online journal
Research Project #3
The Mental Health of African American Males in Independent Schools
Howard C. Stevenson, Margaret B. Spencer, and Jerry Johnson
University of Pennsylvania
Principal Investigators
Specific Aims
(May '00)
The Mental Health of African American Males in Independent Schools
Howard C. Stevenson, Margaret B. Spencer, and Jerry Johnson
University of Pennsylvania
Principal Investigators
Specific Aims
(May '00)
The worth of a private school education can be measured in how the academic excellence it promotes translates into admission into the most prestigious 4-year colleges and universities nationwide. Some research has suggested, but not verified, that the successful completion of a private school education is most difficult for African American males. This preliminary longitudinal study will investigate the psychological and social adjustment issues for African American males through interviews with approximately 150 youth (80 boys and 70 girls) across 1st through 12th grades, their families, their teachers, school personnel and alumni in five independent schools. The five schools differ according to urbanity, religious affiliation, gender focus, school climate and structure, and percentage of minority students. This pilot study will include a combination of quantitative standardized measurement, open-ended semi-structured questions, and ethnographic fieldwork. The qualitative methods of the project will work best toward understanding the patterns of dropout, retention, and graduation of males compared to females as these factors interrelate with school structure and policy. These methods will also aid in understanding different cohort effects of grade (1-12), gender (males vs. female), age (6-18), school division (lower vs. mid vs. upper divisions), and schools (boys only vs. coed; suburban vs. urban; religious based vs. non-denominational). A major inquiry of the project is in keeping with the need to support interdisciplinary research efforts (Anderson, in-press). As the pilot component it represents the psychological perspective and proposes monitoring youths' stress experiences expressed as cardiovascular reactivity (Anderson McNeilly 1993; Anderson, McNeilly & Myers 1993). The linkages between socioecological stress, personal characteristics and social status, particularly for Blacks, are longstanding concerns (e.g., see Harburg et al 1973; Dressler 1993; Myers & McClure 1993). The benefit of this research will aid schools in recruitment, programming and support efforts for all students in private schools, but particularly African American males. There are several aims of this proposal: 1) to access the psychological and academic well-being of low- and high- resource African American students in five predominantly white independent schools; 2) to assess the current level of parent involvement and its impact on male adjustment and school openness to racial diversity; 3) to track the interrelationship between male and female psychosocial adjustment, the role of context-associated stress, and parent engagement in the independent schools across four years; 4) to develop intra- and extra-curricular programs that promote the mental and physical health of African American and biracial boys and 5) to augment traditional methods of information dissemination to independent schools nationally.
Background and Significance
Key Problems and Theoretical Perspectives
There are several key problems to address with respect to African American male adjustment in private schools as these growing young men navigate through school and cope with normative developmental tasks. Societal associated issues of importance include relevant context perceived cultural alienation, color blindness, gender image projection, school achievement pressures, and stress reactivity to same. Mitigating family and child factors include parental involvement in school and home settings and racial socialization (Slaughter & Johnson, 1988). The most appropriate theoretical framework for analyzing the mental health adjustment struggles of African American boys in independent schools must 1) consider the interplay between coping in culturally different contexts (school, neighborhood, and home), 2) address the lows and highs of income, 3) appraise the role of personal and cultural identity socialization, 4) construe the contributions of risk and stress along with coping and resilience, 5) be sensitive to developmental maturational processes and statuses, and finally 6) link with associated achievement patterns and outcomes.
Currently, the numbers and percentages of African Americans in predominantly white independent school populations has remained the same over the last decade, under 5% since 1982 (National Association of Independent Schools -NAIS, 1997; National Center for Educational Statistics -NCES, 1994). Prior to that there was a marked low enrollment, retention, and graduation rate of African American students within the independent school systems. The lack of change suggests that African Americans represent a smaller percentage in private schools than they do in the general population. Some reasons include limited finances but a major reason is the cultural alienation students feel after experiencing ignorance of African American culture within the curricula and social climate (NAIS, 1997; NCES, 1994, Schneider & Shouse, 1992).
