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Bullying victimization remains to be a public health concern in the United States, especially among sexual and ethnic minority youth. However, few studies have examined how school outcomes might be associated with bullying victimization among heterosexual and sexual minority African American youth and the factors that may attenuate that relationship. To address this gap, this study surveyed 462 heterosexual and 102 sexual minority African American youth residing in Chicago's Southside neighborhoods, who participated in the Resiliency Project. Study variables included bullying victimization, school outcomes (i.e., school connectedness, and academic grades), and future orientation. Bullying victimization was associated with a significant increase in feeling disconnected from school among both heterosexual and sexual minority adolescents; however, there was no significant association observed between bullying victimization and receiving low grades among either group. Future orientation did not moderate the association between bullying victimization and school outcomes among heterosexual adolescents; however, positive future orientation did attenuate the association between bullying victimization and feeling disconnected from school among sexual minority adolescents. Prevention programs that focus on promoting school connectedness need to consider the role of future orientation for sexual minority youth.

Guided by the Risk and Resilience Model, the present study aims to generate hypotheses by investigating a wide range of variables that might buffer the association between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms from a convenience sample of African American adolescents in four neighborhoods in Chicago's Southside. Measures for the study included internalizing symptoms, peer victimization, four protective factors (parental closeness, teacher's care, religiosity, and positive future orientation) and covariates (age, sex, and government assistance). Controlling for the covariates, a series of multivariate regression analyses were conducted to explore the direct effects of peer victimization and internalizing symptoms and the interaction between peer victimization and the four protective factors. The study found that peer victimization was directly associated with internalizing symptoms. In terms of the interactions, the study found that parental closeness moderated the association between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms. The findings show that parental closeness is an important protective factor that needs to be considered in the research hypotheses. The findings specifically demonstrated the importance of developing hypotheses to test whether parental closeness protects adolescents from internalizing symptoms linked to peer victimization.

Adolescent bullying is a concern for adolescents, parents, teachers, school officials, and the general public. The purpose of the study is to apply Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems perspective and explore factors that are correlated with bullying perpetration and victimization among 638 urban African American adolescents in Chicago's Southside. Bullying victimization and perpetration are found to be influenced by microsystem-level factors, such as exposure to delinquent peers, teacher support, and neighborhood disorganization. An intervention strategy that involves teachers is particularly important. Anti-bullying intervention and prevention programs in urban schools need to account for the unique situations of urban African American adolescents.

Background: Peer victimization is experienced by an alarming number of youth. A variety of coping strategies may be used by youth to avoid the risk of peer victimization, including behaviors such as avoidance, displaying a tough demeanor, defensive behaviors, establishing a reputation, and forming affiliations with family and community members. However, little research has examined how these coping strategies are simultaneously associated with peer victimization experiences. Objective: The present study explored how these five coping strategies were associated with peer victimization among African American youth living in low-income urban communities, a group of youth at risk for high levels of exposure to violence and victimization. It was hypothesized that more use of these strategies would be associated with less peer victimization. Method: The study comprised of 534 African American youth from low-income communities located in Chicago's Southside. Multivariate regression analysis was conducted to identify which coping strategies, when assessed simultaneously, were associated with a lower risk of peer victimization. Results: Results indicated that defensive behavior was negatively associated with peer victimization. Higher levels of tough demeanor and affiliation with family and community members were associated with higher levels of peer victimization. Coping strategies of avoidance and establishing a reputation were not significantly associated with peer victimization. Conclusion: Peer affiliation does not always contribute to positive outcomes, particularly among adolescents in urban areas. A further examination of the coping strategies and socialization processes of urban African American youth in low-resourced communities is warranted.

Guided by the social-ecological perspective, this study aims to explore how various social climates are associated with school motivation and the future orientation of 597 African American adolescents. We examined the direct and indirect effects of parent factors and school climate on future orientation through school motivation. School motivation was positively associated with a future orientation. Perceived parental expectations and teacher support were positively associated with their school motivation. However, bullying victimization was not negatively associated with school motivation, although greater perceived parental engagement and bullying victimization showed a more positive future orientation. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

Background: African American youth in urban centers often reside in poorly resourced communities and face structural disadvantage, which can result in higher rates of poor behavioral health factors such as mental health problems, juvenile justice system involvement, substance use, risky sex and lower school engagement. While parental monitoring has been shown to be protective with regards to these risk factors, less understood are the effects of parental warmth in conjunction with monitoring. Objective: This study examined whether parental monitoring and warmth had a main or mediated relationship to behavioral health factors among low income African American youth. Method: African American youth (n = 638) completed self-administered questionnaires on parenting factors (i.e., monitoring and warmth), mental health, juvenile justice system involvement, substance use, school engagement, and sexual risk behaviors. Results: Participants reported higher mean parental monitoring versus warmth. Parental monitoring was correlated with lower substance use, delinquency, unsafe sex and higher school engagement. Higher parental warmth in contrast was uniquely correlated with better youth mental health but also higher rates of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use. Conclusions: Monitoring their youth at high levels appears to be a common and effective strategy by parents in poorly resourced communities and was associated with lower behavioral health risks. By contrast, parental warmth had both positive and negative associations with behavioral health, suggesting that more research is needed to clarify the circumstances within which parental warmth may be protective or not.