Poverty Vs. Education: 4-6 pg essay

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The Journal o f Negro Education, 84{3), 254-268

Examining the Effects of Urban Neighborhoods on the Mental Health o f Adolescent African American Males: A Qualitative Systematic Review

Residing in high-risk urban neighborhoods has a significant impact on the optimal psychosocial development o f adolescent African American males. Living in these environments often increases exposure to economic distress and attendance at under-resourced schools, which may diminish opportunities fo r successful life outcomes. This qualitative systematic review examines how continuous exposure to high-risk neighborhoods affects the mental health o f adolescent African American males. Following the Preferred Reporting Items fo r Systematic Reviews and Meta- Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, twelve articles were systematically reviewed. Results suggest that African American male adolescents continuously exposed to negative characteristics within their neighborhoods display higher rates o f depression, and other symptoms o f psychological distress. However, further research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms in high-risk neighborhoods that are most salient in increasing their negative mental health symptoms.

Keywords: adolescents, African American males, neighborhoods, mental health outcomes

African American adolescents residing in urban neighborhoods face many disadvantages due to high rates of poverty, acts of violence and crime, gang activity, physical victimization, parents under stress, limited social supports, among other factors (Grant et al., 2005; Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Massey & Denton, 1993; Nebbitt & Lombe, 2008; Wilson, 1987 & 1996). Studies have found that when adolescents are continuously exposed to these many negative characteristics, they have higher rates of mental health symptoms, such as aggression, depression, anxiety, and stress which may impact their ability to excel academically (Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005; Hurd, Stoddard, & Zimmerman, 2013; Robinson, Paxton, & Jonen, 2011; Zimmerman et al., 2000). This is especially true for African American male adolescents more than African American females, who report higher incidents of exposure to violence, personal victimization, and antisocial behavior, all of which have been associated with higher levels of depressive symptomology and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Nebbitt & Lombe, 2008; Paxton et al., 2004; Robinson, Paxton, & Jonen, 2011).

Factors such as economic stressors, family stressors, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, and perceived future opportunity are often used to explain the variance in African American adolescents’ mental health (DuRant et al., 1995; Hammack et al., 2004; Hurd et al., 2013). However, even within urban neighborhoods, adolescent African American males may have differential exposure to mental health risk-factors based on neighborhood composition (e.g., crime and poverty levels), indicating that mental health status does not solely rely on an individual’s ability to cope when certain risk factors are experienced (DuRant et al., 1995; Hawkins et al., 1998; Hurd et al., 2013). With this understanding, the study will attempt to show how continuous exposure to neighborhoods experiencing extreme poverty and condensed minority populations, high exposure to violence and crime, unemployment/underemployment, and other characteristics of high-risk urban neighborhoods may impact the mental health of adolescent African American males.

Danielle M. Perry Karen M. Tabb Ruby Mendenhall

University of Illinois University of Illinois University of Illinois

254 ©The Journal o f N egro Education, 2015, Vol. 84, N o. 3

Challenges in Urban Neighborhoods

African American children are disproportionately more likely to live in urban neighborhoods plagued by the aforementioned characteristics, which are often described as high-risk urban neighborhoods, and experience persistent poverty due to economic shifts in American society (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Quillian,2014; Sharkey & Elwert, 2011). In 2013,38.3 percent of African American children under the age of 18 were living in poverty, compared to only 10.7 percent of non-Hispanic White children (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor 2014). Childhood poverty is problematic because research has established a relationship between low socioeconomic status and adverse mental health conditions in later life (Alegria, Molina, & Chen, 2014). This association is often mediated by factors, such as family stressors, and high levels of poor education and unemployment rates in the neighborhood, which are usually a part of the urban life experience (Hammack ct al„ 2004).

Living in poverty-dense neighborhoods also increases the likelihood of exposure to violence, threatening the cohesion and feelings of safety for neighborhood residents (Hawkins et ah, 1998; Shukla & Wiesner, 2015). Research findings demonstrate that adolescent African American males in high-risk urban neighborhoods are more likely to experience personal victimization, witness victimization against another person, and participate in problem behaviors that promote acts of violence or crime (Paxton et al., 2004). The relationship between exposure to violence and mental health problems has long been established (Fitzpatrick, 1993; Slopen et al., 2012; Wilson & Rosenthal, 2003). However, more recent research suggests that on average, between 70 percent to 90 percent of adolescent African American males living in what are described as high-risk urban neighborhoods are continuously exposed to violence in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods (e.g., knowing someone or witnessing someone being murdered, shot at, or physically assaulted), which is 2-3 times higher than the national average (Cooley-Strickland et al., 2009; Gardner & Brooks-Gunn, 2009; Paxton et al., 2004; Thomas ct al., 2012).