The worth of an independent school education in the successful academic careers of students interested in getting into the top United States colleges and universities is well known. According to several researchers, Catholic schools promote the achievement of African American students at higher levels compared to other ethnic minority and majority youth in public or private schools (Coleman, Hoffer, and Kilgore, 1982; Greeley, 1982, Hoffer, Greeley, & Coleman, 1985), even when more refined measures of ability are added to casual models (Keith & Page, 1985). Some of the reasons Catholic schools produce higher-achieving students is that they place more students in academic programs, require more semesters of academic course work, and assign more homework (Hoffer et al). Perry (1998) substantiated the above claims through her personal experience in public and private schools and added that while private schools were lacking in cultural responsiveness, they were excellent in developing intellectual creativity. Not well understood are the attendant experiences of cardiovascular risk for particular students.
Future career aspirations often hang in the balance for many youth and their families. For African American families in particular, the choice is a difficult one. Research has demonstrated that African American parents have similar and unique expectations from private school education compared to non-Black parents (Slaughter, Johnson, Schneider, 1998) and have a long history of enrolling their children in African American independent schools (Foster, 1992; Domotey, 1992; Ratteray, 1992; Ratteray & Shujaa, 1987). These schools are known for filling the gaps in education within a segregated South and doing so in a culturally relevant manner, despite the reality that these still suffered from inadequate facilities and equipment. There is less information known, however, about the unique experiences of African American children in predominantly White independent schools. Often the choice is saddled with parental concerns that while the predominantly white private school experience is academically rigorous, it is one that is often intolerant of the unique cultural expressions and needs of their children of color (Brookins, 1988), especially African American males. Of course, infrequently considered are the related socioecological stresses (e.g. Hargurg et al, 1973) and their relationship to physical health and coping.
The Frustrating Barrier of Negative Image Projection. Unfortunately, the image of African American males on the media landscape is one that projects a negative, hostile, aggressive young man. This image is not without impact on young males within private or public school systems. The belief that teachers and other school officials may hold to these negative perceptions represent pressures, imagined or real, on the mental health of Black males. Several reports of teacher fears of teaching in the inner city are powerful when one considers the significant impact this has on the identity formation of young growing minds. The larger society's fears of Black males are not invisible to young African American minds who may behave in a number of ways to avoid stimulating this fear or conversely, to challenge or ignite it. Either of these behavioral coping strategies, to avoid or fuel interracial conflict, can be seen as identity coping and striving, which Cunningham (1994), Cunningham & Spencer (1996), and Spencer and Cunningham (in-press) identify as reactive coping. Exaggerated images of African American violence promote detrimental psychological consequences for young men and women (Jones, 1992; Stevenson, 1993). The image of the Black male teen is portrayed as aggressive and criminal and influences how these young men develop gender identities. These images are both rebelled against and appropriated to demonstrate power within powerless neighborhood and family contexts (Anderson, 1990).
Many family researchers have discovered that negative image projection of Black males is prevalent within the school context in very subtle ways. There is significant parental concern about the safety and well-being of African American boys compared to girls because the boys are often misinterpreted and targeted by a number of social agencies including schools and police as belligerent, aggressive, and hostile troublemakers… inferences not missed by black boys (see Cunningham & Spencer 1996; Spencer 1995; Spencer, Cunningham & Swanson 1995). As such, these young boys are endangered and extra protection or increased protective racial socialization messages toward the boys are given in order to prepare these boys for racial hostilities directed at them. One would suspect cumulatively experienced psychosocial reactions that compromise physical health and adaptive coping responses. The perception of African American boys as endangered and vulnerable for calamity has also been found within other research on the concerns of poor African American mothers who live in violent neighborhoods (Stevenson & Abdul-Kabir, 1996). This information on endangerment coincides with information that African American boys faire worse academically in independent school settings compared to their peers.
