porch. The first observation that David made is that his
house may have been the only house on the block that actually had a porch intact. On both sides
of David’s home were abandoned couches, refrigerators, and ovens. In addition to the visual
chaos, David and his family were often faced with threats to their safety within their home.
“I remember once while I was sleeping someone had a brick and smashed in through the
window. David and his family did not often feel safe in their home, especially after

28

the brick smashing through his window and someone trying to break into their home twice.
Most homes within his neighborhood were described as having bars on their windows, but
the homes that he lived in did not.
Social Development
David recalls his values being learned from his involvement of those who lived the street
life. David said his friends consisted of drug dealers and those who were in gangs. “We ourselves
even thought about making our own gang up with me and my friends.” When David was a little
boy he hung around gang members and considered himself a little soldier. “We were cool.”
Because David was looking to fit in he said that he was willing to do anything and felt like he
would literally follow his friend to hell and back because he felt as if his friends gave him a
sense of belonging. “I felt so obligated.”
David said that he lived two separate lives; one for his mom and one for his friends.
However, he believes his mom was very strict and tried to prevent him from getting involved in
the wrong crowd but because of her work schedule he knew that his mom could not monitor his
every action so he would get involved in certain activities that she was unaware of.
Unfortunately, it was not always with his friends that he engaged in negative behaviors but
sometimes the parents of his friends.
“My friend, her and her mom would just like have smoking sessions when they smoking weed
on the porch, just passing it to the kids and stuff like that. That was like 13/14. The first time
they gave me something to drink I was like 12/13. It was a Corona. The first time I smoked was
l4/15 but everyone was smoking way before I started like 12/13. Yeah parents were smoking
with their kids. By the time 16 came I saw my friend’s mom come outside the house and ask her
son who was my age to go over and get her a dime bag”

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School
Disorganized School
One of the wildest events David recalls happened at Cherry Hill; a parking lot brawl
between students from Cherry Hill and The Academy of Inkster. This was a literal parking lot
brawl where Academy of Inkster students would make their way over to Cherry Hill to fight
whomever they saw. During those parking lot brawls, David witnessed someone’s eyes get
popped out of their socket, and someone else get hit by a combination lock in the temple of the
head.
Cherry Hill closed down the year David graduated. The different activities that David
recalls happening at Cherry Hill included security guards having sex with students, teachers, and
students’ moms. Additionally, students were hiding in the bathrooms during class time. Oak Park
was not as bad as Cherry Hill, David says. However, he says that at Cherry Hill there were gangs
or at least wanna-be gangs. “I knew a bunch of gangs and drug dealers” David says “and they
were about their business.”
“Cherry Hill allowed me to get further out of the streets, showed me different places... Showed
us different stuff, gave me skills, gave me things that I could learn how to deal with, it gave me
acting to that I could use as an outlet, especially after football.”
Cherry Hill, in many, ways would be considered an environment that was chaotic and/or
disorganized however David is grateful for the different opportunities Cherry Hill exposed him
to because in the environments he grew up, where resources were often limited, David started to
gain a sense of belonging.

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Learning Environment
David’s memories of school started in kindergarten because he did not attend preschool.
In kindergarten, David recalls there being a lot of fights going on in the other classrooms. When
I asked David how he knew this he informed me that the walls in the school were very thin and
you could hear everything that was going on in the other nearby classes. David attended Thomas
E. Holton Elementary School and he does not recall it being that bad besides a few leaky
ceilings. Old Redford Academy always had missing or leaky ceilings no matter if it was summer,
winter, or fall. The ceiling tiles were leaking and then falling on the floor. Students did not make
it any better because David recalls it always being nasty in the bathrooms with pee all over the
place as well as feces all on the toilets. It was nasty with many roaches and centipedes walking
around.
After a little more reflection, David realizes that not everything about Old Redford was
negative. Old Redford had done something that no other school had yet to do and that was to
expand David’s thinking. David said it was at Old Redford Academy he gained an interest in
other countries and places outside of Detroit and had the opportunity to study French and
German.
“I was so filtered in the streets that I thought that was just it”, David said.
Following Old Redford Academy, David attended Cherry Hill. He described his teachers
as not always positive. Teachers would not teach but place lessons on PowerPoint and just sit
there, turn on their music, rock back and forth, ask if students were finished with the notes, rock
back and forth, ask the students if they had any questions, and continue rocking back and forth.
The teachers would give a test afterwards but anyone paying attention would pass the test

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because all you had to do was memorize the answers. “I did well in school because I got used to
memorizing things.”
However, not every learning environment was like Old Redford’s or Cherry Hill. Oak
Park had Advanced Placement (AP) classes. Oak Park also had a lot of activities that students
could get involved in. David mentioned taking advantage of various clubs, started acting, helped
to restart Student Government, and found value in volunteering around the city of Detroit.
Social Development
David describes his environment as being one where you could not be yourself because
there were certain ways of acting that was not appropriate for growing up in Detroit. Being soft
in his neighborhood was not acceptable behavior. “They were not having that soft shit,” David
said. Therefore, because David had a persona to uphold, he recalls getting into a lot of fights out
in the streets, mainly to impress his friends. David says if it was not for his ‘homie’ and his
‘homie’ (friend) spending time with him and schooling him to the streets, he believed he would
be dead.
After spending time with his main ‘homie,’ David said he learned how to better use his
size and would always wear the intimidation face which he found made people not want to mess
with him. This is not who David really was but felt he had to become to avoid getting hurt.
David characterizes himself as an emotional kid who would always wear his heart on his sleeve
but had to stop because he did not believe that was accepted among his peers therefore, he
learned how to hold everything in so that people would not continue “messing” with him.

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Economic Deprivation
There were times that David felt like an outcast because he did not have certain things.
David points out that Old Redford Academy required students to wear a uniform including black
socks. David pointed out that this may not seem like a big deal to others but “when your mom is
living from paycheck to paycheck socks may be easy to find, but black ones were difficult.”
David often found himself feeling embarrassed by his socks and when they had free dress day he
was not able to wear nice things. He wore a pair of his old jeans that he had for two or more
years and would wear a hoodie to cover up any shirt that he may have worn the days/weeks
before.
As mentioned earlier, following Old Redford Academy, David attended Cherry Hill.
Attending Cherry Hill had its own struggles. Due to difficulty with transportation it would take
David two hours to get to school from his home. David says that he was not allowed to get on the
bus because his mom may have started making a little more money. “It was one of those grey
areas,” David said, where his mom was not making a lot of money but probably too much for
certain forms of assistance.
“8th grade year we got into a stump because we were paying off a lot of things, loans and all this
other stuff. It was bad for us. I don’t know, it was such a bad period, eighth grade year, for like
finances.”
Community
Disorganized Community
David was exposed to gangs on Brightmoor which is an area in the City of Detroit
plagued by violence and other disorganized neighborhood characteristics. It was not alarming for
David and his family to hear shootings and witness the burning down of homes in the middle of
the night. David was often exposed to the presence of police and even emergency vehicles
33

including police and emergency sirens. He remembers hearing a lady screaming and he and his
mom could sense that she needed some help. His mom called the police and David says the
police did not show up for at least three to four hours following his mom’s phone call.
David discussed many frustrations growing up in the environments he lived in especially
his lack of sleep which was not only often disrupted by outside disturbances but also because he
had to wake up very early in the mornings (between 4:30-5:00 AM) because of his mother early
shifts. David did his best not to complain because he knew that his mom could not make many
changes and had to take whatever job she could.
“It was still not that great of an environment but you could hear a lot of stuff going on outside.
At night time it was always a lot of noise; a lot of crazy stuff. I was young at this point but not
really understanding what I was seeing and hearing but a lot of people were hanging outside the
doors. There was a lot of arguing and stuff.”
Economic Deprivation
The community is an extension of one’s street and immediate residence. Often times
there are not many resources available for youth and others living in poor urban communities to
take advantage of. However, for David there was a Recreational Center near his home on 6 Mile.
The only amenity that was available was basketball and working out was not available.
“I thought it was for the community? Not a lot of us liked to go there.” David said. We would
just put up a hoop out in the street.” David mentioned having access to other community
resources like libraries, which used to be a hangout spot for him and his friends as well as
Salvation Army’s and food banks. David said he and his family often took advantage of all the
resources they could because they were not poor but they were not wealthy by any stretch of the
imagination.

34

Chatham was the area during the bulk of David’s growing up and he recalls it being an
“ok” neighborhood. The neighborhood was particularly safe for anyone who had a reputation and
that reputation might vary from block to block. However, for the most part in Chatham people
stayed to themselves and the sense of community was not existent.
David’s Final Thoughts
“I think there’s a bunch of issues that I feel connect together in this interconnection. I
think a big issue is helplessness. Well maybe not helplessness, but we hide behind the excuse of
being helpless. Like I said, there are many issues that connect together but everyone is waiting
on a savior to come and help them and no one wants to take a step to do something for
themselves. They don’t understand that if we do the job collectively, put our foot down in this
government position, which is supposed to be working for us, we can make one move at one
time. Granted, there are not that many opportunities for us out there. So again, there are many
issues that plague us as an urban area of society because we don’t have that many opportunities
to get out there and do more. We don’t finish high school and get our GED but we want better
jobs. We will stop the excuses from up top then: all the people from on the golf clubs, the club
houses, and the country clubs, all those people, who say we’re not doing anything, that we are
being lazy, we can cut that out.
Education or the lack of knowledge is the root to a lot of issues in our society. I think
there are a lot of issues but I am only bringing up two; education and babies raising babies for
the fact that we are completing that cycle. How can you teach the baby responsibility when you
are not responsible yet? How can you teach your kid how to make it here when you are trying to
make it there? The environment that we are in, because we have so many broken, burnt down
buildings, just a bunch of broken windows and I think that is an issue because the next
35

generation is supposed to be ruling this place. We are supposed to set-up our lives for the next
generation to do better.
I was not given the same opportunities as people living in Southfield, Bloomfield Hills or
those areas but I was given the same opportunities as the people I grew up with. I was presented
with opportunities and I took them. I think having faith in God also helped. It may not help all
people but I know that who I am is because of God guiding me. David also believed that his
belief in God helped him to persevere and believes faith in God can also help others. A lot of
people did get in trouble but for some reason I didn't. Those kats would look at me and be like
man, go home; you don’t need to be around here. The strangers raised me. Detroit raised me.
If I had kids I would not want them to grow up in the same areas I did but I would want
them to get the same morals. I would want them to develop the same because granted, from the
streets, it is different. It was very dangerous but it teaches you a lot; a lot that you need to get
into the real world. Some have it made on easy street but at the same time there is still
competition that you have to work your ass off when you are in an urban setting. I think the
sense of ambition and determination to do better help you gain from being poor because of those
things you have to do to make something out of yourself.
I haven’t been able to do certain things as people in better schools have but I think I
turned out ok. If I were able to create my own school, it can’t be segregated. We have to expose
ourselves to other people and cultures. People don’t know how to react to indifferences. I am
biased; I want it in an urban setting with the best teachers. I think it’s important we shed light on
different aspects of life then what these urban kids are seeing. Growing up all young, all kids get
to see make it out of poverty are basketball players, rappers and drug dealers. These are our
mentors because we don’t want to see our moms crying because she can’t feed us. We can have
36

different extracurricular activities, clubs, school government, this, this, and that because you
know we trying to get away from that basketball, singing, rapping and stuff. My school would
be a k-12; it would take years to teach them what they need to know.”
~ David
David’s Final Thoughts: Researcher’s Reflection
David mentioned a truth that I resonate with - the idea of self-help. He discussed how the
issues that residents within Detroit deal with are not entirely their fault. The challenges that
persist in Detroit are rooted in deep racial, structural, and political influences. However, David
spoke to how people of Detroit can no longer sit around and wait for the government or anyone
else to improve Detroit and the livelihood of residents. David expressed that the problems in
Detroit can be lessened if people are educated and understand the ramifications of their decision
making, which often times affects others (e.g., family members and neighbors) as well. David
said that one of the factors that contribute to this perpetual cycle of defeat is the prevalence of
teenage pregnancy. David believes that these young women who have kids are often
undereducated and are not able to educate their own children and provide them with the adequate
tools to succeed because they themselves have not matured and obtained stability educationally
and/or financially to support themselves, let alone a child or children.

37

Second Case Study, Dontae
Participant Profile
Dontae recalls his earliest memories growing up in Detroit with his mom and older
brother. It was a very rough upbringing with many challenges. Dontae’s dad was absent from
the home. His mom and dad broke-up when Dontae was about three months old. Although he
was too young to remember his mom and dad ever being together, he has a relationship with his
dad and spends time with him on occasions. Dontae often compared his mom’s home to his dad
as quite a contrast.
“My dad’s house had a bunch of stuff. He worked as well as my step mom,” Dontae
acknowledged. However, Dontae remembers the house he grew up in, with his mom, not being
that great. He had to often frequent the Salvation Army for clothes and other necessities. Dontae
has had many different experiences, not always the most memorable but many were due to the
lack of resources and enduring economic hardship, Dontae recalls living in eight different
locations: Seven Mile and Bentley, Seven Mile and Braille (Brightmoor Community), Seven
Mile and Stout, Hartford, Grand River and Wyoming, Elmira and Wyoming, Six Mile and
Mansfield, and Grand River and Columbus (Dexter area) neighborhoods.
Following Dontae’s birth and release from the hospital he lived with his mom and dad on
Seven Mile and Bentley. However as mentioned earlier, his mom and dad broke-up when he
was three months. When they broke up Dontae, his mom, and brother moved to Seven Mile and
Braille which he recalls as being a very memorable time because of the number of children on
the block that he and his brother could play with. During this time Dontae mentions a
transformation happening in the lives of his family because his mom found a boyfriend who
really wanted them to live in a better neighborhood. However, what started off as a great
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experience was coupled with difficult ones as well. The relationship between Dontae and his
mom’s boyfriend became arduous; the relationship became violent and filled with many threats.
They moved from house to house, lived in conditions that were not really fit to live, however
they had no choice. His mom and her boyfriend ended their relationship resulting in family
stress.
The neighborhoods often exposed Dontae and his siblings to gang activity, increased
violence and other challenges. However, during many residential moves, Dontae attended four
schools. Those schools include McKinney Elementary, Langston Hughes Academy of
Performing Arts, Western Technical Academy, and Western International. As Dontae progressed
through school successfully, he got involved in extracurricular activities, met friends and
continued to find self-worth regardless of his “awkward” size (Dontae stands over six feet tall
and weighs about 300 pounds or more).
Home
Disorganized Home
When Dontae stepped outside of his home he recalls the house they were living in at the
time had a basketball rim in the backyard with a burned down and abandoned garage. However,
Dontae did not really notice the garage was a problem; he was a child and just liked playing.
“While we were living on Seven Mile and Braille we moved because my mom started a
relationship with a guy and seemed as if he wanted to help us as best as possible”. His mom later
married him and while they were living with his stepdad, they went without lights for a while.
Then Dontae’s stepdad hooked up the electricity illegally, and they had lights. Dontae also
mentioned that his stepdad hooked up cable for free.

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During this time, Dontae recall’s there were seven people living in a house that had three
bedrooms, one upstairs and two downstairs. Following Seven Mile and Stout, Dontae and his
family moved to a six bedroom home on Hartford. “This was the first time I had privacy,”
Dontae said. What used to be seven people living in one house increased to nine. “It was me, my
momma my Dashia, my little sister, Jackie, that’s my cousin Violet, my cousin Jodie, my cousin,
my auntie her husband, and one of my cousins friends because they didn’t have a place
apparently. Yeah nine people was living in one house so it was like really compact.” When I
asked Dontae where he slept, he said that he and his mom slept in the basement in a tent. He
mentioned that she would just put down on the floor a lot of comforters and slept in the tent
every night and Dontae said that he was, for a while, sleeping on the couch but his aunt no longer
wanted him sleeping on the couch and therefore he had to sleep in the basement with his mom.
Dontae said after some time passed, his mom got tired of staying with his aunt and they
moved to a one bedroom apartment on Wyoming and Elmira. Dontae slept on a futon while his
mom slept in the bedroom. Dontae calls this the worst house he has ever lived in because of all
the roaches. Dontae and his family moved again and this time they moved to Six Mile and
Mansfield. Dontae described this neighborhood as being a good one. There were no abandoned
houses and people would always keep their yards manicured. However, their stay on Six Mile
and Mansfield was short, moving to Seven Mile not a year later.
When asked to paint a visual picture of what living on Seven Mile was like, Dontae
described that he could see houses on the other block from his house because all the houses
directly in front of him were all gone. Also, Dontae recalls living next to a “trap” house. A trap
house is a house that is known to engage in illegal activities, like selling drugs. This trap house
later got raided.
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Following the house on Seven Mile, Dontae and his family moved to Grand River and
Wyoming. On Grand River and Wyoming the experiences were more or less the same; gang
activity and abandoned houses. Living on Grand River and Wyoming was only temporary. After
just a short stay, Dontae and his family move to Grand River and Columbus, which Dontae
recalls as being the most memorable. This house is located off of Dexter which Dontae described
as the place where most of the deaths happen in Detroit. “If you walk outside of my house on
Grand River and Columbus there are three abandoned houses to my left and right.”
Social Development
Dontae had a very difficult time making friends. He often would stay in the house and
play video games. If Dontae’s brother was not around to keep him company he did not engage in
much play with other children. However, Dontae knew a lot of kids because the same kids that
he knew from the neighborhood were the same kids that he attended school with. Dontae says
everywhere he went he saw someone he knew. Dontae attributes the fact that his mom worked at
McKinney Elementary School as a main reason the students did not befriend him. It was not
until Dontae started attending high school he began to meet more people and felt like there were
some people his age he could call his friends.
School
Disorganized School
Dontae attended a school with a mix of Black, White, and Mexican students and grew
weary of the chaos that students would often create, partly due to different gangs represented
within the school. Dontae recalled his friends had a party during their senior year where different
gang members came including Bloods, Crips, and Surenos. Surenos is a Mexican dominated
gang.
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Dontae said that at the parties they would pat people down but this time he was not the
one responsible for patting people down at the door to prevent weapons form getting into the
party. Consequently, due to their failure to have someone at the door patting people down, a guy
pulled a sawed off shot gun from out of his pants, and pointed it in Dontae’s face, demanding all
the people to back up. Dontae did just as he was told. The young man that he was looking for
was not at the party but was pulling up right as people were running out of the house Dontae
said. He immediately told the guy to get out of here because someone was looking for him with a
gun. Dontae said the young man left. Dontae was done with parties after this one.
Learning Environment
From the start of Dontae’s academic career, he had always done well. Dontae’s mom was
a no-nonsense mom and always took an interest in his education. It may have been because his
mom worked at the school and Dontae was always making sure that he was on his best behavior
because he knew, if he wasn’t, he would be in trouble. One of Dontae’s most memorable times
was in sixth grade. He was named class valedictorian. He recalls reciting a speech in front of the
Detroit Police Captain, Judge Greg Mathis, and others about how he was going to become
president. “It was really fun graduating sixth grade.”
Dontae refused to take all of the credit for his academic success. He believed his older
brother had a lot to do with how well he did in school because he would learn material that his
brother would bring home. Dontae would just take his brother’s material and learn to do it better.
I asked Dontae if he believed Western Technical Academy and Western International
were conducive environments for learning and he replied, “No, it was the average hood school,
kids cutting the teacher off, like hold on, I don’t understand none of this, like start over from the
beginning.” After a while Dontae noticed that he started to treat the teachers with disrespect as
42

well and he did not care because he already had a good grade point average to get into a college.
He was playing sports and felt like the work was easy.
The teachers did try, Dontae said. He particularly remembers his Spanish and Math
teachers asking him questions about schoolwork and his preparation for college. Also, Dontae’s
principal was very encouraging to him and Dontae believes it was due to the relationship they
formed. The same principal he had in high school was the same one he had in middle school.
Social Development
Dontae found it difficult to find friends, especially if his brother was not around. Most
people would not talk to him and he reflected on how difficult it was for him in elementary
school. But he attributed his later activity in football and developing his personality by telling
jokes and bringing candy to school as turning points for him socially. People never seemed to
befriend him but that changed when Dontae got to tenth grade. He became the ‘man.’ After a few
jokes, which were sometimes disrespectful to teachers and other people, in his mind, he was
cool.
Dontae, although never feeling as if anyone would accept him for who is was, found the
courage to join the baseball team at Western International; he built many friendships during this
time. Western International’s student body was predominately Mexican with other ethnic groups.
Dontae knew all of the Black students that attended Western because they either played football
and/or basketball and Dontae was involved in those sports as well. However, before attending
Western, Dontae did not know any Mexican’s and was surprised at how they took a liking to
him. However, he was overwhelmed by their acceptance and the fact that he was being exposed
to another culture gave him an outlook on life that he never had before.