Family involvement is one factor that can either improve or worsen the negative effects of poverty and exposure to neighborhood violence on the mental health of adolescent African American males (Beyers et al., 2003). However, current census data show that about 67 percent of low-income African American families have female-only head of households, which has steadily increased over the last 30 years (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor 2014). This significantly impacts the family’s socioeconomic status. In fact, 46.3 percent of African American single-headed households are living in poverty (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor 2014).This can often contribute to increased family stressors, such as financial strain, which have been correlated to increased depressive and anxiety symptoms (DuRant et al., 1995; Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005).

Neighborhoods such as these that lack the infrastructure to promote healthy psychosocial development jeopardize the well-being of the children who grow up without essential resources (Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, & Duncan, 1994). By contributing to increased stress, decreased support for pro-social behavior, disintegration of extended families, and a higher tolerance for deviance, the achievement ideology of adolescent African American males in these environments can be severely impacted (Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, & Duncan, 1994; Sharkey & Elwert, 2011). Recent studies illustrate this by highlighting a 30%-60% income-achievement gap between children from the 90th percentile of family income versus children from the 10th percentile of family income (Reardon, 2011). While there are many neighborhood level factors that may contribute to this, some studies argue that these are merely confounding factors that can be used to explain the association between depression/depressive symptomology and academic underperformance (Fletcher, 2008).

Urban Neighborhoods and M ental Health

Previous studies have found an association between neighborhood disadvantage and mental health outcomes (Sagrestano et al., 2003; Sharkey & Elwert, 2011). However, as discussed by Alegria,

©The Journal o f Negro Education, 2015, Vol. 84, No 3 255

Molina, and Chen (2014) many of these investigations have failed to consider specific neighborhood contexts. While some research has explored the differences between high risk and low risk urban neighborhoods on the outcomes of adolescent African American males, some studies have ignored factors such as residential stability and cultural heterogeneity that can exist in some urban neighborhoods (Hammack ct al., 2004; Wandersman & Nation, 1998;). Urban environments with higher levels of affluence promote cumulative social support and greater perceptions of neighborhood cohesion, which has been associated with decreased depressive symptoms and other symptoms of psychological distress (Hurd, Stoddard, & Zimmerman, 2013; Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997). In order to better understand the prevalence of mental health problems in the most at-risk urban neighborhoods for adolescent African American males, a distinction should be made between neighborhood type and composition and mental health outcomes.

This systematic review sought to examine relevant literature in an effort to better understand how mental health symptoms may be triggered by continuous exposure to high-risk neighborhoods. Specifically, this study sought to examine what mental health problems are present among adolescent African American males who reside in high-risk urban neighborhoods.

M e t h o d s

This study is a descriptive qualitative systematic review that follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method (Moher et al., 2009).

Search Strategies

Two independent researchers searched PubMed, Psyclnfo, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Social Work Abstracts for published peer-reviewed articles during October of 2014. A combination of fifteen different search terms was used, including Black male youth (or Black men or Black male adolescents), mental health (or depression, delinquency, stress, or development) and neighborhoods (or poverty, urban communities, urban environments, or inner cities). No dale limitation was included in the term search. The combined results from this article search totaled 16,012. ENDNOTE™ software was then used to identify duplicates, resulting in 2,346 total articles from the term search.

Identification of Studies

The focus of the search was to identify articles that examined depression or mood as an outcome of living in a low-income high-risk neighborhood (i.e. high exposure to violence and crime, unemployment, and concentrated poverty). Therefore, the authors included studies that,

• discussed neighborhood and mood symptoms or disorders (e.g., depression), • discussed adolescent (i.e., aged 11-18) African American males, • provided ethnic differences in mood symptoms or disorders, and • provided gender/sex characteristics of the sample.

Neighborhood type was self-reported by article authors, and the neighborhood unit of measure had to be reported (i.e., census track, school attended, poverty-index/ neighborhood scale). Studies were excluded that,

• focused on mental health/ physical health issues not relevant to our questions, • did not mention place or space, race/ethnicity, or mood symptoms or disorders (e.g., depression), • age categories or birth cohort could not be determined, • only focused on interventions, and

256 ©The Journal o f Negro Education, 2015, Vol. 84, No. 3

• was a non-empirical paper (e.g., commentaries, research briefs), or conference abstract/ meeting report.

