Bad Boys or Bad Odds? - Race, Context and Social Influence: An Investigation of Youth Violence in African-American Boys.

Abstract

This dissertation examined the influence of risk and protective factors in predicting violent behavior for in a sample of 552 African-American adolescent males. Boys’ perception of safety in their neighborhoods was also explored. The main risk factors in this project included exposure to violent experiences, affiliation with deviant peers, and perception of classmates’ engagement in violence. The protective factors included collective efficacy, parents’ communication about fighting and boys’ efficacy to avoid violence. In addition, factors such as perception of parents’ nonviolent norms, parent education and structural disadvantage were also explored.

The first study examined factors that predicted African-American boys’ perception of safety in their neighborhoods. In the second study the protective effect of parental education to reduce violent behavior was investigated. In the third study African-American boys’ reliance on an individual strength (i.e. efficacy to avoid violence) was investigated. Additionally, the neighborhood, peer, and parent contributions to understanding youth violent behavior were examined.

Bivariate results indicated that African-American boys were exposed to significantly high levels of violent experiences as victims and witnesses. Multivariate results for the first study showed that collective efficacy was most predictive of youths’ perception of their neighborhoods as safe after other protective, as well as risk factors were accounted for. In the second study, parental education moderated the relationship between two factors – deviant peers, and parental communication about fighting – and youth violent behavior. In the final study, African-American boys’ perception of parent nonviolent norms significantly strengthened boys’ efficacy to avoid violence. Efficacy to avoid violence was associated with less violent behavior and less affiliation with deviant peers. Experiences with violence remained a strong predictor of violent behavior and deviant peer association for African-American boys in this sample.