Literature Review About Depression and African-American high-school Essay

Literature Review About Depression and African-American high-school students - Essay Example Living with their predecessors’ legacy of being racially discriminated and historically exploited and abused by the White people may have left generational scars in their psyche, that even up to now, being Black in an urban setting remains to be an issue. Many social scientists, politicians, and the media tend to paint a bleak picture for youth living in predominantly Black urban settings in this country (Barbarin, 1993). Poverty, academic failure, early death due to poor health care and violence, drug abuse and addiction, high unemployment rates, teenage pregnancy, gangs, and high crime rates are some of the conditions highlighted to describe the state of the urban underclass in which children must develop and attempt to survive (Dryfoos, 1990; Halpern, 1990; Masten, Best, & Garmezy, 1990; Werner, 1990). Several researches have been done to explore the effects of such racial differences in the African American youth. During adolescent period, individuals are confronted with the necessity of effectively managing the psychological, emotional, and behavioral adjustments to physiological changes and the assumption of new roles within the family structure, the high school setting, and ones peer group (Stark, Spirito, Williams, & Buevremont, 1989). According to a recent report from the United States (US) Census Bureau (2001), African Americans currently comprise nearly 13% of the total US population. Over one-half of all African Americans in the US live in large urban areas, and more than 35% of African Americans under age 18 live in poverty (US Census Bureau, 1999). These figures suggest that African Americans are over-represented among the poor urban school-aged population. Because of environmental factors stemming from living in poverty (e.g., unemployment and exposure to crime and violence), researchers and educators have often applied the term "at risk" in reference to urban African American