Studies that did not use purely quantitative methods (i.e., qualitative/mixed-method studies) were also excluded due to their inability to contribute accurate rates or numerical experiences of depression/depressive symptomology.

Using these search methods, the first author and a research assistant screened 2,346 titles, and removed 2,289 from this list. In order to keep the results relevant, articles written before 1990 were also excluded in the title screening. The first author, second author, and a research assistant then reviewed full abstracts for the remaining 57 titles, and removed articles that did not include “low- income urban neighborhoods,” “African American males,” “Depression or mood” or “correct age (11-18).” The first author reviewed the remaining 29 articles to determine if specific place or space of the study was identified, age categories or birth cohorts could be determined, and that depression/ mood was examined. This resulted in the removal of an additional 10 articles. Nineteen articles were then fully reviewed by the first and second author, and of these, 12 fit the study criteria and were included in the final analysis for this study. The PRISMA diagram shows the results from the search (Figure 1).

Figure 1. PRISMA Flow Diagram

©The Journal o f Negro Education, 2015, Vol. 84, No 3 257

Analysis

The lead author abstracted information on each of the twelve studies included in the full-text analysis independently into a spreadsheet. Abstracted study characteristics include race/ethnicity of the population being studied, setting of the population being studied, sample size, age of the participants being studied, diagnostic or screening measures for mental health and neighborhood type, as well as mental health outcomes and neighborhood problems identified in each study. This abstraction tool was used to draw conclusions and identify patterns across studies, including the most identified neighborhood problems, and what effect they had on the mental health status of the study participants.

Results

Table 1 shows the findings from our systematic review. Eight studies reported findings on depressive symptoms. Five studies reported findings on general psychological symptoms and psychological distress, and three studies reported findings on anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (See Table 1 for a complete breakdown of each studies’ findings).

Findings on Depressive Symptoms

Three different scales were used to measure depressive symptoms in this systematic review. Five studies used the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977), two studies used the Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI; Derogatis & Spencer, 1982), and one study used the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1984).

DuRant and associates (1995) interviewed 225 African American adolescents, including 99 males living in housing projects in Augusta, Georgia. Using the CDI, the mean depression score for the male sample was the lowest of all 12 articles at 7.45, SD 5.36. DuRant and colleagues (1995) reported that the top four contributors to depression include: (a) corporal punishment, (b) family conflict, (c) education level of head of household, and (d) improbability of being alive at 25. Subsequently, depression was positively correlated with corporal punishment (e .g .,r = .32), family conflict (e.g., r = .29), and exposure to neighborhood violence (e.g., r = .28). Higher depression levels were also associated with lower socioeconomic status of the adolescent’s head of household.

Hammack and others (2004) used school attendance at seven urban public high schools to measure neighborhood exposure on depressive symptoms using the CES-D. Any score higher than 16 is considered clinically significant for depression on this scale (Radloff, 1977). While the females in this sample were more likely to be clinically diagnosed with depressive symptoms, Hammack and associates. (2004) still found that 35 percent of the males (« = 271) scored higher than 16. They also found that higher poverty scores were associated with increased family stress. Subsequent analysis indicated that increased family stress was associated with higher levels of depression.

Hawkins and colleagues (1998) studied the relationship between attendance at non-public high schools and depressive symptoms using the CES-D. Using the criteria of 21 or higher to represent being at high risk for depression, the mean depression scores of males in this sample was 21.8, SD 9.9. Hawkins and others (1998) also found an association between adolescents having lower perceived future opportunity (e.g., belief in the ability to achieve success) and higher levels of depressive symptoms, which was more significant for males in their sample. No differences in depression scores were found across the participant’s attending different schools.

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Hurd and associates (2013) examined depression and anxiety symptoms among African American adolescents living in the Midwest. They found a 5% variance from the mean across neighborhood types in depressive symptoms according to the BSI. Living in a neighborhood with more African American residents that also had higher rates of residential stability produced lower rates of adolescents with depressive symptomology. However, living in a neighborhood with higher poverty and unemployment rates produced higher levels of depressive symptoms. Similarly, Paxton and colleagues (2004) and, Robinson, Paxton, and Jonen (2011) confirmed that neighborhood context matters due to the fact that exposure to community violence is significant on depressive symptoms. Within their sample, Paxton and associates (2004) found that 74% of African American males were exposed to neighborhood violence and there was a high risk for clinical depression found, with a mean score of 16.47, SD 9.02.

