THE ACADEMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS: WHAT MATTERS MOST? BY Danielle Renae Palmer A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILSOPHY School Psychology 2011   ABSTRACT THE ACADEMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS: WHAT MATTERS MOST? By Danielle Renae Palmer The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between individual risk factors, school environmental stressors/supports, and identity development and later academic and psychological functioning of African American adolescents. The model was developed using a modified version of the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory model. More specifically, this study explored the role of early experiences of teacher support and the school’s racial/ethnic context on later academic engagement and psychological outcomes of African American adolescents. The study also investigated how risk factors among this population (e.g., gender and age) and protective factors (e.g., ethnic identity) were related to teacher support and outcomes (e.g. academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behavior). Initial data analysis was performed to establish differences in outcome variables between African American and European American students in the sample. The full sample consisted of 1,518 adolescents (16.0% African American and 84.0% European American). Results indicated significant gender and ethnic group differences on measures of ethnic identity and aggressive behaviors, and significant gender differences in depression and academic engagement. In a subsample of African-American adolescents (n=243), the racial/ethnic context did not significantly predict later academic engagement, depression, or aggressive behaviors, suggesting that being in a school with a homogenous African American population or European American population was not correlated with engagement or psychological functioning. Findings did suggest,   however, that personal characteristics such as gender and age, predicted future outcomes. Students’ perceptions of teacher support, however, had the greatest effect on academic engagement and aggression. Students who perceived greater support from their teachers engaged more in school and in fewer aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, results indicated that the development of a positive ethnic identity is important for later academic engagement among this population, particularly for African American males, but it did not mediate the relationship between stressors in the school environment and student outcomes. Continued research is warranted to explore the role of school contextual factors and outcomes for African American adolescents to better support the academic achievement of this population.   Copyright by DANIELLE RENAE PALMER 2011   DEDICATION To my family, without your unconditional love and support I would not be where I am today.   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who have been instrumental in supporting me through my graduate school career and the dissertation process. I have to first and foremost give thanks to God for guiding and keeping me through this journey- through Christ ALL things are possible. Second, I would like to acknowledge my advisor, Dr. Evelyn Oka, for her support, guidance, and encouragement over the years. In addition, I appreciate her dedication to culturally relevant practice and her commitment to cultivating the same awareness in her advisees. I would also like to give a special thank you to Dr. Jodene Fine and Dr. John Carlson for their guidance in clinical practice. Their mentorship over the last few years has expanded my conceptualization of the field of School Psychology and given me the courage to extend myself beyond the traditional roles. To my dissertation committee, Dr. Jessica Barnes, Dr. Dorinda Carter Andrews, and Dr. Christopher Dunbar Jr., without your support and wisdom I would not have made it through this process. Dr. Barnes, I especially thank you for allowing me to take part in the wonderful work your lab is doing in inner city schools. Urban education is important to me and I appreciate you allowing me to pursue my passion through the use of the Coordinated Community Student Survey project. Lastly, I have to acknowledge the unwavering support of my family and friends. To my parents, William and Johnnie Palmer, sister Krystal Palmer, and grandmother Mamie Wimes, I love you and appreciate all that you have done to support me over the years- you all have been instrumental in my success. And to my dearest friends, Rachel Foster, Kourtney Purham-Belton, and Omar Perkins, I thank you for your continued encouragement, laughter, and “tough love” over the last five years- my appreciation cannot be captured by words. And to cohort members,   Anisa Goforth, Angie Maupin, and Emily Sportsman, graduate school would have been much more difficult without you there. I appreciate the bond we formed and our ability to keep each other motivated while always striving for more. And finally, to my line sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., without our late night work sessions I would not have made it through this process. Thank you all for being my rock and making the last part of my graduate school journey memorable!   TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW African American Adolescents Historical Context Adolescent Development Gender Roles and Development Males African American Males Females African American Females The School Environment Teacher Support Racial/Ethnic School Context Ethnic Identity Race and Ethnicity Phinney’s Model of Ethnic Identity Development Academic and Psychological Outcomes Academic Engagement Psychological Functioning Depression Aggressive Behaviors Current Study Research Questions and Hypotheses 8 8 8 11 16 16 17 19 20 21 22 24 28 28 29 33 33 36 36 38 39 41 CHAPTER III METHOD Participants and Setting Variables and Measures 48 50 52 CHAPTER IV RESULTS Research Question One Research Question Two Academic Engagement Aggressive Behavior Depression Mediation 55 55 58 60 60 61 61   Research Question Three Academic Engagement Aggressive Behavior Depression Mediation 63 63 63 64 64 CHAPTER V DISCUSSION Factors Predicting Later Outcomes Academic Engagement Aggressive Behavior Depression Other Considerations and Future Research Study Limitations Conclusions 67 71 72 75 77 78 83 84 APPENDICES Teacher Support Scale Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) Academic Engagement Scale Aggressive Behavior Scale Depression Scale 86 87 88 89 90 91 REFERENCES 92   LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Demographic data of students in the current study 51 Table 2. Demographic data of students by racial/ethnic school context 51 Table 3. Descriptive data by ethnicity and gender (n=1517) 57 Table 4. Descriptive data by racial/ethnic school context 58 Table 5. Descriptive data by grade 58 Table 6. Descriptive data for all African American sample (n=243) 61 Table 7. Descriptive data for African American male and female sample 64   LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Path analysis model for research question two 45 Figure 2: Path analysis model for research question three 47 Figure 3: Significant path relationships for research question two 62 Figure 4: Significant path relationships for research question three- All male sample 65 Figure 5: Significant path relationships for research question three- All female sample 66   CHAPTER I Introduction A famous autobiography shares the story of a young man in middle school, who experienced differential treatment by his teacher, which influenced his subsequent experiences with school. This young, bright African American male attended a predominately European American school and academically outperformed many of his peers. During a class discussion on career paths, this particular student indicated that he wanted to become a lawyer, and the teacher responded by saying “One of life’s needs is for us to be realistic. Don’t misunderstand me now, we are here like you, you know that…But you have to be realistic being a nigger.” (Haley & Malcolm X, 1975 p. 34). Those were the words spoken to human rights activist, Malcolm X when he was in the eighth grade. Malcolm’s recounting of this story in his autobiography marks the beginning of his loss of interest in schooling. After this experience, Malcolm stopped participating in class and neglected to complete his schoolwork. Malcolm later dropped out of school and entered a life of illegal activities, which ended in a ten-year jail sentence. Stories such as Malcolm X’s resonate with many African American youth today. Research has shown that academic failure increases the likelihood that adolescents will drop out of school and engage in criminal activity (Lochner & Moretti, 2004; Mincy, 2006). This warrants concern on behalf of African American adolescents because only about half of these students graduate from high school with their class (Greene & Forster, 2003; Kelly, 2005). This is even more pronounced for African American males who have been found to perform below not only their peers of other ethnic groups, but also their female counterparts (Garibaldi, 2009). Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to understand the factors that influence the   academic success of African American adolescents to create better academic and life outcomes for this population. Many African American youth enter school with the same motivation to learn as their peers; however this motivation is not always sustained over time (Garcia Coll & Szalacha, 2004). The school environment can play a significant role in shaping students engagement with school. In the story of Malcolm X, the school context and the lack of teacher support in particular, contributed to his later disengagement with school. Teacher support is valued among African American youth, particularly males, and has a significant influence on their academic and psychological outcomes (Nogeura, 1997). When students feel disconnected from their teachers, there is potential for negative outcomes as demonstrated in the story above; however, if teachers are perceived as caring and invested in student learning, it can serve as a potential protective factor and support learning despite other risk factors in the environment (Klem and Connell, 2003). The racial/ethnic context of the school can also contribute to whether the environmental context is experienced as being supportive or stressful for African American adolescents. Research on the racial and ethnic context of schools has found mixed effects on academic and psychological outcomes among African American youth (Card & Rothstein, 2007; Hoxby, 2000; Rivkin, 2000). Predominantly African American schools are often situated in urban communities that lack resources and highly qualified teachers (Orfield & Lee, 2005; Schellenberg, 1990). The academic culture within these schools is often one of underachievement; a predominantly minority school is five times more likely to have students not be promoted to the next grade level (Balfanz & Legters, 2004). Schools that enroll predominantly European American students, on the other hand, are more likely to be academically sound, but may present social challenges such   as perceived discrimination which can influence the academic and psychological functioning of African American adolescents (Masten, et al., 2005; Rosenbloom & Way, 2004). Both settings present unique experiences that are key to understanding the developmental outcomes of African American students across academic settings. According to researchers such as Garcia Coll and colleagues (1996), African American adolescents have a different developmental trajectory than their peers of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. When researchers are seeking to understand the outcomes of this population, it is important to examine the sociopolitical factors that place African Americans at risk for segregation and discrimination. To avoid drawing erroneous conclusions, it is imperative that African American students be compared to those who share the similar experiences of bias, segregation, and discrimination; this is done best by comparing African American adolescents to other African American adolescents who share the same developmental trajectory based on ethnicity (Garcia Coll, et al., 1996). An integral part of adolescent development is identity development. During adolescence, youth undergo tremendous physical, cognitive, and emotional growth (Erickson, 1968; Gutman, Sameroff, & Eccles, 2002). In addition, African American adolescents are faced with understanding their identity as members of an ethnic minority group (Erickson, 1968). Ethnic identity development has been found to serve as a protective factor for African American adolescents (Phinney, 1990; Sellers & Shelton, 2003). The Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) purports that minority youth outcomes are predicted by a balance between risk and protective factors that can be mediated by ethnic identity (Spencer, 1995). PVEST takes into consideration various contextual factors such as risks, stress, reactive coping mechanism, and identity development. García Coll and Spencer’s conceptual work   complement one another and reveal two important points. First, it is essential to examine within group differences to avoid erroneous conclusions about African American adolescents due to their unique developmental trajectories (García Coll et al., 1996). Second, the PVEST model illustrates how academic engagement and psychological outcomes can be related to African American adolescents’ earlier experiences of stressful environments and identity development. Both of these models focus on the importance of the environmental context in shaping the outcomes of this population and served as the theoretical frameworks for this research study. To understand the unique challenges that African American adolescents face, it is thus essential to understand the context in which development occurs. African American adolescents across diverse community and home contexts have been shown to flourish academically and psychologically (Edmonds, 1979; Garibaldi, 2009; Nogeura, 2001) when school environments are supportive, safe, and nurturing of their needs. Schools are ideally a place where all students can feel connected and thrive academically and psychologically. Middle school and high school are key contexts for development as adolescence is a time of transition and shaping of identity. It is important that educational experiences in early adolescence are positive to help students develop a healthy connection with school. This can shape their future engagement and psychological functioning, both important factors that can influence their academic achievement and post secondary goals (Johnson, Crosnoe, & Elder, 2001). Purpose of the study The purpose of the current study was to examine how school contextual features such as teacher support and student racial and ethnic demographics are related to the educational and psychological outcomes of African American adolescents. Specifically, this research examines the role of early experiences of teacher support and the school’s racial and ethnic context on later   academic engagement and psychological outcomes of African American adolescents. The study also investigates how risk factors among this population (e.g., gender and age) and protective factors (e.g., ethnic identity) are related to teacher support and educational and psychological outcomes (e.g. academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behavior). Research Questions 1. Do African American students differ in their perception of teacher support, ethnic identity, and academic and psychological outcomes in comparison to European American students? a. How do teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors vary by gender? b. How do teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors vary by school demographic context? 2. What demographic and school contextual factors predict later academic and psychological outcomes for African American adolescents? a. Does the development of a strong ethnic identity influence this relationship? b. How well do grade and gender (risk factors), teacher support and school ethnic composition (stressors/supports), and ethnic identity predict academic engagement and psychological functioning (outcomes) among African American adolescents? c. Does ethnic identity mediate the relationship between stressor/supports and adolescent outcomes?   3. Do demographic and school contextual variables differentially predict academic and psychological outcomes for African American males and females? How does ethnic identity affect the outcomes for each group? These results are intended to inform intervention and prevention programs aimed at supporting the academic development and psychological functioning of African American adolescents. This is especially important for African American males, who have been found to experience significant struggles in many areas of life, including academic, professional, and legal (Holzer, & Offner, 2006; Little, Bowers, & Gilmer 2007; Pettit & Wester, 2004). This addition to the literature can expand the field’s understanding of factors that may enhance academic and psychological functioning among African American adolescents across various school environments. The following sections provide a review of relevant literature (Chapter Two), the methods used to address the research questions (Chapter Three), the results of the data analyses (Chapter Four), and a discussion of the finding and limitations of this research study (Chapter 5). Chapter Two first reviews the historical factors that place African American adolescents at inherent risk for discrimination in American society. Second, an outline of adolescent development is provided, specifically highlighting Garcia Coll’s model of ethnic minority development and Spencer et al.’s PVEST model as the theoretical frameworks for this study. The literature review continues with an examination of the risks associated with gender and ethnicity, followed by the influence of the school context, specifically teacher support and the racial/ethnic context on outcomes. Lastly, literature on ethnic identity development as a protective factor and student outcomes, particularly academic engagement, depressive symptoms, and aggressive behavior are provided. Lastly the research questions and hypotheses are found at the end of this   chapter. Chapter Three provides an overview of the study sample, the conceptualization of each study variable, and measures used in the study. Chapter Four reports a detailed description of the research design and analyses used to answer each research question, as well as the results of the data analyses for each individual research question. Chapter Five provides an in-depth discussion of the research findings and explains convergence and/or divergence with study hypotheses and current literature. This section also explores implications for practice and future research.   CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW African American Adolescents African American adolescents have faced unrelenting challenges in American society. According to research, African American adolescents are at increased risk for many negative life outcomes, particularly poor school outcomes (O’Conner, Lewis, & Mueller, 2007). Increased academic failure, over-representation in special education, and high dropout rates are just a few of the negative outcomes that characterize the schooling experience of many African American adolescents, particularly African American males (Garibaldi, 2007). Despite these documented racial and ethnic disparities in education (McLoyd, 1998; Mickelson, 2003), African American females are generally doing well academically. African American females receive better grades, higher standardized test scores, increased graduation rates, and attend and complete college at greater rates than their male counterparts (Garibaldi, 2007; Vannerman, Hamilton, Baldwin Anderson, & Rahman, 2009). Many researchers have not explored these gender differences in achievement among African American adolescents (Fashola, 2005; Rowley, 2007). Furthermore, researchers have not attended to the unique developmental experiences of children of color, specifically how their school environment interacts with typical adolescent development and gender roles within the African American community. Analyzing outcomes without considering the developmental context of the school can lead to erroneous conclusions about this vulnerable population. Historical Context. African American adolescents have a unique developmental trajectory in comparison to their peers of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. African American adolescents come from a history of oppression, discrimination, and segregation. They are part of   what John Ogbu termed, ‘cast or involuntary minorities’ (1974). Cast minorities are minorities whose ancestors were brought to the United States against their free will as slaves, as a result of conquests or colonization, and forced to disengage from their cultural roots. This has shaped their social position in the United States and created unique experiences distinct from their European American counterparts or even other minorities who came to the United States voluntarily in search of better economic or political circumstances (e.g. Asian Americans; Ogbu, 1974). Research has found that involuntary minorities, such as African Americans, report more discrimination than other minorities such as Asian Americans and Latinos, and they are associated with negative stereotypes such as lacking intelligence and excessive delinquency (Tantum, 1997; Wong, Lai, Nagasawa, 1997). In addition, researchers have documented the coping mechanisms adopted by different minority groups. Voluntary minorities have a tendency to view discrimination as obstacles they must face for better economic and social gain. Adolescents in voluntary minority groups are socialized to believe that education is important and that hard work will pay off in the future (Ogbu, 1994). African Americans, or involuntary minorities, on the other hand, are not as trusting of the American system and do not always believe that hard work will guarantee upward social mobility. It is hypothesized that African Americans associate education and careers with European American culture and view them as unobtainable. To cope with the perceived discrimination, they often withdraw from the educational system. According to Ogbu’s theory, African American youth who engage in school are often chastised by their peers (Ogbu, 1994). In recent years, research studies have begun to contest Ogbu’s theory of ‘rejection of European American culture’ and have found that many African American adolescents do believe education is important and necessary for better life outcomes.   Subsequent researchers have found evidence that African American adolescents recognize that there is more than one way to respond to discrimination and racism in the school environment. For example, a research study focusing on six African American females found that the students were well aware of the racial and gender barriers they faced in the educational and work settings and used this as motivation to strive to achieve what others had deemed unobtainable for their ethnic group (O’Conner, 1997). In this instance, the adolescents did not shy away from education because of perceived discrimination; it was the perceived discrimination that propelled them to move forward in pursing academic success. Similarly, in a research study conducted by Carter (2009), African American adolescents in a predominately European American high school rejected the concept of academic achievement belonging to European Americans. They described feelings of empowerment and pride in their race and were able to avoid feelings of disequilibrium between their identity as an African American and their identity as a high academic achiever. In this study, African American adolescents viewed their academic success as a commitment to their ethnic group contrary to Ogbu’s claims that commitment to academic success would imply betrayal to their ethnic group. Although all African American adolescents may not be completely aware of the historical factors influencing their minority status, they are still affected by the modern day consequences of these historical events and beliefs (Krieger, Rowley, Herman, Avery, & Phillips, 1993). Despite the fact that discrimination and segregation based on race and gender are illegal today, implicit acts of discrimination and segregation are still prevalent in American society. With disproportionate amounts of African Americans living with poverty, poor schooling, limited access to healthcare, high rates of unemployment despite educational achievement, and acts of discrimination in the form of modern day racism (Mincy, 1994; Schiller, 2008; Sue, Capodilupo,   Torino, et al., 2007), it is not unlikely that the developmental trajectory of African American adolescents is affected. Adolescent Development Adolescence is a time of tremendous growth in which adolescents experience changes in their physical, emotional, and cognitive characteristics (Erickson, 1968; Lerner & Spanier, 1980; Roderick, 2005). Adolescents undergo rapid physical changes in height and weight (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). The hormonal changes underlying puberty also affect emotional and sexual development. In addition to physiological changes, adolescents are becoming more thoughtful about the world around them. They have transitioned into a stage in which they are able to think more abstractly and can begin making connections between their current experiences and future (Galazter-Levy & Cohler, 1993). They are also searching for increased autonomy from their parents resulting in greater interaction with their community, peers, and non-parental adults (e.g. teachers; Erickson, 1968; Gutman, Sameroff, & Eccles, 2002). Moreover, African American adolescents have the cognitive capacity to understand racial discrimination and stereotypes against them and have the potential to internalize negative feedback from their environment (Eccles, 1991). Consequently, the school environment becomes a particularly important socialization agent for students’ development and future outcomes. The transitions occurring during adolescence (e.g. moving between elementary to middle school and middle school to high school) can be critical points in the development of students’ academic engagement and behavioral functioning. This is an exciting and key time to learn about the influence of environmental factors on normal adolescent development. Although the basic developmental processes of adolescence (e.g. cognitive, social, and biological) are theorized to be the same across youth of various racial/ethnic backgrounds, many   important contextual factors can interact with normal developmental processes and influence the attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions of children of color (Garcia Coll, 1996). Until recently, many studies used homogenous populations, such as European American, middle class children to understand the complex nature of adolescent development (Lerner & Galambos, 1998; Fisher, Jackson, & Villarruel, 1998). Many researchers have attempted to address this gap in the literature by developing theories that account for the important cultural aspects of minority development, however they tend to approach culture from a broad perspective, depicting factors such as race, ethnicity and culture as distal influences on child development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Other researchers, such as Garcia Coll and colleagues (1996), would argue otherwise, and place factors such as race, ethnicity, and culture at the center of child development. Garcia Coll, et al. developed a model of development that specifically highlights the unique developmental trajectory of minority youth. This integrative model helps researchers situate child development in context and understand the experiences of children of color, and specifically for this study, African American adolescents. As previously outlined, the history of African Americans in the U.S. provides a unique context of development that cannot be overlooked when studying their developmental outcomes. Describing the influence of race/ethnicity as a distal variable does not portray an accurate understanding of the inherent risk factors African American adolescents are susceptible to. Therefore, when developmental theories fail to situate minority child development in an understanding of racism, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, and segregation, they portray an incomplete picture of their experiences. This limited understanding undermines the validity of interventions and policies set in place to enhance the development of this at-risk population.   Garcia Coll and colleagues’ (1996) framework highlights the sociopolitical factors that influence the daily experiences of African American adolescents. This theoretical framework extends the work of various developmental frameworks by highlighting factors salient to children of color. More specifically, the model identifies eight constructs that are said to influence minority child development. The first construct, social position, includes characteristics that are often related to discrimination among minorities (e.g. race, ethnicity, and gender). It is hypothesized that these variables lead to various forms of oppression, such as discrimination, racism, and prejudice (Construct 2). These oppressive factors are proposed to mediate the effects of one’s social position in society, creating segregated environments for minority children of color (Construct 3). As African American families are subjected to residential, economic, and/or social/psychological segregation, they can experience either prohibiting or inhibiting environments such as the school, neighborhood, or health care system that influence their experiences in these contexts (Construct 4). This is particularly important for studying the academic and psychological outcomes of African American adolescents. Understanding factors within their school context that can foster or prevent their growth is an important step to understanding their outcomes. Furthermore, it helps researchers understand how these factors create adaptive lifestyles (Construct 5) that help African American adolescents deal with their experiences across various environments. Garcia Coll and colleagues surmise that the adaptive lifestyles are in response to both the historical and present day experiences of African Americans. This lifestyle interacts with individual child characteristics such as temperament and age (Construct 6) as well as family dynamics, such as family values and beliefs, member roles, and racial socialization (Construct 7). All of these factors contribute to the   developmental competencies observed in African American adolescents such as their cognitive, emotional, and social development (Construct 8). It is important that developmental theories highlight the unique experiences of minority children when attempting to understand their academic and psychological outcomes. Important factors such as ethnicity and the contexts of their daily experiences help prevent the misinterpretation of behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that may be reflective of the culture of African American adolescents (Padilla, 1995). It is important to gain an accurate and valid assessment of their development and developmental outcomes. Instead of comparing African American adolescents to their European American peers as a model of standard development, it is important to understand the normative development of African American adolescents. Research highlighting within group differences across gender, developmental stages, and school contexts can explain shared group experiences and differences that can potentially lead to positive or negative outcomes for this particular group of students (Garcia Coll, et al., 1996). The Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (Spencer, 1995, 1999; PVEST). PVEST is an extension of Bronfenbrenner’s respected Ecological Systems Theory of Development (1992). Bronfenbrenner purported that youth develop in systems that influence their development (1992). The PVEST extends Bronfenbrenner’s work by creating an identityfocused cultural ecological perspective in which the experiences of the youth are studied within the context in which they develop (Spencer, 2001). It provides insight into how environmental stressors in the community, home and/or school environment influence outcomes. More specifically the model facilitates the understanding of mediating variables that influence the relationship between environmental stressors due to inherent risk factors and adolescent outcomes.   Similar to Garcia Coll and colleagues’ theory, PVEST purports that normative developmental processes for minority youth are complicated by characteristics that place them at risk for stereotype and bias (e.g. race/ethnicity, SES, gender). These risk factors increase the level of stress African American adolescents face across various contexts such as home, school, and community. The model emphasizes the importance of the development of coping mechanisms that African American adolescents develop to deal with the stressful circumstances they encounter across environments. Adolescents typically develop maladaptive or adaptive reactive coping mechanisms in response to different situations that are considered temporary ways to solve problems. In addition, adolescents develop a more stable reactive coping mechanism such as identity development, a key component of this model. It is believed that these stable coping mechanisms reflect how adolescents will react to similar stressful situations in the future. This study was interested in the stable coping mechanisms developed by adolescents, particularly their ethnic identity, which may be key in the development of African American adolescents. Research suggests that African American adolescents who recognize the potential for discrimination based on their ethnicity, yet maintain a strong sense of pride and belonging to their ethnic heritage are less likely to be affected by discrimination in the school environment (Phinney, 1990; Sellers & Shelton, 2003). Ethnic identity may be one factor that serves to mediate the relationship between academic environmental stressors and academic and psychological outcomes. However, the factors that promote success in African American adolescents have been understudied. Both theoretical models presented by Garcia Coll and colleagues as well as Spencer are useful for this study. Garcia Coll’s model of development provides a lens for understanding   development of African American adolescents. Spencer’s work complements this theoretical framework and supports the need to understand how risk factors, such as age and gender influence the amount of stress African American adolescents experience across environments, in this case the school environment, and the stable coping mechanisms they develop in response to their experiences. The PVEST model complements Garcia Coll’s view which recognizes the importance of race/ethnicity, discrimination, and social position to understanding the complex development and outcomes of African American adolescents. A modified version of the PVEST model will be utilized in this study to determine the relation of risk factors (grade and gender) and stressors/supports in the school (teacher support and racial/ethnic school context) to later academic and psychological outcomes (academic engagement, aggressive behaviors, and depression) among African American adolescents. In addition, stable coping mechanisms (ethnic identity) will be studied as a mediator between stressors/supports and outcome variables. Gender Roles and Development Adolescents define themselves in society within specific cultural, ethnic, religious, and political contexts. With these contexts come specific gender roles. Gender is a socially constructed term that specifies stereotypes and expectations based on roles relating to masculinity and femininity (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). There are specific behaviors, attitudes, temperaments, speech patterns, style of dress, hairstyles, etc. that are expected of males and females in society, and these expectations typically vary according to ethnic group membership (Bailey, Campbell, Clewell, Garbarino, Hersch, Kimmel…Thorne, 2001). As adolescents develop, they are faced with the pressure of acting in a manner that corresponds to their specified gender role according to greater society as well as gender roles within their own ethnic group (Spencer, 2001).   Males. Children are typically aware of gender and can categorize people based on their gender as early as 27-30 months (Zosuls, Greulich, Haddad, Ruble, & Tamis-LeMonda, 2006). In addition, they become aware of behaviors, temperaments, and other’s expectations of them based on their gender by the age of 2 (Ruble & Martin, 1996). This is important to note because as children develop, they are pressured to adhere to the socially constructed roles specified by their cultural and gender group membership. Males are expected to play with certain toys such as cars, trucks, and action figures and not others (e.g., dolls, dress-up, or tea parties). These activities are viewed as “feminine” and inappropriate for young boys developing into men. Other gender-based stereotypes include behavior; boys are expected to be more aggressive, strong, and fast than girls (Giles & Heyman, 2005; Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). Gender distinctions created at early ages continue into adolescence as boys begin to internalize certain activities, behaviors, and temperaments into their developing identity. For example, research has noted that academic achievement has been considered a feminine characteristic (Hudley & Graham, 2001; Isom, 2007) One research study asked African American and Hispanic adolescents to match pictures of male and female students of various ethnic groups to descriptions of students who had varying levels of academic engagement. Researchers found that more often than not, adolescents from both groups matched ethnic minority students to scenarios of students with low academic engagement and female students and European American students to scenarios describing high academic engagement (Hudley & Graham, 2001). This study shows that not only may gender have a direct influence on youth’s academic engagement with school, but ethnicity coupled with gender may place students at increased risk for academic engagement. This is particularly important for African American males as they face expectations and stereotypes based on their   gender and their ethnicity, placing them at increased risk for low academic engagement and psychological functioning. African American males. African American adolescent males have been associated with many negative stereotypes such as being aggressive, hyperactive, and socially deviant (Barbarin & Soler, 1993). In addition, the traditional ‘male dominance’ social position has not rung true for this population in that their historical status in larger society has been one replete of educational, economic, and political inequality in comparison to their European American counterparts (Majors & Billings, 1992). This is disheartening because for men of any race, an expected gender role is to be the provider and care taker of the family. This can be an immensely frustrating and daunting task for African American men who perceive their access to the necessary resources (e.g. quality education, college, career, etc) as minimal. Therefore, over time African American males have developed certain ‘masculine’ characteristics that aid in protecting the male ego from the marginalization and disenfranchisement experienced in the past and present (Kunjufu, 1985; Majors & Billings, 1992). ‘Cool Pose’, as coined by Majors and Billings (1992), represents the emotionless and fearless facade worn by many African American males. Masking can be dated back to slavery as a means to regain power, toughness, and style in environments in which their manhood was stripped. This ‘tough’ image is seen frequently in African American adolescents. This ritualized expression of masculinity involves “speech, style, and physical and emotional posturing” that is used to portray