Assessing the Impact of Family Process on Rural African American Adolescents' Competence and Behavior Using Latent Growth Curve Analysis.

Authors investigated the long-term effects of a family process program on social and cognitive competence and aggressive and deviant behavior among rural African American adolescents. Data were gathered from a 5-year study of 465 rural African American families. Participants were randomly assigned to either a 6-week family process group or a control group, and assessed at three time points: pretest, posttest, and long-term follow-up. Findings indicated that family processes influenced the status and changes in adolescent competence and behavior. In addition, analysis of covariant structures suggested that maternal depressive symptoms and financial problems indirectly arbitrate high-risk behavior among rural adolescents. Authors discuss implications for educational practice, policy, and achievement programs among rural African American families. The research presented in this article is an outgrowth of an ongoing programmatic investigation, conducted by the authors, that focuses on family predictors of competence and behavioral problems among African American youths living in the rural South. Systematic investigations of children and families in rural America are rare; even rarer are studies of rural African Americans. Rural African American families are at risk for unemployment, low wages, low educational levels, and substandard housing. The challenges confronting them are particularly significant because of the lack of facilities, amenities, and services that many urban families commonly have access (Wagenfeld, 1994). Many rural African American families live in conditions of chronic environmental stress that take a toll on their children, increasing the likelihood that the children will drop out of school and engage in high-risk behaviors at an early age. The specific objectives of this study are (a) to determine whether African American families who participated in the family-based prevention program, and have more routinized family environments, supportive mother-child relationships, and resources, will evince more competent children; (b) to explore the mechanisms through which family processes are linked with the self-regulatory and emotional regulatory processes that contribute to academic competence, psychosocial competence, and avoidance of high-risk behaviors, such as substance use among rural African American youths; and (c) to suggest implications for educational policy, family therapy, and adolescent resiliency programs. THE DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM The prevention program used in this research was based on a heuristic developmental model of family processes in rural African American homes that previous literature linked with adolescent competence and prosocial behavior. The literature suggests that substances use and other high-risk behaviors are part of a developmental process involving children's ability to regulate their behavior and emotions (Nye, Zucker, & Fitzgerald, 1995). Few family-focused prevention programs, however, are begun before the middle school or junior high years. This affords less time during which the prevention efforts can assist youths and their families to develop protective factors that foster academic achievement (Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992; lessor, 1993). For this reason, participation in the authors' program began when the children were 12-year-olds and families were followed until the children were 14-year-olds. Literature suggests that the period of ages 12 to 14 is a sensitive developmental stage during which healthy children build a sense of competence that will sustain them through the multiple transitions of adolescence (Hartup, 1984). Thus, their development during this time influences their achievement motivation, academic performance, and friendship selections; all of which help to form trajectories toward academic competence and away from behavioral problems (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Wills, McNamara, Vaccaro, & Hirky, 1996). …