Black families and youth likely consider specific racial discriminatory situations in preparation-for-bias messages and racial coping responses. Our study investigated coping responses embedded in youth-reported Black families' preparation-for-bias messages and youths' proactive coping responses to specific racially discriminatory…

This study examined a moderated mediation model among 314 Black adolescents aged 13-18. The model included general coping strategies (e.g., active, distracting, avoidant, and support-seeking strategies) as mediators and racial identity dimensions (racial centrality, private regard, public regard, minority, assimilationist, and humanist ideologies)…

This study was designed to examine the prospective relations of perceived racial discrimination with allostatic load (AL), along with a possible buffer of the association. A sample of 331 African Americans in the rural South provided assessments of perceived discrimination from ages 16 to 18 years. When youth were 18 years, caregivers reported…

Children around 4, 5, and 7 years old (N = 48) listened to scenarios depicting a child alone or accompanied by another person (mother, father, friend) who encounters an entity that looks like a real or an imaginary fear-inducing creature. Participants predicted and explained each protagonist's fear intensity and suggested coping strategies.…

The present study investigated the interplay between developmental changes in stress and coping during early and late adolescence. Using a longitudinal design, stress perception and coping styles of 200 adolescents in 7 different stressful situations were investigated. Multilevel piecewise latent growth curve models showed that stress perception…

Daily stressors may mediate the relation between exposure to disaster-related stressors and psychological and psychosocial distress among youth in disaster-affected countries. A sample of 427 Sri Lankan Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim youth (mean age = 14.5) completed a survey with measures of exposure to disaster-related stressors and daily…

This study examines the impact of children's exposure to natural disaster against the backdrop of exposure to other traumatic events and psychosocial risks. One thousand three hundred ninety-eight Sri Lankan children aged 9-15 years were interviewed in 4 cross-sectional studies about exposure to traumatic life events related to the war, the…

This study explored posttraumatic growth (PTG), positive change resulting from struggling with trauma, among 7- to 10-year-olds impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Analyses focused on child self-system functioning and cognitive processes, and the caregiving context, in predicting PTG at 2 time points (Time 1n = 66, Time 2n = 51). Findings suggest that…

In the current study (a) maternal insightfulness into the experience of the child and (b) resolution with respect to the child's diagnosis and their associations with children's security of attachment were examined in a sample of 45 preschoolers (mean age = 49 months) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It was hypothesized that mothers who were…

Trauma symptoms, recovery patterns, and life stressors of children between the ages of 9 and 18 (n = 387) following Hurricane Katrina were assessed using an adapted version of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Hurricane Assessment and Referral Tool for Children and Adolescents (National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2005). Based on…

The enduring impact of exposure to the 911 terrorist attacks on mental health and sociopolitical attitudes was examined in a sample of 427 adolescents (M = 16.20 years) and their mothers residing in New York City. Direct exposure to the terrorist attack was associated with youth depression symptoms and with mothers' posttraumatic stress disorder…

The study examines group and individual differences in psychological functioning and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity among adolescents displaced by Hurricane Katrina and living in a U.S. government relocation camp (n = 62, ages 12-19 years) 2 months postdisaster. Levels of salivary cortisol, salivary…

The present research examines posttraumatic resilience in extremely exposed children and adolescents based on interviews with 330 former Ugandan child soldiers (age = 11-17, female = 48.5%). Despite severe trauma exposure, 27.6% showed posttraumatic resilience as indicated by the absence of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and clinically…

Methods are needed for quantifying the potency and differential effects of risk factors to identify at-risk groups for theory building and intervention. Traditional methods for constructing war exposure measures are poorly suited to "unpack" differential relations between specific types of exposure and specific outcomes. This study of…

Individual and family characteristics that predict resilience among children exposed to domestic violence (DV) were examined. Mother-child dyads (n = 190) were assessed when the children were 2, 3, and 4 years of age. DV-exposed children were 3.7 times more likely than nonexposed children to develop internalizing or externalizing problems.…