Coping with Stress of Fitting into the School Context The pressure to succeed academically given one's status as an oppressed minority raises the stress level for African American males. The coping strategies of African American and biracial males in independent and private schools are not well known. Two related concepts that help to explain the psychological pressure of African Americans in predominantly white contexts are racelessness and stereotype vulnerability. Racelessness is the disavowal of any distinctive cultural expressions or characteristics in order to succeed academically in predominantly white independent school contexts (Fordham, 1991). Stereotype vulnerability impacts upon African Americans because it represents the fear of confirming a particular wrongful and negative stereotype of one's culture held by the majority culture (e.g., playing basketball or sports might confirm that one is a jock or asking for a tutor would mean one is not intellectually talented or being a Black student would trigger one to believe that he was admitted to an elite school because of race, not talent (Steele & Aronson, 1996). Both racelessness and stereotype vulnerability underlie the stress of African American boys who either wish to challenge or fit conflict-free into the private school climate. One can imagine the incredible but unique pressure these dynamics place upon males who self-identify as biracial and who often feel caught between two racial worlds. They often find situating their racial identity equally or more challenging than those students who self-identify as African American. Some coping methods related to racelessness and stereotype vulnerability include a refusal to participate in athletic activities, attempts to mute one's cultural distinctiveness in behavior and language, and engagement in psychological strategies to reject one's cultural and family history within one's educational strivings and work.
Research has demonstrated that racelessness and stereotype vulnerability are not inconsequential or lacking in public or private school contexts. The classic study on self-fulfilling prophecy was by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968). Schneider and Shouse found that teachers were more likely to describe African American students as working below their ability. Moreover, the teachers were more likely to view a lack of motivation, interest and persistence from African Americans "behavior problems." Grant & Sleeter (1986) observed that teachers who do not embrace pluralism as an ethic will not integrate it in the classroom and instead will view it as an obstacle and attempt to overcome it, holding to color blindness as the moral ethic of classroom management.
It should be noted that often schools verify and reconstitute the hierarchical and discriminatory stratification existing in the larger society and the school atmosphere as a socializing agent often exists to help students re-enter that same society (Nieto, 1992). Therefore, teachers expectations are not the only source of stress for African American students. It is the very way in which educational context and curricula is structured, including the dynamics of multiple daily social interactions. It is for this very reason that qualitative strategies will serve a very useful role in understanding the deep structure of coping for African American or biracial boys in the independent school context.
Cultural psychologists have speculated that the increase of referrals or the preponderance of referrals of African American boys for counseling, psychological testing, or behavioral reprimand is the result of a cultural synchronization between what children of color respond to at home compared to school (Irvine, 1990). These style differences could relate to language, reliance upon authority figures, independent and creative thought, interpersonal style orientation, and affective expression to name a few. The mismatch between what independent schools officials perceive and what parents of children of color know about a child's behavior often becomes an issue of conflict when an obviously bright child is demonstrating interpersonal or social difficulties in the classroom or in other social activities. Compounded upon this cultural discontinuity is the incredibly few African American students compared to whites. The lack of density of students of color in many private schools may exacerbate the alienation of children of color further. This is particularly true for African American youth who come from families who actively socialize their children about racial dynamics and bias. Parents of African American or biracial children are shocked at the incredible discrepancy between how well Black children have performed in other schools or other interpersonal contexts (e.g., home and neighborhood) compared to their children's private school experience. For many parents, it is imperative that they get help for their children's academic or psychological struggles, but from a professional (sometimes African American or not) who understands cultural strengths and differences and will not be negatively biased as to the apparent diversity of expressions that children of color are likely to present.
Parental Involvement and Racial Socialization as Mediating Factors in Academic Success Parental doubts about the differential experiences that children of color will experience is well documented (Brookins, 1988; Johnson, 1988; Slaughter & Johnson, 1988; Stevenson, 1994). African American parents often feel they have to add something that private schools often fail to include in the educational curriculum and school climate (Stevenson, 1994). That something is an awareness of racism and an appreciation of African American cultural pride. Moreover, these concerns exist even in predominantly African American private schools. Slaughter and Johnson found that in three independent private schools most of the parents (83%) felt the need to proactively socialize their children to deal with racial coping. The implications of these findings suggest that families do feel the need to add to their children's education. Some of the research on racial socialization, parenting, and family processes within African American communities suggests that a significant degree of parenting differs for boys and girls out of a fear that males are at-risk for wrongful perceptions by institutional authority figures.
While we understand that Black parents attempt to add what they feel private schools are unable to provide (Stevenson, 1994), there still remains a lack of understanding about the nexus of private school climate, curriculum, interactions that may contribute to the alienation of males of African descent and cumulative cardiovascular risk internalized although unacknowledged over time. How do African American boys cope with being different in this context? What are the strategies they use to address subtle and/or overt demonstrations of either hostility or nervous acceptance of their difference? Are African American girls undergoing similar struggles or are they experiencing life in a private school differently than the boys? For those boys who do well, what resilience factors (i.e., interpersonal, parental, individual) are contributing to their success?
