Noni K Gaylord-Harden

• Ph.D.
• Professor at Texas A&M University

The current study used a person-centered analytic approach to identify distinct classes of depressive symptoms among Black adolescents in under-resourced, urban communities and examined demographic and contextual factors related to class differences. Participants were 403 Black adolescents (ages 11–15, 54% female) who completed self-report surveys....

This study examined associations between COVID‐19 stress and the utilization of engaged and disengaged coping responses among diverse Black youth during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In addition, the role of mentor social‐emotional support was tested as a moderator of these associations. Participants were 1232 youth ages 11 to 18 year old from the United...

Introduction Guided by Opara et al.'s (2022), Integrated Model of the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide and Intersectionality Theory, the current study examined contextual stressors experienced disparately by Black youth (racial discrimination, poverty, and community violence) as moderators of the association between individual motivati...

Objective: The current study utilized latent profile analysis to identify distinct profiles of suicidal ideation among Black male adolescents and compared profiles on socioecological determinants of suicide and psychological symptoms. Method: A sample of 457 Black male adolescents (mean age = 15.31, SD = 1.26) completed self-report measures of s...

Exposure to community violence is known to be associated with a host of maladaptive outcomes in both youth and adult populations. Though frequently examined in other interpersonal violence literature, family functioning has yet to be examined as an outcome in community violence literature. The current study begins to address this need by exploring...

The current study examined the prevalence of identity-based bullying, the unique links between identity-based bullying and mental health (i.e., depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms [PTSS]), and emotional suppression as a potential moderator of these links. Participants were 899 clinic-referred Black and Latino youth aged 7-18 years (M = 13....

ARTICLE FREE TO ACCESS AT: https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2022.2158842. In this editorial statement, we briefly delineated a series of observations, guidelines, and directions for future research focused on the most common outcome of multi-informant assessments of youth mental health. Discrepancies commonly occur between estimates of youth mental...

To promote health equity among Black youth exposed to community violence, it is critical that psychologists partner with other health care professionals and communities with lived experience to explicitly address anti-Black racism and historical trauma as fundamental contributors to violence-related health inequities. This article describes our com...

Firearm violence remains a public health crisis in marginalized, urban communities, with Black adolescents bearing the burden of firearm homicides and injuries. As such, the prevention of firearm violence among adolescents has moved to a high priority of the U.S. public health agenda. The current paper reviews recent literature to highlight the het...

According to the pathologic adaptation model (Ng-Mak et al. in The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 72, 92–101, 2002), youth who experience community violence exposure may become desensitized to these experiences. Moral disengagement, which refers to changing one’s moral or ethical standards to justify engaging in destructive or harmful behavio...

Objective: Guided by continuous traumatic stress theory (Eagle & Kaminer, 2013) and trauma coping theory (Ford et al., 2006), the present study examined hostility and callous–unemotional traits as mediators between chronic community violence exposure in adolescence and violent offending in early adulthood. Method: Baseline surveys and data over 5 y...

The data on COVID‐19 show an irrefutable and disturbing pattern: Black Americans are contracting and dying from COVID‐19 at rates that far exceed other racial and ethnic groups. Due to historical and current iterations of racism, Black Americans have been forced into conditions that elevate their risk for COVID‐19 and consequently place Black child...

The purpose of the present study was to employ latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify distinct profiles of Black caregivers based on how they socialize their children to cope with stress. Participants included 126 Black female caregivers (Mage = 40.67, SD = 9.73) who provided data on 149 4th−8th-grade children (61% female; Mage = 11.21, SD = 1.5...

Recent high-profile incidents involving the deadly application of force in the United States sparked worldwide protests and renewed scrutiny of police practices as well as relations between police officers and minoritized communities. In this report, we consider the inappropriate use of force by police from the perspective of behavioral and social...

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including trauma exposure, parent mental health problems, family dysfunction, and community-level adversities put individuals at risk for a host of negative health outcomes. The effects of cumulative ACEs are numerous, diverse, and can predispose an individual to cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physical he...

The current article presents an introduction to the special issue on the development of boys and young men of color in challenging environments. The articles in this special issue, collectively, highlight how boys and young men of color successfully adapt to adverse environments, and in particular, how the unique demands of various inhibiting conte...

In T. Yip (Ed) Addressing Inequities in Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Education Policy and Schools Can Support Historically and Currently Marginalized Children and Youth. Society for Research in Child Development

The current study examined the promotive and protective roles of hyperarousal and hypervigilance for community violence exposure over time in a sample of African American adolescent males. Participants were 135 African American male high school students (Mage = 15.18 years, SD = 0.98). Participants completed measures of exposure to community violen...