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When I asked Dontae about his most memorable experience he said it was his coach. The
story begins after his coach dropped him off at home one evening after practice. Dontae said his
coach was concerned about his living conditions. The coach did not like where they lived and
said that he had to figure something out for them. Dontae said he responded to his coach saying
it’s nothing that he can do about his living conditions and that it is what it is. A week following
the conversation Dontae had with his coach Dontae’s mom received a phone call from the
Athletic Coordinator expressing their concerns about his living conditions and stated that they
had a house for the family to move into. After some time passed and conversations continued
between Dontae’s coach and his mom they moved into a house that his coach and others found
for them. Dontae was very thankful for this and has had a soft spot in his heart for his coach for
what he did for his family.
Economic Deprivation
As Dontae reflected on his school experiences in Detroit, he is convinced that the school
and teachers really did try to help, especially with college preparation but often remembers an
issue of limited resources. A big disappointment for him was that his classes rarely received
updated books. “It would be the same book every year,” He knew that other schools were getting
new books every year.
Community
Disorganized Community
Not only was the neighborhood filled with disorganization but Dontae recalled the smell
of the neighborhood being unpleasant. He believed a water pipe or sewage system had broken
causing the stench. The smell was poignant. After a while people would forget about it until they
left and came back into the community.
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Dontae, because of all the gang activity around him, believed that he could have always
joined a gang but could not bring himself to do it. One, his mother worked at the school he was
attending, two, he refused to be a follower and lastly, his mom had too many restrictions. Dontae
came to the conclusion that he would never be able to participate in a gang because his mom
required that he be in the house before the street lights came on and “no gang is in the house
before the street lights come on,” Dontae laughed.
Economic Deprivation
Dontae remembers living on Grand River and Columbus and recalling that each time he
went out of his house there would be a group of people around. Dontae and his family had to
walk to the grocery store and it was not of convenience. His family did not have a car and
therefore had to walk ten blocks to get to the grocery store. Dontae also recalled that the places
he lived in were never places where you felt like you were a part of a community. There were no
block parties and no neighborhood watch groups.
Dontae’s Final Thoughts
“I knew I was poorer than most and I knew my momma had a spending problem. We was
basically living like we was rich when we wasn’t. If you see my pictures when I was a kid all my
clothes were humongous, they came from Salvation Army and my brother, I remember one time
when I was younger all my coats used to come about right down here (showing me where on his
arm) and I would tuck my shirt in so people would not be like ‘why your shirt so big?’ I was
poorer than others and I knew that I had to play my cards better. I did not get the same
opportunities as other kids; they didn’t have to watch their back every five seconds. They could
just go outside and play and not have to worry about some other kid wanting things and trying to
fight me because I got it; a chain, shoes, especially shoes or just an area where they wanted to sit
45

in. Everybody don’t get the same opportunities so I just feel like everybody just need to make the
best out of each opportunity and I wouldn’t trade my family or who I am for the world. I like the
person I am and never wanted to be anybody different. You can keep all the privilege and I
know I had to work for everything I have. I know I work harder than them so I just take this
opportunity differently.
I think the issues for Detroit and why things continue to be the way it is, is because of
pride because I still get flashes of it. Somebody might say something to me and I just be like
don’t talk to me stupid, why would you talk to me stupid? I think it’s just pride like if somebody
beat my cousin up, I’m about to go kill this guy. Somebody touch your sister you can’t go talk to
them, you got to go kill them, just basically like I will kill you at the end, you know? You not
gonna disrespect people. People will do whatever to not feel disrespected. Or if you can make
them feel like a punk, if you can make yourself look more like a man, people won’t mess with
you.
If I had children I would want them to grow up in the same neighborhood because I
know it would make them tougher and ready for the world. Some people’s lives is so peachy,
they get all the money. 16th birthday they get their car, they get this, they get that. If I did have a
car I would go in it with my mom and then it’s not mine it’s my family car. I know kids my age
was not thinking like that I know some kids my age get money and probably be like I’m going to
go and get the new J's (Michael Jordan’s). I was in school with the same pair of Air Force Ones
because my family did not have the funds for J’s you know, that would be one thing.
I wished I was exposed to a better/more focused environment. A lot of teachers cared
more about you coming than what you learned. What I did not get about people, if you were at
school half the time, come to class and just chill, they not gone say nothing. You just pull out a
46

piece of paper and sit it on your desk and they not gone say nothing to you. So it’s like I did not
really see why people skipped school.
Based on my experiences in school I would wish that other kids would have more
updated books, better teachers. In my physics class I had a foreigner as a teacher and I’m not
saying a foreigner is bad but you could not understand anything he said. I don’t feel like that was
a good combo, that’s where they messed up at. You putting them in school with kids that when
they don’t get the material up top they just gone stop messing with it.
I also wish we had playgrounds and basketball courts; good basketball courts. The ones I
used to go to had no nets or at least chain nets. They would be like one good rim on their rusted.
The whole floor cracked all the way in the middle. I went to Palmer Park and would get into
fights. There were no bathrooms around so grown men, when they finished playing basketball
with the kids, would just pee anywhere.”
~ Dontae
Dontae’s Final Thoughts: Researcher’s Reflection
Dontae recognized that he was very poor growing up and made a conscious decision that
he would not allow his experiences to be an excuse to blame others and not succeed in life.
Dontae felt that people have to own their experiences and figure out the best ways of rising to the
top. He knew that he may have to work harder compared to others, and although it may not be
fair, complaining about it will not change it. David believed that there is a sense of pride that
those in Detroit have, which leads to violence. Yes, people are very prideful in Detroit and who
they are and associate themselves with means a lot to them. I wonder where this sense of pride
comes from. This idea that one cannot be disrespected or else there will be retaliation to the point
of death, is possibly an understudied phenomenon. I wonder if this sense of pride is grounded in
47

wanting to have a sense of life’s purpose. It is almost as if violence has become a byproduct of
this extreme pride. However, the challenge for most poor people is that they don’t have a lot of
material possessions to show off, therefore who or what they decide to hold close to them and
give meaning too, allows them to have a sense of purpose.
Third Case Study, Nate
Participant Profile
“I say all in all I lived the urban life but they say my parents were protecting me from a certain
life or certain friends. I feel like my dad being a cop in the city played a big part of me growing
up in Detroit.”
Nate, a product of a two-parent family home, has lived in one house his whole life. He
was the product of the nineties and although his home environment was more stable than most
young males in urban environments, Nate’s environment had very similar challenges. Nate grew
up on the east side of Detroit, in the Forest and Van Dyke area with his mom, dad, older brother,
little sister, grandmother, and uncle. Nate described the home he grew up in as a normal house;
three stories and three bedrooms. “A normal house for the city,” Nate says.
Nate believes that his experiences growing up in Detroit were sheltered due to his dad’s
occupation as a cop. Nate articulates that while he felt safe in and around his home, his parents,
unlike other parents of his friends, demanded that he be in the house at a certain time, not play in
the street or even goes to other streets to play if he was not supervised by an adult. Nate
continued to describe his neighborhood as a safe haven with kept up lots and a nice path of
cement leading to the basketball rim in his backyard. “The neighborhood I grew up in was a
working/middle class neighborhood.”
Although Nate describes his neighborhood as nice and having a perspective of the city
that some don’t, there were experiences that Nate grew accustomed to. Very often the cars would
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get stolen out of the driveway of Nate’s home as well as “random” fights from “random”
neighborhood individuals. He saw people sell drugs as well as use drugs. This became a frequent
sight, especially when Nate was allowed to go to the store.
“About once or twice a week you would see a crack head high or something, tweaking, coming
down the street. Because there’s a store around the corner, an alleyway, crack heads would get
real high. Umm you will see it. Needles and everything, crack pipes left in the alley. You could
smell it too, “smelt like boo boo” (feces).
Prior to coming to Michigan State University, Nate attended Plymouth Daycare, Milton
Elementary, Riley Education Center, Martin Luther King Jr. High School, and Cass Technical
High School, which is where Nate graduated. Nate recalls Milton being a great time for him
during Kindergarten. Nate described his time as having no care in the world and having a white
teacher but not ever thinking that was a problem or anything different about that. Following
Milton, Nate attended Riley Education Center which played a large role in developing his
character and introducing him to lifelong friends. As Nate progressed through school he was also
exposed to other children who came from various walks of life. These exposures sometimes
questioned Nate’s sense of comfort and introduction of social class systems.
“You can be broke and have no job but have on nice pair of jeans, designer sweater. People be
like, “he must be doing something with his life.” You can be in debt up to your eyeballs but the
image you portray of yourself. I think it kind of comes down to ‘fake it until you make it’ but
most people don’t make it so they just keep faking it.”
Home
Disorganized Home
“It was just so great I would say although we’re stuck in the middle of poverty stricken, gang
and violence neighborhood that block was just so different. Just stand in the middle of the street
and just see all of the green tress and greenery. It’s just a great place to be being so young.”
Nate is very proud of the neighborhood he grew up. He and his family have lived in the
same house since he was born. It’s actually his grandmother’s home. His parents thought it was
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best they move in to help his grandmother who was ailing in heath and also to take care of his
uncle who has Down’s syndrome. When I asked Nate to describe visually what one would see if
they were standing on his front porch he said that there were two abandoned homes but one they
actually tore down. There were some open lots on his street, but he mentioned that people had
bought them and made gardens out of them or just fenced them in as an extension of their own
yards.
Nate mentioned living near Belle Island and often hearing different sounds, especially
during the summer. Belle Island hosted events (e.g., The Grand Prix with loud cars, sporting
events or military jets) which were just 20 miles down the shore. However, not all the sounds
that were heard were of positive. Nate said he would often hear sirens but believes that due to his
over exposure to sirens after a while. “What was so weird to hear became even weirder when you
did not hear them.” Gunshots were also a constant noise that was heard near Nate’s home. “You
would only hear them at night,” Nate said. He believed that the shootings were coming from the
park that was around the corner from his house. Other than that, kids were very happy and would
continue to play without a care. When it came to smells Nate said during the summer time
someone was always grilling and cars were either zooming down the streets and the engines
from the boats on Belle Island could be heard.
Due to Nate’s dad being a police officer he often felt that he would always hear about
various things going on with the jobs of police officers and can recall a point when the presence
of police was decreasing. The effect of police presence made the neighborhood “open territory,”
Nate said. He recalled there being gangs in the neighborhood but did not believe that they really
threatened anyone. Nate believed that they were just kids being kids. Other than those things

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Nate also recalled seeing drug dealers, abandoned homes, just right outside of his street and
“people who just fell on the wrong side of luck.”
“It’s to the point now my dad has to park his car or my brother’s car on the end. He has to lock
the Fusion in the back yard with a chain lock. I remember the last time they stole the car my
mom said she had to take my sis to school literally 7 in the morning, got back home 7:15, 8 to go
somewhere and the car was gone.”
Social Development
Nate always had peers around him and remembers his fondest memories growing up at
about age 13 when all of his friends were in the neighborhood and his older brother was still at
home and playing football and basketball and just being happy. Nate and his friends would play
in either his or a friend’s backyard until late in the evening and when they were done they would
just lounge on someone’s porch until they had to go in the house. When I asked Nate what were
some sources of stress growing up he could only recall the older people being mad at he and his
friends for playing football on their grass.
School
Disorganized School
Nate’s experience in school as being an honor’s student often prevented him from
experiencing a lot of the chaos that was happening within other classrooms. However, one thing
that one cannot ignore is the commute to school and the surrounding environment. Nate recalled
having an asthma attack and going to the hospital while enrolled at Milton. Following this event,
Nate’s parents dis-enrolled him and his brother due to health concerns they had because of the
abandoned building that was right next door to the school. Nate mentioned that the students
would often play near this building all the time from a conversation the school had with his
parents about the health and safety concerns; school officials informed Nate’s parents that
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tearing down the building could pose an even greater threat to one’s health because the building
has been abandoned for a long time and the exposure to asbestos could be high risk.
He described Cass Technical High School as the worst school environment that he
attended. The school itself was great and Nate spent three and a half years there. The learning
environment was good and the building was also nice but the situation outside of the building
was chaotic. There were vacant buildings and there were always ‘crack heads.’ The students
would always tease them. “It was really drug infested,” Nate said. The exposure to police was
frequent. Nate contributes these experiences as just a downtown experience where things are
pretty much expected to occur in a downtown area. Also, because the school was downtown and
close to Comerica Park (major league baseball) there would often be a lot of traffic and cars.
Cars were often broken into with various parts (e.g., catalytic converters, radios) stolen.
Learning Environment
Nate’s memories of school began at Plymouth Daycare remembering his granddad
coming to pick him up. He remembers being so happy to see him and things just being great as
he learned the basics of education; his a, b, c’s, 1, 2, 3’s, 911 and stop, drop, and roll (fire drill).
The daycare was located in the basement of a church 10 minutes from his house.
The learning environment became important to Nate once he got to high school. Nate
began to notice differences when he attended King High School for one semester. He described it
as not being a bad school but a bad school. When I asked Nate what he meant by that statement,
he explained that the teachers really tried but the students did not care to learn Nate confessed
that he often felt fearful that he could get his “ass” beat at any time. “The kids were rough” said
Nate and being small in stature, he feared that someone would try and fight him because he knew
that people never fought someone their own size. Nate recalled there always being fights from
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students who were in gangs. However, gangs were not the only issue at King. Students would
just break out in a fight and the security staff would use their pepper spray to break-up fights or
if students had disagreements with them.
According to Nate, fights occurred every day at King High School. “You knew there was
a fight, you would be in class and there would be a big mob of kids running in a certain
direction.” Nate expressed his gratitude for being in honor classes because he believed he had
teachers that although they may have been placed in difficult teaching positions, felt that they
really did their best to make sure that the students in their classes learned, and the teachers knew
how to control their class unlike other teachers. Overall, Nate felt like in some ways, the schools
he attended prepared him for college but now that he is here at MSU realizes he was as not as
prepared as his fellow school mates. However, Nate gives credit to his parents for doing their
best to provide him the best education they could within their means while growing up
Social Development
Nate was involved in different extracurricular activities during his time in school. He
played soccer and ran track. Nate was fortunate for the schools he attended because he met two
of his best friends during his academic years. Nate was proud of the fact that one of his best
friends is a white guy, but if you spoke to him on the phone, Nate said, you would not know it
because he talks “black.” While Nate attended Martin Luther King High School he felt that there
were some differences between him and the other students. Nate would say that he was not better
than anyone but the students at the school were not very serious about their education and did not
bond with anyone there. He felt that because he was small in stature he always had to watch his
back because he feared that he would probably get beat up at any time.

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Economic Deprivation
Often times the teachers would use their own money for teaching supplies when
resources were not adequate or available. Nate recalled his class having outdated books and
inadequate technology. Technology was not always a part of Nate’s educational experience and
he believes that was a potential setback for him and his classmates.
“We still had to learn off the old projectors from the 80’s,” says Nate.
As Nate reflected on the lack of resources in the schools he attended, he interrupted his
statement with “I wish I was exposed to white people.” Nate explained that the resources and
experiences he had were different from his sisters, who attended schools outside of Detroit.
Nate’s younger sister went to a private school where she was the only Black person in her class.
When she came home with similar work he realized how better prepared she was. Her
experiences outside of school were also different. He mentioned that his sister was always
invited to events that would expand her understanding of culture or the world. Parents from his
sister’s school were more involved in school outings and the parties were even different.
Whereas a party where his sister went was filled with fun and everyone enjoying one another’s
company, Nate described his parties as filled with drama (e.g., people wanting to fight and
compete with one another in some kind of way).
Community
Disorganized Community
Nate is very proud of the neighborhood he grew up in. However, Nate recalled many
things that happened as the neighborhood deteriorated. There were often random acts of violence
that happened near Nate’s home, such as kids fighting in the driveway. He is not sure why
people always seemed to pick their driveway but it was the spot for fights, he said.
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When the city cut the wages of police officers, his father had to work longer hours. This
was the time he recalled when fights increased, more kids seem to get into trouble, and car thefts
increased. Their cars were stolen multiple times right out of their driveway. Nate described
another act of violence that endangered those who were home. Reportedly, one guy was shooting
another person when someone tried to stop him. The guy with the gun ran to Nate’s home (with
no socks or shoes on) with apparent signs of having been involved in a physical beating, Nate’s
mom called his dad (who was upstairs) to inform him of what was going on at home and his dad
came down to find the guy hiding in their back yard.
“I remember the guy running and I remember my dad using very strong language and telling the
man to get out of here and telling my brother to go and get his gun. Then he came downstairs and
the guy would not leave and my dad was sitting there. He does not have his gun drawn but he let
the guy know if something come down to it I’m trained to use it.”
There was a time when Nate’s mom was taking his little sister to school and after
dropping off his little sister she returned home for a little while to get something and the car was
gone when she went back outside. Nate says that his family was the one of the only families on
the street that consistently bought new cars so people would often ask him if his dad was a drug
dealer. Cars have been stolen so frequently out of their driveway that not they strategically park
the cars in a way that no one can steal. They had to park some cars in the backyard with a chain
lock.
Economic Deprivation
It was not atypical to see bullet proof homes, stores, gas stations, and restaurants in the
neighborhood where Nate lived. Wendy’s, which was next to their home, required patrons to
literally to walk in, get the food, and walk out. Access to community centers, parks, and nice
restaurants required Nate and his family to drive a distance away from their home.
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“Yeah when I got up here (Michigan State) I walked to the store. I live in Brody you know? QD,
I walked in and was like, “Whoa, there’s an attendant not behind glass” because there was no
interaction in Detroit with people. Yeah, I can touch you, hand my money directly to you. That
was very interesting.”
I asked Nate if he and his family took advantage of any public service agencies and he
mentioned that he would often go to the library if he needed to do research but other than that he
felt that they had most things they needed to succeed academically at home like computers,
tablets, smart phones or any other technology to do well. Downtown there was a YMCA, Nate
says but it was not meant for people in the city because it was not affordable. The membership
fee for a family would be like $1,000 Nate said. In his neighborhood he actually recalls a place
called Basketball Warehouse which was an old factory where someone created lines and had
cement trash cans. Nate believes this resource was good and kept some of the neighborhood kids
occupied. However, if one were to compare Basketball Warehouse to Joe Dumars’ Fieldhouse
located in the suburbs there would be no comparison Nate said.
Nate’s Final Thoughts
“When you talk about what causes this perpetual cycle of defeat, I feel like it’s all about
what you see and what people tell you. If you watching stuff on TV and people always say “oh
yeah, you’re going to be dead at 25, you’re going to be in jail by 18;” not saying that that’s what
going to happen to you but if that’s all you hear they say, that’s what’s going to happen to you.
It’s like conditioning and grooming yourself to put yourself there. People grow up in worse
situations all across the world and they get out. You growing up in not the best place for
opportunity but where resources are so widely available to you-- it’s just breaking that mindset.
Nobody tells you not to go to school. I had friends whose parents did not want to take them to