Given a climate of cultural alienation, color blindness, and achievement pressures, we are concerned about the mental health and social adjustment of African American youth in independent schools. However, given the support for academic excellence, stronger teacher-student interactions, increased academic benefit, and academic support, there is hope for this context to provide for Black males a vehicle for future success. Both maladjustment and success are the topic of this study.
Theoretical Perspectives Margaret Spencer has adapted Brofanbrenner's ecological model to fit more directly to the life experiences of minority youth. The salient aspects of this model presuppose that Black youth make meaning of their experiences as individuals interacting with their context. Spencer's phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) presupposes five components; risk contributors, stress engagement, coping methods, emergent identities, and life stage outcomes. Markstrom-Adams & Spencer, 1994; Spencer, 1995; SpencerDupree, & Hartmann, in-press). This model advances the understanding of and intervention with the phenomenological experiences of minority youth (refer to Figure 1 under the PO1 description.
· Risk contributors include variables of race, sex, SES (e.g., poverty), physical status (e.g., early maturation), racism and gender discrimination.
· Stress engagement variables include neighborhood stress, social supports (or their absence), and daily hassles.
· Coping methods as stipulated by Spencer (1995) may be reactive or stable psychosocial responses.
The former includes,
· maladaptive problem-solving strategies such as exaggerated sex role orientation (e.g., bravado),
· reactive ethnocentrism
· personal orientation (e.g., social superiority) and
· adaptive solutions such as achieved social status, interpersonal competence/confidence, and self acceptance.
The latter,
· stable psychosocial coping responses,
· acknowledge youth's emergent identities and
· the need to integrate cultural goals and
· perceived available means (e.g., cultural/ethnic, sex role, and personal identity integration).
This model appreciates the phenomenological experiences of youth through the use of qualitative and quantitative measurement and by understanding the different vantage points of multiple constituencies (e.g., Black males, parents, teachers, school support staff, and alumni). Within this model of resiliency, we can surmise that despite stressful contexts, youth perceive and respond to life-threatening events differently depending upon the meaning they ascribe to the situation. [Courbarino?] et al, 1992; Spencer, 1995; Spencer, Cunningham & Swanson, 1995; Spencer, Dupree & Hartmann, in-press). The daily hassles or fears that come from functioning in racially stressful environments can be debilitating to some but motivational to others, despite the cumulative detrimental effect of exposure to racial bias. It is the attendant and cumulative psychosocial risk that this project proposes to explore at the pilot level.
Hypotheses and Research Questions
The goal of this project is to understand how African American male students integrate their cultural identities with their academic strivings. This dynamic constitutes the context under which mental health resources are stretched to the limit. One hypothesis is that students who receive clear messages about their cultural identities or who have adopted a pro-cultural socialization identity orientation will show more adjusted mental health outcomes than Black male students who have not received these messages or adopted a pro-cultural identity orientation. So within the PVEST model, our goal is to analyze the identity integration of the Black males by observing and measuring their responses to mental health outcome measures of anger expression, emotional adjustment, coping, and self-esteem. In addition, we will explore cardiovascular reactivity for the expression of the mental health themes noted.
To address this primary hypothesis and concomitant questions, a multidimensional perspective is warranted. That is, school climate, curriculum, and social interactions are the responsibility of several systems including peers, teachers, parents, and alumni. Each of these groups has a different vantage point from which to understand potential barriers for African American males to succeeding well or potential strengths that promote the resilient and successful adjustment of these males through the private school experience. Jerry Johnson, M.D. is an internist who has enjoyed longstanding interest in Blacks' cardiovascular health. He will provide the support for turning our psychosocial focus into [?-]psychological commitment.
