An Afrocultural Social Ethos: Component Orientations and Some Social Implications

Abstract

Two studies explored an Afrocultural social ethos: its component orientations of spirituality, affect, and communalism; and their connections with psychosocial functioning among inner-city African American youth in Grades 5 through 7. Positive endorsement and moderate positive correlations among the orientations were found in each study. In Study 1, an Afrocultural social ethos was predictive of more cooperative and more competitive academic attitudes and lower levels of a Machiavellian attitude. When orientations were examined, spirituality emerged as a positive predictor of two academic attitudes. In Study 2, an Afrocultural social ethos was predictive of empathy and a more altruistic view of human nature. At the level of orientations, affect was a unique predictor of these variables. Gender-not cultural ethos or orientations-was predictive of peer-ratedprosocial behaviors. Discussionfocuses on implicationsforfuture research on culture and the social development of African American youth.

Racial Socialization as a Mechanism for Positive Development Among African American Youth

“…A number of developmental assets related to race and ethnicity are unique to youth of color. For example, among African American youth, racial identity is positively related to self‐esteem (Rowley, Sellers, Chavous, & Smith, 1998; Sellers, Copeland‐Linder, Martin, & Lewis, 2006) and academic achievement (Jagers, Smith, Mock, & Dill, 1997). However, few studies beyond the literature on racial identity have recognized the relation of these cultural assets to positive developmental outcomes outside of a risk‐based perspective.…”

Gendered Racial Identity of Black Young Women

“…Models of racial/ethnic identity were developed which suggest that individuals move from having naïve beliefs about their racial group status, holding negative feelings about their racial group, or placing low salience on race, to developing racial consciousness and a sense of pride in history, heritage, and group membership (Schwarzbaum and Thomas 2008). Positive racial identity has been found to be related to positive outcomes in African American youth, including positive self-esteem (Buckley and Carter 2005;Greene et al 2006;Rowley et al 1998;Sellers et al 2006), reduced psychological symptoms, particularly depression and anxiety (Sellers et al 2006), and higher levels of academic achievement (Altschul et al 2006;Jagers et al 1997;Wong et al 2003). Racial identity seems to serve as a buffer for acts of racism, discrimination, or prejudice (Greene et al 2006).…”

Designing culturally sensitive dietary interventions for African Americans: review and recommendations

“…This refers to the importance of emotional expressiveness and of being in tune with the feelings and emotional needs of others . Research with African Americans has shown that affect sensitivity is a predictor of empathy, a factor associated with prosocial behavior . The protective effects of emotional expressiveness on physical and mental health outcomes has also been documented .…”