Thriving among African-American Adolescents: Religiosity, Religious Support, and Communalism

Abstract

While research has identified some positive factors in the lives of African-American adolescents, there is limited, yet growing, empirical research examining how positive factors foster thriving for these youth. Using a positive youth development framework, we examined naturally occurring factors that promote thriving among African-American adolescents. This cross-sectional study included 152 youth who were surveyed at five Black churches in a large Midwestern city. Using MPlus, the structural regression model results revealed support for a model that demonstrated religiosity, religious support, and communalism are significantly and directly related to thriving among African-American adolescents. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed. Moving from a deficit lens to a strengths-based approach can facilitate understanding of developmental processes and provide a foundation for supporting and enhancing positive outcomes among African-American adolescents.