Zimmerman and colleagues (2000) found that parental support had a direct effect on the prevalence of depressive symptoms using the BSI in a sample of adolescent African American males, with a 12% variance from the mean when adolescents reported lower levels of parent support. Depression scores range from 6-30 on the BSI, with scores closer to 30 most at-risk for clinical diagnosis. They also found that 36% of their participants could be clinically diagnosed with depression at time one and 32% at time two. Stressful life events were found to predict more depressive symptoms, with an interaction effect found between parental support and stressful events in predicting depressive symptoms. A 3% variance from the mean was found in the effects for parental support in predicting depression over lime. However, displaying depressive symptoms was not a predictor for future parental support between time one and time two.

In a combined male/female sample, DuRant and others (1995) and Hawkins and associates (1998) were the only studies to find no gender significance in the depression scores. Across all the studies measuring depression, age was not a significant factor. However, Hammack and colleagues (2004) found that being younger was associated with reporting more family stress, and being older was associated with scoring higher on the poverty index.

Unlike all the other studies in this systematic review, Nebbitt and Lombe (2008) found that males had higher depression scores (x = 20) compared to a mean 18, SD I 1.4 in the entire sample. Male participants in this sample also reported severe depressive symptoms when they held favorable attitudes toward deviance (i.e., more likely to engage in delinquent behavior). Overall, based on these findings, it is evident that living in a high-risk urban neighborhood places African American male youth at risk for depressive symptomology.

Findings on General Psychological Symptoms and Psychological Distress

As shown in Table 1, some studies examined characteristics associated with depression and/or depressive symptoms such as hopelessness (DuRant et al., 1995; Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005), helplessness (Zimmerman et al., 1999), anger (Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005; Stevenson, 1997), aggression (Stevenson, 1997), ability to cope (Rasmussen, Aber, & Bhana, 2004; Stevenson 1997), adjustment (Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005), and purpose in life (DuRant et al., 1995). To measure these psychological outcomes, the authors used a combination of scales, including a 7-item personal helplessness scale (Pearlin et al., 1981) combined with the BSI, the State-trait Anger Expression Inventory (Spielberger, 2010) combined with the Fear of Calamity Scale (Stevenson, 1997), the Normative Beliefs About Aggression and Aggressive Behavior Scale (Huesmann & Guerra, 1997) combined with the General Interpersonal Aggression Scale (Lefkowitz, Eron, Walder, & Huesmann, 1977) and the Direct and Indirect Aggression Scales (Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz, & Osterman, 1992), the Danger Questionnaire (Rasmussen, Aber, & Bhana, 2004) combined with the Ways of Coping Scale (Folkman et al., 1986), as well as a 9-item Adolescent Negative Adjustment Scale (Furstenberg, 1999).

Stevenson (1997) measured ability to cope when exposed to at-risk neighborhoods (i.e., high- crime, unemployment, and residential instability), as well as anger expression and aggression responses. This study found that main effects exist primarily for African American adolescent

males who live in high-risk neighborhoods. For those who live in neighborhoods with lower crime and residential stability, anger expression can be reduced when calamity fears (i.e. the fear of personally experiencing violence and distress) are recognized. Even still, Stevenson (1997) reported higher than average anger experience and expression with African American male adolescents scoring in the 77th percentile for state anger, 70th percentile for trait anger, 72nd percentile for temperamental trait anger, 60th percentile for reactive trait anger, 50th percentile for anger suppression, and 83rd percentile for anger expression.

Gutman, McLoyd, and Tokoyawa (2005) found that neighborhood stress and financial strain contribute to parents’ psychological distress, which can contribute to the development of a positive or negative parent-child relationship. However, if adolescents develop a negative relationship with their parents, they are more likely to have higher rates of negative adjustments, which were found to contribute to an increase in depressive symptoms.

Rasmussen, Aber, and Bhana (2004) examined how students attending a Catholic high school coped when exposed to neighborhood violence. While the adolescent African American males in their sample reported higher rates of victimization than females, they were also more likely to have resourceful coping skills, including the ability to seek social support and to solve problems. Robinson, Paxton, and Joncn (2011) also found similar results when examining neighborhood violence, and report a strong relationship between aggression and exposure to violence. The adolescent African American males in this sample displayed emotional responses to continuous neighborhood violence, described as social-cognition and information-processing, which was related to displays of aggression.

