Examining the long-term racial disparities in health and economic conditions among Hurricane Katrina survivors: policy implications for Gulf Coast recovery.

This study examines disparities in the long-term health, emotional well-being, and economic consequences of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. Researchers analyzed the responses of 216 Black and 508 White Hurricane Katrina survivors who participated in the ABC News Hurricane Katrina Anniversary Poll in 2006. Self-reported data of the long-term negative impact of the hurricane on personal health, emotional well-being, and finances were regressed on race, income, and measures of loss, injury, family mortality, anxiety, and confidence in the government. Descriptive analyses, stepwise logistic regression, and analyses of variance revealed that Black hurricane survivors more frequently reported hurricane-related problems with personal health, emotional well-being, and finances. In addition, Blacks were more likely than Whites to report the loss of friends, relatives, and personal property.

Academic potential among African American adolescents in juvenile detention centers: Implications for reentry to school.

The study explores Black adolescent detainees academic potential and motivation to return to school to inform best practices and policies for juvenile reentry to educational settings. Adolescent detainees (N = 1,576) who were recruited from one male and one female youth detention facility, responded to surveys that assessed post-detention educational plans, as well as social and emotional characteristics, and criminal history. Multivariate analysis techniques were used to compare factors across race and gender, and plot linear relationships between key indicators of academic potential with associate factors. Findings revealed that youth were more likely to evince academic potential when they had a healthy level of self-esteem, adequate future goal orientation, positive mood, family and community involvement, fewer traumatic events, and less delinquent activity.

Mental health, substance abuse, and HIV disparities in correctional settings: practice and policy implications for African Americans.

Mental health challenges, substance use disorders, and HIV/AIDS disproportionately affect Black people in correctional settings. Culturally responsive practice and equitable policy is predicated upon research that explores the burden, prevalence, and mortality of these public health concerns on the health and social well-being of African Americans in the correctional setting. This paper has three sections: (1) mental health; (2) substance abuse; and (3) HIV/AIDS. Each section summarizes current treatment issues unique to correctional settings, and provides recommendations for enhancing programs and policy to meet the needs of Black people who have been arrested, detained, incarcerated, paroled, or released. Further, we make recommendations for how interdisciplinary researchers and health care/treatment providers can engage in science-guided advocacy to address these issues and reduce related disparities experienced by people of African ancestry.

Perceived competence of rural South-African and rural African-American families: a cross-cultural assessment of structural validity.

The present study explores psychometric differences in baseline data from rural African-American (AA) and rural South-African (SA) adolescents to establish the cross-cultural validity of the Harter Perceived Competence Scale (PCSC). Two versions of the PCSC (one English and one Sepedi) were collected from 223 rural AA families and 157 rural SA families. A multinational research team was assembled to establish content validity of the translated versions of the PCSC. Principle components analysis and multiple group confirmatory factor analysis were used to investigate structural validity. The results have implications for intercontinental research and the theoretical construct of perceived competence.