The End of Childhood

2018 ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Michaela Soyer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Drug Addiction ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Drug Consumption ◽  
Inner Cities ◽  
Behavioral Choices

The young men in this study came of age years after crack consumption peaked in American inner cities. Chapter 3 shows that their lives were nevertheless significantly impacted by their parents’ drug consumption. Focusing on four African American men whose criminal behavior was closely connected to their parents’ drug addiction, the chapter shows that these young men suffered from a reverse “maturity gap.” They were forced to make independent decisions when they were neither physically nor cognitively ready to take care of themselves or to foresee the consequences of their behavioral choices.

scholarly journals Exploring Perceptions of Health Needs Among Young African American Men

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arik V. Marcell ◽  
Robert J. Jagers ◽  
Bronwyn Mayden ◽  
Cynthia Mobley
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Education Economics ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
African American Young Men

Recent recommendations advocate involving young men in reproductive health programs. We know little about how young men perceive their reproductive health needs. For this study, 47 African American young men (mean age, 17.9 years) recruited from four community-based organizations completed a brief survey to explore life priorities and perceptions of health needs across 12 to 14, 15 to 19, and 20 to 25-year-olds. Participants’ life priorities varied by age group with overall top categories, including education, economics, and family members. Health was listed as a salient life priority among older participants aged 15 to 25 years, though it was not highly ranked. Participants’ top health concerns included sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, with limited mention of other reproductive health concerns. Understanding where young men start from when thinking about reproductive health can better help us meet their needs. Future studies warrant examining how health needs change over time among a larger and more diverse sample of young men.

scholarly journals Experiences and Strategies of Young, Low-Income, African-American Men and Families Who Navigate Violent Neighborhoods and Low-Performing Schools

Societies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Megan Fitzgerald ◽  
Annette Miles ◽  
Sislena Ledbetter
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Role Models ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Peer Network ◽  
Educational Partnership ◽  
Family Loss

Violent neighborhoods and low-performing schools continue to devastate young, low-income, African-American men and their families, despite individual and family use of kin and peer network navigation strategies. To learn more, interviews were conducted with 40 young African-American men, ages 18 to 22, from Baltimore City enrolled in a general equivalency diploma (GED) and job training program, and analyzed with modified grounded theory. Young men identified unsafe neighborhoods, chaotic schools, and disengaged teaching. Young men used safety and success strategies such as avoiding trouble and selecting positive peers to navigate unsafe environments. African-American families utilized kin network strategies such as messaging and modeling success, and mobilization for safety. Limits of unrecognized and unsupported strategies were related to: mobilization, limited educational partnership, and disproportionate family loss. Results indicate the continued urgent need for: (1) targeted violence reduction in high-violence neighborhoods, (2) calm and effective learning environments, (3) higher ratios of teachers to students to reduce chaos and improve learning, and (4) genuine teacher partnerships with families to improve access to positive role models, academic supports, and positive peer network development.

Dream Denied

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Soyer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American Dream ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Offending Trajectories ◽  
Minority Men

A Dream Denied: Incarceration, Recidivism, and Young Minority Men in America shows how the narrative of American dream shapes the offending trajectories of twenty-three young Latino and African American men in Boston and Chicago. Believing in the American dream helps the teenagers cope with the pains of incarceration. However, without the ability to experience themselves as creative actors, reproducing the rhetoric of American meritocracy leaves the teenagers unprepared to negotiate the complex and frustrating process of desistance and reentry.

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