DuRant and others (1997) examined hopelessness in African American adolescents residing in urban neighborhoods. They found that higher levels of hopelessness were associated with lower socioeconomic status of adolescents’ head of household (HOH), and their own lower anticipated socioeconomic status as an adult. However, family conflict explained the most variation in the hopelessness scale, followed by corporal punishment, and having an unemployed HOH.

Zimmerman and colleagues (1999) examined the effects of sociopolitical control on the mental health outcomes of adolescent African American males. They found a twenty-eight percent variance effect from the mean between sociopolitical control and personal helplessness on symptoms of anxiety and depression, with three percent variance from the mean attributed to the interaction term. This demonstrates that when the African American male adolescents in their sample felt that they were in control of their personal domain, they were more likely to have less psychological symptoms. Feelings of helplessness were found to be a risk factor for negative mental health outcomes. However, having feelings of sociopolitical control moderated the negative effects of personal helplessness on mental health outcomes. Within this sample, psychological symptoms increased the most as personal helplessness increased for youth with below average sociopolitical control.

Findings on Anxiety and PTSD

Two studies reported findings for anxiety (Hurd, Stoddard, & Zimmerman, 2013; Zimmcrmann et al., 2000) and used the BSI. In their study, Zimmerman and others (2000) found a correlation between parents’ education and youth anxiety levels. The authors reported that when higher levels of anxiety were predicted (a 5% variance from the mean), participants reported lower levels of parental support. A seven percent difference in effects was also found in parental support when predicting anxiety over time. However, anxiety was not found to be a predictor for future parental support between lime one and time two.

Hurd, Stoddard, and Zimmerman (2013) reported a four percent variance from the mean in anxiety symptoms across high risk and low risk neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that were found to have more African American residents and higher levels of residential stability had lower rates of adolescents with anxiety symptoms, while living in a neighborhood with higher poverty and unemployment rates yielded higher levels of anxiety. Due to the complex nature in which it is perceived that neighborhood factors iniluence adolescent mental health outcomes, direct effects of

neighborhood level variables were not found. However, significant effects were observed in the indirect pathway between neighborhood composition, social support/ perceived opportunity, and anxiety symptoms.

Just one study reported results for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) using the Checklist of Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms (Paxton et al., 2004). Similar to the other studies reviewed, they showed that exposure to violence was salient and normative in the sample. Of the 77 adolescent African American males in their study, 74 percent had directly witnessed violence, and 29.5 percent had personally experienced violence targeted toward them within the last three months. Paxton and associates (2004) also discovered that direct victimization and exposure to violence were significantly associated with PTSD symptoms. Pearson’s correlations also established a significant correlation between depressive symptoms and PTSD symptoms. In addition, age and the number of social supports available had significant effects on PTSD symptoms.

Discussion

The aim of this qualitative systematic review was to examine the role of urban neighborhoods described as high-risk on the mental health outcomes of adolescent African American males. Our results demonstrate that adolescent African American males living in neighborhoods with high exposure to violence and crime, unemployment, and concentrated poverty display higher rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, anger, and aggression. Our summary of findings also highlight community, family, and individual factors that allow adolescent African American males to experience less psychological distress, despite living in urban neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods with higher levels of residential stability and higher percentages of African American families served as a buffer against anxiety. The mechanisms associated with these findings may be related to lower levels of disruption in key friendship networks and the need for street safety strategies (DeLuca et al., 2011). In addition, African American adolescent males in predominantly White or integrated neighborhoods may be more likely to be stopped by the police for not looking like they “belong” in those neighborhoods than youth in mostly African American neighborhoods (DeLuca et al., 2011).

Another significant finding of this systematic review was that family composition played a critical role in the mental health outcomes of adolescent African American males. Even within the most at-risk neighborhoods, the ability to maintain positive parent-child relationships and adjustment to adverse conditions demonstrated a reduction in depressive symptomology. This is significant when considering intervention strategies for improving the psychological well-being of adolescent African American males in urban neighborhoods. Increasing essential supports to families (e.g., jobs, education, mental health services) can increase positive adolescent adjustment and their ability to cope with adverse environments.