strength and control as a response to perceived and/or anticipated racial discrimination (Majors & Billings, 1992). African American males display a type of “coolness” that perpetuates the stereotypes associated with being black males. Their behavior, under the guise of being cool, causes emotional detachment, social numbing, and problems with school (Cose, 2002; Ogbu, 2003). The ‘cool pose’ attitude adopted by many   African American males conflict with the social and cultural norms of the school environment and influences their ability to function in school and larger society. The language associated with coolness (e.g. slang), the style of dress (e.g. sagging pants), the nonchalant attitude (e.g. don’t care if get put out of class), and their aggressive and defensive behavior style (e.g. arguing and/or fighting with students and teachers) can create more detachment from mainstream society and make it difficult to cross cultural boundaries. African American females, on the other hand, do not share the same roles and expectations of their male counterparts. Nevertheless, they have their own barriers to equality that could influence their academic engagement. Females. As previously noted, children develop gender-based knowledge and categorization at a very early age. Research has shown that girls, in particular, are aware of gender-based stereotypes earlier than males (Serbin, Poulin-Dobois, Colburne, Sen, & Eichstedt, 2001), yet become more flexible with their adherence to stereotypes as they grow older (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006; Whitley, 1997). Since early childhood, females are exposed to stereotypes that can restrict their play to certain toys (e.g. dolls), temperaments (e.g. nice and caring), and household roles (e.g. nurturer and homemaker). Although females are traditionally seen as more passive, dependent, and fragile than males, they are less rigid in their adherence to these stereotypical roles and are less resistant to breaking gender barriers than males (Henshaw, Kelly, & Gratton, 1992; Miller & Budd, 1999; Whitley, 1997). For instance, in school, females are expected to be good at subjects such as English and writing, but not at other subjects such as math and science (Eccles, 1989). In a crosssectional study of fourth, sixth, and eighth grade boys and girls, Rowley and colleagues found that girls reported being better than boys in reading and writing as well as math and science. Males, however, were more rigid in reporting gender stereotypes and endorsed girls as being   better at English and writing and boys at math and science. These stereotypes were typically more significant for students in later grades (Rowley, 2007). As girls develop in adolescence, they are more able to incorporate non-traditional feminine roles into their identity more readily than their male counterparts. This inherent gender difference is beneficial in that women have traditionally been discriminated against and deemed less intelligent than their male counterparts. Females have historically experienced discrimination based on their gender. This discrimination has been largely noted in the workforce. It was not until the turn of the 20th century that women were allowed to join the workforce and have since continued to receive less pay in comparison to males when performing certain careers (Walker, 1971). As young adolescent females construct their identity, the perpetuation of stereotypes can influence their self-assessments of certain skills or their ability to pursue certain careers. Because females are less likely than males to adhere to gender barriers, more and more young girls have shown an interest and achievement in traditionally “masculine” subjects and careers such as science and engineering (AAUW, 2009). However, it is important to understand the gender stereotypes in larger society as they may influence some adolescent girls’ academic engagement in certain subjects or their aspirations for future careers. African American females. African American females are members of at least two minority groups, African American and female, that have a history of inequality and discrimination in society. Their membership in each group alone, would appear to place them at greater risk for discrimination, however, when taken collectively, they fare better than their male counterparts. As a developing woman, African American adolescent girls are subjected to gender-based stereotypes that imply they are less intelligent than males in particular subjects and are not qualified to pursue certain careers. In addition, based on their ethnicity they are also   deemed academically and professionally inferior and are susceptible to discrimination in the workforce. Despite the double-quandary African American females face, they are doing well in various aspects of life, particularly in education compared to their male counterparts. African American females have higher graduation rates, college entrance rates, as well as college completion and workforce entry than their male counterparts (Garibaldi , 2007; Irving & Hudley, 2008). Both African American males and females face unique challenges due to their membership in their ethnic and gender categories, however African American females may potentially perceive their experiences differently than African American males. The difference in perception could influence the academic and psychological outcomes of this population, resulting in the observed gender gap in achievement among African American adolescents. It is important to understand how environmental factors are related to the educational and psychological outcomes of African American adolescents. The School Environment Developmental theorists would say that the home, school, and community have a significant influence on the way in which children come to understand the world (Bronfenbrenner, 1992; Garcia Coll, et al., 1996; Spencer, 1997). Outside of the home environment, the school is a place where adolescents spend the majority of their time (Garcia Coll & Szalacha, 2004). It becomes a powerful socialization agent during adolescence that can influence the manner in which adolescents come to understand themselves as well as their future opportunities. This is particularly true in that adolescence is a time at which youth are expanding their autonomy beyond the home environment, and relying heavily on their relationships with peers and non-parental adults for guidance in their search for their identity (Buchanan, Eccles, & Becker, 1999; Steinberg, 1990). Therefore, the school environment is vital in developing   student’s self-understanding and identity and in turn, their academic and psychological outcomes. Research has found that students, particularly African American adolescents’, perceptions of their environment influence their desire to engage in those environments (Klem, & Connell, 2004; Ogbu & Simmons, 1998). For example, in a study of African American adolescents, researchers found that students who reported both general senses of ethnic/racial discrimination in their environment as well as personal accounts of discrimination reported lower academic engagement (Dotterer, McHale, & Crouter, 2009; Smalls, White, Chavous, & Sellers, 2007). Identifying contextual factors that predict the academic and psychological outcomes of African American can be beneficial for increasing the performance of this population. Teacher Support. The relationship between student and teacher has been found to have a significant impact on students’ goals, engagement, and achievement in school (Pianta, 1999; Ryan & Patrick, 2001). A cross-sectional study by Baker (2003) found that a quality teacherstudent relationship predicted both behavioral and academic outcomes for students regardless of grade or gender. The teacher-student relationship was found to be a protective factor for students with significant learning difficulties by mediating the relationship between learning disability and behavioral and/or social outcomes. This study highlights the benefits of the teacher-student relationship for elementary-aged students and should continue to be studied as students advance through school, as this relationship often declines as students transition to middle school and high school (Furrer and Skinner, 2003; Lynch & Cicchetti, 1997). Research on effective schooling for African American adolescents, specifically, has documented the teacher-student relationship as a key factor in academic success (Klem, & Connell, 2004; Murphy & Hallinger, 1985; Nogeura, 2003). One aspect of teacher-student relationship is perceived teacher support (Ang, 2005; Alexander, Entwisle, & Rabbani, 2001).   Research has documented gender and racial differences in the support teachers provide in the school environment as well as in students’ perceptions of teacher support and the influence it has on student engagement and achievement. A particular research study found that as adolescents began to develop their identity, teachers’ lowered expectations for their academic and behavioral performance negatively impacted their attitude towards school. Teachers were found to expect males to engage in more aggressive behaviors and struggle academically in comparison to females in their classroom. These findings were true despite similar academic performance among boys and girls in the classroom (Ross & Jackson, 1991). A longitudinal study conducted with African American youth transitioning from middle school to high school found that teacher expectations and treatment of students was influential in the academic and behavioral outcomes of the students. This longitudinal study found that ninth grade teachers rated African American males’ ability lower than their eighth grade teachers rated them the previous year; the same pattern was not noted for females (Roderick, Chiong, & DaCosta, K, 1998). African American boys tend to grow and develop faster than their European American peers. Their taller and heavier stature can disadvantage them in certain environments, as they may be perceived as more threatening (Spencer, Dobbs & Swanson, 1988). A study conducted in 2003 found that European American teachers working in an urban school district feared African American males as early as kindergarten (Lewis, 2003). This discrimination based on ethnicity and gender can influence their ability to interact in various environments as well as their feelings of connectedness to the school. A qualitative analysis of African American male students’ academic engagement and performance in high school categorized respondents into categories such as “withdrawers” and “the disengaged”. The researchers found that both the students who withdrew from the school environment and were less engaged from learning reported that high   school was different from their previous schooling experiences; more specifically their relationship with their teachers was significantly different. They stated their teachers did not support them and were no longer nice people who cared about their success or regarded their education as important. A profile of a particular male student found that the student failed the class of the teacher he rated as uncaring and unsupportive and passed the class of the teacher he felt was invested in his education (Roderick et al., 1998). As adolescents get older, particularly as adolescent males get older, and transition to high school, the change in structure and social climate of high school can result in less perceived teacher support and can be detrimental to the students’ engagement in school. This presents an added risk for an already “at-risk” population. When teachers are perceived as uncaring and unsupportive, it can influence students’ desire to learn (Metlife, 2000; Noguera, 2001). This is problematic for African American students in that many lack trust in their teachers and often do not feel supported. An annual survey conducted by MetLife (2000) found that 39% of the participating students endorsed little to no trust (“only a little or not at all”) in their teachers. Minority students in particular had the least amount of trust in their teachers with 47% endorsing ‘little to no trust’. The influence of teacher support has also been documented as important for female students (Hubbard & Datnow, 2005); however most of the research on teacher support has emphasized the importance for male students. Although many students will continue to excel despite their faith in teachers or perceptions of teacher support, research suggests that this is an area worth further investigation. It is particularly important to understand how different individual factors, such as gender and age, may relate to teacher support and students’ engagement with school.   Racial/Ethnic Context. Another important environmental variable that influences the academic outcomes of African American students is the school environment. After the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education desegregated American schools, African American students had the opportunity to attend schools in which they could constitute the racial/ethnic majority or the racial/ethnic minority (Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2009). Research on school racial/ethnic context has found that the racial/ethnic context of the school has been linked to academic failure, less qualified teachers, and school dropout (Orfield & Lee, 2005) and can influence adolescent’s social relationships as well as their ethnic identity development (Sigelman, Bledsoe, Welch, & Combs, 1996). In a study seeking to understand the influence of the ethnic-racial context on academic outcomes, engagement, and school attachment, researchers found that students expressed greater attachment to school as well as their engagement when they attended schools in which their ethnic/racial group was the majority at that school. The researchers recommended that the field continue to seek a better understanding of the influence of the ethnic/racial make-up of the school and how it may relate to many student outcomes (Jackson, Crosnoe, & Elder, 2001). Few studies, however, have looked specifically at how African American adolescents across schools with high or low percentages of African American students differ in academic engagement and psychological outcomes. The experiences African Americans have in the school environment can influence their perception of self and indirectly, their desire to be academically engaged. The racial/ethnic composition of schools can have a profound effect on the manner in which African American adolescents engage with school. When there is a diverse student population and many African American adolescents are engaged with school, race, gender, and education can align with one another and academic engagement may be an acceptable part of identity.   In contrast, when there is a high concentration of African American adolescents who are low performers, in special education, or suspended, racial and gender identity may be out of sync with academic engagement, causing those African American males who do engage with school to be labeled as socially deviant (Marques, Abrams, Paez, & Martinez-Taboada, 1998; Mickelson & Valesco, 2006; Ogbu, 2003). A research study looking at the gender and ethnic composition of elementary classrooms found that African American students performed worse when they were in a classroom that was predominately African American (Hoxby, 2000). Adolescents are at a point in their lives where peer acceptance is central to their identity development. If peers in their academic environment are disengaged with school, this may serve as their model for appropriate behavior and they may adopt similar goals and values (Ainsworth, 2002). It is important for researchers to understand the influence of racial/ethnic context on adolescent behavior and outcomes, as this is a crucial developmental time. Research has reported that although African American adolescents attending predominately European American schools tend to have more resources and higher social economic status, they continue to struggle academically. Students attending schools in which they represent the ethnic minority still perform below their peers and are typically tracked into lower academic tracks (Tantum, 1997). In addition, African American adolescents may experience more microaggressions, or subtle forms of racism (Sue, Capodilupo, Torino, et al., 2007) in the community and school, also influencing their academic and psychological outcomes. In a predominately European American suburban school district, African American males’ daily experiences with microaggressions (e.g. being bullied, viewed as less intelligent, etc.) were negatively related to academic motivation, achievement, and psychological functioning. The more microaggressions were perceived by the males in the school environment,   the lower their academic motivation and the greater their behavior problems (Smalls, European American, Chavous, & Sellers, 2007). In addition, increased exposure to perceived discrimination in the school environment has resulted in depressive symptoms for African American adolescents (Lambert, Herman, Bynum, & Ialongo, 2009). The scant research literature on the ethnic composition of schools has found mixed results when African American students are educated in predominately European American school environments (Schofield, 1995). For example, Rivkin (2000) found that school environments with a large proportion of European American students did not increase the academic achievement of African American students. In the same regard, another research study concluded that racial/ethnic composition of the school environment did not influence the academic achievement of African American adolescents in the school (Card & Rothstein, 2007). These findings are in opposition to the findings previously stating that higher concentrations of African American students in the school can negatively influence achievement and motivation (Hoxby, 2000). The mixed findings reported in the literature could be a result of the manner in which achievement is measured across the research studies, as well as the grade of participants (Hanushek, Eric, & Rivkin, 2009). More research is clearly needed to understand the influence of the racial/ethnic context of the school. Because adolescence is a key developmental period, understanding how the school environment may relate to students’ identity development may also inform interventions that support the academic and psychological outcomes of this population. Academic outcome data on African American adolescents may be missing contextual factors that influence the observed outcomes of this population. By studying the racial/ethnic context of schools, stakeholders may be better able to understand the development of African American adolescents across   environments, placing them in a better position to support the needs of all African American students. Ethnic Identity Race and Ethnicity. The terms race and ethnicity are often used interchangeably, however it is argued that the terms are not synonymous (Jones, 1997). Race is a socially constructed term that indicates shared physical characteristics of a group, such as their skin color or facial features (Cokley, 2007). Ethnicity, on the other hand, extends the definition beyond physical characteristics and includes common ancestry and shared traditions, values, beliefs, and values as a group of people (Cokley, 1997; Phinney, 1996). The debate in the literature on the differences and similarities between the terms racial identity and ethnic identity vary by discipline. From a sociological and counseling psychology perspective, the terms are distinct and racial identity is a more appropriate measure of the experiences of African American adolescents. Race-specific measures such as the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS; Helms & Parham, 1996), Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS; Vandiver, et al., 2002), and the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI; Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998) have been used throughout the research literature to measure the identity development of African American adolescents. According to this view, researchers who seek to understand the construction of identity as a result of racial discrimination and prejudice should use