Teenage Black Girls and Violence: Coming of Age in an Urban Environment

Abstract

Exposure to violence and fear of violence in relation to hopefulness and anger were investigated for 30 teenage Black girls 14 to 19 years of age. Information from focus groups was included to provide a context for the empirical data. Results indicated that overall the girls were hopeful, with a mean score of 135 (SD = 18.2) out of a possible score of 168. Correlation and regression procedures revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between hopefulness and exposure to violence. No significant relationship was found between anger and hopefulness. Fear of violence was positively related to exposure to violence but did not appear related to anger or hopefulness. The findings were mixed and did not capture the kind of hopelessness and anger which often appear in the literature describing children growing up in urban environments. Through the use of focus groups the teenage girls provided contextual information which seemed to indicate that many of them shared the values of mainstream society in terms of their future aspirations and assessment of their communities.

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