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school so they would wake up and catch the bus or find a ride. You defeat yourself, nobody is
holding you back.
I would just tell them, look, Tiger Woods is a Black man who grew up in a predominately
white society, and possibly became the greatest in a sport that was not designed for Black man.
Nobody stops you from achieving, you know. They (white people) gave us the means but they
know we are not going to take advantage of it. They say if you ever want to hide anything from a
Black person you put it in a book. I feel like they should prove it wrong. I’m not the best person
and I don’t always read books and everything but if you threw a book at me I could write a
paper, no problem. Nobody told these kids to wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to go and
stand in line for the new Jordan’s. Nobody had to motivate you to post 75 pictures a day on
Instagram; it’s something that you wanted so you find the means to do it.
I never wanted to trade places with people from the suburbs because they don’t like to
have fun. Ain’t nothing like just being poor and having fun. Not saying not having the means to
have fun but you know, parents didn’t buy us a car at 16. It felt good to just mob out with your
homies (friends) and walk for 5 or 6 miles to go and do something. I really loved my life!
Sometimes it would be cool to experience that but on the other hand its white kids wanting to
live in an urban area. I guess I would only want to trade places for the experience of having
friends yes, but for the environment, no.
My ideal neighborhood would be in the suburb with a nice group of friends, no danger,
the kids could play outside. A lovable environment they can enjoy. If I had kids I would want
them to have the same experiences as I had. No I wouldn’t. I don’t want to have to wake up one
morning and be like you can’t go to school because someone stole the car. I want them to have
the experience just not the full thing. I want them to know more or less this is where your father
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grew up and even though you’re not here you are not any different just because we live in a big
house, does not make you any better or worse.
I want to be humble even if I do get rich. I’m not going to spoil my kids. I want my kids
to have an appreciation. It’s like that kid that killed those four people drunk driving and got a
slap on the wrist because his parents were rich. If that was a Black kid he would have gotten life.
If you take a White or Black kid from a poor neighborhood who would have killed four people
while drunk driving the chargers would still be lighter for the white kid. There is a kid in the
ghetto who doesn’t know the consequences of his actions so what makes him any different.”
~ Nate
Nate’s Final Thoughts: Researcher’s Reflection
Nate is a leader on campus and is often in positions of encouraging students to do their
best academically and stop blaming others. Nate mentions the over exposure to negative and the
power of words as major sources of Detroit’s problems, especially among Black men. When I
reflect on Nate’s thoughts I think about this idea of self-fulfilling prophecy: if you always hear
you won’t succeed, that you are going to be no good just like your dad, that you are bad, or
perhaps that you are a product of your environment, you begin, as a young child, to believe these
things are true of you and begin to reflect these ideals as truth. Nate talks about how those within
Detroit never see people who have to the pressures of the city and succeed legally. The stories
they hear are only visual reference is from athletes. Unfortunately, this stereotype persists.
In the minds of young people they see sports as being the “ticket” for them to get out of
the living situation they are in, without always understanding the process; they see the end result
and that is what they aspire to. Lastly, Nate mentioned often this idea of race and its importance
in the influence of perspective. Nate believes that those in power and have the resources will try
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and implement certain practices because they know that those within the city will not take
advantage of them yet they do it because they don’t want to be accused for not trying to help.
Also, Nate makes it clear that Blacks, when compared to Whites, are often treated differently,
negatively.
Fourth Case Study, Sabastian
Participant Profile
Eight Mile and Rosemont, the west side of Detroit, begins the memories for Sabastian.
Sabastian grew up in a home where he was the eldest of two, and living with both parents.
Sabastian recalls growing up in a very urban environment in a four-bedroom house with an
upstairs and downstairs. Although the house was in an urban environment, Sabastian recalls
there was not much crime on his block. The block was filled with older people and neighbors
who looked out for one another. He described it as “a real community.” Yet, because they lived
very close to 8 Mile, which is a very busy intersection, therefore parents had to keep their eyes
open and make sure their kids were safe. Sabastian described his experience growing up middle
class. His dad worked and his mom ran her own daycare inside of the home. Life began to
change during the tenth grade, when his parents separated, resulting in Sabastian, his sister and
mom moving to Joy Road. The neighborhood was very similar to their previous home where
neighbors got along with one another.
I asked Sabastian to recall his fondest memories growing up in the environment he did
and at first Sabastian said he could not recall because he was overwhelmed by the separation of
his parents. Although Sabastian was dealing with the separation of his parents, he said that his
parents were strict and encouraged him to do well in school and not let his schoolwork be
affected by the abrupt changes in his family. However, “this is when things got real,” said
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Sabastian. He remembers getting into fights and getting jumped on by other boys Sabastian
attended Einstein Elementary, Roosevelt Middle, and Oak Park High School. Although Sabastian
and his family lived in an urban neighborhood in the City of Detroit he did not attend Detroit
Public Schools (DPS). The decision to attend Oak Park High School was driven in part by the
closing of DPS schools and the creation of open enrollment at surrounding community schools.
Sabastian described the neighborhoods surrounding the schools he attended as being
disorganized with kids smoking outside and frequenting abandoned buildings. Inside the schools,
hallway fights were common. Sabastian characterized these students as dysfunctional. However,
Sabastian remained true to his parents’ teachings of taking his schoolwork serious.
“I don’t want to toot my own horn but I was in many classes with the honors kids and being as
smart as I was, it wasn’t a lot of us. Basically you’ll have honors classes throughout the day but
it was like so weird the drop off because honors made you critically think and then you have
your regular classes, you just sit’n there.”
Sabastian would participate in various school-sponsored activities because there were
not a lot of neighborhood opportunities. While there were YMCA’s, parks, and malls, they were
described as unsafe and undesirable. Church was only place he and his family frequented and felt
safe.
Home
Disorganized Home
“While you are there (Detroit) you have panhandlers and people you got to watch out for because
it’s Detroit and you see it. It’s real. It was not necessarily the block but the community. The stuff
you hear there, the fact that you have to look behind, over your shoulder and it should not be that
way. It’s annoying. Who wants to have to look over their shoulder and keep their guard up?”
When I asked Sabastian to describe his (Joy Road) block to me as if he were standing
outside of his home, he began with the home that used to be next door to him where kids lived

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and him and his brother played. Currently the house is vacant as well as the house that was next
to that one. He also mentioned the corner house that all the kids were told to stay away from.
The home on Eight Mile also had two vacant homes on the side of the house and he remembers
his dad always cleaning up the lots when they were littered with trash or needed yard work done.
Sabastian said he had a curfew and had to be in the house before the street lights came on –
something that was also required of his friends.
There was a very distinct smell coming from the corner house when Sabastian walked by
or played in the yard. He later came to realize that it was a Marijuana smell. While Sabastian was
living on Rosemont he recalled there break-ins on the street behind him causing their family
stress, as they always had to be vigilant about their surroundings. His parents would make sure to
lock up everything. Fortunately, they were never victimized. While the break-ins were nerve
racking, the sounds of gunshots were frequent, or at least that’s what Sabastian thought. After a
while Sabastian said he was unsure if the noises he heard were gunshots because of their
frequency. But he sometimes admits wondering if he had heard fire crackers. Police sirens and
fire trucks were a constant background noise as well as cars traveling on the Southfield Freeway,
which was only three blocks away from their home. “It wasn’t like a peaceful place…it was
loud” Sabastian said.
From the porch on American and Joy there was not a house directly across the street.
However, Sabastian was not sure if the homeowners next door owned the property or not
because the grass would be kept up. There was a family flat next to the vacant lot and on the
other side of the house was another vacant house. On the corner was a church and across the
street from there was a liquor store. Sabastian recalls a house that someone continuously tried to
burn down. This house was two houses down from where Sabastian lived. To this day, the house
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is still the same – a burnt shell. No one has done anything about it. Mugging was common and
forced people always to be aware of their surroundings. When Sabastian began driving he was
told by his dad to make sure that his car had enough gas because he did not want him stopping
after 8pm to get gas.
Social Development
Sabastian described his neighborhood as being inhabited by mostly older people and
everyone knew each other. Children were allowed to play together on the streets. Going to
neighborhood homes was permitted because of the familiarity with neighborhood residents.
Families that moved into the neighborhood were welcomed by existing residents.
Despite the neighborhood friendliness, there was one home that families avoided. It was
the corner house where Charles lived with his son, which was suspected to be a drug house. All
the kids looked up to little Charles because he had nice things and would also have girls over.
Sabastian was glad that his dad was around and he was not exposed to a lot of the really bad
things. Growing up Sabastian enjoyed playing basketball and found most of his friends playing
basketball or some other sport. Some of those same young men remain Sabastian’s best friends.
School
Disorganized School
When I asked Sabastian to describe the environment of the school he attended, he began
with his high school stating that the school was located across the street from some houses and to
the left there was a parking lot with different professional offices. Down the street was a liquor
store. He recalls often picking up his little brother who was attending Einstein. Sebastian did not
describe the neighborhood as having significant issues.

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Learning Environment
“Do as I say or do as somebody say because they’re older than you.” This was his
parents’ motto and he hated it. This motto is the same motto they had for school and his parents
were strict about this. Sabastian credits his parents for his beliefs about school as he says they
were very particular.
Sabastian did not have many negative experiences in elementary school. He believed
elementary school was just like anyone else’s experiences but he remembers there was a lot of
chaos once he got to middle school. There was a new principal at the time and although the
principal was trying to handle things as best as he could he was dealing with a jungle. Students
were always getting kicked out for fights or threats to the school. However, Sabastian was doing
well academically and was proud that he had a steady girlfriend at the time. Unfortunately, just
because one was doing well academically did not mean that one was not exempt from fights.
Sabastian recalls getting jumped in ninth grade by a bunch of high school students for no
apparent reason.
While attending Einstein, Sabastian recalls the teachers trying to practice starting in fifth
grade, how students would switch classes and have to get to the classes by themselves in middle
and high school without supervision. Sabastian mostly remembers his fifth grade teacher and
how she loved reading to them and how they would gather on a United States’ carpet map and he
would always sit on Florida. Roosevelt Middle School was wild, Sabastian said. Fortunately,
after a while the principal who he had during his elementary and middle school years came to
that school and things got better. However, the principle had to deal with a lot of students
skipping class and the eighth graders would always pick on the sixth and seventh graders.
Additionally, eighth graders would always smoke right outside of the school building. This was
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an issue for Sabastian because students would always disrupt class or try and make you smoke
with them.
I asked Sabastian about his desire to learn and how he succeeded in school? He said it
was rough and that he would not toot his own horn but he prided himself for being among the
honor students. While in honors classes students were challenged to think critically about the
things they were learning, non-honors classes were not described as not doing much at all. Oak
Park High School was a zoo. Kids frequently skipped class, yelled at teachers, were involved in
fights and doing things that always disturbed others.
Advanced math courses (e.g., calculus, geometry) were described as horrible because of
the teacher. Sabastian described how his peers at nearby school districts were better prepared
from their freshman year to succeed. Had it not been for The Center for the Advanced School of
The Arts for his AP classes (AP statistics, Criminal Justice, Astronomy, and Forensic Science),
he expressed that he would have been ill prepared for his undergraduate curriculum.
Social Development
Dr. Drew, Sabastian’s former fourth and fifth grade teacher, was a chess coach. Dr. Drew
not only taught Sabastian how to play chess but tutored him in different subjects. Dr. Drew
assumed the role of mentor in his early experience.
Economic Deprivation
As Sabastian reflected on life here at Michigan State University, he says he felt
handicapped sometimes compared to his roommate. Sabastian believes that has to work harder
because the high school he attended did not prepare him adequately and the classes were
designed to make sure that people passed with little effort. Sabastian has high standards for
himself and is a hard worker. He says that when he gets a 70 percent on an exam he feels as if he
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has failed whereas his friends are satisfied with that grade. His mother gets frustrated when
Sebastian expresses his own personal disappointment in his grades.
Community
Disorganized Community
In the neighborhood Sabastian lived, he and his family often heard of robbing’s and
people getting shot. Fortunately, Sabastian did not know anyone who was a victim of violence.
However, Sabastian recalls a time when his uncle was killed by his uncle’s “friend.” This was a
difficult time for Sabastian’s family but he is grateful that nothing bad had happened to his
immediate family. As far as death is concerned, Sabastian recalls a girl in his high school falling
from the balcony of an apartment building due to the drowsiness from medication she was
taking. Other than these situations, he had not experienced personal or violent deaths.
Economic Deprivation
There were no YMCA’s near Sabastian’s home. However, there was a library that he
would frequent to check out video games. He never went for books unless he had to because he
was not a fan of reading. Sabastian also mentioned that there were no quality grocery stores in
his area. The only grocery store that he can recall was on American and it was not in walking
distance, nor does he believe there were many Black owned businesses, which was very
important to him. There were no parks that were really in the area except for the park that was
associated with Henry Ford High School. However, neither he nor his friends ever utilized the
park for recreation. Rather, it was used as a short cut for them to get where they wanted to go
quicker.

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Sabastian’s Final Thoughts
“I believe what causes there to be this perpetual cycle of defeat in Detroit is a lack of
certain morals and optimism because I believe that any of us can easily go that way. I had such a
strong support group of family and especially friends. That’s another thing so when you talk to
people on the streets, they were with the wrong group of friends and now they are on the street. I
think it starts with people you surround yourself with. Everybody needs a support group; nobody
can do it by themselves. I know certain people may have been brought up running the streets
(spending a lot of time outside of the home) but you can’t be a thug at 70.
The most stressful issue in Detroit is the threat of violence. My eyes were opened to this
after I got jumped (neighborhood peers). After I got jumped I was always paranoid. I believe
that’s the biggest thing and I believe that’s the reason why people do what they do and people
don’t want to be perceived like they weak and they don’t want to be picked on. So because of
them being paranoid you hear of kids bringing weapons to school. It’s not because kids are bad
and it’s not how they are brought up, it’s how they feel they have to survive. Everybody in
Detroit is paranoid and do what they do and act the way they act because of the threat of
violence.
Sometimes I do wish I could trade places with others. My peers and family members
didn’t have two parents so I believe that was one of the big things that was different even though
my parents ended up splitting they are still both prevalent in my life. Yeah I wish they were
together and wish I could trade with people whose parents are together but it’s not something I
stay up to cry about but I’m glad I still have both of them in my life because some people don’t.
I do not feel that I was given the same opportunities as other kids. I believe that
academically the opportunities have been somewhat short. I believe that other surrounding
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school districts, like Ferndale, have done things like travel abroad. I know this girl who went to
Spain with her Spanish class. I took Spanish for two years and my school did not have that
available to us. I believe God does things in a way for a reason so I feel that you are put in
certain predicaments.
My ideal childhood would have been one, where my parents were together and I had the
8 Mile friend group I could play basketball with. If I had kids the ideal childhood for them would
be for them to not grow-up in the same neighborhood I grew up in. Before I even have kids I
want to be in a somewhat comfortable place and my idea of comfortable is not Detroit. I would
like something like Huntington Woods, Walled Lake, and something low scale like off the grid
type, peaceful. There are problems everywhere and those places are not perfect at all but I
believe that growing up with kids would be way better than Detroit.
I believe school is the most important thing for a kid because school is the thing that you
spend the whole first 30 years of your life learning and stuff like that. It’s what you do learn and
start implementing so a good school district would be first and then, you know, having two
parents would come in close second. I’m not the one to push anything on anybody but if my kids
were to be Christian that would be nice to me too and then just, I think, with all of that stuff
come the community feeling which I think is one of things optimal for kids and optimal for me.”
~ Sabastian
Sabastian’s Final Thoughts: Researchers Reflection
Sabastian talked about this idea of support as being crucial to how well one does in life.
As I reflected on Sabastian’s thoughts, I realized that support can be positive or negative and that
it truly has a strong influence on who one may become. I believe peers are more influential than
research is able to provide. I believe that youth are always trying to have a sense of belonging
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and will do whatever to be a part of the “in-crowd.” However, the more positive influences one
has, the better their chances are of succeeding. As Bronfenbrenner notes, it is not one risk factor
that influence’ one’s wellbeing, but an accumulation of risks.
Fifth Case Study, Richard
Participant Profile
When I asked Richard to share his earliest memories of the home he grew up in, he
responded with hesitation and almost a whisper saying “I got a lot of bad memories.” Richard
recalls his earliest memories on the west side of Detroit, where he insists that all of Detroit is
terrible.
“It was like hostile. What I mean, like if you walk up the block there like abandoned houses
everywhere and you’d see people who like trying to get over on everybody else. Like if you got
on a pair of glasses that cost a lot of money and everybody see them, in that environment more
than likely everybody who seeing you like a target so if they see you, with something nice, they
want it, might try and take it.”
It all began for Richard on Numbers street at least that is what he referred to the street as.
I believe it was 33rd street on the west side of Detroit to be exact, off of Puritan. Richard lived in
a single parent home with his mom, brother and other family members. Richard explained how
they were either always moving or family members were always coming to live with them. He
describes this house being similar to a two-family flat and Richard’s dad lived on Parkside. For a
short time Richard lived with his dad on Parkside, which he described as being “pretty fucked
up.” Richard lived with seven other people in his father’s home. When I asked Richard if he had
his own room, he responded, “hell naw! It was all love basically; basically it was just like a big
ass bed.”
Richard’s life was fairly unstable. After numbers street Richard moved to Parkside,
Fenkell, Dexter, then back over near 33rd and Campbell, respectively. Richard expressed that
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throughout his life he has been exposed to many things. As he got older he would catch the bus
to school and saw many vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and experienced hostility in his
neighborhood while on the city bus. Richard recalls riding the bus. Some boys got on the city
bus almost every day to beat people up and rob them. He mentioned that they would never mess
with him and he would not say anything to them but as he reflected on this event, he became
upset about the daily harassment people and the lack of response from other passengers. “In
Detroit, we are used to people not doing anything.” Because of the frequent moves, Richard was
exposed to a variety of schools and learned of other school issues from his peers. Richard
attended Corner Stone from first through second grade, Voyager for third and fourth grade,
Hope of Detroit for fourth and/or fifth grade, ABT (Richard could not remember what ABT
stood for) for fifth and sixth grade, Consortium from seventh through ninth grade. He was
expelled from Church Hill his ninth grade year and enrolled in Cass Technical High school,
where he graduated. Despite attending these schools, Richard praised his mom for never sending
him to a bad school.
Richard always wanted to be outside playing and socializing. If there were girls out
playing, Richard wanted to be in the midst of them. Richard was exposed to sexuality very early
in life and in most of his conversations he referred to girls and his interaction with them. When I
asked Richard of his fondest memories of Detroit he said just growing up in Detroit and the
experiences he had with girls. At about the age of 12, Richard mentioned losing his virginity as a
bet to his cousin. He engaged in sex while being watched by his cousin. Richard never seemed
to do many things by himself and often times seemed to be influenced by his peers to engage in
various activities.

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Home
Disorganized Home
“Everywhere I lived in Detroit was crazy. Like my brothers and my sister was walking to the gas
station and the crack head, I don’t know what the crack head was trying to do but I know they
came back to the house running, saying dude tried to chase them with a knife or something for
no reason.”
When Richard was living in Parkside he recalls there were a lot of abandoned houses.
Across the street from him was an abandoned house. Next to that house were four other
abandoned houses. On 33rd that’s all there were. If there were not abandoned buildings there
were vacant lots overgrown with grass and weeds. Existing homes were the outlier.
Richard described the neighborhood as a bombed out block at night – there was both
emptiness and darkness. Walking through these neighborhoods, Richard felt overwhelmed
because the families in these neighborhoods, especially the young people, had to grow up there.
“That shit be looking like cursed, low key.”
Mark Twain was another street that Richard lived on and he admits that this area was
messed up too. Violence was consistent on Mark Twain and he recalled the younger people in
the area being aggressive. There was a high school in the area, but residents had to be aware of
getting jumped says Richard. Abandoned houses were a staple in the neighborhood. As Richard
got older he noticed that when residents moved, their homes would quickly deteriorate with
people stealing metal, copper, or anything they could to get for money. Homes that were once
occupied quickly became an eyesore with doors kicked off their frames or broken windows – all
for a few dollars.
There was a “trap” (drug) house on 33rd and no one could go down there, Richard said.
The police would often raid the place and when they did, people would always run through his
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grandmother’s back yard. My dad would just be like “don’t take yall ass down there and that’s
that,” Richard said. However, Richard and his siblings were curious and would go down to the
“trap” house anyway. After a while his dad or mom would just tell them the places to avoid and
how they were to go the other way if they heard people shooting.
Social Development
Richard may not admit it but peer pressure is a real thing and youth are very easily
pressured into doing negative things. On the various streets that Richard grew up on he often
found himself with a lot of other kids he could play with and he always had this curiosity about
girls. When he went outside to play the girls always caught his eye. Double Dutch was the
neighborhood game for them and that’s where the young boys would also go to see the girls.
Double Dutch would often turn into Truth and Dare, which often turned into Hide and Go Get.
Truth and Dare and Hide and Go Get were both games with the intention of guys chasing after
the girls and engaging in some form of inappropriate play with each other’s bodies. During Hide
and Go Get, at the age of 12, Richard said he had sex with a girl – his first sexual activity.
Richard remembers stealing his first car at age 12 when he was with his cousin and
younger brother. Richard says that he probably engaged in stealing cars because stealing cars is
what guys in this neighborhood did. Although he was exposed to guys stealing cars, he says he
stole them because he was eager to drive. This type of activity was attractive to Richard
especially when young men in whose company he was always exposed were stealing cars.
“Dudes were known for that and used to always fly up the block in stolen cars and stuff”. It was
not until Richard was threatened with jail by the police he stopped stealing cars.

