II. Methods
The data were drawn from a longitudinal study addressing resiliency among low-income adolescents: Promoting Academic Competence (PAC; Spencer, 1988). Approximately 3,000 adolescents completed a twenty-minute self-report survey. Students came from four middle schools in a large southeastern urban city. From this sample, students were randomly selected to participate in the project. The student population of the middle schools was primarily African American. Three of the four middle schools had a student population of over 90 percent African American. The fourth school included over 60 percent African American students. According to parent-reported family income information and free school lunch participation, 58 percent of the subjects’ families met federal poverty guidelines. Over 40 percent of the students were at least one standard deviation below the national poverty level for a family of four.
Each student completed a battery of group-administered surveys. Surveys were administered during the academic year. The surveys were read to respondents to control for varying levels of reading ability. The majority of the survey administrators were the same race as the participants. The demographic data collected were part of an in-home parental interview conducted in the third year of the study.
The original sample included 370 boys and 192 girls in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Participants’ ages at the onset of the study ranged from 11 to 15 years. The data used for this study came from measures administered to students participating in the fifth year of the study including 332 African American 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students, 280 males and 125 females. Thirty-three percent of the adolescents lived in mother headed households.
Measures
Future orientation was assessed by a measure consisting of 23 items ( = .89). The measure ascertains adolescents’ perception of their future accomplishments and experiences in the domains of education, occupation, self, family, and the community. Students were asked "Ten years from now how likely…" are particular events to occur. Items included such events as "have a high school diploma/GED, have a good job, have a positive attitude towards life." The response category was the likelihood of various experiences occurring in ten years, rated on a four-point scale, ranging from "not thought about it" to "very likely to occur."
Demographic variables included grade, gender, and SES. Grade represents the students’ year in school including 10th, 11th, or 12th. Gender was self-reported by the participant. SES was obtained by the participants’ parents in the third year of the study. The variable consists of mother’s and father’s education in average years and mother’s occupation. Mother’s occupation was based on census criterion for occupation classification. Father’s occupation was not included due to the low number of reported cases.
Academic Achievement was measured by the adolescents’ high school grade point average (GPA). The score was an average of the adolescents’ performance in English, Social Studies, Math, and Science, obtained from school records.
III. Results
To summarize the findings of this research the major results are presented below. The findings begin with a description of the future orientation of these African American adolescents. Second, the relationship between future orientation and academic achievement is outlined, followed by emergent gender differences.
What is the future orientation of low-income African American adolescents? Reviewing the frequencies per item on the future orientation measure shows that a majority of these adolescents have a positive future orientation in several key domains of their life (See Figure 1). Specifically, more than 70 percent of the participants reported that some life events were "somewhat" or "very likely" to occur. Life events incorporated personal, educational, and community-level domains. In regards to the personal domain, items included be proud of yourself, have a positive attitude toward life and be a role model for youth. In the educational domain having a high school diploma or GED and having a college degree were included. In the area of community, items included play a positive role in your community, support the community you now live in, and be a support for senior citizens. Overall, these African American adolescents had a positive future orientation across several domains of their life.
The second research question addressed future orientation as an important indicator of resiliency. There were two main findings: Future orientation significantly predicted academic achievement, while controlling for demographic variables and females were more future-oriented than males about their occupation. In addition, an interesting relationship between future orientation, academic achievement, and gender was identified. Mainly, African American males were much more likely to be low in both academic achievement and future orientation than their female peers. In sum, the following findings were observed from the data:
•More than 70% of the African American adolescents’ future orientation included positive expectations in personal, educational, and community-level domains.
•African American females and males were similarly high in their future orientation in education and self domains.
•Females were more likely to expect to have a good job in ten years compared to males.
•Overall, more males were low in future orientation compared to females. Mainly, 40% of the males were low in future orientation compared to only 10% of the females.
•Students with a high future orientation also had a higher grade point average (GPA) than those students who were low in future orientation.
•Future orientation predicted academic achievement (GPA), while controlling for SES, grade, and gender.
•Females high in future orientation had the highest GPA, followed by males with high future orientation, females with low future orientation, and the lowest GPA found for males with low future orientation (See Figure 2).
To further examine future orientation case profiles were developed (See Table 1). Four participants, 2 male and 2 female, were selected for analysis, who were high and low in future orientation. Examining the four participants illustrates the main findings of the study. Those students high in future orientation were also higher in academic achievement and SES compared to their peers lower in future orientation. The case profiles also suggest a complicated relationship between future orientation, SES, and academic achievement. For example, the highest future-oriented male has the lowest SES value than any other case. This example suggests that in some instances future orientation may be functioning as a moderator: future orientation may be lessening the adversity of low-SES.
The generalizibility of the results should also be considered. The results of this research are applicable to those African American adolescents who are developing in high-risk urban environments. The results, however, may also apply to adolescents within other ethnic groups who develop in similar communities. In addition, SES and ethnicity were confounded because the participants were all African American and from a primarily low-SES. Therefore, the results do not represent all African American or all low-SES adolescents.
IV. Conclusion & Implications
This section is organized as follows. First, future orientation as an indicator of resiliency is discussed. Second, gender differences in African American adolescents’ future orientation and academic achievement are described. Third, implications of this research for prevention and intervention programs are outlined.
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