Affiliation:
1. University of Delaware,
Abstract
The author explored the meaning of the Black community according to a purposeful sample of 60 Black adults in the mid-Atlantic United States. Purposeful stratified sampling resulted in equal numbers of participants along the lines of locale (Brooklyn, New York; Wilmington, Delaware; and Washington, D.C.), gender, and generational affiliation (older adults, middle-aged adults, and young adults). Content analysis of responses to a single open-ended survey question resulted in 11 emergent themes around the meaning of the Black community: the Black community as cultural, the Black community as residential, the Black community as global, the Black community as supportive, the Black community as visibly distinctive, the Black community as socioeconomic, the Black community as nonactualized, the Black community as nondifferential, the Black community as nihilistic, the Black community as nondefinable, and the Black community as other. Gender and generational variations in thematic endorsement were analyzed, and implications of these findings as they pertain to research, mental health programs, and policies for Blacks are discussed.
Subject
Applied Psychology,Anthropology
Reference42 articles.
1. Cohort Differences in the Structure and Outcomes of an African American Belief System
2. The Aftermath of Suicide among African Americans
3. Bengston, V.L. & Cutler, N.E. ( 1976). Generations and intergenerational relations: Perspectives on age groups and social change. In R. H. Binstock & E. Shanas (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (pp. 130-159). Cincinnati, OH: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
4. Bentacourt, H. & Lopez, S.R. ( 1995). The study of culture, ethnicity, and race in American psychology. In N. R. Goldenberger & J. B. Veroff (Eds.), The culture and psychology reader (pp. 87-107). New York: New York University Press.