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Racial Mistrust and Deviant Behaviors Among Ethnically Diverse Black Adolescent Boys 1
Author(s) -
Biafora Frank A.,
Warheit George J.,
Zimmerman Rick S.,
Gil Andres G.,
Apospori Eleni,
Taylor Dorothy,
Vega William A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1993.tb01012.x
Subject(s) - psychology , deviance (statistics) , social psychology , ethnic group , juvenile delinquency , miami , ethnically diverse , bivariate analysis , developmental psychology , criminology , sociology , soil science , anthropology , statistics , environmental science , mathematics
While it has been suggested that mistrust of the dominant White society may be an important protective factor for some members of racial minorities, the question of whether mistrust may also be related to nonnormative behaviors among minority members has not been explored. Using survey data from Miami, Florida, this study empirically tests this hypothesis among a sample of African American, Haitian, and other Caribbean island Black adolescent boys. Bivariate analyses suggest a strong relationship between racial mistrust and conventional forms of delinquency for all three ethnic groups. These findings also held in multivariate analyses in which six traditional predictors of deviance were statistically controlled. The authors conclude that racial mistrust adds a new dimension to empirical prediction models. In addition, they conclude that issues associated with racial mistrust should be considered when developing and implementing prevention strategies.