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School
Disorganized School
Richard recalls Consortium was located off of Rosa Parks Boulevard and the
environment was very secluded. There were a lot of abandoned buildings surrounding the school.
While leaving school one day with his cousins, they were robbed at gun point. He believes it was
one of the guys with whom they had played the game of Dice. They played Dice with grown
men as early as age 13 before, during, and after school.
Richard’s cousin was so upset at being robbed that he planned to put a lock in a sock to
beat the person down. A fear that his cousin expressed was that the lock might set off the metal
detectors. After some time passed, Richard’s cousin aborted his plan of attack on the guys who
robbed him because they never returned to school.
Learning Environment
When I asked Richard to share of his learning experiences he began with Voyager
Academy. He had good experiences and even believed that the teachers were proud to be there
and actually enjoyed teaching. He believed that the experience one has in school is really based
on how bad they want it. Richard’s attitude about school was to get in and get out. He would
complete his homework but copied answers from his peers when taking tests.
Richard was never popular and often came to school with some of the worst clothes on
because his family could not afford to buy him the nicer clothes. In an attempt to make himself
feel better, Richard began to disrupt class and make jokes about the teacher. He recalled being
late for class one day and hearing the students chanting his name when he walked into the
classroom. Although this may have been fun for a while, Richard’s behavior resulted in multiple
suspensions. Eventually he was expelled.
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Social Development
Hope of Detroit Academy is when Richard’s behavior began to change and it started
when he was influenced by young male twins to be the lookout guy as they stole some money
that the teacher’s had been collecting money for a boy with cancer. At first Richard felt bad that
these guys were stealing money from a fundraiser but his justified his actions by explaining that
he was not the one stealing the money. This appears to have been the trigger point to Richard’s
increased frequency of stealing cars, gambling, and getting into fights.
However, not all of Richard’s friends were poor influences nor were all of his
experiences negative. Richard began playing sports at ABT, where he joined the basketball team
and developed a bond with teammates. Richard never thought that he would connect with the
guys on his team because he only joined to team to gain attention from girls.
Economic Deprivation
Richard was very optimistic about his experiences growing up and wished his family had
more money to allow him the opportunities and experiences in school that others had. Richard
says that if his family had more money they would have been able to do more things.
Unfortunately, it’s the reason why people will do anything to get it Richard says.
Community
Disorganized Community
Richard experienced a lot but he refused to share some of these events. He did discuss
hearing gunshots and seeing someone killed. While at a neighborhood function Richard, and a lot
of other people, were standing around having fun and when they heard the sounds of gunshots.
People began to scatter trying to avoid the body that was on the ground dead. Richard also
recalled seeing a person hit by a car. “I have seen it all”. Richard shared that he not only saw a
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person get murdered, but was shown the bodies of two dead girls in the trunk of a friend’s car.
Richard ended by stating that in addition to all that he has seen he also knew the smell of
Marijuana, abandoned homes and death.
Richard said that the 33rd Street neighborhood was neglected. It was not uncommon to
see garbage in the streets or dead pets (e.g., cats and dogs). Despite calls from residents, garbage,
dead animals, or fallen trees knocked down by storms were left to decay over time.
One final event that Richard shared was a drive by shooting. Richard was walking down a street
with his brother and sister when a car that drove past them began shooting. He stated that the
people in the car were trying more likely trying to shoot up the house they were walking past
rather than to harm them.
“It’s just so much, so many problems. It’s just going to take time. It’s just about power and when
the power of love overcomes the love of power we will then have peace.
Economic Deprivation
Richard laughed aloud when I asked him which community resources he used while
growing up. He said there were no skate parks nor Boys and Girls Clubs. He mentioned that
growing up, there used to be a boxing gym called Kronk but now it’s an abandoned building and
the parks in the area were overgrown with grass. “Everything is getting closed down says
Richard. That’s why everything falls apart for the youth.”
Richard’s Final Thoughts
“The hood is a box. It’s what my brother told me, the one in prison. Based on your
experiences and shit, that’s what you be thinking about. When you see the dope man on his grind
you be consumed with the present and what you can do now. You not thinking about the future. I
saw all that shit but my mom told me I was always going to college. Yeah, there are
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circumstances they can’t control like being around wrong stuff. Like I said my mom always told
me I was going to college. But if you see the dope man got this and got that then that’s what you
want. All the bad, all the bad, it’s hard to be an angel around all this. That’s why the shooting
continues.
Like my best friend, he was a crack baby but he didn’t look like it. You can’t tell or
nothing, it’s like, I feel like some people just didn’t have the same shot as other people. Let me
give you an example, like broken homes, like when you grow up in a broken home it changes
you. For example, my homie, like his momma used to never be there. His momma or his
grandmomma never used to be there and it seem like when he want to do good something always
happen. Some people just grow up and when they come out they just crack babies and their
moms a crack head so they see her shooting dope or like people get molested you know or
people get kidnapped like the girl down the street. They broke in her house and raped her. So it’s
so much I could have went through but I didn’t, so I’m grateful.
As far as trading places with people from other neighborhoods, I always more so was
happy being me but I sometimes wish I wasn’t from Detroit. Some might by like I wish I was
Kobe (Kobe Bryant) son, I wish I was LeBron (LeBron James) son just because the life is totally
different. I did not have the same opportunities as others; I think I had it better. I’m not coming
from the best but I’m not from the worst.
Would I want my kids to grow-up where I did? Hell naw. White picket fence, nice house
is what I want, and me and their mom to be together. I didn’t have that. I would guide them,
people don’t do that. That’s what they need, guidance. If you live in the hood (a neighborhood
with high crime and disorganization), you can’t stay in the house so you see a lot of shit. I would

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give them positive vibes, you got to be positive. Stay away from trouble, be a leader, respect
elders. Don’t do drugs; stay in school, and just pray.”
~ Richard
Richard’s Final Thoughts: Researchers Reflection
Richard also mentioned this idea of self-fulfilling prophecy. Richard used the example of
drug dealers and how people in the “hood” look up to drug dealers because they seem to have
nice things. I agree with Richard because, in the eyes of youth, the possessions that drug dealers
have – nice cars, shoes, and clothes – are a false representation of success. Richard believes that
Detroit can seem like a trap to people and thinking about the future is not even an option as
people are too consumed with their day-to-day lives. I believe that this forward thinking is more
prevalent in urban environments because people, even if for life’s necessities have to worry
about survival for today and not for tomorrow. Unfortunately, I believe that this is played out in
the area of inner-city education. Most kids are not challenged to think about what they want to do
when they grow up, nor is that relevant to them, therefore, their behavior to do better or mindset
rarely changes.

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CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS: CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS
The primary objective of these individual interviews was to understand the lived
experiences of college-age Blacks who grew up in poor/urban neighborhoods. In this Chapter, I
discuss six key findings and multiple supporting themes that emerged from my analysis of data
collected during this research project. The primary source of data was one-on-one interviews that
I conducted with the five males who lived in the City of Detroit. Based on the findings of this
research, I continue to argue that living in a poor-urban environment matters to ones’
developmental outcomes.
The six themes presented in this chapter were derived from information provided by the
study participants. For example, their perspective on the importance of a parent’s presence in
their lives; the instability associated with multiple household moves, and challenges within the
school environment. Included within this chapter is an overview of their final thoughts related to
living in Detroit and their assessment of overall challenges and beliefs about what may
perpetuate a cycle of defeat among Black males in Detroit. Each finding is discussed within the
three contexts of my research; home, school, and local community. Lastly, I have decided to
present protective factors that may have been present in the lives of these young men because,
fortunately, not all of their experiences were negative and according to Masten and Powell
(2003), a person shows a pattern of resilience when there were significant risks and or adversities
the person overcame. The following list is of the six major themes that I have chosen to discuss
within this project. Some of these themes will be present throughout the three major contexts of
my research while others are specific to one of the major contexts discussed:
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1. Parental context
2. Safety housing
3. Inadequate Housing
4. Poor classroom management/ class disruptions
5. Ideal behavior
6. Lack of resources
Participant Profile
Parental Context
Four out of the five males I interviewed spoke about their father’s not being present in the
home. The physical absence in their lives did not reflect a lack of involvement or influence in the
lives of the participants. All five of the participants discussed the desire and importance of the
relationships that they maintained with their fathers. David, for example spoke about how he
struggled to find himself or even fit-in due to a lack of a male’s presence in the home. The
struggle for him was never fitting in with his peers, which he attributed to growing up in a house
with all women. While growing up David found a male friend that he really began to model after
and gives lots of praise to and feels like this young man, who was the same age as David, for
taking an interest in him. Additionally, David credits this young man for helping him become a
‘man’. David was grateful for his friendship.
A father can sometimes be physically present, which is what the young men desired, but
may not be emotionally presently. The young men all spoke to this internalized thought of how
they should act outwardly due to the environments they lived in and how they felt they could not
always be their true selves. This ideal was often played out in the relationships they had with
their fathers and how their fathers may have influenced their behavior and thought process for
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this outward behavior. Richard talked about how he struggled with a lot of things in life, as he
was really trying to find out about himself. He desired to talk to his dad who, in his mind, was
not an option because he had never seen his dad emotional nor did his dad like for people to
share their emotions. Richard said that not only does his dad not like people to show their
emotions but he discourages it in the ways he speaks to people and the lack of emotions that he
shows for others. Richard described his dad as a very cold person but felt that it was only
because of the environment that he grew up in and how emotions were something that a man
does not talk about. David also believed that emotions were discouraged due living in a poor
urban environment. David said that he wore his emotions on his sleeve and believed that people
in Detroit do not show emotions because it is interpreted as being soft and a sign of vulnerability.
When I asked Sabastian about his most memorable neighborhood experiences he
hesitated only to say he wished his mom and dad were together and that their separation really
destroyed him. It is very important to note that the women who had relationships with men really
seemed to have struggled financially and encountered many other challenges. David did not
mention life with his dad, partly because he was very young when his parents separated.
However, following the split of his parents he remember his mom not having many resources
and their lives were followed by instability as they constantly had to move from place to place.

Home
Multiple researchers (e.g., Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa,
2005; Kiser, 2007) assert that poor urban neighborhoods expose youth to risky situations such as
drug use or sales, gang activity, and random acts of violence. All five of the participants shared
experiences of being exposed to these types of situations that threatened their lives, including
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gang activity, shootings, and other anxiety driven behaviors. From their perspective one
recurring theme that emerged from each participant’s case study was the notion that each
participant and their family worried about their safety. Whether it was an exposure to drug
houses or trap houses as Richard and Sabastian calls them which their parents and/or other
neighbors encouraged them to stay away from. Additionally, the young men and their families
were often weary about people stealing their cars or breaking in their homes resulting in a
continual state of anxiety and fear.
The way participants discussed fitting in with their peers was a reflection of how they
thought they should act. Each of the participants elaborated on the theme that it was important
for them to not appear “soft” in their communities to avoid being perceived as vulnerable.
Following the five interviews and under the context of the home environment, all of the young
men spoke to living in environments that threatened their safety on many different levels. There
was this fear that they had that, at any time, someone could harm them and because of that, they
had to always be aware of their surroundings. Oftentimes, behaviors associated with a growing
child were limited like playing outside, walking to the store or even going to certain homes
because of safety concerns.
Also, another recurring theme was this idea of stability or the lack thereof. Nate was the
only participant who did not move homes during his childhood. Because of his familiarity with
the environment this allowed him more freedom to play outside and even engage with other
children. Fortunately, this was encouraging because his parents had relationships with other
parents in the neighborhood and if Nate was not in his home at a certain time he could be found
at the home of a family known to his parents. The other respondents did not have this freedom
and their upbringing was not as stable as Nate’s. Moving from place to place was not uncommon
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for these young men and when they moved they were either moving in with other family
members or moving into environments that were more disorganized than the previous. Therefore,
not only was instability a challenge but the environments, specifically the homes, were. Richard
mentioned at times either being homeless or living in a house with nine other people where they
all slept in the same bed. Dontae also moved from house to house and slept either, in an attic that
his mom tried to make comfortable, on the couch or in a tent in the basement of his aunt’s home
or living in a place without proper heating and cooling.

School
Schools all across America should be functioning in a way that students are fully engaged
in the curriculum and can feel safe in doing so. As I asked the interviewee’s questions regarding
their school experiences, four of the most recurrent themes were instability, poor teacher
classroom management, safety/fear, and ones’ academic track. Many of these young men have
attended many different schools and none of them actually went to a school from enrollment
until graduation. Richard would attend a new school approximately every year and a half. This
disruption in Richard’s learning may not have always been because of a fault of his own but due
to his home life. Richard would stay with his mom, dad, or other relatives.
The residences Richard lived in were not always in the same school districts, therefore,
causing him to have to enroll in a different school system. This theme of instability affected the
respondents in many different ways including a sense of unacceptance. These five young Black
men were often the “new guy” in school and had to make new friends. Additionally, the teachers
were not always thought of as the best teachers. The classroom environment (i.e., disruptive and
disrespectful classmates) was cited as a reason for less than optimal learning environments.
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Teachers were often be disrupted during classroom instruction time because students would
repeatedly ask the teacher to re-explain the same things. Not only did this behavior disrupt their
learning but the learning of other students.
In addition to disruptions in class there were disruptions outside of schools. These
schools were often located in neighborhoods with increased incidents of crime, drug infestation,
and with known gang activity. The theme of perceived safety was noted within the school
environment as well. All of the participants referenced exposure to gangs, fights in classrooms,
halls and school grounds and the fear that a fight could break out at any time throughout the
school day.
Although the school environments may have been disorganized, these young men valued
their education. They all shared that they were involved in honors courses, took AP courses, and
maintained their motivation to learn and graduate. A reason that these participants may have
succeeded is because the students enrolled in AP classes were segregated from the regular school
population (or took AP courses off site) from the general student body. Therefore, the disruptions
they experienced were not as common within the classroom but were nonetheless part of the
school environment.
Community
Multiple stressors with limited resources is a lived experiences for people living in poorurban environments (Anderson, Sabatelli, & Koustic, 2007; Zaff & Smerdon, 2009). They all
shared concerns for safety. While not readily admitting this, the participants suggested that the
neighborhoods they lived in were a cause of anxiety due to fear and safety. Because of the
abandoned neighborhoods, low employment, increased exposure to violence and gang visibility,
crime, and drug cultures, they put up their guard to protect themselves from danger. A recurring
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theme that emerged was this idea of hard exterior or personas that people in these environments
believe they have to portray. The young men, especially David, Sabastian, and Richard, all
discussed not being able to be themselves because of the fear and attention that certain behaviors
could cause them. They spoke about not wearing emotions outwardly, but being mindful of the
clothing that is worn. This persona or ideal of certain behaviors is created because they do not
believe that they or their “normal” selves will be accepted. Therefore, to protect themselves, they
act as if they are not fearful although they are. Most of the men discussed living in environments
where people were often robbed. Being a victim of personal crimes was not just something that
they heard but also lived.
The availability of resources is crucial for positive development. However, if resources
are available and not utilized, due to safety concerns, one’s development continues to be stifled.
When study participants spoke about the YMCA’s, parks, and other resources, they mentioned
never utilizing them for their intended purpose because not only were they weary about being at
certain locations they often received parental discouragement to play in the park because of gang
activity. The public parks were also described as unkempt properties that were unsafe. Richard
mentioned hearing gunshots from the park near his home while David talked about gang activity
and other act of violence known to happen at the park. Unfortunately, there were no YMCA’s or
Boys & Girls Clubs for these young men to attend. Resources that were once available (e.g.,
Kronk and Basketball Warehouse) have closed due to economic challenges.
Lastly, one of the resources lacking in most urban communities that has one of the most
influences on ones’ health are grocery stores (Levanthal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). As I asked the
young men to talk to the grocery stores in their area, most of them acknowledged there were no
grocery stores near their homes, at least not ones in a close enough proximity to walk. And once
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there, the food quality was very poor. Often times this result in families either eating out at fast
food restaurants, which are not healthy, or going to the corner store to purchase food products
where the shelf life has expired. Also, food in the convenient stores is higher in price. This is
important because inadequate nutrition can hinder the positive development of families in these
communities.
Participants Final Thoughts
One of the purposes of this research was to uncover the ideals and lived experiences of
five Black men from Detroit. Throughout this research I attempted to better understand these
men’s perspectives on the state of Detroit but most importantly why they believe Detroit
continues to stay in the state it is in when it comes to Black men. Who better to ask this question
then Black men whom are not only from the environment but have family and friends still living
in the city of Detroit. To start, I asked these men what they believed the issues were that plague
Detroit and perpetuates this continual defeating cycle. The following answers included
hopelessness, teenage pregnancies, pride, lack of positive role models, and lack of exposure to
other people, places, and things that can help to broaden their perspective of themselves and the
world.
“People are prideful,” Dontae says. This idea of pride is manifested in the way people
treat others and or feel they should be treated. People don’t want to be seen as if they are
insignificant or are not in control therefore people will do what they need to do to have control.
Dontae says that people will go to the extreme of killing someone to not feel like they are
disrespected. This idea of respect is an idea of entitlement because there’s a belief that one
should even be respected. Why should they be respected? Is it because of how hard they work,
the street credit, their family name, or who they associate with? Either way, it is because of
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whom they think they are or their associations they deserves respect or they believe. Sabastian
believes the issue is that people lack morals and are too pessimistic. This pessimism is due to
one’s associates, Sabastian says. Sabastian also believes it is this issue of fear that people have
and because they have a sense of fear, their outward behavior and the things that they do, in
some ways, counteracts how they perceive their environment, which really makes things worse.
Nate believes that the cycle continues in Detroit because of the things people see on TV
and how they are constantly put down by the media and others. Therefore, what this does is
creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. I believe once again it is this ideal persona that emerges as a
way for one to protect oneself from perceived threats. Richard says that Detroit is like a trap and
because of what is going on in Detroit with crime and other negative influences people don’t
often think about the future or anything outside of Detroit because they are consumed with what
is happening in real time. This is often a result of experiences that one is exposed to. What you
see can be a challenge, especially when it looks like somebody has something that you want but
can’t obtain. Secondly, a challenge results in the activities that people engage in around you.
The individual interviews revealed that the participants did not believe that they were
given the same opportunities as children their age from other neighborhoods. Knowing that they
were not given the same opportunities created this ideal that things are not equal and
unfortunately, being men of color, perpetuates this reality that they are less valuable than and
have to work harder for the opportunities to experience some of the same things other children
from better neighboring cities experience. The young men recognized this and because of the
hard work they have had to endure they have accepted that their experiences were not the same
and that some privileges that others have they did not. However, these men remained optimistic
about their own lives and because of that would not have wanted to trade places with anyone
85

else. They believe that their experiences have taught them about life and how to make it in the
world.
Moreover, these men were grateful for the experiences they have had. However if they
were to have children, four out of the five men would not want their children to grow up in the
same environment they did. Moreover, they would desire their children understand where they
have come from and to impart the same moral and values they believe they learned from living
in poor-urban environments. Sabastian, because he did not have both of his parents in the same
home while growing up was very adamant about raising his kids in a two parent home and Nate,
although he had a different up-bring from the other young men with both parents in the home,
did not want to have to tell his kids that he could not take them to school because someone stole
the car. Nate remembers many times that his parents’ cars were stolen from the driveway and
communicated that this experience was not one he wanted his kids to experience. Additionally,
David’s reason is that the environment is dangerous yet teaches you about determination.
Lastly, the environments that these young men lived in were all lacking resources
including grocery stores, Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA’s, parks and other relevant resources.
When these resources close down or are not available, what else is there for these young men to
engage in other than negative behaviors? It is important to mention that when resources are
available to youth they are available in places that are inaccessible by way of mobility or
finances. The lack of resources continues to handicap the thinking of these young men to interact
and engage in a world outside of their own. Also, resources like Boys and Girls clubs expose
youth to positive role models, which are often lacking in the lives of urban youth. Despite these
realities, the response of families is critical in controlling the influence that these stressors have
on children (Burton & Jarrett, 2000).
86

Protective Factors
Family Functioning and Risk-Protective Factors
Many families are aware of the dangers and risks within their communities and have
found ways to safeguard family members from physical and moral dangers. Family members
may avoid the dangerous sections of neighborhoods by identifying “safe” times to run errands,
asking other family members (e.g., fictive kin or family friends) to accompany children when
they go to places in and out of the neighborhood, and restricting company among neighbors to
avoid burglary and personal victimization (Burton & Jarrett, 2000). These protective factors
along with monitoring, support, and rituals or routines, when implemented, help protect the
physical, behavioral and emotional wellbeing of families and youth.
Parental Monitoring
Supervision and monitoring increase a child’s protection from a host of environmental
risk factors inside and outside of the home (Kiser, 2007). There are very effective methods of
keeping track of a child’s whereabouts, activities, and peer relationships when the child is away
from home. Among African American and Latino adolescents, parental monitoring has been
noted to be effective in reducing early sexual experiences, especially among males (Murry et al.,
2002). Parental monitoring is also associated with reduced anger and frustration (Burton &
Jarrett, 2000). Tiet et al. (2010) recommend that monitoring among family members and youth
be done thoughtfully, otherwise youth will feel as if they are being controlled.
Some parents were said to even confine their child to the home instead of going out to
play (Anderson et al., 2007). Because of the increased violence and gang activity in urban
neighborhoods, parents would restrict their children from wearing certain clothes or colors and
even prohibit them from playing with certain toys as not to draw attention to themselves.
87

Parental Support
Parental support, especially in minority groups, can insulate children and youth from
anxiety and depression, increase self-esteem, reduce problem behaviors, and foster positive
psychosocial behavior (Anderson, et al, 2007). Parental support is very important because its
lack can hinder a child’s long-term positive outcomes. Trauma and negative outcomes can be
mediated by an increased family support system (Kiser, 2007).
Children and adolescents who had positive support systems and were able to create
bonding relationships with their parents have been observed to function better than youth in
families where parental support was not as prevalent (Tiet et al., 2010). Bonding also created
coping and interpersonal skills resulting in children being able to understand the values of
parents with a genuine desire. Parents often use stories and discuss various forms of punishment
to caution their child from associating with deviant peers. These skills were hypothesized to have
been mediated by the likelihood of parent and child talks that occurred as a result of their
bonding (Tiet et al., 2010). Not being able to bond to parents, peers or other family members
cause the child or adolescent to become detached from the home making monitoring difficult.
There are a lot of risks within urban neighborhoods, and unstable, crowded, and crime-infested
environments can pose a very serious threat to the lives of children when they do not have
positive support from a caring person.
Parental Rituals and Routines
Living in impoverished neighborhoods initiates a child’s stress and uncertainty. However,
families that are organized and schedule various tasks, either in or outside of the home, were
families that Burton and Jarret (2007) reported as having family rituals and routines.

