Project abstract:

Violence in the United States has been characterized as a public health crisis (Listenbee et al., 2012). Further, Black youth from economically disadvantaged, underinvested urban communities are disproportionately exposed to chronic stressors such as community violence exposure (Voisin, 2007; Crouch et al., 2000), which places them at increased risk for mental health problems. Specifically, exposure to community violence has been linked to increases in anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder, and aggression in youth of color (Gaylord-Harden, Cunningham & Zelencik, 2011; McMahon, Feliz, Halpert & Petropoulos, 2009; Paxton, Robinson, Shah & Schoeny, 2004). As a result of this exposure to chronic stressors, Black youth living in disadvantaged contexts are forced to develop strategies to cope. Research suggests that Black youth may draw on unique coping strategies which are influenced by a variety of sources such as 1) their African American culture and 2) stressor-specific, contextually relevant strategies to cope with community violence exposure. Specifically, Black youth may draw on culturally relevant coping-strategies that are based on African-centered worldviews such as emotional debriefing, spiritually centered coping, and communalistic/ collectivistic coping (Gaylord-Harden & Cunningham, 2009). Emotional debriefing refers to attempts to manage stress or emotional responses to stress by creative expression, spiritually centered coping refers to spiritually based strategies to cope, and communalistic coping refers to tapping into one’s family and community for support (Gaylord-Harden & Cunningham, 2009). Although research has examined the role of culturally relevant coping in the face of stressors such as racial discrimination (Gaylord-Harden & Cunningham,2009), little is known about how these strategies are used for other uncontrollable stressors such as exposure to community violence. Additionally, Black youth exposed to chronic stressors may utilize stressor-specific coping strategies in response to community violence exposure in particular. Stressor-specific, contextually relevant coping strategies include “getting through” strategies, which involve acceptance of community conditions and/or engagement in behaviors to get out of the community, “getting along” strategies which include self-defense techniques that leverage associations with peers who can offer protection, “getting away” strategies which include avoidance strategies, and finally “getting back” strategies which involve defending oneself (So, Gaylord-Harden, & Voisin, 2017). However, additional work is needed to understand how Black youth leverage multiple unique coping resources in order to manage exposure to chronic stressors such as violence exposure. Thus, the overall aims of the research study are to: 1) examine the associations between exposure to community violence and culturally relevant and contextually relevant coping and 2) examine how culturally relevant and contextually relevant coping strategies interact and influence the relation between exposure to community violence and internalizing and externalizing outcomes. Results from this study will provide insight into the coping strategies that Black youth leverage to manage in the face of community violence exposure. Working to understanding coping behaviors in Black youth can help to inform efforts that maximize effectiveness and positive outcomes for youth.

Description of summer undergraduate work:

Through the Research Mentoring Program, I propose to engage an undergraduate student in the research process through assistance with the development, execution, and analysis for my dissertation project. The undergraduate research assistant will learn about and participate in literature searches, data cleaning and descriptive data analyses for this research project under my mentorship and supervision. I also hope to learn more about the undergraduate research assistant’s interests and tailor some of these experiences to help the research assistant to gain experience in a range of activities. I hope to instill a sense of empowerment in the undergraduate research assistant to begin to formulate their own research interests and autonomy in the research process. I also plan to work with and support the undergraduate to develop a research question to investigate for the Loyola Undergraduate Weekend of Excellence in 2022.