measures of racial identity; while researchers who seek to understand how identity is constructed in relation to cultural beliefs and values should use measures of ethnic identity (Cokley, 2007). In contrast, developmental researchers would argue for a broader conceptualization of ethnicity to include racial characteristics (Smedley & Smedley, 2005). Phinney (1996) and   Quintana, et al (2006) use a socially constructed conceptualization of ethnicity because the historical and cultural shared history of a group of people include biophysical traits in which they are categorized (Phinney, 1996). This is important for the scope of this study, in that African American adolescents are often discriminated against based on their membership in a group of people who are assumed to share the same historical and cultural traditions. In addition, even if African American adolescents are not aware of the historical events of their ethnic group, they still experience the present day treatment as a result. Race is simply an endorsement of their physical skin color. Understanding African American adolescents’ ethnic identity captures the shared beliefs, behaviors and practices they are committed to based on their membership in their group (Garcia Coll, 1996). The inconsistency in the literature has failed to demonstrate a difference in the terms in everyday life (Pahl & Way, 2006). Research using either measures of racial or ethnic identity have found similar findings in relation to academic and behavioral outcomes for African American adolescents, suggesting that using either measure of identity development is appropriate for research on African American adolescents. In addition, however, ethnic identity views the construction of identity through a developmental lens, which is consistent with the goal of this research. Phinney’s Model of Ethnic Identity Development. Ethnic identity refers to one’s sense of ethnic group membership. More specifically, it includes their self-labeling, sense of belonging, positive evaluation of their ethnic group, and their ethnic knowledge and involvement in ethnic group activities (Phinney, 1990, 1996). Adolescence is an important time for ethnic identity development (Erickson, 1968). In conjunction with natural adolescent development, ethnic minority adolescents are also trying to understand what it means to be a person of color in society. The feedback that African American adolescents receive from their developmental   contexts can influence their attitudes and behaviors and be assimilated into their identity (Corbin, & Pruitt, 1999). Ethnic identity, as conceptualized by Phinney (1989), is a three-stage model of identity development in which there is a progression from a period of exploration to an achieved or committed attitude. This model of ethnic identity is based on Erickson’s (1968) and Marcia’s (1966, 1980) model of ego identification theory. Erickson purported that during adolescence youth go through a period of trying to understand who they are and how they fit into the larger world; their identity is achieved once they have gone through a period of exploration and experimentation. Marcia, who extended Erickson’s theory, states that this exploration period can lead to four ego identity statuses, diffused, foreclosed, moratorium, and achieved, that represent the level of exploration in which the individual is engaged. Phinney’s model of ethnic identity typically begins in adolescence and is characterized as no interest in ethnicity, a preference for the dominant culture, or positive ethnic attitudes passed down by parents. In this stage, adolescents are beginning to explore their role and think about issues of race and identity for themselves. Phinney and Tarver found that ethnic identity exploration could begin as early as late middle school (1988). One third of the African American adolescent participants in their study, particularly African American females, began to think about how their ethnicity would influence their futures. As they begin to explore their ethnic background, they enter into the second stage of Phinney’s model in which they are either very proactive in learning about their own race or they encounter significant experiences that cause them to become aware of their own race. For students in communities in which they represent the ethnic minority, ethnic identity exploration can be activated in early middle school due to encounters racial/ethnic discrimination (Tantum,   1992). Because ethnicity is more salient in these environments, ethnic identity exploration is initiated earlier. Phinney & Rosenthal (1992) suggest that ethnic identity varies as a function of ethnic composition of the environment. A study focusing on the ethnic concentration of Native Americans in a school environment found that the more Native Americans there were in the environment, the greater the ethnic identity exploration and commitment they reported, compared to their Native American peers in predominately European American high schools (Lysne & Levy, 1997). This may be different for African American adolescents in that discrimination based on ethnicity differs between African American and Native Americans. Being the minority in a school in which your ethnicity is negatively reflected could increase the experiences of discrimination and the manner of discrimination (Rosenbloom & Way, 2004) resulting in greater exploration for African American adolescents in environments in which they represent the minority. Because the school environment is an important socialization setting, it is important to examine the relationship between ethnic identity and school composition among African American adolescents. The final stage of ethnic identity is the achievement, or internalization of one’s ethnic identity. Adolescents can come to a positive resolution, in which they come to understand the differences between their culture and the dominant culture and accept these differences. For minorities who are from disfavored minority groups in larger society, it is important that they develop a bicultural identity, or as W.E.B. Du Bois coined, a double consciousness, to demonstrate their competence in society and their own ethnic group (Du Bois, 1903; Spencer, Swanson, & Cunningham, 1991). Research has found that having an established, positive ethnic identity can serve as a buffer for negative experiences adolescents encounter in the school and community based on their ethnic group membership (Guzman, Santiago-Rivera, & Hasse, 2005;   Phelps, Taylor, & Gerard, 2001). According to the research literature, adolescent outcomes are based on a balance between risks and protective factors in an adolescent’s life (Jessor, Van Den Bos, Vanderryn, Costa, & Turbin,1995; Wong et al, 2003). The inherent risks associated with African American adolescents coupled with the treatment they experience in the school context can influence their development. The development of a positive ethnic identity can serve as a protective factor that may attenuate some of the negative outcomes associated with low teacher support and being an ethnic minority in a school environment. Because adolescence is a time of development and self-discovery, negative experiences in the school environment can influence their engagement with school and their psychological functioning. Although students can feel disconnected from the school environment based on the lack of support they receive from their teachers or the school context, their sense of belonging to their ethnic group may buffer the disconnect that they feel in the school (Cross, 1991; Phinney, 1996). Wong & colleagues (2003) investigated the effects of peer and teacher discrimination on the academic and psychological well being of African American adolescents in the seventh grade and again at the end of eighth grade. The researchers were also interested in whether ethnic identity may serve as a protective factor against discrimination in the school environment. It was found that teacher and peer discrimination had a negative effect on school achievement, motivation, and psychological resiliency. On the other hand, it was found that as ethnic identity increased, the effects of discrimination on academic and psychological outcomes decreased. Similar results were found in a three-year longitudinal study with African American, Latino, and Asian American high school students (Greene, Way, & Pahl, 2006). African American students reported steeper increases in their perceptions of teacher and peer discrimination over time in comparison to Latino and Asian American youth, which led to   increased depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem. However, high ethnic identity affirmation resulted in smaller decreases in psychological well-being over time. In addition, the researchers found that older adolescents reported more discrimination than younger adolescents. This is not surprising in that older adolescents have higher functioning cognitive skills, making them more aware of their environment and potentially more sensitive to discrimination. This is important to acknowledge because as adolescents are transitioning from middle school to high school and forming their identities, increased perceptions of discrimination and less support from teachers can lead to negative attitudes towards school and in turn become a part of their self identity. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationships between school environmental factors and their relationship to ethnic identity, as it may play a key role in academic and psychological outcomes for African American adolescents. Academic and Psychological Outcomes When understanding the academic performance of students, it is important to not simply look at single measures of academic achievement such as GPA or standardized test scores, but also to examine influential factors such as a student’s level of academic engagement as well as their psychological functioning. Academic engagement has been found to increase academic achievement and decrease student boredom and dropout rates in urban cities (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2004). Few research studies, if any, have explored this variable in relation to ethnic identity. In addition, little research has examined within-group differences between African American adolescent males and females to determine if levels of academic engagement perhaps contribute to the disparities in academic outcomes observed amongst this population. Research in related areas, such as the academic motivation literature, has found   gender differences in male and female motivation towards school, suggesting potential gender differences in academic engagement as well. Academic Engagement. As previously stated, African American adolescents can face many challenges in the school environment. These stressors within the school, such as lack of teacher support or being in the ethnic minority or majority of your school can influence the manner in which African American adolescents engage with school. Traditionally, many researchers believed that African American adolescents had a negative attitude towards school and did not value school, resulting in poor academic engagement and achievement (Ogbu, 2003). However, researchers have found that African American adolescents do recognize the importance of school and believe that it is important for their future. For example, in a mixedmethods study with African American adolescents, researchers found that having a positive racial identity, critical race consciousness, and valuing education enabled African American students to persist academically (Carter, 2008). Although the students thought that school was an important tool for upward mobility, not all students were performing well academically. This type of “attitude-achievement paradox” is often witnessed among African American adolescents. Since slavery, African Americans have understood the value of a quality education (Perry et al., 2003). However, recently researchers have begun to understand that although African American adolescents value education, their academic behaviors do not always coincide with their beliefs. Many African American students want to succeed or think it is important, but do not display behaviors that would affirm this. A study in 2001 found that many African American students endorsed ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ responses for questions addressing the importance of education and going to college, but endorsed ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ responses for questions concerning behaviors that affirmed their desires for a good education (Nogeura, 2001).   These findings illustrate an attitude-achievement paradox that characterizes African American students’ lack of engagement in school (Mickelson, 1990). Therefore, it is important to understand what factors may be contributing to students’ lack of engagement in schooling despite their belief that it is important. Understanding the predictive ability of risk factors, environmental stressors/supports in the school environment, and ethnic identity on academic engagement can help educators and other school personnel understand how to close the gap between attitude and achievement. A recent research study in a predominately European American suburban school district found that African American males’ daily experiences with microaggressions (e.g. being bullied, viewed as less intelligent, etc.) were negatively related to their academic motivation and achievement. The more microaggressions experienced by African American males in the school environment, the lower their academic engagement and the higher their behavior problems (Small, White, Chavous, & Sellers, 2007). This study mirrors the findings of John Ogbu’s wellknown study of African American adolescents in an affluent neighborhood in Shaker Heights, Ohio (Ogbu, 2003). Using an ethnographic methodology, Ogbu examined the disproportional amount of African American adolescents’ performing poorly in the school district. Students reported feelings of not belonging in the school environment, peers’ lack of interest to interact with them, and teachers’ differential treatment based on their race. These stressors in the environment led the African American students to decrease or eliminate their class participation, to enroll in less rigorous classes, and to reduce their social interaction with peers of different ethnic backgrounds. Because of the students’ discomfort and lack of teacher support, students began to disengage in school, which affected their academic performance. Disengagement from school was thus functional, a means of coping with the mistreatment based on ethnicity in their   school environment. Many researchers have challenged the work of Ogbu and suggested that African American students do not disengage from the school environment as a rejection of European American culture (Ainsworth-Darnell & Downey, 1998; Cook & Ludwig, 1998). In addition, research has found gender differences in academic engagement. Girls tend to be more engaged in schooling than their male counterparts. A recent study found that African American males endorsed behaviors associated with academic engagement as being more appropriate for girls than boys (Hudley & Graham, 2001). This could explain the achievement gap observed between African American males and females. If African American males are experiencing stressors in the school environment and believe that academic engagement is more appropriate for girls, this could be a significant contribution to their poor academic achievement. Psychological Functioning. Adolescence can be a difficult time of development in which adolescents are forging their identities and refining their understandings of who they are. This time of self-reflection can sometimes result in changes in one’s psychological functioning. Research has documented psychological trends among women and men across all ages, in which females tend to display more internalizing symptoms such as depression, while males display more externalizing symptoms such as aggression (Krames, England, & Flett, 1988; Ruble, et al., 2006; Whitley & Gridley, 1993). For African American adolescents, they are also dealing with understanding what it means to be a member of an ethnic minority group that is not, or has not been in the past, well regarded in American culture. This can become a very daunting task, coupled with experiences of discrimination within their school environment, it is not uncommon for some internalizing and externalizing symptoms to develop. Depression. There has been increased attention to the incidence of depression during adolescence. Researchers have found that 2-8% of youth experience their first depressive   episode by the age of 16 (Lewinsohn, Rhode, & Seely, 1998). This is important to consider in that depression during adolescence has been linked to academic failure, aggressive behaviors, suicidal behavior, and increased likelihood of depression during adulthood (Ebata & Petersen, 1992; Kandel, Raveis, & Davies, 1991; Rao, Hammen, & Daley, 1999). Factors within the school environment such as peer rejection and evaluation and declines in grades may influence the development of depression during adolescence (Vernberg, 1990). Few studies, if any, have looked at the relationship between teacher support and depression in African American adolescents. A factor that is particularly relevant to African American adolescents’ wellbeing is perceived discrimination. Research has shown perceived discrimination to be a precursor to poor psychological functioning, particularly depression (Wong et al., 2003). Research with adult populations and college students has found that perceived discrimination in the workplace and on college campuses was highly correlated with depressive symptoms (Amaro Russo & Johnson, 1987; Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000). More specifically, African American college students attending a predominantly European American institution reported frequent experiences with microagrressions resulting in a negative racial climate and feelings of hopelessness, despair, and sadness. This negative racial climate resulted in some students questioning their academic abilities and other students dropping out of school (Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000). It is important to understand if African American adolescents in similar settings are experiencing depression as well. Adolescence can already be a difficult time, however, being an adolescent in a context in which one is an ethnic minority can cause increased stress. Few research studies have looked at adolescent’s experiences of stress in the school environment and how this is related to their mental health (Wong, et al., 2003).   