88

Rituals and routines foster positive outcomes among youth. Rituals are defined as task or goal
oriented events with a beginning and an end. Examples include birthdays, holiday observances,
family traditions and other patterned routines, such as daily rituals that included bedtimes, leisure
activities and dinner times.
Rituals help to provide some stability to lives that may often seem unstable and
disorganized. Positive family health and psychosocial adjustment in children are strongly linked
to constructive family rituals (Burton & Jarrett, 2007). Meaningful family routines can help to
decrease chronic physical illness and psychiatric disorders (Kiser, Medoff, & Black, 2010).
Children whose families were not as deliberate about keeping rituals showed more behavioral
problems than families who did (Kiser, 2007). When routines are in place they begin to take on
meaning for family members. These routines symbolized the importance or values families
placed on carrying out routines.
Families that are able to implement and strengthen their family ritual practices are
allowing for other positive outcomes to occur like building connections among families, thus
allowing for increased family cohesion (Kiser, 2007). Cohesion reflects the degree to which
family members feel close to one another, enjoy spending time together, share common values,
and possess effective communication skills.
Protective factors are constructs that measure resilience (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker,
2000). When one is able to overcome a certain life challenge whether social, physical or mental,
he or she is identified as being resilient (Tiet, Huizinga, & Byrnes, 2010). Resilience is
symbolized in many ways and processes. What may be identified as resilience for one person or
group may in turn be a risk for another.

89

Using a convenience sample of college-aged men served two purposes. First, these
individuals had survived their lived experiences of growing up in an urban community that is
described as an environment in disarray. As reflected by their admission to Michigan State
University, these individuals can be described as successful. They not only survived growing up
in adversity but built a foundation where access to higher education and future opportunities is a
reality, not a dream. Second, the study design was developed to encourage them to reflect on
their lived experiences to help achieve the study aims – to better understand how conditions that
are considered to be less than optimal impact their lives. Through the sharing of their stories,
themes of resilience became apparent, providing insight about the role of these protective factors
in overcoming household, school, or neighborhood adversity.
Each participant had an optimistic outlook on their experiences including the importance
of school. These young men did not have significant academic problems. They may have had
some behavioral issues within school, but they took school work very seriously and were
encouraged by their parents to excel. They were all optimistic that they were going to college
either because their parents shared this goal or they saw college as a way to escape the hardship
of urban life. Most of the young men talked about taking Advanced Placement courses or
attending academically rigorous magnet schools. Some even attended schools in surrounding
districts. While they all had experiences in the Detroit Public School System, they benefitted
from attending other schools. They all expressed appreciation for the sacrifices and
encouragement of their parents. They understood that this was part of the reason they were
attending Michigan State University.
Another common theme was the importance of extracurricular activities in their lives.
All of the young men played sports. While they never talked about their success as athletes, they
90

did talk about meeting friends and being exposed to people that they might otherwise not have
interacted with had it not been for athletics. In addition to peer networks, positive adult role
models were discussed during the interviews. Dontae, for example, talked about the rapport he
built with his football coach and the influence his coach had on him mentally. He also described
at length the appreciation he had for his coach who went out of his way to help find better and
safer housing for his family. Other participants shared similar stories related to their experiences
with student government and acting classes.
Extracurricular involvement was not the only way these participants were exposed to
positive role models. Teachers helped some of the participants to strengthen their focus on
academic success by encouraging them to think critically and to succeed so they could attend
college. Nate and Sabastian spoke about the positive influence of their fathers. Sabastian talked
about working with dad, through which he gained an appreciation of how difficult his father’s
life was. Nate also spoke about his dad being a hard worker and how he channeled his energies
to provide for the family.
Family routines provided an example of structure that helped these participants survive
the harsh realities of urban life. All of the participants were required to be home at a certain time.
In an effort to protect them from harm, parents restricted their children from visiting neighbors,
playing in certain areas, and required their children to keep them informed of their whereabouts.
These examples of family monitoring underscore parental involvement and its role contribution
to avoiding adversity.

91

CHAPTER 6

FINDINGS: PHOTO ANALYSIS BY INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS
In this chapter, I examine the individual photo selections by participants involved in
Phase 1 to better understand the stressors they were individually exposed to. The primary
objective of Phase 1 was to allow participants to evaluate 130 photos of perceived urban
stressors and select the top 15 photos in each category of home, school, and local community.
Additionally, this process helped to narrow down the selection of photos that were, after
critically evaluation, made the top 45 perceived urban stressor list, 15 photos per category. A
score was calculated for each photo that was selected two or more times by participants to
determine which photos would make the top 15 list per category.
The following figures give an overview of the type of photos that were selected by
individual participants, allowing one to better understand their similarities and differences in
photo selections. The purpose of having photos to accompany interviews was to enhance these
interviews by understanding how similar, if at all, their experiences were to urban research that
examined what the impact of exposures of those in poor urban environments could be. Therefore,
the following four figures will show a visual representation of photos that were selected,
showing what photos participants selected: 1) by themes; 2) whose most affected by the
perceived stressor; 3) how the perceived stress influences development and; 4) the frequency at
which the five participants were exposed, themselves, to a particular perceived stressor by theme.

92

Figure 1: Individual Participants Selection by Theme
Graph 1

Figure 1

Phase 2B
Photo Selection by Themes
Parental Context
20
15

Economic Deprivation

learning Environment

10

PARTICIPANTS
David

5

Dontae

0

Nate

Disorganized Home, School,
Community

Social Development

Sabastian
Richard

Environmental Health Hazard

Figure 1 gives an overview of the five participants who were a part of Phase 1. The figure
depicts the cumulative perception of experienced stress. To derive the graph, participant
identified photos were examined and assigned a theme that would best represent the perceived
stressor. The photos were categorized as depicting stressors within the context of home, school,
or community and were then subsequently assigned to one of six themes: Economic Deprivation,
Parental Context, Learning Environment, Disorganized Home, School, or Community,
Environmental Health Hazard, or Social Development.
One of the goals was to determine, what if any differences and/or similarities these men
had based on their photo selections. Interviews suggested that there were both similarities and
differences in the lived experiences of these participants. Figure 1 is a representation based on
the number of photos each participant selected by theme. Notice the small red circle above as it
highlights a small section of Dontae photo selection. This peak shows that Dontae selected more

93

photos that dealt with lack of resources whether financial, material, or structural, all under the
major theme of Economic Deprivation.
Dontae mentioned the struggle his family endured financially and to see that he selected
photos that were of perceived Economic Deprivation is not surprising. This figure also shows
Richard’s selected photos, where parental context were most selected. Richard talked about the
relationship he has with his dad and the struggles he had with his mom. It is to no surprise that
Richard would value the parental context above most others.
The most apparent commonality is reflected in the visual representation of
disorganization. Collectively, all of the participants discussed the theme of safety in their home,
school, and community as issues of concern.

94

Figure 2: Who’s affected by Context

Figure 2

Figure 3: Stress Type by Context
Figure 3

Who's Affected by Context

40

# of Photos Selected

60

# of Photos Selected

Stress Type by Context

50
40

30

Individual
Family

20

35
30

25
Social

20

Emotional

15

Physical

10

Both

10

Mental

5
0

0
Home

School

Home

Community

School

Community

Context

Context

A second focus of this research probed who was most affected by the perceived stressors in poor urban environments, the
individual, family, or both (Figure 2). In addition, participants were asked to identify whether they perceived the stressors to impact
social, emotional, physical, or mental health (Figure 3) (see Appendix D).
Figure 2 is a representation of the number of photos selected within the category of home, school, and community. As noted in
this figure, the most significant impact was reported at the individual level within the school context. During the interviews most of
the guys spoke to this idea that regardless of where one is from, if someone wants to succeed, they believed the person could succeed
95

and that no one or circumstance could change that. Therefore, there is this belief that few
of the perceived stressors were outside of the personal determination. It is important that when
interpreting who participants believed were most affected by perceived stressors that Figure 2
not be misinterpreted, especially the significance of family. Visually, Family seems to be one
who is affected less according to how low it is represented in its bars--this is not the case. When
participants selected both, family is inclusive in that selection also. Conversely, Figure 2 is better
interpreted when understanding the selection between the individual and family. Therefore,
according to Figure 2, family is chosen at a higher rate, although its individual selection is low
across all ecosystem categories. According to participants, family is most affected in home and
community contexts, not school.
Figure 3 is a graphical representation of the number of photos that were selected where
participants believed the perceived stressor influenced ones’ development either in areas of
social, emotional, physical, or mental influence. Lupien et al. (2002) defined stress as past or
current life events that require the individual to make some adaptation. This figure provides a
visual representation of the developmental influences of the stressors based on the participants’
interpretations. Within the home environment the young men selected mental stress as being the
most significant. Following the home environment, mental influence was also selected in school
then community, respectively. Within the community, photos that were selected were said to
affect the development of men socially within the community. This was not surprising when the
environments are often social constructs and/or include ones’ interaction with others. Also, the
community is where one is influenced often by their peers and family member’s to engage in
activities outside of their home. Emotional and physical stress were selected by the participants

96

as having little influence for how they perceive one to be influenced by the stressors they
selected.
Figure 4: Frequency of Exposure
Frequency of Exposure

Averages

Figure 4
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Home
School
Community

t

en
nm
i ro
nv

gE

hH
alt
He
tal

d
ize

rd
aza

97

n
rni
Lea

n
rga

t

n
me

lop

Research Themes

n
me
on
vir

En

o
Dis

eve
lD

l

n
tio

a
riv

o
ntr

l Co

ep
cD
mi
no

ta
ren

cia

So

Pa

Eco

Equation
Sum of exposures by theme and context
# of selected participants

Figure 4 is a representation of how often, if at all, participants selected being exposed to a
particular photo under a given theme. During the photo critique section (Phase 1B), participants
were asked to place a number that would represent how often they were exposed to a particular
stressor, if at all. Their options were never = 0, infrequently = 3, frequently = 2, or all the time =
1. In my original Excel data set, I inverted the numbers so that once averaged the numbers would
represent the most frequently experienced stress.
Figure 4 suggests that the participants were more frequently exposed to stressors in the
community as compared to the school and home. There are many interpretations as to why
Community, especially its high exposure rate of Disorganization was selected: 1) Community is
the larger context of a home and school environment, therefore disorganization in the home may
also have been selected as part of the community 2) Disorganization may be easily identified and
3) There are possibly more disorganized type of activities in the community than the home or
school. For example, the theme disorganized represents issues of safety and violence, like gang
activity, prostitution, lack of YMCA’s etc. All of the previous examples are of stressors that are
inclusive within Disorganized that are not specific to home or school. Also, visual dilapidation
and unsettling sounds like police sirens and noise from constant traffic are stressors that
contribute more to community disorganization.
There were no reported exposures to environmental health hazards in school.
Environmental health hazards are exposures including pollution, alcohol, and/or cigarette smoke.
Yet issues of alcohol use and cigarette smoking were evident within the interviews. Participants
also expressed being exposed to such issues more frequently in the context of their homes.

98

CHAPTER 7

FINDINGS: TOP COMBINED STRESSORS AMONG PARTICIPANTS
In this chapter, I will present three tables from Phase 2 that show the frequency at which
participants were exposed to the perceived stressors under the exposure column, who’s most
affected (I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family), and the type of stress participants believe are
influenced by the perceived stressors depicted in the photos (M=Mental, S=Social,
E=Emotional, P=Physical) The photos are rank ordered from most stressful to least stressful
(See Appendix E for the Top 45 protocol).

Table 1: Home: Combined Stressors among Participants
Rank 1-15
Most
Stressful to
Least
stressful

1

Perceived Stressor & Photo ID #

Increased exposure to domestic
abuse 103
Theme: Parental Context

2

Parental discipline 125
Theme: Parental Context

Who’s
most
affected?

Stress

3
3
2
2

B
B
B
B

P
S
P*
M*

2
3
4

2
1
2

I
I
I

M
P*
M*

Participant

Exposure

1
3
4
5

3

Lack of finances 111
Theme: Economic Deprivation

2
1
2

2
1
2

B
F
B

P
M*
M*

4

Increased fear/anxiety 40
Theme: Disorganized Home

1
4

2
2

I
B

M
M*

99

Table 1 (cont’d)

5

Increased exposure to alcohol and
smoking 121
Theme: Environmental Health
Hazard

4
5

2
0

I
I

P*
P*

6

Lack of outside play due to unsafe
play areas 128

2
3

2
2

I
I

M
P

Theme: Disorganized Home
Absent parents 109
Theme: Parental Context

1
3

3
3

B
I

S
E

8

Teenage Mothers 20
Theme: Parental Context

1
5

3
2

B
B

S
M*

9

Inadequate nutrition or lack of
necessities 36
Theme: Economic Deprivation

4
5

3
2

B
B

P*
P*

10

Lack of identity 48
Theme: Social Development
Peer influences 8
Theme: Social Development
Inadequate sleeping quarters 86
Theme: Economic Deprivation
Inadequate heating and cooling 76
Theme: Economic Deprivation

1
3
1
2
3
4
3
5

1
3
1
1
2
3
1
2

I
I
I
I
I
B
B
B

M
M
S
M
P
M*
M
M*

School stress due to home life 122
Theme: Social Development
Increased exposure to death 65
Theme: Disorganized Home

1
5
1
5

2
1
2
3

I
I
I
B

M
M*
P
M*

7

11
12
13

14
15

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

* Photo without caption

All the time=1 (Daily), Frequently=2 (A few times per month),
Infrequently=3 (A few times per year), or Never=0).

The top perceived stressor in the home category was ones’ increased exposure to
domestic abuse. The presence of domestic abuse can make the home environment unstable,
100

causing fear. The fact that increased exposure to domestic violence was chosen by four out of the
five participants is significant. Not only that, two out of four participants, who were not shown
photos with captions, also selected the increased exposure to domestic violence as one of their
top perceived stressors. What this suggests is that domestic violence is not only easily identified
by participants but may have been a stressor they were exposed to themselves.
When asked who was most affected by the exposure to domestic violence both, meaning
the individual and family were selected. This is not an individual stressor. However, parental
discipline which was selected as the second most stressful was selected as only affecting the
individual. Parents, who are often overwhelmed due to unstable unemployment and live in
dangerous neighborhoods, are often more aggressive toward their children (Bradley & Corwyn,
2002; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000).
There were two photos that were selected by participants that were not shown the
captions. Those were the increased exposure to alcohol and smoking and inadequate nutrition or
lack of necessities. Both of these perceived stressors can affect the development of those most
exposed to them, especially physically (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). This is significant because it
is a stressor that is widely recognized as having some influence on an individual’s health yet it
was not selected as a stressor in the eyes of the remaining participants.
Who’s most affected? Within the home environment the individual was selected 17 times
for ten out of the top fifteen photos that were selected as most stressful. However, one photo
(lack of finances) was selected as having an influence on family. No other photo was identified
as affecting family, solely. Moreover, the fact that family was not selected does not mean
participants did not believe they were not affected. The selection of both included family
therefore, when a participant selects both they are selecting both the family and the individual as
101

being affected. A participant believes that either the individual or family was influenced by
exposure to that particular stressor.
Stress. Participants were asked to select how they believe the perceived stressor affects
one’s development, not what type of stress is represented in the photo. For example, a burned
down or vacant home represents a physical stressor. However, knowing that a burned down
home is a physical stressor does not help to understand how the participants believe that burned
down home influences the development of youth exposed to that particular stressor, if at all.
Therefore, it is important that this was understood and distinguished. For the home category
there were 12 photos that were all selected as causing individual mental trauma. This is very
significant because being affected mentally can be very damaging to other parts of a young
person’s life.
Mental stress can cause the inability to think and has been related to depression that can
also affect the way one sees and processes the world around them (Edin & Kissane, 2010).
Depression can affect school life and hinder how well one does academically. Within the home
environment there were five major themes that were represented within the home environment;
parental context, Economic Deprivation, Environmental Health Risk, Disorganized
Neighborhoods, and Social Development.



The numbers located at the end of the label represent the photo ID Number

Parental Context


Increased exposure to domestic violence 103



Parental Discipline 125



Absent Parents 109
102



Teenage Mothers 20

Within the category of parental context, the ways in which participants labeled these in
the “who’s most affected and stress categories” were varied. They were labeled as affecting one
either physically, socially, mentally or emotionally. The parental context means a lot to a
growing child and black males who, unfortunately, frequently experience broken homes with the
absence of fathers or single parent homes. Additionally, the parental context is processed
differently for each person and this is a telling sign, in the minds of Black men, who participated
in this study according to their interviews in the previous chapters.
Economic Deprivation


Lack of finances 111



Inadequate nutrition or lack of necessities 36



Inadequate sleeping quarters 86



Inadequate heating and cooling 76

The lack of finances prevents one from being able to obtain the material possessions he
or she wants but, most importantly, needs. All of the above mentioned perceived stressors, under
the economic stress category could become a non-issue with adequate financial capital.
Inadequate nutrition is a result of inability to travel to places where the quality of food is better.
Unfortunately, inadequate nutrition causes many health challenges in the future and can
also cause one to have difficulty concentrating in school (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Inadequate
sleeping quarters and inadequate heating and cooling can cause much discomfort physically or
mentally. Each participant identified these perceived stressors as a having either physical or
mental effects on an individual’s development.

103

Environmental Health Risk


Increased exposure to alcohol and smoking 121

Environmental stressors are known as environmental toxins that expose one, directly or
indirectly, causing harm to ones’ physical body. Environmental stressors are very significant
because one can be exposed to environmental toxins while still in utero. Mothers who smoke and
or drink put their unborn infant in harms’ way that may cause deformity, brain abnormalities,
and premature births.
Disorganized Neighborhoods


Increased fear/Anxiety 40



Unsafe play areas 128



Increased exposure to death 65

Disorganized neighborhoods are neighborhoods in which an overwhelming feeling of
anxiety and lack of safety is the norm. This includes violence, abandoned buildings, vacant lots,
and even loud noises, to name a few. Individuals whom live in disorganized neighborhoods are
always on guard. In Disorganized neighborhoods, the outside environment is often times unsafe
and the children of families are often restricted as to where they are allowed to go and or play.
These neighborhoods are often violent and have increased crime rates, where shootings and even
death by violence is normative.
Social Development


Lack of identity 48



Peer Influences 8



School stress due to home life 122

104

Most poor-urban neighborhoods lack positive role models. The lacks of exposure to other
people, places, and things that can open the mind, and help to give positive perspectives to Black
males are often lacking. What standards Black men often see around them are bleak and as
Richard says, there is so much negative in Detroit that you rarely find people that have never
done anything wrong.

Table 2: School: Combined Stressor among Participants
Rank 1-15
Most Stressful
to Least
stressful

1

2

Perceived Stressor & Photo ID

Over-crowded inner-city
classrooms 126

Theme: Learning Environment
Outdated and torn books in innercity 119

3

Theme: Inadequate Resources
Metal detectors 71

4

Theme: Disorganized Schools
Lack of school resources 99

5

Theme: Inadequate Resources
Lack of academic interest 53

6

7

Theme: Learning Environment
Increased drug activity near
school grounds 33
Theme: Disorganized Schools
Unsafe schools 90
Theme: Disorganized Schools

105

Who’s
most
affected?

Stress

2
3
1
3
2
2
1
2
3
3
2
3
2
2
2
3
2
2
1
3
2
2
2

I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
F
I
I
B
I

S
S
S
P*
M*
S
M
P*
M*
S
E
P
M*
M
P
M
S*
S
M
M*
S
E
M*

2
2
1

I
I
I

S
M*
M*

Participant

Exposure

1
2
3
4
5
1
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
5
2
1
3
1
2
5
2
2
1

Table 2 (cont’d)
8

9

10

11
12
13

14
15

Increased exposure to abandoned
buildings including schools 39
Theme: Disorganized Schools
Lack of positive role models 123
Theme: Social Development
lack of creativity 12
Theme: Learning Environment
Disinterest in school 101
Theme: Learning Environment
Lack of male role mentors 11
Theme: Social Development
Disinterest in school curriculum
64
Theme: Learning Environment
lack of academic interest 22
Theme: Learning Environment
Inadequate nutrition or lack of
necessities 36
Theme: Inadequate Resources

2
3
5

1
2
1

B
B
B

M
M
M*

1
3

1
2

I
F

S
S

1
2

2
2

I
I

M
S

1
4
2
3
1
4

2
2
0
2
2
3

I
I
B
I
I
I

M
S*
M
M
M
M*

1
4
2
3

2
2
3
2

I
I
I
I

M
M*
E
P

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

* Photos without caption

Frequency: All the time=1 (Daily), frequently=2 (A few times per month),
Infrequently=3 (A few times per year), or Never=0).

