Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Laird, Nyamekye
Author's Email Address	nyamekyel@hotmail.com
URN	etd-11152004-132528
Title	The Construction of a Measure to Assess the Development of Resilience in Adolescents of African Descent
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Stephen Rollin Committee Chair Barbara Edwards Committee Member Briley Proctor Committee Member Gary Peterson Committee Member
Keywords	Development Africentric Theory Psychology Measure Assessment African Adolescents African American Resilience
Date of Defense	2004-11-09
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract A review of research pertaining to resilience indicates that youth of African descent are often underrepresented, and when they are included in studies, it is frequently in the context of a deficit model. In addition, the limited research pertaining to resilience in this population is fraught with gaps such as: 1) a lack of theory-based empirical studies; 2) data regarding youth resilience from parents and teachers rather than youth themselves; 3) lack of studies on high school aged adolescents; 4) failure to use instruments that have been normed (and consequently validated) on Africans in the diaspora; and 5) a lack of research examining the developmental process of resilience—especially in ethnic and cultural minorities. The general purposes of this research were to gain a better understanding of the process of resilience development in Youth of African descent by means of conducting African-centered or Africentric research, and bridge some of the gaps in existing resilience research by developing a standardized measure to assess the development of resilience in African youth in the diaspora. Three research questions were investigated: (1) What is the relationship between cultural orientation and the development of resilience in high school age youth of African descent? (2) What is the relationship between life satisfaction and the development of resilience in youth of African descent? (3) What is the relationship between coping style and the development of resilience in youth of African descent? First a three-factor theory of resilience development for youth of African descent is explained in chapter 2, which served as the framework for the development of the Resilience Development Scale (RDS). The three domains of resilience development highlighted by this theory include cultural orientation, life satisfaction, and coping style. The procedures for this research followed classical test development theory. Results indicate that items retained for the final draft model of the RDS accurately reflect their respective domains. However the confirmatory factor analysis suggests that the model may not be a good fit for the data. Potential explanations for these results are discussed, as well as implications for future research and practice.
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