Although African American adolescents are at an increased risk for increased stress across contexts, not all experience negative mental health outcomes. One protective factor for psychological well-being identified in the research is ethnic identity. Research conducted by Phinney and colleagues found a negative correlation between ethnic identity and depression among young adolescence of various ethnic backgrounds. This means the greater the student’s ethnic identity or the more achieved their ethnic identity was, the lower their ratings of depressive symptoms (Phinney, 1999). The relative strength of the correlations led the researchers to believe that ethnic identity is one factor that contributes to the psychological well being of African American youth. Therefore, understanding other factors within the school environment that specifically contribute to positive psychological functioning is important to enhance the likelihood that students will not exhibit depressive symptoms in the school environment. Aggressive Behaviors. During adolescence, youth often exhibit poor coping mechanisms (Roderick, 2005). This lack of problem-solving skills often results in behaviors that may conflict with the expectations of the school environment. When students engage in aggressive behaviors, it is presumed that they lack the competence necessary to behave properly (Masten, et al., 2005). However, it is important to consider how the environmental factors may be contributing to students’ aggressive behavior. Much of the literature on African American adolescents and aggressive behaviors focuses specifically on African American males (Barbarin, 1993; Noguera, 2008; Pettigrew, 1979). Increased literature on African American females is warranted to understand how this population responds to stressful environments and situations. The overwhelming amount of literature focusing on African American males and aggressive behaviors could be the result of   many factors. One main factor is the inherent gender differences in male and female coping mechanisms. As previously mentioned, males are two times more likely than females to engage in aggressive behaviors (Knight, Fabes, & Higgins, 1996). Secondly, African American males typically prefer to be perceived as strong and invincible and aggressive behaviors meet the societal demands of Black masculinity (Corbin & Pruitt, II, 1999; Majors & Billings, 1992). Understanding aggressive behaviors in the school environment is increasingly important for African American youth. Research has found that African American students are three times more likely to be suspended in elementary school than their European American peers and two times more likely in high school (The Civil Rights Project/Advancement Project; Wald & Losen). Although African American students only represent 17% of the total school population, they account for 32% of the suspended students (Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002). In addition, African American students are more likely to be removed from the classroom than their peers of other ethnic backgrounds (Skiba, et al., 2002). Consequently, African American students are being singled out as engaging in behaviors that result in suspension and class removal. This is either because they are actually engaging in more acting out behaviors than their peers, or teachers’ perception of their behavior differs from that of their classmates. This is important because this differential treatment can influence the development of aggressive behaviors or exacerbate existing aggressive behaviors in African American adolescents, consequently influencing their academic performance. Current Study Adolescence is an important time of growth for youth; it can be a fragile as well as an exciting time. It is a time when they are experiencing change in many aspects of their life, particularly during early adolescence. It is an opportune time for researchers, teachers, parents,   and others to understand the experiences of this population and support their development in key environments, such as the school. The experiences of adolescents at this age can have a profound effect on their future behaviors and outcomes. For many African American students, adolescence is a time in which there is a marked decline in performance (Gutman & Midgley, 2000; Seidman, Allen, Aber, Mitchell, & Freeman, 1994), making this an even more important time to study their experiences, response to those experiences, and outcomes. In addition, research has not placed much focus on the differential experiences of male and female African American students across various contexts. Previous studies have sought to understand the development of African American adolescents in comparison to adolescents of other racial/ethnic groups. However, when comparing the outcomes of African American adolescents to their peers, researchers are not taking into account the unique developmental trajectory of African American adolescents that can be critical in understanding their outcomes. In the past, this type of comparison has led to theories of genetic and/or cultural inferiority (Harry & Anderson, 1999) that minimize the developmental experiences of African American adolescents. A research study that analyzes the role of key school contextual factors such as teacher support and racial/ethnic school context is much needed. Teacher support has been identified as an important factor for African American adolescents and more research is needed on the influence on African American females. Also, few studies have looked at the mediating effects of ethnic identity on academic and psychological outcomes when students have low perceived teacher support. If ethnic identity can mediate the effects of negative environmental factors on educational and psychological outcomes, it can provide insight for parents and schools to help increase their students’ feelings of belongingness and pride in their ethnic group. Lastly, this   study includes an important variable not often discussed, the school racial/ethnic context. As students are developing and transitioning, their social surroundings can have a significant influence on their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. The racial/ethnic context of schools can be an important variable that provides information as to why this population is struggling academically and psychologically. Understanding how high ethnic identity may mediate this relationship provides support to intervention and prevention programs aiming to support the needs of African American adolescents. The current study uses longitudinal data to understand the educational and psychological development of African American adolescents in relation to the social context of schools. Past research focused exclusively on students either in middle school or high school or relied on cross-sectional data to understand the different developmental periods. This research study aims to understand how early experiences of stress in the school environment can influence academic and psychological outcomes of this population. This will add to the needed literature investigating the unique developmental trajectory of African American adolescents. Researchers, school professionals, parents, and policy makers will benefit from this study because it provides data on how the school environment can better meet the needs of this troubled group. Research Questions and Hypotheses 1. Do African American students differ in their perception of teacher support, ethnic identity, and academic and psychological outcomes in comparison to European American students? a. How do teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors vary by gender?   b. How do teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors vary by school demographic context? Hypotheses: It is hypothesized that ethnic differences will exist in perceptions of teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, and psychological outcomes. More specifically it is hypothesized that African American adolescents will report less perceived teacher support than European American adolescents, particularly African American males (ethnicity x gender interaction). The research literature indicates that teacher support can serve as a positive influence on African American adolescents, but oftentimes African American adolescents report lower levels of teacher support, particularly African American males (MetLife, 2000). In addition, African American adolescents are expected to report higher levels of ethnic identity development than their European American peers, particularly African American adolescents in a school environment in which they represent the ethnic minority (ethnicity x racial/ethnic school context interaction). Lastly ethnic differences are predicted for in academic engagement and aggressive behavior. According to the achievement literature, African American adolescents are achieving below their European American peers. It is hypothesized that differences in academic engagement could be contributing to this gap in achievement, with African American adolescents reporting lower academic engagement in comparison to European American adolescents. In addition, poor academic achievement has been negatively correlated with aggressive behaviors; therefore it is also hypothesized that African American adolescents will have higher aggressive behavior. A gender x ethnicity x racial/ethnic school context interaction is hypothesized for both academic engagement and aggressive behaviors, in that African American males in schools in which they are the ethnic majority will report lower levels of academic engagement and increased aggressive behaviors. Lastly, it is hypothesized that   adolescent females will report more depressive symptoms in comparison to adolescent males because research suggests that females tend to express internalizing symptoms in comparison to adolescent males who tend to externalize distress in the form of aggression (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). 2. What demographic and school contextual factors predict later academic and psychological outcomes for African American adolescents? a. Does the development of a strong ethnic identity influence this relationship? b. How well do grade and gender (risk factors), teacher support and school ethnic composition (stressors/supports), and ethnic identity predict academic engagement and psychological functioning (outcomes) among African American adolescents? c. Does ethnic identity mediate the relationship between stressor/supports and adolescent outcomes? Hypotheses: For this study, the identified path relationships (see Figure 1) are based on a conceptual framework used to understand the developmental outcomes of African American adolescents, The Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (Spencer, 1995, 1999; PVEST). PVEST is an extension of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory of Development (1992). It is hypothesized that gender and grade level influence the school experiences of African American adolescents; specifically, their perception of teacher support within their school. In addition, research supports differential academic engagement based on students’ gender and grade level (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Roderick & Camnurn, 1999). Therefore, it is hypothesized that gender and grade level will significantly contribute to the variance in academic engagement. Females will have higher levels of academic engagement   and students in higher grades will have decreased academic engagement. It is also predicted that gender will predict variance in aggressive behaviors and depression for African American adolescents. It is predicted that females will report more depressive symptoms and males will report more aggressive behaviors (Hoffman, Powlishta, & White, 2004). Teacher support is hypothesized to have a positive relationship with students’ ethnic identity. In addition, it is hypothesized that ethnic identity will serve as a mediator between teacher support and academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors. Consistent with the current literature, ethnic identity may serve as a buffer, and students who experience poor teacher support may not experience negative outcomes if they have high ethnic identity. A weak ethnic identity is hypothesized to lead to lower academic engagement and/ or increased depression and aggressive behaviors among African American adolescents. School composition is also expected to relate to ethnic identity (Sigelman, Bledsoe, Welch, & Combs, 1996). Despite the mixed results of previous literature, it is predicted that African American students in a school in which they represent the minority will have higher ethnic identity scores than their African American peers in a school in which they are the ethnic majority. According to the literature, ethnic identity development is typically initiated through exposure to an event that makes your ethnicity salient. In a school in which African American adolescents are the ethnic minority, ethnicity could be considered a salient factor. It is also hypothesized that ethnic identity will mediate the relationship between school ethnic composition and academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors, as the research literature has described ethnic identity as a protective factor.   Figure 1: Path analysis model for research question two Model supported by Spencer et al. Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (1995) Risk Factors Stressors and Supports Identity Development Student Outcomes  Gender Academic Engagement Age Aggressive Behavior Teacher Support Depression School Demographics  Ethnic Identity  3. Do demographic and school contextual variables differentially predict academic and psychological outcomes for African American males and females? How does ethnic identity affect the outcomes for each group? Hypotheses: It is hypothesized that there will be a gender difference in the path coefficients between the models for the male and female students (see Figure 2). Specifically, it is hypothesized that strong relationships will exist between grade and teacher support, grade and aggressive behaviors, and ethnic identity and aggressive behaviors for the male model. For the female model, it is predicted that stronger path coefficients will exist between grade level and depression as well as ethnic identity and depression for African American females.   Figure 2: Path analysis model for research question three Model supported by Spencer et al. Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (1995) Risk Factors Stressors and Supports Identity Development Student Outcomes Academic Engagement Age Aggressive Behavior Teacher Support Depression School Demographics  Ethnic Identity   CHAPTER III Methods Data presented in this study are drawn from an on-going project conducted by the Research on Applied Developmental Science lab (ROADS) of the Outreach and Engagement unit at a Michigan State University (MSU). The Coordinated Community Student Survey Project 2 2 (C S ) is a research study under the direction of Dr. Jessica Barnes who serves as the Principal Investigator of the project. The research lab began a partnership with an Intermediate School District (ISD) in a Midwestern state and select schools across the county in 2003 to measure various outcomes (e.g. health, safety and nutrition) of students in the grades 4-12. ROADS Project Research Design. This longitudinal design aimed to address five main questions: 1) What are the needs and strengths of students across various communities? 2) What are the critical ages to begin intervention and prevention programs for various outcome variables? 3) What are the differential needs and strengths across boys and girls? 4) How do the home, community, and schools influence academic outcomes, and what are the developmental changes associated with this relationship? and 5) How does participation in support programming sponsored by the school influence academic outcomes? ROADS Project Instrument. To address these questions, the MSU research investigators and representatives from the ISD created a 208-item questionnaire entitled the Coordinated 2 2 2 2 Community Student Survey (Barnes, Almerigi, Hsu, 2005; C S ). C S is a self-report measure comprised of items from national youth surveys (e.g. Social Skills Rating Scale) and statewide st school-based surveys (e.g. Michigan 21 State-wide evaluation) that have demonstrated sound psychometric properties. In addition, this allows data collected from the county to be compared        2 2 to national or statewide norms. C S is a longitudinal design with data collected from students in the spring of each year. Data collection began in the 2004-2005 academic year in which 22,788 students in grades 3-10 were surveyed to determine the appropriateness of the measure. After year one, several changes were made to the instrument to ease administration and the efficiency 2 2 of the instrument. Currently, six waves of data have been collected. C S is offered as a webbased and paper-pencil measure. Schools can select the survey method based on their technological capabilities. Survey items are arranged into twenty-four constructs grouped into eight broad categories: Social Competence, Emotional Competence, School Engagement, School Environment, Neighborhood Environment, Home Environment, Health Behaviors, and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs. Certain constructs, such as ethnic identity, dieting behaviors, and drug use are reserved for students sixth grade and higher due to the developmental appropriateness of the content. Each year, MSU researchers compile individualized reports for each school district in ISD that participate in the project. The reports provide data about the schools’ unique strengths and needs, as well as how the student body at each school compares to the overall intermediate district. This research study utilized data collected in the spring of 2007 and the spring of 2009; years three and five of data collection. For this study, year three and year five will be considered Time 1 (year three) and Time 2 (year five). This time frame was selected because it was the years in which the least amount of attrition occurred among African American males. More specifically, data for students who were in the sixth through tenth grade at study Time 1 (spring of 2007) and seventh through twelfth grade at study Time 2 (spring of 2009) were used for data analysis.        Participants and Setting ROADS Project Participants and Setting. Participants resided in a single county in a Midwestern state. According to the 2008 American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau), the county is the residence of 428,790 people, with 14.5% of this population being youth ages 10 to 19 years old. The racial make-up of this county is 76.6% European American, 18.8% Black/African American, 0.5% Native American, 1. 0% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.5% Other, and 2.6% identifying as bi-racial (Census, 2000). The average income of this population is $56,679.00, with 12.3% of the County living below the poverty line. There were 1,518 adolescents in the current study sample. Of the total sample, 16.0% were African American adolescents (106 African American males and 137 African American females) and 84.0% of the sample was European American (544 European American males and 731 European American females; see Table 1). Of the African American sample, 69 attended a school that was predominantly European American (minority school) and 174 attended a school that was predominately African American (majority school; see Table 2). Students ranged in age from 10-17 years old at Time 1, with an average age of 13 ROADS Project Procedures. Data used for this project were collected from participants in the spring of each school year. Primary Investigators, research staff, and volunteer researchers traveled to the schools to collect the data. Data collection at each school varied depending on the method of administration and the age of the children taking the survey. For paper and pencil administration, students were distributed a survey and a pencil to complete the survey. Students were asked to complete the survey independently, and they were instructed to ask one of the research facilitators if students had a question. Similar procedures were used for students completing the survey electronically. Students completed the survey independently on the        computer and asked for assistance when needed. Researchers walked around the room ready to answer any questions by students. In addition, students were able to refuse to complete the survey at anytime during administration. If a student chose not to complete their survey, it was turned in to the researchers, placed in a separate survey stack to be placed in a confidential recycling bin back at MSU, and the student was allowed to return to class. Table 1. Demographic data of students in the current study Gender Race Total Male African American 106 European American 544 650 Female 137 731 868 Total 243 1275 1518 Table 2. Demographic data of students by racial/ethnic school context 1 Race Racial/Ethnic School Context Total African American European American Minority School 69 1259 1327 Majority School 174 16 191 Total 243 1275 1518  1 Majority School = African American student population 55% or European American/Other population  30%. Minority School= African American student population  30% or European American/Other population  55%.        Variables and Measures 2 2 The constructs analyzed in this research study were selected from the C S survey based 2 2 on the theoretical basis for the study and the research questions. In the development of the C S survey, individual items were clustered together to represent various constructs. The clusters were maintained and only those representing constructs measured in this study were included in the analysis. 