Within the school category, photos were selected more among the participants. Therefore,
either there were fewer photos for this category or stressors in the school were limited.
Additionally, the stressors in the school may not have been as easily identifiable. The top stressor
that was selected among the participants was over-crowded inner-city classrooms. Out of all the
photos in the school category, over-crowded classrooms were selected by all five participants.
This is significant because in photos, overcrowded classrooms are easily depicted; even when the
photo was not labeled with the perceived stressor it was selected. Also, overcrowded classrooms
are often managed poorly because of all the students who are unable to have questions answered
106

or given the attention that they may need. It is clear that the fewer students there are in a class the
more a teacher can accomplish and the less attitudes and issues a teacher has to deal with.
The research participants mentioned how the learning environment was often chaotic and
the teacher had ineffective classroom management skills. Four students selected outdated and
torn books as stressful. In urban environments it is not unfamiliar for students to be provided
with outdated books with pages torn, if they receive a book at all. If a student is given resources
that are not the best for their academic preparation they can often feel like they have been set-up
to fail whereas other students may develop a very pessimistic view of school and society,
especially when schools in neighboring communities have more adequate resources tools to
learn. Overall, for the school environment, the lack of resources and safety were of concern for
most participants.
Who’s most affected? Within the school category, most participants believed that the
individual is the one most affected by the perceived stressor. Out of 15 photos within the school
category 14 of those perceived stressors were selected as having influenced the individual and 36
times they were selected. Family was only selected twice out of two different photos. Five times
both the individual and the family was selected out of three different photos. Therefore,
participants really believe that the stressors that are perceived within the school environment
affect the individual very significantly.
Stress. School is an environment where people go to learn. Also a very significant part of
their awakened hours and developmental stages happen during school hours. Therefore, mental
and social stress were the two types of stress participants selected as having the most influence
on the development of Black males. Mental stress was selected 22 times out of 13 different
photos. Social stress was selected 13 times out of 10 different photos. Within the school
107

environment there are four major themes that are represented within the school environment;
Economic deprivation, disorganized schools, learning environment, and character development.
Economic Deprivation


Outdated and torn book in the inner-city



Lack of school resources



Inadequate nutrition or lack of resources
Books and other educational material are important for one’s academic success. It is not

uncommon that inner-city schools often lack the resources that are needed to make learning
effective (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Often times due to the limited resources, inside of the
classroom, students are asked not to take books home because they may not return them, which
then results in more resources not provided to students. How is it that student’s within the inner
city are given outdated books with torn pages but yet still asked to compete for the same
resources as students elsewhere?
Disorganized School


Metal detectors



Increase drug activity near school grounds



Unsafe schools



Abandoned buildings including schools

Increased exposure to abandoned buildings, including schools is categorized under
disorganized schools. Yes, drug activity is also happening too. However, the environment in
which schools are located are often plastered with Drug Free school zone signs but yet the
school is in the middle of drug infested homes and streets. Schools that have metal detectors are
108

placed to make students feel safe but what it does is create a sense of fear and makes one feel
like a prisoner. The detectors insinuate that these individuals have the potential of carrying
weapons.
Learning Environment


Disinterest in school curriculum



Lack of academic interest



Lack of creativity



Disinterest in school



Lack of academic interest



Over-crowded inner-city classrooms

The attitude that one has about school is very important in how well students perform.
Whether their attitude is structured from their family or others, the perception and the importance
of school, in the minds of young males, are often dictated by how well they do academically.
Often time, students do not believe that the material is relevant for them and consequently they
do not understand how math, science, or any other subject will address the challenges they are
experience in their personal lives.
Character Development


Lack of positive role models

Often times, male role models are not present in schools. A lot of the times males that are in
college or have graduated are not always present in the lives of these young men. According to
the participants who participated in the interviews, “usually what you see in Detroit is what you
get.” Many of the young men spoke about how on television and the words people say to the

109

young people in Detroit are not always encouraging and the role models are often drug dealers
who seem to be “doing well” but living a life that is dangerous.

Table 3: Community: Combined Stressors among Participants
Rank 1-15
Most Stressful to
Least stressful

Perceived Stressor by Photo ID #

1

Death to violence 1

2

Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Increased exposure to firearms 13

3

Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
No true interaction with people 66

4

Lack of community resources 68
Theme: Inadequate resources

5

Exposure to graffiti 15

6

Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Increased incarceration 17

7

8

9

10

Increased police presence 21
Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Increased exposure to illegal gun
use 42
Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Unsafe neighborhoods/empty
lots/abandoned buildings 70
Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Lack of community resources 51
Theme: Inadequate Resources

110

Who’s most
affected

Stress

1
1
2

B
B
B

E
M*
M*

2
1
1

B
B
I

P
P
P*

2
3
1
1
3
1
3
2
1

B
I
B
B
B
I
I
B
I

S
M
M*
M
M
E*
P
S*
M*

2
1
1
1

B
B
B
I

M
M*
M
M*

2
1

I
B

M
P*

2
2

B
B

E
E*

2
1

B
I

P
S*

Exposure

Table 3 (cont’d)
11

12

13

14

15

Increased exposure to
unemployment 63
Theme: Inadequate Resources
Increased drug activity 32
Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Increased unemployment in
urban/inner-city neighborhoods 43
Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Vacant lots 84
Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood
Increased Crime 73
Theme: Disorganized
Neighborhood

2
1

B
I

M
S*

1
1

B
B

S
P*

2
2

I
I

E
S*

2
1

I
B

M
M

1
1

B
B

E
S*

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

* Photos without caption

Frequency: All the time=1 (Daily), frequently=2 (A few times per month),
Infrequently=3 (A few times per year), or Never=0).

The community is the larger context in which a person lives. The home and school are a
part of the larger community. The community includes Recreational centers, grocery stores,
libraries, schools, governmental offices and other things. The community in the context of this
research is the environment outside of the home and school interior. The things that are
happening and or experienced inside of ones’ community can often dictate how a school and
homes are run, the rules that are set, and the parameters that are structured.
Within the community category three out of five participants selected death to violence as
a significant stressor. When death is experienced due to violence it creates a feeling of anxiety. It
makes those within the community feel unsafe. All of the three participants that selected death to
violence, as a perceived stressor, within the urban environment, they all selected both,
individual, and family as being the ones who are most influenced by the exposure. Also two of
111

the individuals believe that the development that is influenced the most is ones’ mental state and
the other participant selected Emotional for how they believe one who has increased exposure to
death would be impacted developmentally
Who’s most affected? Within the community context participants believe that either the
individual or family (both) is most impacted by the perceived stressors one experiences. Out of
15 photos, 14 of them had some marking of being influenced by both. There were 23 different
selections for both being chosen. The individual was selected 12 times by 10 different photos.
The reasons why some of these photos were selected as individual is because the participants
believe that the ways in which graffiti, vacant lots, increased police presence and other things
that have been marked with an I can be interpreted differently by several different people. For
example, Police presence to one may create a sense of safety and protection whereas for another
person the same police presence may create a sense or fear, instability, lack of freedom, and/or
restrictions causing a lack of trust towards authority officials.
Stress. Participants within the community context believe that ones’ mental development
is hindered most due to the stressors believed most prevalent in that environment. Nine different
photos were selected 15 times as affecting one’s mental development. Out of the photos that
were selected increased incarceration, increased police presence, and vacant lots were all said to
affect one mental development. Once again, I think this is due to ones perception about that
particular stressor. Participants believe that emotional development is hindered less is
comparison to mental, physical, and social stress.
Character Development


Lack of positive role models

112

Within the community there is an overwhelming amount of perceived stressors that fall under
the category of disorganized communities. Once again violence is the norm and creates a sense
of anxiety. What is pivotal to explore at some point is why violence is at increased rates in urban
environments. If violence is high, then it is no secret that police presence will also be high and if
drug activity is high there are usually drug related crimes that make neighborhoods unsafe. Many
of the participants discussed their being a “trap” house in their environment where the
expectation was that they would not play near there or be outside without supervision.
Economic Deprivation


Lack of community resources



Increased exposure to unemployment



Increased unemployment in urban-inner-city neighborhoods

The lack of resources for members within poor-urban environments may be the cause of
many disorganized neighborhood functions. Furthermore, employment rates are low in poorurban environments.
Table 4: Photo Selection by Category
Table 4

Home

School

Community

Who’s most
affected
Individual

17/10

36/14

12/10

Family

1/1

2/2

0

Both

16/9

5/3

23/14

113

Table 4 (cont’d)

Stress
Mental

18/12

22/13

15/9

Physical

11/8

5/5

7/5

Social

4/4

13/10

7/7

Emotional

1/1

3/3

6/5

Table 4 is a composite of responses from participants separated by context: home, school,
and community. Additionally, who’s most affected and the type of stress that may be
experienced are a result of being exposed to a particular stressor. There are two numbers
represented in each row. The first number represents the number of participants that selected that
particular response of who’s affected and the type of stress that may be developed as a result.
The last number is the number of photos that were selected for that particular selection.
There were 15 photos total per context. Therefore, 15 is the highest number possible. For
example, under the home context, out of the all five participants, Individual was selected as
being influenced most by the perceived stressors for 14 out of 15 photos total. It is important to
report that under the community context family was selected 0 times. 0 infers that family is not
solely affected by the perceived stressor and that both family and the individual are affected.

114

CHAPTER 8

FOCUS GROUP ANALYSIS
The primary objective of conducting a focus group was to better understand why
participants ranked the photos in the order in which they did. A secondary goal was to develop
an understanding of how the participants believed a particular stressor influenced development
and whom the perceived stressors affected I originally planned to conduct one focus group with
at least five Black male participants. Six men were recruited and committed to participating in
the session. Unfortunately, only three attended the session. Therefore, I conducted a second
focus group session where six men were invited and agreed to participate, but only two attended.
The information in this chapter provides a summary of why participants in the two focus
groups ranked some of the photos in the order they did. In this chapter there are six tables; three
tables for each focus group. Within the tables are three columns: The first column lists the
perceived stressors as they were selected by the focus group participants, from most to least
stressful, along with the corresponding photo identification number. The second column has a
letter that represents who the participants felt were affected most by the stressor, Individual,
Family, or Both. Lastly, the third column also has a letter to represent the type of stress focus
group participants selected as to the most influential on ones’ development, by rank, from most
stressful to least. Additionally, the reasons for why the photos were selected are captured in some
of the tables. Explanations were not given for all selections if participants felt photos were
similar to previous photos with the same selection.

115

Table 5: Focus Group 1: Home Commentary
Perceived Stress with ID #
Who's Affected?
Ranked from most to
least stressful (1-15)
Increased exposure to death I
M
65

This is most stressful
because it is something you
see and then you start to
maybe let that get to you in
a lot of different ways
Lack of finances 111

If you have money all these
other things work out.
Teenage mothers are bad
but if you got money it can
help
Absent Parents 109

It’s a lack of guidance
Inadequate nutrition or lack
of necessities 36
Lack of food is bad because
it can affect your school
performance and how you
perceive the world
especially if you see others
with it

Death is individual because if your
friend dies it will affect you more
than it will your mom so death is
more individual.
B

Stress

It can make you go crazy
S

If your family can’t provide for you
it affects both.

Some people are cool with
not having a lot of money
but the way they are looked
at by others can influence
them.

B

E

Family and individual because
grandparents or someone else has to
take the responsibility of taking care
of the child
F

The child may have the
feelings that he was not
wanted if his parents were
not there for him. It’s like
girls and their fathers. They
can be very emotional
P

One person is not going to eat
without the other so the whole
family is affected

You can’t grow and you
can get various diseases

116

Table 5 (cont’d)
Increased exposure to
Domestic abuse103
This can mess you up
mentally. It’s like slavery
and having a constant fear
Increased exposure to
alcohol and smoking 121

This leads to violence in the
home and can also be a
potential of you doing it as
well
Teenage Mothers 20

Inadequate heating and
cooling 76

I

M

If you see people arguing it
may offend you but also
you may grow up thinking
It only hurts the person being abused it’s ok to beat your wife
B
M

It usually runs in the family and
therefore it will affect both people
B

If they do it all the time
and not doing what they
are supposed to be doing, it
could bring them down.
You see a lot of people
doing it; it seems like
nothing to people and so
their mindset changes and
it becomes normal.
S

If you are still in school someone
else has to take care of the child so it
influences a lot of people
B

People view you negatively
P

Whomever lives in the house
Inadequate sleeping quarters B
86

No explanation needed.
P

You might be scared
Peer Influences 8

May have to share beds
I

You want get sleep and so
it will influence your body
M

If you see your friends
doing something they are
going to talk about you.
Parental Discipline 125

It’s individual because of individual
friends
I

Your peers can shape the
way you think
M

This is a good one
depending on the context of
it. It’s not like domestic
violence. This should be
here because it is not as bad
as these other ones

When parents whip you , it
puts stress on your body
but it may shape how you
think if your parents never
tell you what you did
wrong
117

Table 5 (cont’d)
School stress due to home
life 122
If you can’t do well in
school due to what is going
on at home, you are not
going to do well because
that is all you are thinking
about.
Lack of outside play due to
home life 128

B

S

It’s something at home with the
family that is probably affecting you

You won’t be able to get a
job if you can’t do well in
school

I

P

You might have friends out
there but anything could
happen to you if it’s unsafe
Increased fear/ Anxiety 40

If you don’t get enough
exercise, especially when
you are growing. Social is
big but physical is most
It’s you who is not able to go outside important
I
M

Lack of identity 48

It depends on who you are and what
you fear that makes the difference
I

It’s a state of mind and the
way you respond to things
S

You are trying to figure out who you
are.

You don’t know how to
interact with others
because you are unsure of
yourself.

This seems to be the least
severe

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

As Focus Group 1 looked through the photos they were surprised to see certain stressors
that were depicted, some they were surprised were stressors while others they were well aware
of. Moreover, as the young men discussed which photo they would select as the most stressful,
they believed the increased exposure to death would be the most stressful and could set the
trajectory for the rest of one’s life. They believed if someone is exposed to death, the over
exposure can make them feel a certain way about their own life which they may begin to care
less about themselves because of the uncertainty that comes with life. Also, participants felt like

118

if a person is always exposed to death they will be affected mentally and the other perceived
stressors will be influenced by the increased exposure to death.
Secondly, money is ranked as the second most perceived stressor. Money can help to
resolve a lot of the following issues, the young men thought. However, they struggled with
where to rank it because they discussed how some people do not have a lot of money but they are
able to be resourceful and make things work out as best as possible. After the discussion they
decided that lack of finances should be highly ranked.
Peer Influences and Parental Discipline are ranked lower than expected. These selections
were based on interpretations in that if you have positive peers than you will do well and one
focus group participant did not see parental discipline as a bad thing because he felt since he was
disciplined that all children, short of abuse, should be disciplined. All of the focus group
members tended to agree with him and saying that parental discipline is needed as long as
parents don’t discipline a child without talking to the child about why he or she is being punished
for negative behavior.

Table 6: Focus Group 1: School Commentary
Perceived Stress with ID #
Who's Affected?
Ranked from most to least
stressful (1-15)
Lack of school resources 99 I
S
If you interested but don’t
You don’t have those resources
have the resources then your
school work suffers.
Outdated and torn books in I
inner-city119
If your books are torn or if
pages are missing you can’t
learn
119

Stress

If you don’t have the
proper material you are not
able to compete with others
M
You think that they don’t
care about me. Makes you
feel like you don’t deserve
better books

Table 6 (cont’d)
Unsafe schools 90

B

M

It can come back home (meaning
thing that occur at home are not
always left at school but may
become issues that contribute to
one’s home life.
B

You are always worried
and can’t feel safe at home
or school

This has to do with one’s
safety
Metal Detectors 71

You can take it home and your
parents will have to deal with it if
you are living in their house.
I

Even if you don’t indulge
you know it’s there

Kids be shooting up schools
now.

I feel like it makes student’s want to
bring it while others believe it’s
necessary for the schools

It gives you the feeling of
you are not trusted and you
and your fellow peers are
looked at like criminals
even if you are not.
M

Increased drug activity near
school grounds33

Lack of male role models 11 I
A male role model shapes
you as being a male. Even if
you don’t have your father a
male can help you to not get
involved in the streets
Lack or positive role models
123

Lack of academic interest
22

You could potentially already have
someone in your life

I
You can have a female role model
but having a male is better

I

You don’t have to be
interested in school but if
you have mentors it can
help you be more focused or
understand why school is
important so not having
male role models is worse.
Lack of academic interest
I
53

M

M

If you did have one they
could help in potentially
changing the way you
think about things
M
They can help you change
your mind and actions
about things you do
E

You can get frustrated if
you can’t find something
that you are interested in
and then you get frustrated
with school

E
120

Table 6 (cont’d)
Disinterest in school
curriculum 64
Over-crowded inner city
classrooms 126
This will make you
disinterested because you
may not get a lot of
attention in class
Disinterest in schools 101
Lack of creativity 12
If you are creative you will
push through your academic
disinterest.
You may not know how to
think critically and it could
even shape your interest in
school.
Inadequate nutrition or lack
of necessities 36
You won’t be able to think
if you don’t have the
adequate nutrition
Increased exposure to
abandoned buildings
including schools 39

I

E

B
If you not doing well in school it
will influence the people at home

E
You may not get the
attention you want and get
upset because you are not
able to do well in class

I
I

E
S

I

P
Can hinder you from
growing or even
concentrating in class

B

M

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

As the young men in the focus group spoke of their school experiences they found some
commonality in the fact that they lacked resources in their schools that could have helped them
to excel even more than they had. The participants believed that if you do not have the adequate
material to learn then school is purposeless and nothing else really matters.
Once the participants continued to rank-order their photos, their placement and ideas of
metal detectors were different. Some believed they were necessary while others felt they were
121

treated like criminals. The commentary the young men made about the lack of male role models
versus the lack of role models was poignant. The men mentioned that while any role model can
be influential, male role models are especially important for other males, especially Black males.

Table 7: Focus Group 1: Community Commentary
Perceived Stress with ID #
Ranked from most stressful to
Who's Affected?
least stressful (1-15)
Increased drug activity 32
B
M

Increased unemployment in
urban/inner-city neighborhoods43

Increased crime73

Stress

B

Being exposed to this can
really affect how people
think about themselves and
others
S

B

There are certain things that
people will not be able to
engage in which will
influence who they involve
themselves with
M

Increased exposure to illegal gun
use 42

B

Death to violence 1

B

This can really affect one
mentally because a young
man may often worry about
things around him.
P
You get scared and start
thinking that another has
something that can hurt you
M

This will affect the
individual and the family

122

This can influence others
and if they are exposed to
this often, this can cause
them to have concerns about
their own life

Table 7 (cont’d)
Lack of community resources 51

B

It depends on what the resource is,
like recreational centers. If people
don’t have anything to do they get
involved in crime
Lack of community resources 68

Having resources for
participation is can lower
the stress on parents and
the kids will have
something to do
B

Increased incarceration 17

If more resources people
can help others
B

The way they interact with
others
S

They are no longer a
contributor to their family.
Their family is sad
because they have to leave
and the person is
separated from family
B

They are removed from
society and they was they
are perceived affects them
socially

Incarceration is supposed to be for
rehabilitation

Unsafe neighborhoods/empty
lots/abandoned buildings 70

S

Increased police presence 21

I
People respond to the
Their presence makes people scared presence of police
differently
Increased exposure to firearms13
Increased exposure to
unemployment63

I
I

You can’t meet people

S

M
This is mental especially if
you know that there are
people who live in better
neighborhood. This can
make you think about
yourself differently.
M
Mental because of how they
are perceived in your mind
M
M

Things got really bad when they(the Depends if that person has
government) took all of the
a family but either way
manufacturing jobs
they are affected first

123

How they perceive their job
loss is mental

Table 7 (cont’d)

No true interaction to people 66

I

S

Makes you feel like you are not
trusted
Exposure to graffiti 15

Some people like the
bullet proof glass
I

People always have their
guard up
S

Graffiti is art. There is a lot of it
downtown
Vacant lots 84

The way one perceives
graffiti is individual
B
Some areas can be
dangerous so those who
live there will be affected

For some people it’s a way
of showing their talent
M

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

Participants believed that the first five perceived stressor were all a result of the stressor
preceding it. The focus group participants believed that the use of drugs, often times, causes one
to lose their sense of self and do whatever they feel they have to do to continue their habit.
Consequently, substance abusers often will spend all of their money to feed their habit and when
they have spent all of their money they look for other ways to get drugs or alcohol, even commit
crimes. However, having a substance abuse issue is not the only result of crime. Money or the
lack thereof, in general, can result in people committing heinous crimes. The focus group
members discussed that, in order to commit more crimes and to do it “efficiently,” people obtain
weapons and as a result a lot of criminals die and innocent people too. Lastly, the commentary
presented within the tables the words of the focus group participants.

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Table 8: Focus Group 2: Home Commentary
Perceived Stress with ID #
Who's Affected?
Ranked from most to least
stressful (1-15)
Lack of identity 48
I
S
If people do not know who they are
all of these other things don’t
matter
Lack of finances 111
Lack of finances make a difference
on everything else therefore it
should be really highly ranked
Absent parents 109
Inadequate nutrition or lack of
necessities 36
Increased exposure to death 65
Increased fear/anxiety 40

Increased exposure to alcohol and
smoking 121

Peer influences 8

If you don’t know who
you are it does not
influence anyone else
I

This influences who you
hang around and how you
interact with others
E

B

If you don’t have money,
especially for necessities you
can be really upset.
E

B

P

I
I

M
M

People respond
differently to fear. What
one person is fearful
about is different than
the other person
I

It starts in the mind about
what is fearful

This only affects the
individual

If you see other people doing
It, it may affect if you do it
or not so it’s a mental thing
S

B
Your peers can have an
influence and then you
take that back home.