Preliminary Findings
Preliminary Findings on the Success of African American Males (SAAM) Study -Qualitative Data
Over the last 18 months, Stevenson (1997) has conducted a preliminary qualitative evaluation of the major issues facing African American males and their parents. This evaluation has involved focus groups and interviews with parents, the males, and other students of color around the topic of adjustment in independent school settings. This initial evaluation has demonstrated the following:
Black Males Many black males are first generation private school students and carry the burden of family's need for success, but they may also receive great psychological confidence if they master this task or overcome this hurdle. Compared to other ethnic groups, a higher percentage of them are from low-income neighborhoods and/or families and feel the social and psychological pressure of not having lots of financial resources. Many students report the major discrepancy between the neighborhoods they live in and the schools they go to. Often this discrepancy is characterized by the negative social comments make by peers from both environments during normal interactions. This dual pressure cooker experience demonstrates that Black males must code-switch with accuracy or risk great social rejection.
Many students feel that their teachers undervalue their knowledge and assume they do not know was much as others. African American boys report changes in social interactions as puberty sets in and physiological changes are observed by peers and their peers' families. The boys and their families report that the boys were asked to participate in "sleepovers" and "group overnight-trips" when they were young but they were no longer asked once pubertal changes (i.e., voice and body size) occurred. The boys reported frustration and anger regarding these experiences.
Because of the small numbers within an entire population, it is possible that there are either no persons of color or bunches of boys within a certain grade. These cohort effects bring a unique struggle to the measurement of adjustment within school context. Finally, some students report that they are not happy at private school but stay because of their parents' wishes and dreams.
Parents Parents report wanting to know other Black parents in the schools. Parents report feeling concerned that the students are bright but they are not performing up to their ability. They report being concerned that the students are not getting adequate cultural socialization about how to survive as an African American. Parents worry about their children receiving excellent educational chances to succeed while compromising their cultural identity development. Other parents are providing their children with opportunities they may not have had and thus may overemphasize the achievement aspect and play down the needs for cultural identity development. Parents often involve themselves with the school with stances somewhere between the "So Glad to Be Here" and "Radical Consumer" stances. More tend to be at the "So Glad to Be Here" (Thank God I Made It) then the other and may be less inclined to hold schools accountable for adequate education or adequate academic support when Black males get into academic difficulty.
All Constituencies (Alumni, Parents, Students) We have observed a phenomenon called Racism Stress Resistance. For the African American respondents, when initially asked, some reported having no concerns about racial or gender discrimination at their alma mater. For even those who were successful, we realized that their negative experiences were significantly muted or denied. Upon requestioning and with the opportunity to hear the experiences of males who did remember racist or sexist experiences, those in denial were able to remember racially stressful experiences. This delay is remarkable because we find the same phenomenon among African American mothers on welfare in the most dilapidated sections of the inner city. It is a resistance to facing or admitting the harmful emotional effects of racial or gender discrimination. The subconscious purpose is to protect the individual from the pain of the experiences and from the fear that admitting these painful experiences will ruin the positive ones. However, little is known about the physical health costs of sustained and often unaddresssed, biopsychosocial risk experienced particularly in private schools which frequently provides a context of psychological discontinuity (e.g., Brookins, 1987 and Harburg et al (1973).
Preliminary Findings from Margaret Spencer's Research on Black Males -Quantitative Findings
Spencer (1997) has demonstrated a number of outcomes to African American male adjustment in public school settings within the Atlanta public school system. The findings are relevant to this current project. In her southeastern-based longitudinal research project effort entitled, The Promotion of Academic Competence project (PAC), Spencer and colleagues found that three factors served primarily as predictors of behaviors for low-income African American youth. These three factors include 1) developmental crises and stressors as students transition from middle childhood to adolescence; 2) ethnicity, gender, and context-specific experiences (i.e., urban); and 3) stage-related academic and social developmental tasks. In this project, 562 students were followed from 4 middle schools (6th, 7th, and 8th grades) to over 40 high schools. Males made up 70% of the sample and the project was concerned about the predictors for resiliency. Significant numbers of measures were rescaled for this sample including the Racial Identity Attitude Scale, Child Behavior Checklist, Neighborhood Assessment of Community Characteristics (Youth Self-Report version), Personal Attributes Questionnaire, Student Perceived Parental Monitoring, and the Abbott Adjective Checklist, Learning Preference Scale (Students), Life Satisfaction Scale, Environmental Risk Scale, Intellectual Achievement Responsibility, and The Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey. The benefit of rescaling these measures is remarkable given the desperate need for measures to be reliable and valid for the populations they are given to.
