3-220 - Coping, Ethnic Identity, and Empowerment: Innovative Interventions Building Pathways to Resilience in At-Risk Preadolescents

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Resilience research has established the ability of promotive factors to disrupt the trajectory from risk exposure to negative psychological/behavioral outcomes. Resilience-based preventive interventions focus on enhancing both internal factors (assets) and external factors (resources) to promote positive youth development. Recent research shows that interventions focusing on youth empowerment or engagement in prosocial involvement are vital as they integrate assets and resources by fostering both individual and contextual attributes needed for healthy development. The papers in this symposium represent studies of resilience-based interventions that integrate the enhancement of coping skills and racial/ethnic identity (assets); adult mentors, parental relationships, and afterschool activities (resources); and community and prosocial involvement (integration). The interventions are at different stages of development from feasibility studies to RCTs and examine promotive factors at the environmental, social, and individual level. In addition, the research focuses on the important developmental period of preadolescence and on context specific interventions for youths facing multiple risk factors. Hence, this collected body of work, which capitalizes on exciting advances in resilience theory and positive youth development, exemplifies a new generation of resilience research. The symposium will end with an eminent discussant who will elaborate on the intersection of the interventions and research implications.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Ashley McDonald, Pennsylvania State University

Discussant

• Patrick Tolan, University of Virginia

Individual Presentations

• The Cities Mentor Project: Connecting Low-Income Urban Youth with Mentoring, Coping Skills, and Protective Settings - Presenting Author: Alexandra Barnett, DePaul University; Jordan Horwath, DePaul University; Rachael Suffrin, DePaul University; Sophia Nichole Duffy, DePaul University; Kathryn E Grant, DePaul Univ

• Enhancing Racial Identity and Prosocial Intentions in African American Boys Through a Parenting Program for Nonresident Fathers - Presenting Author: Cleopatra Howard Caldwell, Schl of Public Hlth-Univ of Michigan; Shervin Assari, University of Michigan; Alvin Thomas, University of Michigan

• Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of the Building a Strong Identity and Coping Skills (BaSICS) Program - Presenting Author: Emile Tilghman-Osborne, Pennsylvania State University; Sarah E.D. Perzow, Penn State; Ashley McDonald, Pennsylvania State University; Martha E Wadsworth, Pennsylvania State University