Inadequate sleeping quarters 86

Stress

M

B

Has to do with who you hang
around. You often get your
behaviors and thoughts from
your peers
M

You may have to share
beds with someone

You may be exhausted due
to lack of sleep

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Table 8 (cont’d)
Inadequate heating and cooling 76

Increased exposure to domestic
violence 103

B

M

Everyone living in the
house will be cold

This just fucks with your
mind mentally an you start
thinking about a lot of
different things especially if
you are cold
M

B
When you see this shit
like your dad beating on
your mom you start
thinking it’s cool to treat
women that way
I

You start acting based on
what you saw

Depends on what the
stress is but the one
going to school is
affected so the
individual.
B

Prevents you from being able
to concentrate

You won’t be able to have
many friends or interact with
others

Teenage Mothers 20

Your parents have to
tolerate you being in the
house and you can’t go
outside and play
B

The way they are perceived
is not always positive.
Socially, It’s becoming more
accepted. It is what it is.

Parental discipline 125

The mom has kids so it
affects her and the kids
because she is a teenage
mom and not able to
provide adequately
B

School stress due to home life 122

Lack of outside play due to unsafe
play areas 128

You need to discipline
the child.
Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

126

M

S

S

S

The second focus group believed that the lack of identity is the most perceived stressor
because they believed that if a person doesn’t know who he is he can be influenced by a
multitude of people, places or things. Also, lack of identity, they believed was a social stressor
because one’s personality will draw them to a certain group of people, whether positive or
negative.
Smoking and drinking alcohol can have negative effects on the body. With all of the
studies on second hand smoke and the effects of alcohol, I was surprised the young men believed
the perceived stressor would only affect the individual person. Lastly, parental discipline was
selected as the least stressful. The young men had the same sentiment that nothing is stressful
about discipline. They did however agree that discipline can be painful to the child at the time
but discipline is needed and believe that when parents do not discipline their children, their
children disrespect them.

Table 9: Focus Group 2: School Commentary
Perceived Stress with ID #
Who's Affected?
Ranked from most to least
stressful (1-15)
Unsafe schools 90
B
S
Is probably the worst because if
everything else is in place you don’t
want to go to an unsafe school
lack of academic interest 22

If the school is unsafe the
parents worry and the
child has anxieties
I

Lack of male role mentors 11

I

A male role model is very important
for males. More so than a female
role model

The individual can really
be helped most

Stress

It influences the interactions
people have with each other
M
It depends on the person
M

127

Having a male mentor can
really change the way a
person thinks about school
all together

Table 9 (cont’d)
Lack of positive role models 123
Any role mode is good but the male
role model is more important for
other males
Lack of creativity 12
If you don’t care about school all of
the following things don’t matter
Outdated and torn books in innercity 119

I

M

I

M
Its mental because it’s an
individual influence
E

I

Lack of school resources 99
Inadequate nutrition or lack of
necessities 36

I
B

Disinterest in school 101

I

When you realize that other
schools have better books it
makes you feel like you are
good enough
E
P
If you are not eating you
can’t do well in school or
grow
M

This affects the following two
stressors
Disinterest in school curriculum 64

Some like school and
some don’t
I

M

I
B

M
S

The family is influenced
because of what could
possibly happen to their
child while in school
I

You may not be able to go
outside or when you walk
home you are always
worried
S

B

Socially because you have a
lot of people around you to
be cool with
S

If the material or curriculum is not
interesting enough then you be
interested
Lack of academic interest 53
Increased drug activity near school
grounds 33
In most of the schools there is this
issue so you get used to this
Over-crowded inner-city classrooms
126
Don’t feel like this is that bad. I
think it would be fun to be in class
with a lot of people
Metal detectors 71
Not that bad. It’s necessary

128

Table 9 (cont’d)
Increased exposure to abandoned
buildings including schools 39

B

M
It depends on how people
look at it

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

The school category was a category where participants felt the stressors were all
dependent upon perception. The focus group participants selected unsafe schools as the top
perceived stressor. They believed that if the environment is unsafe a person cannot focus and
concentrate on his school work because he is unsure if he will be inflicted with bodily harm.
Participants believed that unsafe schools affect family members as well as the child because
family members will always have to be concerned about the wellbeing of their child.
Secondly, participants believed that the lack of interest is a very important stressor that
should be considered because if students are not interested in the material even if they are in an
environment that is free from harm, has role models, and all the resources available they will not
care because they will lack the motivation to take advantage of the resources. Lastly, outdated
books as a perceived stressor, the focus group participants thought were highly stressful.
However, not only did they think that not having adequate material was stressful but the effect
not having the material can have on one’s psyche was also important. The participants mentioned
that a child realizing he doesn’t have adequate material to learn, especially when he is aware that
students in other schools have better materials, he feels as if he is not important and people don’t
care about him or his success.

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Table 10: Focus Group 2: Community Commentary
Perceived Stress with ID #
Who's Affected?
Stress
Ranked from most to least
stressful (1-15)
Death to violence 1
B
E
This is worse than anything because you
The family and the
adjust your life according to this
individual are
Makes you always worried
influenced
about if it’s going to be you
Unsafe neighborhoods/empty
B
S
lots/abandoned buildings 70
Some reasons why neighborhoods are
unsafe is because of violent deaths
Increased unemployment in urban/innercity neighborhoods 43
Somebody has got to be homeless, so it’s
not that bad.
Increased police presence 21

There may be certain things
that you can and can’t do
because of the neighborhood
M

B

When you homeless it’s a
mental issue
B

S

You can drive around in Detroit with no
license. Here in (East Lansing) you
always have to watch for them
Lack of community resources 68

B

The way you act and what
you do is influenced by the
presence of police
S

We had a library but it was always empty
Lack of community resources 51

B

S

B

Affects you socially because
things that you may be able
to do you can’t
S

Recreational centers are important

Increased Crime 73
Crime is probably a result of not having
resources in the community so that would
follow resources

You always have to be on
guard and watch out

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Table 10 (cont’d)
No true interaction with people 66
When going to the liquor stores in Detroit
I feel like it’s someone just giving me
something that will harm me.
It has to be there or people will get hurt
and robbed
Increased incarceration 17

I

S

B

If you not interacting with
people. They don’t get to
know you and you don’t get
to know them. The
stereotypes continue.
M

B

Knowing that you will be
locked up. But its mental
because if you doing wrong
it’s a part of life for you, to
go to jail
M

All of the above things boil down to
incarceration

Increased drug activity 32
When you in a bad environment you
don’t know why people start doing
certain things
Increased exposure to illegal gun use 42
Increased exposure to firearm 13

People are affected by drugs
differently
B
B

S
S
You always worried about
someone using it on you
S
Affects what you can or
can’t do
S

Increased exposure to unemployment 63

B

Vacant lots 84

B

Vacant lots is better (The young men
would rather have vacant lots over vacant
or abandoned buildings.

If the neighborhood is It can be unsafe or it can be
bad that vacant lot
an area that kids can play
can affect both
because parents may
feel is unsafe
I
S

Exposure to graffiti 15
Is a form of art

It really depends on
how people look at it

Who’s Affected: I=Individual, B=Both, F=Family
Stress: M=Mental, S=Social, E=Emotional, P=Physical

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Some like it and some don’t.
It’s an individual thing and
therefore more social than
the others

Participants, at the beginning of the photo sort for inner-city communities, thought very
carefully about how one stressor affected the other. They were able to quickly place their photos
in descending order from most stressful to least stressful. Death to violence, participants believed
was the most perceived stressor. They selected this believe they believe this stressor has
emotional affects that can influence how one interacts with his environment. Safety was a theme
that was important for these participants and they felt that when an environment is unsafe it may
be as a result of crime which leads to more chaos. Following safety, participants believed there is
an interchangeable symbiotic relationship between safety and the lack of resources. Participants
felt like the more the lack of resources there are in a community the more illegal activity a person
involves himself in. Subsequently, they believe crime makes the community fearful. Resources
for the community are unfortunately often not invested in because of a belief that the resources
will be taken advantage of or not appreciated.
Lastly, participants were surprised that graffiti was selected as one of the top 15 stressors
because they felt that there was nothing stressful about graffiti. The focus group participants
thought that the presence of graffiti is all based on interpretation and their interpretation of
graffiti was explained as being an art form. However, one of the focus group participants did
mention how it does however depends on the type of graffiti that is displayed because if it is
graffiti of various gang signs then graffiti can be disturbing and stressful because then you feel
like you are in a dangerous neighborhood.

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CHAPTER 9

FINDINGS: COMPARISON OF TOP 15 ECOSYSTEM CATEGORIES BY GROUP
The following tables were created to allow one to see how the top 15 stressors in each
eco-system category (home, school, community) were ranked. Two different groups are
represented in the following tables. The first column is the top 15 stressors that I calculated from
the combined participant’s photo selection from phase 2 (see Appendix E). The second column is
the top 15 stressors combined, which I calculated (See Appendix E) from Focus Groups 1 and 2,
from phase 3, in an effort to consolidate to one focus group. To minimize confusion, the
combined data for Focus Group 1 and 2 is labeled as Focus Group.

Table 11: Home: Top 15 Stressors
Perceived Stressors
Ranks 1-15
Focus Group Data
Participants 1-5 (Combined)
(Most to least
stressful)
Increased exposure to domestic
1
Lack of finances
abuse
Parental discipline
2
Increased exposure to death
Lack of finances
3
Absent Parents
Increased fear/anxiety
4
Inadequate nutrition or lack of
Necessities
Increased exposure to alcohol and
5
Increased exposure
smoking
to alcohol and smoking
Lack of outside play due to
6
Increased exposure
unsafe play areas
to domestic abuse
Absent Parents
7
Lack of identity
Teenage mothers

8

Inadequate nutrition or lack of
necessities
Lack of identity

9

Inadequate heating
and cooling
Inadequate sleeping quarters

10

Peer influences

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Table 11 (cont’d)
Peer influences

11

Increased fear/anxiety

Inadequate sleeping quarters

12

Teenage mothers

Inadequate heating and cooling

13

School stress due to home life

School stress due to home life

14

Parental discipline

Increased exposure to death

15

Lack of outside play due to
unsafe play areas

The object of these tables is to see where each photo was ranked in relation to the other
photo in a different group. The Lack of finances is ranked within the top 3 among both groups.
The first group ranked lack of finances as their third most perceived stressor, whereas the focus
group ranked lack of finances as their top perceived stressor. The lack of finances is within the
top five. That is significant. The lack of finances prevents one from being able to acquire the
necessities of life and often exacerbates other risk factors. Increased exposure to alcohol and
smoking was ranked within the same range. Peer influences and school stress due to home life
was ranked within the same range or no more than two rankings from one another. When it
comes to lack of finances, there were different rankings and perspectives as to their rank. The
combined data from participants 1-5 believe that increased exposure to domestic violence was
most harmful to the development of youth, whereas the combined data from the focus groups
ranked increased exposure to domestic violence as the sixth most perceived stressor.

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Table 12: School: Top 15 Stressors
Perceived Stressors
Ranks 1-15
Focus Group Data
Participants 1-5 (Combined)
(Most to least
stressful)
Over-crowded inner-city
1
Unsafe schools
classrooms
Outdated and torn books in inner2
Lack of school resources
city
Metal detectors
3
Outdated and torn books in
inner-city
Lack of school resources
4
Lack of male role mentors
Lack of academic interest

5

Lack of academic interest

Increased drug activity near school
grounds
Unsafe schools

6

Lack of positive role models

7

Increased exposure to abandoned
buildings including schools

8

Increased drug activity near
school grounds
Lack of creativity

Lack of positive role models

9

Metal detectors

Lack of creativity

10

Lack of academic interest

Disinterest in school

11

Lack of male role mentors

12

Disinterest in school
curriculum
Disinterest in school

Disinterest in school curriculum

13

lack of academic interest

14

Inadequate nutrition or lack of
necessities

15

Inadequate nutrition or lack
of necessities
Over-crowded inner-city
classrooms
Increased exposure to
abandoned buildings
including schools

The stressors within the school context were more recognizable among research
participants. Academic interest, which had the same ranking for both groups: outdated and torn
books, increased drug activity near school grounds, and disinterest in school were all fairly
consistent in their ranking across groups. However, there were some variances in the thought
process that preceded their ranking of the photos from most to least stressful. Group 1 ranked
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over-crowded inner-city classrooms as the top stressor for the school category. During the focus
groups, the participants mentioned how there are many feelings that surface when they are
placed in over-crowded class. One participant thought it would be fun because it the more people
in the class the better one’s chances of making more friends. Outdated and torn books were
ranked one and two respectively. Participants mentioned that students feel as if they are not good
enough to receive adequate books when students in neighboring communities have new ones
Also, participants expressed if students did not have the learning materials they needed to
succeed that they would likely lose focus, academically and engage in risky behaviors – thus
increasing the number of stressors that impacted their lives. Lastly, I am surprised that
inadequate nutrition and the lack of resources were ranked within the bottom five as the most
stressful experiences. I believe that without adequate nutrition, your motivation at school lessens.

Table 13: Community: Top 15 stressors
Perceived Stressors
Ranks 1-15
Focus Group Data
Participants 1-5 (Combined)
(Most to least
stressful)
Death to violence
1
Increased unemployment in
urban/inner-city
neighborhoods
Increased exposure to firearm
2
Lack of community
resources
No true interaction with people
3
Death to violence
Lack of community resources
4
Increased Crime
Exposure to graffiti
5
Increased drug activity
Increased incarceration
6
Unsafe neighborhoods/empty
lots/abandoned buildings
Increased police presence
7
Lack of community
resources
Increased exposure to illegal gun
8
Increased police presence
use
Unsafe neighborhoods/empty
9
Increased exposure to illegal
lots/abandoned buildings
gun use
Lack of community resources
10
Increased incarceration
136

Table 13 (cont’d)
Increased exposure to
unemployment
Increased drug activity

11

Increased unemployment in
urban/inner-city neighborhoods
Vacant lots
Increased Crime

13

12

14
15

No true interaction with
people
Increased exposure to
firearm
Increased exposure to
unemployment
Exposure to graffiti
Vacant lots

Within the focus groups discussion of community, there were a lot of discussions among
the participants as to their experiences. Most of the participants have been exposed to some of
the same stressors but the ways in which they perceived them varied. Death to violence was
ranked as the top stressor among the first group, which is represented in the first column,
compared to the focus group participants, represented in the second column, who ranked
increased unemployment in urban/inner-city neighborhoods as their top choice.

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CHAPTER 10
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
Conclusions
Children and adolescents who grow up in poor urban neighborhoods are faced with many
challenges that can hinder them from positively developing into productive adults. These
challenges are attenuated by the stress and/or lack of resources accessible to many individuals in
these communities (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Clark, Barrett, & Kolvin, 2000; Crosnoe, Mistry,
& Elder, 2002).
Research that focuses on urban environments and the prevalence of stressors within
these communities are vast (Beyers et al., 2003; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Gutman,
2005; McLoyd, 1998; Weiss, 2000). However, there is little research that allows those living in
these environments to share their personal experiences. Therefore, this research was designed to
determine what young men from Detroit consider to be stressful and to share their experiences
from the homes, schools, and communities in which they grew up.
My hope has always been that my research would take seriously the experiences of those
who grow up in economically distressed communities, especially where violence and the lack of
resources are normative, and the academic community would see residents of inner-city
communities as individuals and not statistics. There were six key findings and multiple
supporting themes that emerged from my analysis of data collected during this research
The first research finding is the importance of the parental context in the lives of these
young men, specifically the presence of their fathers. In each interview the young men
mentioned their fathers as having some influence on their lives, whether negative or positive.
Richard shared very private moments with me, and his desire to talk to someone about the many
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struggles he has figuring out life and growing into manhood. Richard believes that if he had
someone to speak with about his challenges, he would be at a better place mentally.
Unfortunately, he does not consider his dad as someone he can speak with, due to his dad’s hard
or unwelcoming demeanor. Additionally, during the focus group sessions both groups discussed
how important role models were – but not just any role model, male role models. The young men
shared how there are just some things that women cannot do when it comes to teaching and
raising a boy into manhood. I believe that the number one role model in a young man’s life
should be his dad, especially if the dad is living and able to take care of his responsibilities as a
father.
My second and third research findings are the lack of safety and adequate housing and
safety, which were challenges these young men faced in their lives. The interviews helped to
engage men in dialogue about the places they lived and schools attended. Unfortunately, due to
finances, most of these young men moved from house to house causing them to always have to
make new friends or never feeling as if they could call a place home. Often times when these
young men moved, the places they moved to were worse than the previous locations. This often
disrupted their lives and where they slept did not make it easier for them to adjust. One young
man spoke about how he slept on the couch and after that slept in a tent with his mom in his
aunt’s basement. Most young men never had a room by themselves and lived in places with
multiple families where space was limited.
Issues of safety were concerns for all five young men and they spoke about having to be
vigilant and watch over their backs at all times because of the unpredictability that living in
Detroit caused them. Also, research participants often spoke about how they had to be in the

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house before the street lights came on, being restricted from going to certain places, whether it
was the neighborhood park, or the next door neighbor’s home, because of drug or gang activity.
My fourth research finding stems from the questions I asked that would allow me to
better understand the school environment. The schools that these research participants attended
seemed to be poorly managed by the teachers, causing a lot of class disruptions. Either there
were fights breaking out at any given time or teachers were often harassed and interrupted to
start lessons over because students, who were disengaged, would ask the teacher to repeat
themselves. I believe that students are often trying to please the other students and will do
anything to fit in and seem like the “cool” kids. Unfortunately, this is a reality because a couple
of the research participants spoke about how they, at some point in their academic career, did not
fit in but once they started to be disruptive in class and make jokes about the teacher or other
students they were then liked.
My fifth research finding is one that I think is very pivotal in assessing behavior, and that
is the ideal way to behave due to environment. The young men mentioned that Detroit was not an
environment to be “soft,” to show your feelings, or care for the needs of others. There was a
hard exterior that you had to always put on. This persona is very mind boggling to me because I
wonder how many people have to act like someone that they are not. This persona or ideal
behavior is said, by the participants, to protect them from being robbed or taken advantage of.
This is a finding that I believe needs further investigation. Due to Detroit’s high crime rates and
economic and political instability, people believe they often have to watch their backs for fear of
being taken advantage of or robbed. I reflected on the thought of realness to oneself and
wondered how much of this mentality or hard persona is a facade and, if so, many of Detroit’s
residents or residents of any other inner-city residents wear a mask.
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The young men shared their experiences in East Lansing – home of Michigan State
University - and how their lives are different than that which they experience in Detroit. In East
Lansing they feel comfortable wearing whatever they want, acting how they want, and feeling
they can be themselves. However, when they go to Detroit there are certain behaviors they
discontinue and clothes they choose not to wear because they may be ridiculed or victimized.
My sixth research finding is the lack of resources that were evident in each area of my
focus: home, school, and community, resources were often limited. What is unsettling is that
food, which is a necessity for survival, is often scarcely available or lacking quality nutrients.
Nutrition is important for a growing child and the environment in which he or she lives may not
have or provide adequate nutrients. Poor nutrition affects brain growth both pre and postnatal
(Bradley & Corwyn, 2002).
Grocery stores are often not easily accessible to people in these environments and what
happens is that families will frequent a convenience store, where the food is more expensive, yet
accessible. In addition to grocery stores, resources that often build community among people are
nonexistent; recreational centers, YMCA’s, Boys and Girls Clubs, and parks, just to name a few.
There is no surprise that crime becomes an option for young men when they have idle hands,
especially during out-of-school time. However, when resources including schools, parks and
recreational centers were available, the young men mentioned how they could not or felt their
livelihood could be threatened because much of the activity that occurred at these places made
them breeding grounds for drug activity, fights, and even gang violence. Therefore, if
community resources were available they were often not accessible to the public.
Lastly, not all the experiences these young men had were negative. These men were
motivated to be successful and graduate from high school and attend college, regardless of the
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negative experiences they have had. However, they did not do it by themselves. They had, in
addition to family members, role models in the school, or in the community. All of the research
participants played sports and became friends with like-minded peers. Coaches were influential,
and even some teachers. Unfortunately, uncovering protective factors were not as poignant as I
had hoped. These young men have faced many challenges and could have become another
statistic. However they did not. Therefore, being able to uncover any protective factor could have
been enlightening, as well as helpful, for implementation by parents raising young Black men in
economically distressed neighborhoods. In retrospect I could have asked questions that probe at
factors influencing resilience.
Conversely, I believe it is significant that although these young men lived in urban
environments, the majority of schools they attended were either the best in the city or schools
located in neighboring school districts. However, I think the fact that these young men have
overcome surmountable odds and were accepted to Michigan State University (MSU) is a more
tell-tale sign of how, if at all, they adjusted. Furthermore, while being accepted to MSU is an
achievement, the change of environment and academic challenges introduced to these young
men are needed to adapt and adjust in personal interactions for them to do well. Additionally, a
theme that evolved is the racism in the city is systemic. However, at MSU, it is a personalized
experience.
Case study analysis and focus groups helped tell the story of these young men and
confirmed some of the experiences that my literature review highlighted about the exposures
youth have in poor urban environments. The purpose and primary objective of this research was
to better understand the lived experiences of Black men from the inner-city of Detroit by
examining three research questions: 1 ) Do the experiences of these Black men and what they
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were exposed to confirm current research? 2) What are most frequently reported perceived
stressors depicted through photos, in the home, school, and community and what are their
thoughts of a future in Detroit with their own family? And 3) what, if any, themes of resilience
occur in the lives of these young men?
Based on my review of the research literature, participant focus groups, interview
discussions, and cross case analysis of five Black males, it is significant that the lives of these
men and where they are from should not be undervalued. The findings I discussed above confirm
some of the current research about the types of exposures that one faces in urban environment.
The experiences of these men and the previous research both confirm that increased exposure to
violence, increased noise levels, and random acts of victimization in poor-urban environments
are normative (Lupien et al., 2001; Kiser, 2007; Murry et al., 2011).
My second research question identified the top stressors within phases 2 and 3 as
follows: in the home, increased exposure to domestic abuse and lack of finances; in schools,
overcrowded inner-city classrooms and unsafe schools; and lastly in the communities, death to
violence and increased unemployment in urban/inner-city neighborhoods. I was surprised that
money or the lack of resources did not make the number one stressors among all groups.
However, even as focus group participants mention in the commentary sections, money is very
important for one’s livelihood however, there are some things that money cannot buy.
Throughout this research study, I realized that things not mentioned explicitly by
participants were just as important as those that were. In the photos that depicted urban stressors
I was intentional about adding photos that were of environmental toxins which included mercury,
lead, and pollution. I added these environmental toxins or stressors because research that focuses
on urban environments often reports of the negative effects that increased exposure to
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environmental toxins can have on the brain and other areas of development (Bradley & Corwyn,
2002). Because, often times the effect of social stressors on one’s development are unknown, I
thought it would be interesting to see if the young men in this study would identify these photos
of perceived stressors as factors that would affect the development of others in poor-urban
environments. Out of 130 photos of perceived stressors, the photos that depicted pollution, lead,
or mercury were not chosen as any of the top 15 stressors in the home, school, nor community
categories.
Research makes it clear that these environmental toxins have an effect on development.
Therefore, the young men may not have selected these photos because environmental toxins like
household and industrial pollutants, especially mercury and lead, may not have visible effects on
these young men and the social stressors because they don’t see these stressors and cannot
identify with them. Consequently, the idea of these men being affected by a certain stressors was
not always recognized. Often times the young men would talk about how, due to certain things
that happened, in their neighborhoods, whether fear of home break-ins or being without
electricity, they were not affected. Moreover, what I have learned is that it is important to allow
men those that have first-hand accounts of living in environments that can hinder their positive
development is pivotal. Additionally, just because one may not be able to identify or articulate
how a particular experience is stressful does not mean it is not.

