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

Available for download on Saturday, May 10, 2025

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