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A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Strengths of Black Youths

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nicolagu{at}bc.edu.

	Abstract

The strengths of Black youths lie in their abilities to resist the barriers that they encounter in the various environments in which they exist. Yet the media and social science literature have defined the youths in terms of the pathology of their environments rather than focusing on the assets that Black youths use in such environments. Thus, terms such as inner city, urban, and at-risk are used as proxies for the youths’ personality attributes and themes, such as violence, substance abuse, school underachievement, and family instability are used to define their life experiences. In doing so, the literature suggests that the negative behaviors that it ascribes to Black youths are normative in actuality. In this article, a new framework for understanding the assets of Black youths is provided. The framework highlights the role of racial socialization in the youths’ development of strengths that allow them to cope effectively with barriers.

First published on June 6, 2008, doi:10.1177/0095798408316794

Journal of Black Psychology 2008;34:261.

A more recent version of this article appeared on August 1, 2008


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