Journal of Black Psychology

Although many theories about the structure of emotion have been developed, none of them seem to adequately explain the African experience. This study examined the folk emotion lexica of two indigenous West African languages. Fifty monolingual Fante speakers and 50 monolingual Dagbani speakers from rural and semirural Ghana participated in focus groups to generate words in their native language that they use to describe experiences that involve emotions. Qualitative analysis of the emotion lexica generated by the focus group participants revealed frequent somatic referencing in the emotion talk of Fante and Dagbani, although there were differences in the specific body parts mentioned in references to various emotional experiences. The ubiquity of somatic referents in the expression of African emotions suggests that future theories of emotion structure may need to incorporate the concept of embodiment.

The primary purpose of this study was to test a path model exploring the relationships among Africentric cultural values, self-esteem, perceived social support satisfaction, and life satisfaction in a sample of 147 African American adolescent girls. This investigation also examined the possible mediating effects of self-esteem and perceived social support satisfaction in the relationship between adherence to Africentric cultural values and life satisfaction in this sample. Although no significant mediating effects were found, results indicated that greater adherence to Africentric cultural values among African American adolescent girls was predictive of higher levels of both self-esteem and perceived social support satisfaction. Higher levels of self-esteem were then significantly predictive of greater life satisfaction. However, perceived social support satisfaction was not significantly predictive of life satisfaction in this sample of girls. Future research directions are identified.

Racial identity ego statuses (i.e., one’s psychological orientation to his or her racial group membership) can have an important impact on how some Blacks perceive and experience racial discrimination in the United States. The present study investigates the relationships between racial identity status attitudes, ethnic identity, and perceptions of racial discrimination among 82 Afro-Caribbeans. Results indicate that racial identity and ethnic identity are significant predictors for perceptions of racial discrimination during the course of one’s lifetime. Implications for the field of psychology are discussed.

African American adolescents’ perceptions of racism and career self-efficacy relationships are examined. Participants in a southwestern urban high school completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, Racism and Life Experiences Scale-Personal and -Group, and career decision and career task self-efficacy scales. Results indicate that participants who perceived a higher degree of racism against their group reported significantly higher self-efficacy for career decision making but not for career task self-efficacy. An achieved ethnic identity, higher parental socioeconomic status, and being female were related to higher levels of career self-efficacy. The study’s research design supports the need for research with ethnic identity, gender, and the use of multidimensional measurements to achieve a better understanding of racism and career self-efficacy with African American adolescents. Theoretical, research, and programmatic implications are discussed.

This study examines the interrelationships among racial discrimination experiences, parent race socialization practices, and academic achievement outcomes in a sample of 548 African American adolescents. Adolescents’ racial discrimination experiences were associated with a decrease in academic curiosity, persistence, and student self-reported grades. Racial pride, self-worth, egalitarian, and negative messages and racial socialization behaviors emerged as unique predictors of various academic outcomes, but did not appear to modulate the impact of racial discrimination experiences on academic outcomes. The present findings provide preliminary evidence that parents’ messages to their children about race may compensate for or counteract racial discrimination, as opposed to moderating its influence on academic achievement outcomes. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of motivation and other key developmental factors that may influence academic achievement outcomes in African American adolescents.

Social capital may be particularly important for the well-being and future opportunities of African American adolescents living in low income families. In this study, linkages between interpersonal identity formation and adolescents’ perceptions of social capital quality were examined in a cross-sectional study of 374 low income, rural, African American adolescents (161 males, 213 females), ranging in age from 12 to 19. It was argued that adolescents who have stronger commitments to their interpersonal identities will report better social capital quality. Analysis of variance results indicated that adolescents classified as foreclosed (high commitment/low exploration) in identity status never differed in their perceptions of social capital quality from those classified as achieved (high commitment/high exploration) in identity status. Furthermore, results of structural equation modeling indicated that identity commitment mattered most for explaining variability in social capital quality. Implications for African American adolescent identity formation and future research directions are discussed.