2 2 Teacher Support. Teacher support was operationalized by 6 items drawn from the C S that examined the extent to which students felt their teachers cared about them, provided structure, and were easy to talk to. The items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 4=strongly agree. For example, items included the following: “There is a teacher or some other adult that really cares about me at my school” and “The teachers are fair to the students at my school.”). This scale had a reliability of .75 at Time 1 and remained the same at Time 2. Racial/Ethnic Context. The racial/ethnic context of the school was measured by the percentage of African American students in the each student’s school during the 2007-2008 school year. Using data from Great Schools, a national non-profit organization, the racial/ethnic make-up of individual schools was calculated to determine if the sample participants were a part of the majority or minority racial/ethnic group within their school environment. This has been identified as an important variable in academic and psychological outcomes for African American adolescents (Hoxby, 2000; Ogbu, 2003; Orfield, 1996). A school was identified as a “majority” school if the African American student population was 55% or greater or the        European American population/Other (Hispanic and Asian) population was 30% or less. The school was identified as a “minority” school if the African American population was 30% or less or the European American/Other population was 55% or greater (Brown & Bigler, 2002; McRary, 2000; Orfield & Eaton, 1996). Ethnic Identity. Ethnic Identity is defined as “an allegiance to a set of customs, practices, behaviors, and beliefs that define a group of people, often with a shared ancestry or location” (Phinney, 1992). Ethnic identity was operationalized by questions derived from the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney, 1992). The MEIM was originally a 14item scale that assessed raters’ affirmation and belonging to their ethnic group (affirmation); ethnic identity achievement (exploration and achievement); and ethnic behaviors (not used in this study). However, using a larger and more diverse sample size, Roberts & colleagues conducted a factor analysis that supported a two-factor model including the Affirmation/Belonging and Explorations subscales. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from .81 to .89 across ethnic groups (Roberts, Phinney, Masse, Chen, Roberts, & Romero, 1999). Roberts et al. eliminated the two questions assessing ethnic behaviors because they were difficult to interpret and a 12-item scale was used for the remainder of analyses. The same 12-item scale is utilized in this research study; See Appendix B for complete 12-item scale). The Affirmation and Belonging scale included questions such as “I have a clear sense of my ethnic group and what it means to me’ and aimed to measure the strength and importance of one’s ethnic group membership. The Exploration scale included questions such as ‘I have spent time trying to find out more about my ethnic group, such as its history, traditions, and customs’ and aimed to understand the raters’ level of exploration and commitment to their ethnic group. A composite score was derived from items rated on a four-point Likert scale (1= Strongly Disagree through 4= Strongly Agree) with high        scores indicating a strong ethnic identity. This scale had a reliability of .88 at Time 1 and .87 at Time 2. Academic Engagement. Academic Engagement was defined as behaviors exhibited by students that entail positive conduct, involvement in the learning/academic tasks, and student initiative and effort to complete learning tasks (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Finn, Pannozzo, & Voelkl, 1995). Academic engagement was operationalized by a composite score on an 11-item Likert scale (1= not at all like me through 4= a lot like me). Students rated questions such as ‘I have good study habits’ and ‘I participate/take part in class’ to assess their level of active participation in school (See Appendix C). This scale had a reliability of .81 at Time 1 and .86 at Time 2. Psychological functioning. According to Achenbach, psychological functioning can be viewed in terms of one’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors (2002). For this study, two 2 2 separate scaled scores on C S , aggressive behaviors and depression operationalized psychological functioning. Aggressive behaviors consisted of 5-items rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1=never through 4= regularly-every week or two. Students responded to questions such as “I yell at my teacher” and “I got into a physical fight with someone” (Appendix D). The reliability of this scale at Time 1 was .79 and .74 at Time 2. The depression scale consisted of 13-items also rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1= not at all through 4= a lot. Adolescents rated questions such as “I felt upset” and “I felt like I was too tired to do things.” The reliabilities for the depression scale at Time 1 and Time 2 were .86. A factor analysis revealed that these two scales mapped onto two separate constructs and therefore will be analyzed as separate measures of “psychological functioning.”        CHAPTER IV Results Question 1: Do African American students differ in their perception of teacher support, ethnic identity, and academic and psychological outcomes in comparison to European American students? a. How do teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors vary by gender? b. How do teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors vary by school demographic context? 2 2 Student responses to selected scales on the C S survey were analyzed with a four-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine if teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggression in adolescents varied by students’ grade, gender, ethnicity, and racial/ethnic school context. A four-way between subjects ANOVA was completed for each dependent variable for a total of five ANOVAs. Data were first analyzed to determine if the ANOVA assumptions were met in order for appropriate interpretation of data. The Levene’s Test of Equality of Error Variance was used to test the homogeneity of variances assumption. A significance level greater than .05 allows researchers to reject the null hypothesis that variance is not equal (Pallant, 2010). When the significance level is less than .05, a more stringent criterion for evaluating significant findings is suggested (Pallant, 2010). The Levene’s test for academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors did not have a significance value greater than .05; therefore the null hypothesis was not rejected. Given the large number of ANOVAs calculated for this question a stricter alpha level was calculated using the Bonferroni        correction method to reduce the chances of erroneously accepting results as statistically significant. An alpha of p=.01 was utilized to identify significant results. There was a significant main effect for gender on measures of depression [F(1, 1477)= 9.448, p= .002, partial eta squared=.006], academic engagement F(1, 1480)=9.014, p=.003, partial eta squared=.006], and ethnic identity F(1, 1480)= 7.763, p=.005, partial eta squared=.005], however the effect sizes were small (see Table 3). Because a post hoc analysis is only appropriate for independent variables with three or more levels (Pallant, 2010), visual inspections of graphs of the means of each independent variable on the dependent variable were analyzed to determine the directionality of significant mean differences between groups. Girls reported more depressive symptoms than their male peers, however, they also reported higher academic engagement, and ethnic identity. Gender was significant at the .05 level on measures of aggressive behaviors [F(1, 1479)= 3.74), p= .053, partial eta squared=.003] or teacher support [F(1, 1479)= 3.69, p=.055, partial eta squared=.002 ] indicating a trend for males to be more aggressive than females and for females to report more teach support than males. Two interactions were significant at the p=.05 level; gender x race on the measure of depression [F(1, 1477)= 3.95, p= .047, partial eta squared= .003] and race x gender x school context on the measure of ethnic identity [F(1, 1480)= 4.19, p=.041, partial eta squared = .003]. European American females reported the most depressive symptoms, while European American males reported the least amount of depressive symptoms. This means that European American females are experiencing more depressive symptoms than their peers of opposite gender and ethnicity. Results also indicated that females in predominantly African American schools reported the strongest ethnic identity in comparison to European American males in a school context in which their culture represented the majority.        In addition, a main effect for ethnicity was obtained on measures of aggression [F(1, 149)= 6.729, p=.010, partial eta squared=.006] and ethnic identity [F(1, 1480)= 20.904, p=.000, partial eta squared=.014.] (see Table 3). African American students reported more acts of aggression and a stronger ethnic identity than their European American peers, however the effect size was small indicating that the difference between African American and European American students may not be clinically meaningful. There no differences in teacher support [F(1, 1479)= .456, p=.500], academic engagement [1, 1480)=.242, p=.623] and depression [F(1, 1477)=.806, p=.369] between African American and European Americas. None of the dependent variables significantly differed as a function of Racial/Ethnic school context or grade level (Tables 4 and 5, respectively). This means that whether students attended a school in which they represented the minority population or the majority population, they reported similar levels of perceived teacher support, ethnic identity, academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors. In addition students’ outcomes did not differ based on their grade level. Sixth grade students reported a comparable level of ethnic identity, teacher support, aggressive behavior, depression, and academic engagement as ninth grade students. This was true across school contexts, race, and gender (no interaction effects). Table 3. Descriptive data by ethnicity and gender Ethnicity Gender African American European American Male Female Teacher Support 2.84 (.617) 3.04(.622) 2.94 (.632) 3.06(.615)* Academic Engagement 3.30 (.448) 3.30 (.557) 3.15(.582) 3.42(.477)** Depression 2.04 (.657) 2.00 (.652) 1.90 (.610) 2.09 (.675)**        Table 3 (cont’d) Aggressive Behavior 1.71 (.549) 1.46 (.487)** 1.57 (.547) 1.45 (.465)* Ethnic Identity 2.57 (.651)** 2.94 (.633) 3.06 (.615)** 2.95 (.608) * p<. 05 ** p< .01 Table 4. Descriptive data by racial/ethnic school context Racial/Ethnic Context Majority Minority Teacher Support 2.85 (.589) 3.03 (.627) Academic Engagement 3.30(.443) 3.30 (.554) Depression 2.00 (.651) 2.06 (.683) Aggressive Behavior 1.71 (.555) 1.47 (.491) Ethnic Identity 2.91 (.635) 2.60 (.653) Teacher Support 2.85 (.589) 3.03 (.627) Table 5: Descriptive data by grade Grade th th th Teacher Support 3.10 (.650) 3.019 (.599) 2.90 (.636) 2.95 (.535) 2.92 (.563) Academic Engagement 3.34(.555) 3.34(.517) 3.22(.582) 3.27(.489) 3.24(.477) Depression 1.97(.645) 1.97(.641) 2.05(.674) 2.06(.649) 2.01(.655) Aggressive Behavior 1.45(.498) 1.52(.535) 1.56(.524) 1.60(.453 1.49(.370)    9 th 7    8 th 6 10  Table 5 (cont’d) Ethnic Identity 2.68 (.662) 2.63(.693) 2.55(.626) 2.71(.585) 2.58(.675) Question 2: What demographic and school contextual factors predict later academic and psychological outcomes for African American adolescents? a. Does the development of a strong ethnic identity influence this relationship? b. How well do grade and gender (risk factors), teacher support and school ethnic composition (stressors/supports), and ethnic identity predict academic engagement and psychological functioning (outcomes) among African American adolescents? c. Does ethnic identity mediate the relationship between stressor/supports and adolescent outcomes? A path analysis using Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis was performed to determine the effect of one variable upon another in the path model (Lani, 2009). A regression beta coefficient was computed for each individual pathway to isolate the effects of each independent variable on the dependent variable. The model sought to understand whether risk factors such as age and gender directly contributed to stressor/supports in the school environment (e.g. teacher support) and their direct contribution to student outcomes. In addition, the path explored the ability of school stressor/supports (teacher support and racial/ethnic school context) to contribute to the variance in identity development (ethnic identity), as well as the direct effects on student outcomes (academic engagement, depression, and aggressive behaviors). Stressor/Support variable teacher engagement was a mediating variable between risk factors and student outcomes. The path analysis also looked at the direct contribution of identity development to        student outcome variables. Identity development was a mediating variable between school stressor/supports and student outcome variables. Significant pathways are illustrated by dashed line in Figure 3. Mediation effects were tested using a Sobel Test (Baron and Kenny, 1986; Sobel, 1982). According to the Sobel method, in order for a mediation to exist, four criteria must be met (1) a significant relationship between the predictor variable and the outcome variable, (2) a significant relationship between the predictor variable and the mediating variable, (3) the mediating variable should be significantly related to the outcome variables, (4) the addition of the mediating variable should reduce the significance of the relationship between the predictor and outcome variable (Preacher & Leonardelli, 2006; Sobel, 1982 ) Academic Engagement. Results indicate that the entire model including variables gender, age, teacher support, racial/ethnic school context, and ethnic identity accounted for 10.1% of the variance in academic engagement (p=.000). With age, African American females would be expected to have higher academic engagement compared to their male counterparts (Beta=.149; p=.016). In addition, it was noted that as African American adolescents got older, their academic engagement increased by .145 standard deviation units (Beta=.145, p=.021) Ethnic identity also significantly contributed to later academic engagement. As ethnic identity increased by one standard deviation, student’s academic engagement increased by .128 standard deviation units (Beta=.128, p=.038) The greatest predictor of academic engagement was teacher support. Based on the model, African Americans at Time 1 who reported higher levels of teacher support also reported higher levels of academic engagement at Time 2 (Beta= .211, p=.001). Aggressive Behavior. The same model was predictive of only 2.7% of the variance in later aggressive behaviors in African American adolescents (p=.043). Results indicated that gender,        age, ethnic identity, and racial/ethnic school context were not significant predictors of later aggressive behaviors (p>.05). The greatest predictor of later aggressive behavior in African American adolescents was teacher support. African American adolescents who perceived lower teacher support at Time 1 reported more aggressive behavior at Time 2 (beta=-.186, p=.001). Depression. The model, did not significantly predict depressive symptoms in later adolescence for this sample (p=.116). Only one variable was a significant predictor of later depression in African American adolescents. Results indicate that as gender increased by one standard deviation unit (males= 1, females=2), depression increased by .143 standard deviation units (beta=.143, p=.028). Age, early experiences of teacher support, school context, and ethnic identity were not significant predictors of later depression in African American adolescents (p>.05). Mediation. The hypothesized mediating factors were not supported by the analysis. The paths between the predictor variable and the mediating variable and between the mediating variable and the outcome variable were not significant. For example, there was no significant path between teacher support and ethnic identity. Table 6. Descriptive data for all African American sample (n=243) Mean (SD) Teacher Support Academic Engagement Depression Aggressive Behavior Ethnic Identity    Range 2.84 (.617) 1.0-4.0 3.25 (.462) 1.6-4.0 2.00 (.593) 1.0-4.0 1.71 (.550) 1.0-3.0 2.95 (.608) 1.0-4.0     Figure 3: Significant path relationships for research questions two2 Risk Factors Stressors and Supports  Gender Identity Development Student Outcomes  Academic Engagement    Age  Aggressive Behavior  Teacher Support Depression School Demographics  2 Dashed lines indicate significant paths.       Ethnic Identity  Question 3: Do demographic and school contextual variables differentially predict academic and psychological outcomes for African American males and females? How does ethnic identity affect the outcomes for each group? Two separate path analysis models were tested for this question using ordinary least squares regression examine the predictive validity of age, teacher support, school racial/ethnic context, and ethnic identity on academic engagement, aggressive behavior, and depressive symptoms. This model was tested separately with the sample of African American males (n=106) and with African American females (n=137). Figures 4 and 5 depict the path models with the direct and indirect effects of each variable on the outcome variables with significant predictor paths highlighted. Academic Engagement. Age, teacher support, racial/ethnic school context, and ethnic identity at Time 1 accounted for 13.1% of the variance in academic engagement at Time 2 for the all male sample (p=.001). The same model accounted for only 1.3% of the variance in academic engagement for the all female sample and was not statistically significant (p=.219). The male path model demonstrated that age (Beta=.186, p=.048), ethnic identity (Beta=.196, p=.036), and particularly teacher support (Beta= .275, p=.003) were all significant predictors of later academic engagement for African American adolescent males. This was true only for teacher support among African American adolescent females (Beta=.168, p=.052). Results showed that as teacher support increased by one standard deviation, academic engagement increased by .275 for males and .168 for females. Neither ethnic identity nor age was a significant predictor for females as it was for males. Aggressive Behaviors. The predicted path model of age, teacher support, racial/ethnic context, and ethnic identity did not significantly predict aggressive behavior for African American males        or females. This model accounted for only 2.5% of the variance in aggressive behaviors for females (p=.120) and .0.2% for males (p=.497). Individual variables such as teacher support independently predicted aggressive behaviors for females (Beta=-.208, p=.016). Depression. Age, teacher support, school racial/ethnic context, and ethnic identity did not significantly account for any variance in later depressive behaviors for African American males or females (-2.6% p=.847 and -0.3% p=.468; respectively). Results indicated that depression in later adolescence was not predicted by African American males’ or females’ age, early experiences of teacher support, their school context, or their ethnic identity. Mediation. Again mediating factors could not be analyzed, as the paths from the predictor to mediating variables were not significant in either the male or female sample. Table 7. Descriptive data for African American male and female sample African American Males (n=106) African American Females (n=137) Mean (SD) Range Mean (SD) Range Teacher Support 2.80 (.587) 1.0-4.0 2.88 (.639) 1.0-4.0 Ethnic Identity 2.89 (.690) 1.0-4.0 3.00 (.352) 1.0-4.0 Academic Engagement 3.15 (.495) 1.73-4.0 3.32 (.424) 1.64-4.0 1.66 (.505) 1.0-3.22 1.72(.566) 1.0-3.67 1.90 (.543) 1.0-3.31 2.08(.621) 1.08-3.62 Aggressive Behavior Depression        Figure 