Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1196, MO 63130, St. Louis, USA.
University of Missouri, Missouri, USA.
J Prev (2022). 2023 Jun;44(3):325-339. doi: 10.1007/s10935-023-00726-2. Epub 2023 Feb 27.
Social competence, which is the ability to demonstrate socio-emotional behavior skills, is crucial during adolescence with far-reaching implications across the lifespan. However, social competence development among youth is greatly influenced by social inequities, which places many Black American youth at a disadvantage due to the disproportionate burden on youth development in resource-constrained environments. Responsively, we sought to determine whether Afrocentric cultural norms (i.e., Ubuntu) and goal orientation contribute to the resilience of Black youth in developing social competence while controlling for social positions (i.e., social class and gender). For this study, we used the dataset of black boys and girls (average age of 14.68) from the Templeton Flourishing Children Project. Linear regression analysis followed by mediation analysis was conducted to identify the factors associated with higher degrees of social competence. Significant study findings indicate that Black youth reporting higher goal-oriented mindsets reported higher social competence scores. Goal orientation and social competence were mediated by Ubuntu, with the model explaining 63% variance in social competence in Black youth. The findings suggest prevention efforts that provide socialization centered around Afrocentric cultural norms may provide valuable means of bolstering social competence development in Black youth living in resource-constrained communities.
社会能力，即表现社会情感行为技能的能力，在青少年时期至关重要，对整个生命周期都有深远的影响。然而，社会能力的发展在很大程度上受到社会不平等的影响，由于资源有限的环境对青年发展的不成比例负担，许多美国黑人青年处于不利地位。有鉴于此，我们试图确定以非裔中心文化规范（即 Ubuntu）和目标取向是否有助于黑人青年在发展社会能力时具有韧性，同时控制社会地位（即社会阶层和性别）。在这项研究中，我们使用了来自坦普尔顿繁荣儿童项目的黑人男孩和女孩（平均年龄为 14.68 岁）的数据集。我们进行了线性回归分析和中介分析，以确定与更高程度的社会能力相关的因素。研究结果表明，报告具有更高目标导向思维模式的黑人青年报告具有更高的社会能力得分。目标取向和社会能力被 Ubuntu 中介，该模型解释了黑人青年社会能力中 63%的变异。研究结果表明，以非裔中心文化规范为中心的社会化预防措施可能为资源有限社区中生活的黑人青年提供增强社会能力发展的有价值手段。
