Culture and problem behaviors among inner-city African-American youth: further explorations

The present study examined connections between culture and problem behaviors among 119 inner-city African-American fifth and sixth graders. The relevant orientations of the Afrocultural, Anglocultural and marginalized minority realms of the African-American experience were considered in terms of mean endorsement, interrelationships, and relationships with aggressive and delinquent behaviors. Results indicated that youth endorsed the Afrocultural orientation of spirituality and the Anglocultural orientation of effort optimism most highly. Afrocultural orientations were positively associated with effort optimism, while the other Anglocultural orientations correlated positively with marginalized minority orientations. The Anglocultural orientation of person/object relations and the marginalized orientations of school rejection, and gang-related activity predicted problem behaviors. The Afrocultural orientations did not emerge as significant negative predictors of such behaviors. Findings are discussed primarily in terms of directions for future research.