On an individual level, a key finding is that when adolescent African American males felt that they were in control of their personal domain, they experienced less psychological distress symptoms (Zimmerman et al., 1999). Having a sense of sociopolitical control decreased feelings of helplessness. This finding in particular speaks to the critical need to find avenues and programs where African American males can engage in activities where they learn about the sociopolitical relationship between their race, class, gender (i.e., interlocking structures of oppression) and their lived experiences with unemployment/underemploymenl, poor housing, food insecurity, and poor quality schools (Collins 1990; Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, & Duncan, 1994).

Implications of Adverse Mental Health on Educational Attainment

Understanding how neighborhoods impact the mental health of adolescent African American males is extremely important for increasing their likelihood for successful educational outcomes. Research shows that when depression/depressive symptomology is diagnosed in adolescence, there in an increased risk of educational underachievement, including decreased performance on standardized testing and lower classroom performance ratings by teachers (Fletcher, 2008).

Adolescent African American males diagnosed with clinical depression or presenting symptoms of depression are also more likely to drop-out of school, further highlighting the association between depressive symptoms and the educational decisions of these adolescents (Fletcher, 2008). As African American males are already significantly at-risk to underperform academically in comparison to both African American females and White students, it is imperative that we have a better understanding of the mechanisms contributing to their psychosocial and academic outcomes.

Limitations

One important limitation of this study was the inconsistency of the instruments used to measure neighborhood residence and neighborhood poverty. Individual family poverty was assessed in five of the twelve studies. However, no singular instrument was used across the studies. In addition, individual family poverty levels are not an indication of neighborhood risk factors, or neighborhood poverty levels (Patillo, 2003). This may impact accurate prevalence ratings of depressive symptomology and other symptoms of psychological distress because, as earlier discussed, when neighborhood factors such as residential stability and employment opportunities exist, higher levels of psychological wellness are found.

Three different measurements were also used for neighborhood residence: (a) U.S. census data or census tracts, (b) residence in a particular housing project or geographical area, and (c) attendance at a targeted school. Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn (2000) asserted that nationally representative samples (i.e., census data) and multi-sites are useful tools when studying neighborhoods. However, only three studies used census data to describe the neighborhoods of their participants, and only three studies conducted a multi-site analysis.

While the effects of neighborhoods on the mental health outcomes of adolescent African American males remains a salient issue, very few studies lit the criteria for inclusion in this study; an indication that more focus needs to be made on the direct and indirect effects that factors such as neighborhood composition (racial make-up, poverty levels, residential stability, employment rates, etc.) have on the youth in these environments during a critical stage in their developmental trajectory.

Future Implications

Although depressive symptoms varied across studies between adolescent African American males and females, it is also important to note the gender differences in risk factors for depression and other symptoms of psychological distress because these differences could have contributed to the differences in depression rates across studies. In the studies that reported gender differences, males had higher levels of aggression and anger experiences, but also reported better problem-solving skills. Within neighborhoods with the highest levels of crime, males reported feeling safer, even though they also reported higher levels of personal victimization. This demonstrates that adolescent African American males and females are experiencing their neighborhoods in different ways, which should be accounted for when measuring risk for depressive symptomology. Future studies should provide a closer examination of these relationships and their related mechanisms.

Conclusion

Continuous exposure to characteristics within urban neighborhoods, especially those described as high-risk (i.e., concentrated poverty, high crime and unemployment rates, residential instability, and high levels of victimization) has proven to increase depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, anger expression and aggression, stress, PTSD, as well as other psychological problems in adolescent African American males (Sampson, Raudenbush, & Farls, 1997; Sharkey & Elwerl, 2011). This has implications on the future successes of these youth by jeopardizing their psychosocial and academic well-being. Subsequently, this may limit their ability to excel academically due to poor neighborhood infrastructure and experiences with mental health problems, thereby affecting their adult social and economic trajectories. However, in order to understand this complex relationship, more research is needed that examines the nuances of ©The Journal o f Negro Education, 2015, Vol. 84, N o 3 265

adolescent African American males lived experiences as they navigate their immediate communities and more distal environments such as schools in different neighborhoods. Understanding the complexity of their lived experiences may require the development of a neighborhood measure that can accurately identify what aspects of the neighborhood challenge and promote the healthy development of adolescent African American males.

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in c lu d e d in systematic review in Table 1.

A u t h o r s DANIELLE M. PERRY is a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. KAREN M. TABB is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. RUBY MENDENHALL is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She holds joint faculty appointments in Sociology, African American Studies, Urban and Regional Planning, and Social Work.

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