Defense Date
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Counseling Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Shawn Jones
Second Advisor
Dr. Jamie Cage
Third Advisor
Dr. Chelsea Williams
Abstract
As Murry and colleagues (2018) note, racism serves as a family-level stressor, impacting both Black adolescents and their parents. As Black teens continue to experience frequent and varied racism experiences (English et al., 2020), their Black parents are facing a double challenge: bearing the weight of their own experiences with racism, while also parenting a Black adolescent through the same. Recent frameworks (e.g., Gilligan et al., 2018) highlight the linked experiences of Black families, in dealing with their stress and coping. As such, the current study aimed to explore the ways that both adolescent and parental experiences with racism related stress (RRS) (i.e., institutional, individual, and cultural) influenced their own and one another’s coping styles (i.e., engaged, disengaged, humor, religious, and substance use). 182 Black parent (83.5% mothers)-adolescent (54.4% female) dyads’ experiences with RRS and coping experiences were assessed using the IRRS and Brief COPE. Actor Partner Interdependence Modeling analyses revealed that youth’s own experiences with individual and institutional racism influenced their use of disengaged, humor, and substance use coping strategies. Adolescents were also found to be influenced by their parents' experience of each type of RRS to use all of the coping strategies except substance use. Parents’ own experiences with each type of RRS influenced their use of engaged coping. Subsequently, teens’ experience with individual and institutional racism influenced their parents to utilize humor, disengaged, and substance use coping strategies. Scientific and clinical implications of the findings are discussed, as well as areas for future research.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-10-2024