4: Significant path relationships for research questions three- All male sample Risk Factors Stressors and Supports Identity Development Student Outcomes   Age Academic Engagement   Aggressive Behavior Teacher Support Depression School Demographics       Ethnic Identity  Figure 5: Significant path relationships for research questions three- All female sample Risk Factors Stressors and Supports Identity Development Student Outcomes Age Academic Engagement   Aggressive Behavior Teacher Support Depression School Demographics       Ethnic Identity  CHAPTER V Discussion The purpose of this study was to identify factors that predict later academic and psychological outcomes for African American adolescents. Research indicates that African American adolescents are performing below other ethnic group peers in school (O’Connor, Lewis, & Mueller, 2007; Vannerman, Hamilton, Baldwin Anderson, & Rahman, 2009). This is problematic in that lower academic functioning tends to lead to poorer life outcomes (e.g. unemployment, incarceration, and increased drug/alcohol use; Clark, 2009). Adolescence is an important time of growth and an ideal time to understand how environmental factors interact with typical developmental characteristics to support or hinder later outcomes. Research that focuses on this developmental period is needed to inform practice and improve the outcomes of this specific population. Initial analyses were completed for question one to determine if academic engagement, aggressive behaviors, depressive symptoms, perceived teacher support, and ethnic identity varied across sample characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, grade, and school racial/ethnic context. Many of the findings in the preliminary analysis were consistent with current literature and this study’s hypotheses. The analysis revealed gender differences in academic engagement and depression. Adolescent females reported greater academic engagement in comparison to adolescent males. These gender differences are consistent with previous research, which indicate that females tend to have higher academic engagement than male students (Hudley & Graham, 2001). Females tend to exhibit behaviors that support learning such as participating in class, following directions, and completing schoolwork. Adolescent females reported experiencing more depressive symptoms than males. This is also consistent with findings by Wade, Cairney,    & Pevalin’s work (2002), who, observed gender gaps in depression across adolescent development. Their results indicated that gender differences in depression emerged around the age of 14 and persisted throughout the age of 17. This is important to note in that untreated depression is co-morbid with many other disorders such as anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and later major depressive disorder (Kovacs, Obrsky, & Sherrill, 2003). When the data were analyzed by ethnicity, African American adolescents were found to report higher levels of aggressive behavior than their European American peers, consistent with previous research. A substantial amount of literature has begun to document the discrepancy in aggressive behaviors between that of African American children and those of other ethnic groups (McLaughlin, Hilt, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2007; Zimmerman, Khoury, Vegas, Gill, & Warheit, 1995). It is unclear if the large discrepancy in reported aggressive behaviors is due to actual differences in the manner in which African American students behave or to teacher biases resulting in rating the behaviors of African American students more severely than their European American peers (Ferguson, 2001; Neal, McCray, Webb-Johnson, & Bridgest, 2003 ). Skiba and colleagues found that teachers were 3.78 times more likely to report African American students to the office for aggressive behaviors than their European American peers with the same or similar behaviors (Skiba, Horner, Chung, Rausch, May, & Tobin, 2011). The current study used a self-report measure of aggressive behaviors that asked participants to rate the frequency of behaviors such as yelling at teachers, yelling at peers, and physically fighting others. Many of the studies in the current literature that focus on differences in aggressive behavior among ethnic groups, such as the one mentioned above, are based on teacher report of aggressive behavior. It is interesting to find that African American adolescents are too rating themselves to be very aggressive in the school environment. The data also    indicated a trend at the .05 level towards males reporting more aggressive behaviors than females. This could indicate that African American adolescents are in fact more aggressive than their peers, and if this is the case, it is important to understand this behavior within the context of adolescent development for African American adolescents. According to Garcia Coll and colleagues, ethnic minority youth are more vulnerable to negative experiences due to their demographic characteristics (e.g. gender and ethnicity). These negative experiences can lead to adaptive lifestyles that help African America youth deal with their experiences across different environments. Given this framework, the results may reflect African American students’ beliefs of how others expect them to behave and their engagement in more aggressive behaviors. Indeed, researchers have found that African American adolescents, specifically males tend to have a more aggressive manner of interacting as a part of their male bravado (Noguera, 2008). The literature suggests that African American males use this male bravado as a reactive coping mechanism as described in the PVEST model to mitigate the stressful circumstances they may encounter across environments (e.g. racism, prejudice, microaggressions). From a behavioral perspective, the aggressive nature of African American adolescents found in this study and others alike suggest that aggressive behavior is serving a function in the school environment; this is important to consider when developing intervention and prevention programs implemented in the school to support this population. Programs targeting the school climate and individual student skill development would be helpful to create an environment in which aggression is no longer a functional behavior, while cultivating new skills and coping mechanisms for students at the individual level. In addition, this sample differed in ethnic identity by ethnic group membership. African American adolescents reported higher ethnic identity scores than their European American peers.    This may reflect the fact that African American adolescents have a different history and developmental trajectory than European American adolescents, a trajectory characterized by exposure to more discrimination leading to greater ethnic identity exploration (Garcia Coll et al., 1996). Because African American adolescents are more aware of their ethnic group membership, they may exhibit greater levels of belonging and affirmation than European American adolescents causing a significant difference in ethnic identity development scores (Pahl & Way, 2006; Twenge & Crocker, 2002). For example, results from this study found an interaction approaching significance (p=.041) in which it was found that African American females in a minority school setting reported the highest ethnic identity score. It is not unlikely that attending a predominantly European American school as an African American female would make ethnicity a distinguishing factor among peers. As the ethnic identity literature purports, when ethnicity is more salient, ethnic identity exploration may begin earlier in comparison to peers where ethnicity is not as salient (e.g. a predominantly African American school environment). African American females, in particular, are reporting more crystalized ethnic identities. Research on ethnic identity development has not reported consistent gender differences. Research by Martinez and Dukes (1997) found no significant gender differences in adolescent male and female scores of ethnic identity using Phinney’s measure of ethnic identity development. In previous studies however, gender differences were reported with adolescent females reporting higher ethnic identity scores than males (Phinney, 1989). This presents an interesting parallel between gender development and ethnic identity development. Developmental research indicates that females mature cognitively faster than their male counterparts, allowing them to have the ability to think more abstractly about their social position as a minority based on their ethnicity and their gender. African American females    reporting higher ethnic identity implies that they have a sense of pride in themselves as an African American female, which could be beneficial to mediate negative racial experiences and influence outcomes. In addition, the current study’s sample was not characterized by the expected developmental differences in ethnic identity. Phinney’s model of ethnic identity was proposed as a developmental model beginning in early adolescence and increasing with age. It was hypothesized that the students in the higher grades would have a more achieved ethnic identity score than there peers in lower grades, however this was not the case. It is hypothesized that a larger study sample with greater variance across age groups may show a more distinct developmental trajectory of ethnic identity development. The current sample was highly clustered around ages 12-14 (79.2% of sample). Due to the observed gender and ethnic differences, the remainder of the analyses focused on African American adolescents and then specifically African American males and females. Indepth research specifically on this population is warranted given the difference in performance not only in this sample population but also in the greater society. Factors Predicting Later Academic and Psychological Outcomes The second research question analyzed the relationships between individual risk factors (age and gender), environmental supports/stressors (teacher support and the racial/ethnic school context), and identity development (ethnic identity) and their influence on later academic engagement and psychological functioning. The path analyses unveiled interesting findings regarding African American adolescents’ later academic engagement and psychological functioning. The overall model was significant for academic engagement and aggressive behaviors and yielded modest variation in one of the outcome variables, 10.1% and 2.7%    respectively. This suggested that there are additional risk factors and/or environmental supports and stressors that are not considered in this current model, yet are important to understanding the later outcomes of African American adolescences. Although the overall path model did not explain a substantial amount of variance in the outcome variables, risk factors and environmental stressors/supports taken at the individual level provided useful insight into later academic and psychological functioning of African American adolescents. The results of the path model described below suggest that individual and environmental factors such as age, gender, perceived teacher support, and ethnic identity predict outcomes in later adolescence. Academic Engagement. As previously stated, the overall model accounted for 10.1% of the variance in the academic engagement of African American adolescence two years after their initial assessment. This indicates that there are significant factors operating in this model that influence the later academic behaviors of this group of adolescents. Of the variables in the model, teacher support accounted for the largest amount of variance in later academic engagement (Beta= .211, p-.001). This finding is consistent with previous research, which indicated that teacher support is important for the academic engagement of African American adolescents. Researchers have found that when students feel supported and that their teachers care about them, they tend to exhibit behaviors that are consistent with academic achievement (Somers, Owens, & Piliawsky, 2008). For example, Klem and Connell (2004) found that middle school students who reported high levels of teacher support were three times more likely to be engaged in school (as measured by attending class, paying attention, participating, etc). Those students who reported low teacher support were 68% more likely to be disengaged with school.    This demonstrates that teacher support can be a positive factor in increasing academic outcomes, and more importantly, that when teacher support is lacking it can be harmful to students. This is key in that academic engagement is linked to academic outcomes, which are linked to other important outcome variables, suggesting that the teacher-student relationship is important for cultivating later school performance for an at-risk population. The findings of this study are unique in that it demonstrates that not only is teacher support important to students’ academic success at the point of measurement, but also in the future. Teacher support was a significant predictor for both the all male and all female sample. This variable accounted for more variance in the all male model (27.5% of the variance) in comparison to the all female model in which teacher support accounted for 16.8% of the variance in academic engagement. This finding was not surprising based on the results of the full sample analysis in which gender accounted for 14.9% of the variance in academic engagement. There has been substantial research on the importance of teacher support for African American males and this study demonstrates its significance for African American females as well. Ethnic identity accounted for 12.8% of the variance in academic engagement. This is consistent with literature that has established a relationship between student’s ethnic identity and their academic outcomes (Supple, Ghazarian, Frabutt, Plunkett, & Sands, 2006). Surprisingly, there was not a significant relationship between the stressors/supports variables, teacher support and racial/ethnic context of the school, and ethnic identity. It was hypothesized that these stressors/supports would account for some of the variance in a stabilized identity established by African American adolescence. It was predicted that this stabilized identity would mediate the relationship between stressor and outcomes, as documented in previous literature (Guzman, Santiago-Rivera, & Hasse, 2005; Phinney, 1996; Wong et al., 2003).    The data did not support this hypothesis. The direct effect of risk factors and support/stressor variables was noted, but there were no mediating relationships established. This is inconsistent with current research, particularly the mediating effect of ethnic identity on outcome variables. This finding was true for the model testing the full African American sample as well as the model tested with the all male and then all female African American sample. Phinney’s model of ethnic identity is a developmental model in which it is hypothesized that adolescent students are more aware of the world and begin to explore their ethnic identity (Phinney, 1989). Research studies have found that this process is typically initiated in early adolescence by an experience that makes ethnicity salient for the youth, causing exploration to begin (Tantum, 1992). If students in this sample are not experiencing discrimination, ethnicity may not be salient for this population and would not create variance in ethnic identity development within the group studied. It was hypothesized that racial/ethnic context would account for variance in ethnic identity and that ethnicity may be more salient for youth in a school in which they were an ethnic minority group. Research has indicated that often students transitioning from ethnically homogenous middle schools to larger heterogeneous feeder high schools tend to experience changes in their ethnic identity because of their change in environment (French, Seidman, Allen, & Aber , 2000; Seller, Chavous, Cook, 1998). The students in this study did not transition from one racial/ethnic context to another during the transition between middle school and high school. Perhaps just being in ethnically diverse setting is not enough to initiate ethnic identity exploration, perhaps more information is needed to understand discrimination at the school level because that is thought to jumpstart ethnic identity exploration.    Although the school context did not account for any variance in identity development or outcomes for African American adolescents, it is important to understand this within the context of the study sample. This study sample was from a large urban community in which a substantial portion of the sample attended schools in which they were the ethnic majority (174 students attending school where they constitute the racial/ethnic majority of the school, 69 attending a school in which they are the minority). Due to the lack of diversity within the school setting, it is quite possible that ethnicity was not a salient factor and therefore there was not an obvious distinction between the manner in which African American students were treated in comparison to students of other ethnic backgrounds. In previous studies looking at the school context, there is a measure of discrimination in which student perception of their environment is evaluated and typically related to ethnic identity, engagement, or academic success. This study did not explore discrimination, however this may be an important missing variable to understand the lack of impact school context had on identity and outcome variables. It is possible that because the population was heavily concentrated in predominantly African American schools, discrimination at the individual or institutional level was not noted by students and therefore did not influence their behavior in a significant way. This is a variable that could potentially provide important information about the outcomes of African American adolescents across settings and should be further explored. Aggressive Behavior. Aggressive behavior was a second variable in this research study. It was hypothesized that the model would account for a substantial amount of variance in aggressive behavior for all African American adolescents and particularly for the all male model. Results indicate the model was significant for aggressive behavior in the full African American adolescent sample (adjusted R2= .027), but not for the all male or all female model. Only one    environmental stressor/support was predictive of later aggressive behavior for this entire sample, teacher support. This finding is congruent with current research suggesting that teacher support is negatively related to aggressive behavior in children (Lopez, Perez, Ochoa, & Ruiz, 2008). According to this study, specifically for girls, increased teacher support was important in decreasing aggressive behaviors in later grades (r=-.214, p=.006). This presents an interesting gender difference that is important to note; environmental supports such as teacher support is significant enough for adolescent females to decrease the occurrence of aggressive behavior, however for males this protective factors is not as influential. This finding implies that perhaps there are other environmental or individual characteristics that may influence aggressive behavior for African American males such as temporary coping mechanisms theorized by Spencer and colleagues (1995). A part of the PVEST model, the framework supporting this data analysis, includes an aspect not measured in this study, a reactive coping mechanism. Spencer et al. proposed that students respond to their inherent risk factors and environmental stressors and/or supports with a temporary reactive coping mechanism and a stable identity that can mediate outcomes. African American males face discrimination based on their ethnic and gender group membership alone (Cunningham, 2001). Research has indicated that teachers have reported being afraid of African American males as early as Kindergarten (Lewis, 2003), rated their behavior as more aggressive than peers of other ethnic groups (Skiba, 2010), and had lower expectations for academic ability (Ferguson, 2003). Perhaps African American males