144

Discussion
This research was an exploratory study in which I sought to understand what, if any,
stressors and phenomena would surface as a result of this research design. Most of the research
conducted about urban environments rarely reports internal effects that living in urban
environments may cause to one’s developmental outcomes. It is difficult to prove how one’s
experiences affect them. However, I believe the things that people see and are often exposed to
affects them socially, mentally, physically, or emotionally.
What is most critical in this research is the understanding of how frequent exposures to
neighborhood stressors impact one’s future, especially academically. I persist in the belief that
where one is from matters to their developmental growth and when they are unable to succeed,
because of constructs that can’t be explained, they are often blamed for their own misfortune.
Yet, no one truly understands how heavy the weights of one’s experiences are growing up in
crime ridden and unsafe neighborhoods. Bronfenbrenner (2005) noted that there is no one factor
that is correlated with one’s behavior or outcome; it is an accumulation of factors.
There were many limitations to this study. This research design made it difficult to
compare results because of the variance in interpretation from one participant to another. Maybe
this is often the challenge with qualitative research and ordinal data. Also, an individual’s
definition of harm is different than the next person’s and how someone believes he is affected is
undefined. For example, when asked if one is affected by the noise level or drug activity in one’s
neighborhood, participants will say they were not affected by those stressors. I argue differently,
and believe that just because you recognized gangs in your neighborhood but did not became a
gang member does not mean you were not in some way affected or had to adapt to that
exposure.
145

Regardless of the challenges, I believe research on poor urban communities is important.
There are many unexplored truths to how one’s social experiences influence who they are and
become. However, I don’t believe the effects are only behavioral in nature, but also often
influence our brain in the way that it functions. When conducting research on young Black
American men in urban environments, one would think that the issue of race would come up and
just because it did not come up does not mean that it was not significant. When the young men
spoke of their ideal school experiences and if the schools they attended prior to coming to MSU
were ideal, they said no. Conversely, the young men compare their experiences to their White
roommates who seemed to have had a better transition from high school to college. Nate
mentioned his desire to have been exposed to White people and some of the experiences that
White people have. He thought that his sister had it better than he did because of the experiences
she had going to school with White people. He compared his lack of resources, and experiences
to his sister’s and felt she would be comparatively better well-rounded because of it.

146

APPENDICES

147

Appendix A

Interview Questions

148

Appendix A
Interview Questions
Research suggests that the neighborhoods in which a person lives in can directly and
indirectly affect several domains of youth development. I am interested in learning about the
neighborhoods in which young Black American male adults resided in prior to their coming to
MSU. Environmental exposures include experiences in the home, school, and local community.
1. I want to hear about the neighborhood(s) in which you grew up in prior to your coming to
MSU. Tell me about your earliest memories of the neighborhood and home you grew up
in?





How old do you believe you were?
Describe the layout of the house.
Who all lived with you? How many bedrooms? Parents, siblings, grandparents,
friends…? How many people stayed in the home? Did you have your own room?
Was this a comfortable environment? Can you recall any concerns in the home
that were sources of stress for you or your parents…?

2. Recall all of the places you have lived, the school(s) you attended, and with whom you
lived prior to your coming to MSU… Can you tell me where those places were and with
whom you lived? Starting with the earliest you can remember. How long did you live
there?
3. How would you describe your neighborhood? Poor, working class, middle class, why …?
4. Describe a typical day in your neighborhood


Your street, the houses, and places in walking distance from your house. How old
were you at this place? Had you started school?



Did you have neighbors nearby? Were you able to go to the neighbors to play?



What was your relationship like with your neighbors?



Would you say you live in a clean neighborhood? Did people cut their grass?



Did you see people going to work everyday



Would kids stay out late on a school night? Did you? Friends have a curfew?
149

5. Do you remember going outside to play?
As you walked outside to play can you paint a picture or sort of describe for me the
different things you would have observed? Where did you play? (Backyard, front
yard…playground, boys and girls club, neighbor’s house, vacant lot). (Play any
organized sports? If so, what did you play?)
6. Let’s visualize being back there at this first home…. (interior, exterior---surrounding) If
you were standing outside in front of your home what are some things that you would
have observed? Cars parked in the street, only in the driveway, cars on the lawn, bars on
windows, busy street? Flowers, nice yards…


What were the fondest of memories of your growing up? What about things not so
great?

7. Can you recall any smells, sounds, visuals, either good or bad in this environment? Can
you recall any stressful situation or things that you observed that were not good?
8. Were there things that were great about this environment? Can you tell me about those
things?


What is the first school experience you can recall?



What was the neighborhood like surrounding your school, how about the aesthetics of
the schools? The classrooms. How was the learning environment?



When you think about your school experiences, do you believe the schools you
attended prepared you for college? If not, please explain.



Knowing what you know now, what things would you wish you were exposed to in
school that would have bettered your opportunities?



If you could create your own school experiences, what would they look like?

Neighborhood resources


Research suggests that inner-city neighborhoods have high crime rates. Have you
ever experienced any act of violence in your neighborhood including in your
home, school or know of people that have?



Would you say this was a safe environment? Why or why not?



Have you ever had anyone close to you die your age? Have you ever attended any
funerals? If so, how many?
150

Did you or your family have the need to take advantage of any public services in your
neighborhood like the public library, gym, YMCA, Social services, churches, food banks?
What are some community or neighborhood resources that you believe were lacking from your
neighborhood, that other neighborhoods may have had?
What do you believe are some things within the inner-city that that seems to create this perpetual
cycle of helplessness and defeat among Black men, specifically?
Was there a sense of community?
Did neighbors communicate with one another?
Did you have neighborhood watch?
Final Thoughts
9. Do you feel like you were given the same opportunities as other children your age
growing up in other neighborhoods
10. How was your childhood different from other friends, peers or family members in your
neighborhood, your age?
11. Have you ever wished you could trade places with people from other neighborhoods? If
so, why?
12. What would your ideal childhood have looked like?
13. If you had children would you have wanted them to grow up in this neighborhood?
Describe for me the ideal neighborhood for your children

151

Appendix B

Main Participants: Preliminary Photo Critique

152

Appendix B

Form A
Main Participants: Preliminary Photo Critique
Step 1:
You have been given 130 photos depicting increased sources of stress for urban/inner-city youth.
Separate the photos that you believe best represent stressors most frequented in a home, school
or local community setting. At the completion of your sorting, select the top 15 photos from each
category you believe are most stressful, totaling 45 photos in all across categories.
Step 2:
In the first column from most stressful to least stressful, in each category, mark the Photo
Identification Number of the top 15 stressful exposures you believe would influence ones’
development the most while growing up in an urban/inner-city neighborhood. Also, mark the
photo identification number of the photos you have placed in each category after the top 15,
these do not have to be in any particular order.
Step 3:
After examining each pile separately what, if any, urban/inner-city stressors do you believe may
have been overlooked that may hinder positive youth develop?
Step 4:
In the second column titled Frequency of Exposure, mark the number that best represents how
often, it at all, you were exposed to the perceived urban/inner-city stressor depicted in the photo
you identified in the first column.
All the time=1 (Daily), frequently=2 (A few times per month), infrequently=3 (A few times per
year), or never=0).
Step 5:
In the second column titled Who’s affected? mark either an I for Individual, F for Family, or B
for Both according to who you perceive the stressor in the photo influences.
Step 6:
In the third column, mark according to the four areas of stress either an M for Mental, E for
Emotional, P for Physical or S for Social, according to how you believe the stressor is most
influential on ones’ development.

153

Form A: Preliminary Photo Critique
Participant Number: ____
HOME
Most
stressful
to Least
stressful

Frequenc
y of
exposure

Who’s
most
affected?

PHOTO IDENTIFICATION
NUMBER

Individual
Family
Both

SCHOOL
Is
Stressor

Mental
Emotional
Physical
Social

Most
stressful
to Least
stressful

Frequency
of
Exposure

Who’s
most
affected?
Individual
Family
Both

154

COMMUNITY
Is
stressor

Mental
Emotional
Physical
Social

Most
stressful
to Least
stressful

Frequency
of
Exposure

Who’s
most
affected?

Stressors

Individual
Family
Both

Mental
Emotional
Physical
Social

Appendix C
Focus Group: Photo Critique

155

Appendix C

Form B
Focus Group: Photo Critique
Participant Number: ____
Step 1:
You have been given 45 photos total. Separate the photos that you believe best represents
stressors most frequented in a home, school or local community setting. At the completion of
your sorting the 45 photos for each category, you should have 15 photos under each category.
Step 2:
In the first column from most stressful to least stressful, in each category, mark the Photo
Identification Number of the top 15 stressful exposures, in each category, you believe impacts
youth growing up in an urban/inner-city neighborhood.
Step 3:
In the second column titled Frequency of Exposure, mark the number that best represents how
often, it at all, you were exposed to the perceived urban/inner-city stressor depicted in the photo
you identified in the first column.
All the time=1 (Daily), frequently=2 (A few times per month), infrequently=3 (A few times per
year), or never=0).
Step 4:
In the third column titled Who’s most affected mark either an I for Individual, F for Family, or
B for Both according to who you perceive the stressor in the photo influences.
Step 5:
In the fourth column, mark according to the four areas of stress either an M for Mental, E for
Emotional, P for Physical, or S for Social, according to how you believe the stressor is most
influential on ones’ developmental outcomes.

156

Appendix C: Form B
Focus Group: Photo Critique
Participant Number: ____
HOME

PHOTO IDENTIFICATION
NUMBER

Most
stressful
to Least
stressful

Frequency
of
exposure

Who’s
most
affected?
Individual
Family
Both

SCHOOL
Is Stressor

Mental
Emotional
Physical
Social

Most
stressful
to Least
stressful

Frequenc
y
of
Exposure

COMMUNITY

Who’s
most
affected?

Is
stressor

Individual
Family
Both

Mental
Emotional
Physical
Social

157

Most
stressful
to Least
stressful

Frequency
of
Exposure

Who’s
most
affected?

Stressors

Individual
Family
Both

Mental
Emotional
Physical
Social

Appendix D

Areas of Stress Defined

158

Appendix D
Areas of Stress Defined
The most common types of stress include: Physical, emotional, mental, social, process
and time, cultural, systemic and value stress. For the purposes of this research and according to
the literature I will only ask about the physical, emotional, mental, and social stressors presented
in urban/inner-city environments.
Physical Stress: Physical stress factors are poor food, unsuitable diet, too little sleep, poor
hygiene, excessive noise, bright lights, strong scents, all kinds of chemicals in household
products, paints, and clothes, too strenuous physical labor, heavy lifting, heavy labor
inappropriate for one's age, multitasking, too many hours of work, too much sun, extreme and
sudden changes in weather, excessive speed or changes in speed, all forms of environmental
pollution.
Emotional Stress: Emotional stress factors can be feelings of fear and dread, rejection,
abandonment, anger as well as guilt, shame, embarrassment and humiliation. Emotional stress
can result from extreme situations like bullying.
Mental Stress: Mental stress factors include worry, anxiety, fear, impossible expectations or
demands, unreasonable expectations or demands, inappropriate expectations or demands,
inflexible thinking, resistance to necessary change, powerlessness.
Social Stress: Social stresses are common and varied. Some more common ones are moving;
adding to the family, marriage, divorce, family members having difficulties, heavy social
expectations, and social rituals can be unhealthy (drinking)

159

Appendix E

Protocol for Calculating Top 15 Stressors per Category

160

Appendix E

Protocol for Calculating Top 15 Stressors per Category
Part A: Created three different tables. Each table had dimensions of 6X15.The first row of the
table had numbers 1-15, to represent which photos were placed where. 1 being the most stressful
and 15 being the least stressful.
Part A1) Table one represented all 15 photos that each 5 participants categorized from
most stressful to least stress in the home category.
Part A2) Table two represented all 15 photos that each 5 participants categorized from
most stressful to least stress in the School category.
Part A3) Table three represented all 15 photos that each 5 participants categorized from
most stressful to least stress in the local community category.
Part B: Identified which Photo ID number was identified two or more times in each category
Part C: Following the identification of each photo ID number I recorded which photo ID
numbers were selected among all five participants, four participants, three participants, and two
tow participants.
Part D: I then marked where on a scale from 1-15, 1 being the most stressful and 15 being the
least stressful, where each photo fell on the scale. For example, Photo ID number 10 may have
been selected by three participants however each participant may have ranked photo 10 at place
1, 5, and 15 respectively.

161

Part E: These numbers were then added to get another ranking and placed within 1-15 as the
most stressful stressor. After adding the numbers together, the ID numbers that had the lower
number would represent the most stressful.
Part F: If a photo was selected five times I considered that as one of the top stressors due to its
selection and all five participants also thinking that stressors were significant regardless of its
rank. The only time the photos initial rank needed to be added to figure out where it fell on the
scale is when there was the same selection of photos. For example, if there were three photos that
were selected among all five participants then I would calculate their ranks to see which out of
the five photos have the lower number. The photo with the lower number would represent the
most stressful photo out of those three.
Part G: After identifying what if any photos were selected five times I then identified the photos
selected four times, three times, and lastly two times.

162

Appendix F

Photos of Perceived urban/inner-city stressors

163

Appendix F
Photos of Perceived urban/inner-city stressors

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183

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Appendix G

Information Letter and Consent Form

230

Information Letter and
Consent Form
Title: Poor Urban Neighborhoods: The influence of stress of Black American Men
I am asking you to participate in research that will help me understand your experiences of living
in the urban neighborhoods. Based on your availability you may be asked to participate in either
the interview with photo analysis phase or focus group phase. This interview with photo analysis
or focus group involves a photo critique that will help provide information related to selected
topics.
This research is being done to: 1) better understand the individual experiences of African
American men who lived in urban communities with a focus on their homes, schools, and
community, 2) identify stressors associated with their homes, schools, and communities, 3)
determine which experiences, through photos, these men identify as most stressful, and 4)
identify themes of resilience or protective factors.
Participation is voluntary and requires your signature on this consent form. Should you agree to
participate you have the right to not respond to questions. You have the right to discontinue your
participation in this research if you feel uncomfortable at any time without consequence.
If you agree to participate, you will be one of about 15 persons. Your participation may involve
two separate sessions, an interview with photo critique or a focus group session.
Phase 1: Interview with photo critique
This session will involve 5 participants who will not be involved in Phase 2 of the focus group.
If you agree to participate in this session, you will be asked questions that allow the researcher to
better understand your experiences and exposures within the context of your home, school, and
local community in which you grew up. These questions will probe at your experiences of
household, school, and community stressors.
Following the interview, either immediately after or at another appointed time, you will be asked
to complete a photo sort task with 100+ photos that depict urban realities, which will include
sorting photos from what you believe are most stressful to least stressful influencing positive
development for young Black American Men in a poor urban context.
Time Allotted: Approximately two hours total. One hour for interview and one hour for photo
sorting.
Phase 2: Focus Group
231

Focus group: Ten additional participants, not involved in the interview with photo critique, will be
recruited to participate in the focus groups.

As a focus group participant you will complete a photo sort task that will include you and other
group participants collectively sorting photos of perceived urban stressors in three different
categories of home, school, and local community. Following this task you will be asked to
collectively sort the photos hindering the development of Black American males in poor urban
neighborhoods from most stressful to least stressful. It is important that as a group you discuss
what photos should go in each pile and rank photos from most to least stressful.
Time Allotted: Approximately two hours.
You will only be asked to participate in either the interview with photo critique session or the
focus group which will also involve the photo critique session. What you say or record during
the interview or write on the photo critique forms will not be used to identify you individually,
but will be used collectively to summarize information that is given by all participants.
Notes will also be taken during the interview as well as recorded. The notes from the interviews
or responses from the photo critique sessions will be coded to identify issues that have been
discussed. All documents collected from this research will be kept for three years and stored in a
private office that will only by accessed be me and my adviser. Additionally, the Institutional
Review Board (IRB) will have access for any auditing purposes.
What you say in the interview or in the focus group will provide important information for
research involving a better understanding of the neighborhoods people grow up in. The
information from the interview or focus group with the photo critique may also show the need
for new programs that don’t currently exist. These changes can benefit those who need help now
and assist others in the future.
There are no known risks associated with this research. The participants in this research will be
asked explain how these pictures are interpreted as stressful for urban youth, based on your lived
experiences. You will not be asked how these situations have influenced your life. However,
there is a possibility that in their descriptions of these situations, participants may share lived
experiences that evoke negative memories. If any photo or question causes you any stress, you
have the right to not respond or request that we move on to the next question or photo. If the
investigator perceives that these memories evoke unresolved stress, a referral to the MSU
Counseling Center will be offered.
If you have any concerns or questions about the study, you may contact Rome Meeks,
(313) 478-0634 or e-mail meeksrom@msu.edu. Dr. Francisco Villarruel (HDFS Professor,
Michigan State University, (517) 432-7298 or e-mail @ fvilla@hdfs.msu.edu) will provide
232

guidance as I complete this project. He may be in attendance at some sessions to assist me in
note taking and data analysis and interpretation.
If you have questions or concerns about your role and rights as a research participant, would like
to obtain information or offer input, or would like to register a complaint about this study you
may contact, anonymously if you wish, the Michigan State University's Human Research
Protection Program at 517-355-2180, Fax 517-423-4503, or e-mail irb@msu.edu or regular mail
at 408 W. Circle Drive, 207 Olds Hall, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824.
If you wish to be informed about the concluding results of the research findings that fulfill the
requirements of my master’s thesis, a research article will likely be written about the findings. If
you wish to have a summary of the findings and/or any articles published from this research,
please indicate below and these will be forwarded to you.

o I would like to receive articles or other publications related to this research
o I would like to receive a summary of this research when it is completed
Thanks,
Rome D. Meeks
Participant’s Voluntary Consent
I have read the information provided above and understand this information. I voluntarily agree
to take part in this study.
______________________________
Signature of Participant

_____________
Date

________________________________
Printed Name of Participant
________________________________________________
Signature for agreeing to have notes taken or recorded

____________
Date

_________________________________________________
Printed name for agreeing to have notes taken or recorded
________________________________________________
Signature of the Research Team Member Obtaining Consent
_______________________________________________
Printed Name of the Research Team Member Obtaining Consent

233

_____________
Date

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234

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