The current study examined the longitudinal patterns of continuous exposure to community violence (ECV) and associated symptoms in serious adolescent male offenders. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance Study (Schubert et al., 2004), the current study examined the prevalence of continuous ECV and the stability in exposure over a 3-year period...

This study examines the mediating roles of neighborhood risk factors, parental behaviors, and peers on the relationship between community violence exposure and posttraumatic stress in a sample of urban youth in low-income public housing communities. Data are from 320 African-American youth living in public housing in a northeastern city in the USA....

African-American males from urban communities are disproportionately exposed to community violence, placing them at increased risk for mental health problems compared to youth from other racial/ethnic groups. While risk factors for violence exposure have been identified in the literature, protective variables and competencies are studied with less...

A social justice analysis of the circumstances of African-American boys and young men (AAB) reveals a pervasive pattern of negative stereotypes, disparate treatment, and resource deprivation that augur poorly for their development. Developmental science has yielded many insights about the deleterious sequelae of racism and economic disadvantage, bu...

The current study examined the unique and interactive effects of family and community violence across types of violence (weapon, physical, and death) and relationship proximity (self, family/friend, and strangers) in African American adolescents (mean age = 12.63, SD = 0.99, 54% female). Items from the community violence and family violence measure...

Justice-involved boys from urban communities are disproportionately impacted by community violence exposure (ECV) and despite decades of research, rates of ECV in youth continue to increase particularly for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Despite the increased risk of exposure, the majority of research focuses on what may protect you...

The current study examined maternal support and maternal involvement as moderators of the association between exposure to community violence (ECV) and both violence-related and non-violence related stressors in adolescent males of color. The current study included 250 African American (61%) and Latino (39%) male adolescents from the Chicago Youth D...

African American boys and young men in the United States face challenges unique to being a male and an ethnic minority in our society. Despite the marginalization of African American boys and young men, this article argues that African American boys and young men, like other individuals, are in large proportion able to overcome adversity and utiliz...

For African American youth disproportionately exposed to community violence and the associated risk of externalizing behaviors, developmental assets that reduce the risk for externalizing behaviors and enhance adaptive coping should be explored. In a sample of 572 African American adolescents (Mage = 15.85; SD = 1.42), the current study explored wh...

Aims: Person-based analyses have demonstrated wide variability among the levels of exposure to community violence (ECV) experienced by youth in disadvantaged communities. In addition, social network research has found that violence victimization tends to occur primarily among a small social group, demonstrating that levels of peer delinquency may b...

Poster presentation analyzing the relationship between victimization, exposure to community violence, and the expression of depression in adolescent African American girls.

Poster presentation examining the effects of after-school activities on African-American student's exposure to violence. Presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference

The current study sought to examine the longitudinal impact that a youth’s relationships to their parents and peers has on the amount of community violence to which they are exposed. The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987) was administered to 132 African American male adolescents (M = 15.17, SD = 0.96) to asses...

Coping strategies may play an important role in how youth respond to exposure to community violence (ECV) and, in turn, influence the impact of violence exposure on their psychosocial functioning. Unfortunately, the research on coping with ECV has not revealed consistent results, suggesting that the uncontrollable and chronic nature of ECV in low-i...

The purpose of the current study was to examine a dual-process model of reactivity to community violence exposure in African American male adolescents from urban communities. The model focused on desensitization and hypersensitization effects as well as desensitization and hypersensitization as predictors of aggressive behavior. Participants were 1...

The current study examines the association among ethnic identity and peer relationships in summer camp participants, as well as changes in their ethnic identity and peer relationships over time. Participants included 27 male Ukrainian adolescents who belong to PLAST (an international Ukrainian scouting organization) and attended one of its three we...

Boys of color (BOC) face unique challenges related to the intersection of being male and an ethnic minority in our society. There is an urgent need for a more balanced view of psychosocial functioning in BOC that highlights positive developmental trajectories. In response to this need, the current chapter provides an overview of the research on pos...

The current study examined a model of desensitization to community violence exposure—the pathologic adaptation model—in male adolescents of color. The current study included 285 African American (61%) and Latino (39%) male adolescents (W1 M age = 12.41) from the Chicago Youth Development Study to examine the longitudinal associations between commun...