developed a temporary reactive coping style in response to these inherent risk factors and environmental stressors that influence their stable coping mechanism and outcome variables. A study utilizing the PVEST model discovered that perceived negative teacher support and expectations were significant predictors of African    American aggressive male bravado attitudes, an identified reactive coping strategy African American males use to protect their ego from discrimination (Phillips-Swanson, Cunningham, & Spencer, 2003; Spencer, 1998). There are so many other factors that influence African American males’ functioning across environments, teacher support as a supportive factor may not be enough to counterbalance the stressors they experience. This hypothesis, although not studied in this research study, warrants further consideration in that the temporary reactive coping mechanisms are influential in the development of more stable identity such as ethnic identity. If African American males and/or females are developing maladaptive temporary coping strategies for dealing with risk factors and stressors, this could influence their view of self and their position as an ethnic minority in the world. Depression. The overall model was not a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in African American adolescents; this is incongruent with the study’s hypotheses and current literature. Given previous literature, it was predicted that identified risk factors and environmental stressor/supports would account for some variance in depressive symptoms for this population, particularly for the female sample. There is a substantial amount of research that indicates a gender difference in depression, with girls reporting more depressive symptoms than their male counterparts (Wade et al, 2002). Although the overall model was not significant in predicting later experiences of depression, gender was significant in predicting later depressive symptoms (Beta= .143, p=.028). Again, contrary to the hypothesis of this study, ethnic identity and racial/ethnic context of the school did not significantly contribute to any variance in later depressive symptoms. Previous research has documented a relationship between racial/ethnic context and depression for African American college students, however there was not a substantial literature    base on the effects of the environment on adolescents. It is important to consider that the literature on African American college students and depression are typically measured at predominantly European American Universities in which African American students experience substantial amounts of discrimination from peers and professors. As noted previously, a large portion of this sample attended schools in which they represented the ethnic majority, therefore perhaps not allowing for feelings of isolation and discrimination. Findings from this study would suggest that the environment does not influence later outcomes. Perhaps other factors such as level of perceived discrimination or peer relationships would be important to measure to add depth to understanding the experiences of adolescents across these environments to better predict outcomes such as depression and even aggressive behaviors. Peer relationships are key in adolescent development and contribute to identity development and outcomes. In this time of growth and change, adolescents are searching for their identity and trying to fit within peer groups (Rose & Rudolph, 2006). This would particularly be interesting to further investigate for African American students in a predominately European American environment in which there are distinct difference that may interfere with peer relationships. It is important to better understand factors that lead to depression in adolescence because adolescent depression is strongly correlated with later mental health problems in young adulthood (Harrington, Fudge, Rutter, & Pickles, 1990; Johnson, Cohner, & Kasen, 2009). This is increasingly important for girls in that there is a sharp increase in depression for girls during the adolescent years (Kessler, Avenevoli, & Merikangas, 2001). Other Considerations and Future Research This study highlighted many factors that influence the academic and psychological functioning of African American adolescents. It appeared that what mattered most for this group    of students was teacher support. Future research looking more critically at the specific aspects of teacher support that serve as the mechanism of influence would be beneficial to informing teacher education programs and professional developments that assist teachers in building meaningful relationships with their students. Most teacher education programs focus on the development of content knowledge and pedagogy and not other skills such as classroom management or interpersonal skills. Results from this study and others alike suggest more attention is needed in the latter. It suggests that teachers should work to develop supportive and caring relationships with their students to increase the likelihood of improved engagement in the classroom. In addition, they should support an environment free of discrimination that promotes the development of a strong and healthy identity. This is key for administrators who help to shape the overall school climate. Spencer and colleagues would purport that decreasing discrimination in the environment and increasing teacher support would counterbalance the amount of stress and support in the school environment and promote more adaptive coping strategies, both temporary and stabilized, leading to healthier outcomes. This puts administrators and School Psychologist in a unique position to support teachers in learning how to be more caring and responsive to the unique needs of the population they serve. This could be done through specialized training, professional development activities, and consultation. In addition, this study can inform intervention programs aimed at supporting African American adolescents and their disproportionate engagement in aggressive behaviors. The finding of this study were congruent with other studies in that African American adolescents engaged in more aggressive behaviors than their peers of other ethnic backgrounds. It was also found that supportive factors such as teacher support and ethnic identity did not predict fewer    aggressive behaviors in this population, specifically for African American males. As previously discussed, this behavior is an effective method for solving problems by this population. In addition to the school administrators and staff creating an environment in which this behavior is no longer functional, it is also an opportunity to teach new skills to African American adolescents. In conjunction with environmental restructuring, it will be important to teach African American adolescents specific skills that allow them to solve problems in a more appropriate manner. In addition to teacher support influencing the academic engagement of African American males, strong ethnic identity also accounted for the variance in academic engagement for this population. This indicates that there is something about feeling good about being African American that promotes increased academic engagement. Although ethnic identity did not serve as a mediator between teacher support and academic engagement, it is important to note the additive effects of experiencing both teacher support and strong ethnic identity. According to Oyserman and colleagues’ African American Identity Schema, African American adolescents who have a strong connection to their group, are aware of racism towards their ethnic group, and see themselves succeeding as a member of that ethnic group have the key ingredients for school success (Oyserman, Gant, & Ager, 1995). The students in this study demonstrated that a strong sense of belonging to their ethnic group predicted about 13% of the variance in future academic engagement. Future research should incorporate Oyserman and colleague’s other two factors, students’ awareness of racism and their self-efficacy towards learning to determine if this leads to greater variance in academic engagement. In addition, it may provide a more nuanced understanding of what specific factors within ethnic identity development contribute to later outcomes. In addition, if Oyserman’s theory is correct, it would be interesting to look across    school contexts to determine if the proposed Identity Schema is true for African American adolescents in a setting in which they represent the majority and a setting in which they represent the minority. Perhaps school context was not influential in this study because the study sample embraced their ethnic identity and as a result strived for academic excellence as a commitment to their ethnic group no matter what setting they were in (Carter, 2009). Additional attention to this factor/s can be helpful in planning targeted intervention and prevention programs in the home, school, and community for African American adolescents. Parental racial/ethnic socialization has demonstrated promising effects for African American youth developing in high stress environments (Murry, Berkel, Brody, Gerrard, & Gibbons, 2007; Sanders, 1997). Parents can help their children learn more about their ethnic background and have a clear sense of what it means to be African American (Tyson, 2002). As Phinney proposes, this will help to increase students’ feelings of belonging and pride in their ethnic heritage and background. If parents are able to help their children understand the inherent risk factors they face based on their gender and race, particularly for African American adolescent males who have been identified as a high risk group, they can potentially help circumvent the development of maladaptive reactive coping mechanisms such as male bravado, that are incongruent with academic success. As research has found, and also as demonstrated in this study, the strong sense of belonging and pride can positively predict later academic outcomes. In addition, parents can help to support their child’s relationship with their teacher by modeling a positive relationship with the teacher. Parental involvement in the school can take on many forms, and by parents taking an active role in the school can benefit the student-teacher relationship, again leading to more positive outcomes for their child (Epstein, 1991; Parcel & Dufur, 2001; Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). These findings are important for teachers,    administrators, and parents alike. Supporting the development of African American adolescents from multiple ecological contexts can only benefit this at-risk population and increase their chance for success in complex environments. From an ecological developmental framework, it would be neglectful to not mention the importance of other environments interacting with the school environment to influence outcomes. Another important factor that was not analyzed in this study is peer relationships. Peers relationships are very important during adolescence as youth are exercising their independence and are more concerned with peer acceptance. Previous research studies have identified peers as setting the tone for academic engagement, particularly for African American adolescents Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; Harris, 1996). In a qualitative study with African American adolescents, researchers found that students were often accused of “acting White” because they had good grades and engaged in school. In response to the teasing, some students purposely underachieved to increase popularity amongst their peers (Neal-Barnett, 2001, p. 79). In addition, it can be emotionally taxing for adolescents who, despite the academic culture, engage in school and demonstrate high achievement. Perhaps this is a critical environmental stressor that is important to consider in examining the context, the continuity or discontinuity between student academic motivation and the school context. In addition, research has focused on the importance of the home environment on students’ behavior in school as well as their engagement (Somers et al, 2008). Parent socialization of African American adolescents is important in students’ development of a positive sense of self, as well as their desire to achieve. Also, home related variables such as social economic status (SES) are important to engagement and achievement. There is a disproportionate amount of African American families living in poverty (Blank, 1997 p.21-23;    Children’s Defense Fund, 2008). This influences their access to resources, neighborhood safety, as well as school quality (Schiller, 2008). Such environments can have a negative relationship with student’s engagement in school as well as their display of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. These factors may contribute to African American adolescents’ desire to engage in school, and more importantly their beliefs for a successful future. Research has found that students’ neighborhood factors could influence their perceptions of future opportunities and their perception that school is an avenue for upward social mobility (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Study Limitations Several limitations in this study restrict the conclusions that may be drawn from these data. First, this study uses an existing data set, which limits the researcher’s control over the selection of participants, measures, and research procedures. Researchers are confined to the way constructs of interest are operationalized in their research study. Additionally, because there is a specific population of interest for this research study, it is limited by a small sample. The sample size restricts analyses that can be used to understand the relationships among the study variables. For example, for the focus of this study, a structural equation modeling technique would be most appropriate to determine how the variables in the model simultaneously influence outcome variables, however due to sample size limitations, this method of data analysis was not feasible. Also, this study is limited in the explanatory variables included in the model. Other influential variables, such as home or community contexts could have been included in the model to determine their relative influence in comparison to the school environment. Future models may want to test how well home, community, and school factors differentially predict academic and psychological outcomes of African American adolescents. Lastly, data were    gathered through student self-report. Although this presents an efficient method of data collection, it may not provide accurate information, increasing the likelihood of certain forms of measurement error. Students may respond in a manner in which they believe researchers want them to respond, creating a measurement of social desirability as opposed to students’ true feelings and behaviors. To address this issue, future research should include multiple raters, such as parents or teachers, as well as multimodal methods of collecting data from students, such as the inclusion of interviews and observations to document phenomenon taking place in the school environment. Conclusions Many African American adolescents are underperforming in school. Previous research has attributed this underperformance to lack of skill to achieve (e.g. deficit model; Sears, 1975) or lack of desire to achieve (Ogbu, 2003), however researchers have found that neither is the case. Many African American adolescents believe education is important and they want to do well, however their behaviors are in opposition to their beliefs. This research study contributes to the literature by providing insight into how individual and environmental factors can influence later academic and psychological outcomes for an at-risk population. Understanding what factors influence academic engagement may help researchers, teachers, school psychologists, and other professionals understand and address the gap between attitude and behavior. When considering the findings of this study, it is important to not just focus on factors at the child level but also on teachers. One of the major contributors to all of the study outcomes was teacher support. The results of this study would suggest that teachers who are nice to their students, demonstrate that they care about their students, and are fair with their students could have a large influence in shaping future academic engagement. This is particularly important to    note for African American males, as they are at greater risk for negative outcomes in comparison to their female counterparts as well as peers of other ethnic backgrounds (Garibaldi, 2007). It is important that teachers understand the unique needs of African American adolescents and how they can create a supportive environment that cultivates connectedness, trust, and learning. This is even more critical at this sensitive time of development when youth are beginning to reflect on who they are and how that relates to their position in greater society. Experiences in their microsystems will be key to shaping their beliefs and goals, particularly for shaping their desire to engage in school and resist negative behaviors. Although ethnic identity did not mediate the relationships between environmental stressors and outcomes, it did contribute to the variance in outcomes for this sample population. Therefore it is important to continue to encourage and support student development of a healthy ethnic identity. Within the school system this can be accomplished by creating an environment that is free of discrimination based on ethnicity and/or gender and helping children learn about their ethnic backgrounds. This will be important in not only fostering a positive sense of self, but also potentially influence aggressive behaviors and depressive symptoms in adolescents. School personnel such as school psychologists are in a unique position to support the development of both African American adolescents and teachers in the school system. School psychologists can help schools monitor and improve the culture of the school to support various ethnic groups. Results in this study emphasized the importance of teacher support, where students feel their teachers are nice to them, listen to them, and overall really care about them. School psychologists have the training and skills to provide consultation to teachers to support their efforts to build relationships with students and increase their engagement in school.    APPENDICES    APPENDIX A Teacher Support 1. Teachers and students are nice to each other at my school. 2. There is a teacher or some other adult who really cares about me at my school. 3. There is a teacher or some other adult who listens to me at my school. 4. It is easy to talk with a teacher or counselor at my school. 5. The teachers are fair to students at my school. 6. I will get in trouble if I break a rule at my school.    APPENDIX B Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) 1. I have spent time trying to find out more about my own ethnic group, such as its history, traditions, and customs. 2. I am active in organizations or social groups that include mostly members of my own ethnic group. 3. I have a clear sense of my ethnic background and what it means for me. 4. I think a lot about how my life will be affected by my ethnic group membership. 5. I am happy that I am a member of the group I belong to. 6. I have a strong sense of belonging to my own ethnic group. 7. I understand pretty well what my ethnic group membership means to me, in terms of how to relate to my own group and other groups. 8. In order to learn more about my ethnic background, I have often talked to other people about my ethnic group. 9. I have a lot of pride in my ethnic group and its accomplishments. 10. I participate in cultural practices of my own group, such as special food, music, or customs. 11. I feel a strong attachment towards my own ethnic group. 12. I feel good about my cultural or ethnic group.    APPENDIX C Academic Engagement Measure 1. I have good study habits. 2. I always write down my homework assignments. 3. I know how to plan things so I get my work done. 4. I work hard at my school work. 5. I finish my school work on time. 6. 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