In Spencer's public school research projects several outcomes on male competency in areas of athletics, academics, and home chores are relevant. One issue is that girls perceive their engagement in activities as high, higher than boys do, except in the are of sports competency. Those males that reported average to above average competencies in athletics, academics, or family household duties tended to have higher self-esteem, less depression, greater peer popularity, and life satisfaction. Sports competency was significantly associated with higher self-esteem among males. With respect to high school completion of Black males, several middle school factors were significant predictors including taking personal responsibility for academic performance, higher perceptions of peer popularity, that teacher's thought positively of them, that parents were knowledgeable about and monitored their activities, interests, friends, and social interactions (Spencer, 1997).
With respect to racial identity and perceived race relations, high school dropouts were more likely to :
1) perceive Whites as hierarchically positioned as dominant in American culture.
2) endorse the notion that Blacks are not as smart or as attractive as Whites;
3) believe that Whites express themselves better than blacks;
4) subscribe to the view that Blacks should become part of the White world;
5) participate in an exaggerated bravado or macho sex role stereotype;
6) believe their teachers have negative perceptions of them;
7) experience unpopularity with peers; and
8) tend to hold aggressive attitudes toward interpersonal problem solving.
To date, no study has undertaken the task of understanding the phenomenological mental health experiences of African American or biracial males within the independent school context from qualitative and quantitative perspectives.
Research Design and Methods
This study seeks to understand the psychological adjustment issues of African American boys in five independent private schools within the Philadelphia area. The pilot aspect of this project is its inclusion of blood pressure monitoring for determining an expression of stress as cardiovascular reactivity. The goal is to begin in January of 1998 and to complete the study by December of 2003. The plan is to interview African American boys and girls, selected teachers, parents, alumni, and support staff using a qualitative open-ended question format. There will be objective scales collected from parents and students regarding academic motivation, psychological stress, home, school, and neighborhood self-esteem, and racial socialization frequency. To offset potential concerns about blood pressure monitoring by Univ.of Pennsylvania third and fourth year medical students, participating students will be enlisted as participants in a Health Information-dissemination Project (HIP). Without a doubt, longstanding concerns, in and out of the African American community itself, remain about African Americans' high risk status (Anderson & McNeilly 1993; Myers & McClure 1993).
The initial phases of the study will involve enlisting the input of school headmasters, counselors, and administrative personnel. Their thoughts about this study will be vital in developing a partnership throughout the investigation. School heads have been trying to address issues of diversity within their respective schools and these strategies must be understood, collected, and analyzed. The potential benefit of the study to all key personnel should be explicit. The next step in the study will be the approval of the measures and questions by school personnel. Questions may be added from the school's perspective that will aid in the understanding of African American male adjustment in the classroom. The next step will involve the gathering of basic historical and demographic information on the graduation, retention, and recruitment rates of students of color, preferably over the last five years, but going back to the first enrollees of color within the school's history. Other vital bits of information include the level of involvement of parents of color in the life of the school and the school's varied activities. Finally, initial data collected will include events or incidents of diversity conflicts and triumphs over the last 5-10 years that represent the school's struggle with diversity or African American male academic adjustment.
Both quantitative and qualitative measurement will be directed at parents, children, and alumni. We expect to go into the homes of parents and perhaps alumni if they live in the Philadelphia area. Most of the teachers will be interviewed qualitatively with open-ended questions that focus on their perceptions of the adjustment struggles, successful and unsuccessful strategies to address poor academic adjustment, and school climate issues. Some of the key questions for parents include their decision processes to enroll their children in private school, satisfaction with the school, concerns about social status issues (i.e., gender, race, diversity), and their conversations about school with their children. Alumni will be queried regarding their experiences while enrolled in private school and their suggestions for changing their experiences. In addition, the relationship between one's private school experience and the subsequent career success will be broached. Children will be asked about their adjustment and girls will be included as a way to understand if there are differential experiences for this population. This also allows us to understand if African American girls observe gender differences if they exist, a phenomenon that has happened in other schools in the principal investigator's experience.
East Ed acknowledges the authors of copyrighted articles that appear on this site. Permission to reprint all or part of any article must be obtained in writing from East Ed.