Racial Pride and Religiosity among African American Boys: Implications for Academic Motivation and Achievement

Abstract

The persistent underachievement among African American boys has led to increased empirical inquiry, yet little research considers within-group variation in achievement nor positive youth characteristics that help explain positive achievement outcomes. This study conceptualized culturally-based factors (racial pride and religiosity) as adolescent assets that would promote African American boys' achievement and also enhance positive effects of other youth assets (positive educational utility beliefs) on achievement. Our sample included 158 adolescent boys (M = 17.08) from a large, socioeconomically diverse suburban community context. Accounting for demographic background variables, educational utility beliefs were positively associated with academic grade performance. A significant educational utility beliefs and racial pride interaction indicated a stronger, positive association of educational utility beliefs with grade performance among boys with higher racial pride relative to those with lower racial pride. Also, there was a stronger positive association between educational utility beliefs and grades for boys reporting lower religious importance, but boys endorsing both lower educational utility beliefs and religious importance were at highest risk for low grade performance. Overall results suggest the importance of considering culturally-based factors in studying achievement motivation processes among ethnic minority adolescents.

Academic Identity: A Longitudinal Investigation of African American Adolescents’ Academic Persistence

“…In the current study, we will explore private regard, a construct conceptualized by Sellers, Smith, et al (1998) in their racial identity framework, defined as individuals' affective feelings about their racial group membership, including an awareness of and pride in the group's heritage and societal contributions. Overall, African American adolescents endorsing high private regard have been found to have higher academic motivation and performance than African Americans with low private regard (e.g., Butler-Barnes, Williams, & Chavous, 2012;Wong, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2003). In addition, McCreary, Slavin, and Berry (1996) found that African American adolescents who endorsed less positive attitudes about African Americans had more problematic behavior.…”

Excavating New Constructs for Family Stress Theories in the Context of Everyday Life Experiences of Black American Families

“…Further, spirituality has been associated with a range of emotional protective processes, including happiness, hope, faith, optimism, strength, confidence, forgiveness, trust, and meaning (Mattis, 2001). Church involvement promotes positive behavior and developmental outcomes through its impact on moral development, racial pride, and self-esteem (Butler- Barnes, Williams, & Chavous, 2012). Spirituality coupled with high levels of family connections and kinship support are major protectors for dissuading Black adolescents from initiating substance use, with lasting effects to avert binge drinking as they transition into young adulthood (Stevens-Watkins & Rostosky, 2010).…”

Religious Development in African American Adolescents: Growth Patterns That Offer Protection

“…Intrinsic religiosity refers to private religious practices such as prayer that demonstrate devotion to the divine (Levin et al., ). Adolescents may conceive of prayer as a way to cope with SLEs, and religious AA adolescents often report that they pray to receive divine assistance in their academics (Butler‐Barnes, Williams, & Chavous, ), treatment of physical illness (Davey, Tubbs, Kissil, & Niño, ), and their relational life (e.g., peer–sibling relations; McHale, Kim, Whiteman, & Crouter, ).…”