The current study examined pathways in a model of desensitization, the Pathologic Adaptation Model, in adolescent males of color. Specifically, the current study examined depressive symptoms and deviant beliefs as mediators of the association between community violence exposure and subsequent violent behavior. The current study included 250 African...

African American men (AAM) who are exposed to trauma and adversity during their early life are at greater risk for poor health over their lifespan. Exposure to adversity during critical developmental windows may embed an epigenetic signature that alters expression of genes that regulate stress response systems, including those genes that regulate t...

The current study employed latent class analysis (LCA) to identify distinct profiles of community violence exposure and their associations to desensitization outcomes in 241 African American early adolescents (M age = 12.86, SD = 1.28) in the sixth through eighth grade from under-resourced urban communities. Participants self-reported on their expo...

African American youth are frequently confronted by economic and structural hardships, which can often suggest that their lives do not matter. This study examined the extent to which having high future orientation was related to a broad spectrum of health related factors. Among a sample of 638 largely low-income African American youth, this study a...

Community victimization is associated with elevated rates of aggression in African American male adolescents; however, existing research provides little information about the within-group variability for victimization and aggression. Through cluster analysis, the current study identified three distinct profiles of community victimization and aggres...

The current study employed latent class analysis (LCA) to identify distinct profiles of community violence exposure and their associations to desensitization outcomes in 241 African American early adolescents (M age = 12.86, SD = 1.28) in the sixth through eighth grade from under-resourced urban communities. Participants self-reported on their expo...

This manuscript summarizes an iterative process used to develop a new intervention for low-income urban youth at risk for negative academic outcomes (e.g., disengagement, failure, drop-out). A series of seven steps, building incrementally one upon the other, are described: 1) identify targets of the intervention; 2) develop logic model; 3) identify...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of three parental influences (i.e., socialization of coping, modeling of coping, and the parent–child relationship) on coping strategies of African American children, as well as child gender as a moderator of these associations. Participants were 83 African American children (mean age = 11....

A warm and supportive parent–child relationship is one of the most crucial determinants of positive outcomes in racially and socioeconomically diverse youth. There is, however, limited understanding of the diverse and unique parenting practices of racially diverse families, particularly those from under-resourced communities. Little empirical resea...

The purpose of this article is to present a culturally situated, asset‐based developmental framework for understanding successful adaptation to stress. Making use of theory and research on differential exposure and reactivity to racial discrimination, it introduces a framework that can be used to investigate positive development in the context of o...

Increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in African American men (AAM) may be rooted in childhood adversity. Altered stress reactivity and low grade inflammation are both risk factors for CVD. Thus, this ongoing project seeks to determine whether childhood adversity and neighborhood violence result in greater inflammatory risk and hypothalam...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the linear and curvilinear associations of exposure to community violence to internalizing symptoms in 251 African American adolescents (mean age = 12.86, SD = 1.28). Participants reported on exposure to community violence, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Regression analyses were used to te...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the tripartite model of depression and anxiety in a community-based sample of 278 African American adolescents (M age = 12.89) from low-income communities and to identify stressors and coping strategies that were associated with the specific features of each disorder. Participants reported on depressi...

This article provides a comprehensive review of studies conducted over the past decade on the effects of neighborhood and poverty on adolescent normative and nonnormative development. Our review includes a summary of studies examining the associations between neighborhood poverty and adolescent identity development followed by a review of studies a...

We examined the effects of maternal parenting behavior on coping strategies in 200 low-income, African American children (mean age=10.41) and the role of child gender and economic stress on these effects. Participants completed measures of perceived economic stressors, coping strategies and perceptions of mothers’ parenting behaviors. Regression an...

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to demonstrate the replicable nature of statistical suppressor effects in coping research through 2 examples with African American adolescents from low-income communities. Method: Participants in the 1st example included 497 African American adolescents (mean age = 12.61 years, SD = 0.99; 57% female)...

This study assessed the unique effects of racial identity and self-esteem on 259 African American adolescents' depressive and anxiety symptoms as they transitioned from the 7th to 8th grades (ages 12-14). Racial identity and self-esteem were strongly correlated with each other for males but not for females. For both males and females, an increase i...

The current study examined coping strategies as mediators of the relation between maternal attachment and depressive symptoms in a sample of urban youth. Participants included 393 adolescents (M age = 12.03, SD = .85) participating in a larger study of the impact of stressful life experiences on low-income urban youth. Participants completed self-r...

The current study examined the impact of racial discrimination stress on internalizing symptoms and coping strategies in a sample of 268 African American early adolescents (mean age = 12.90; 56% female) from low-income communities. Information about discrimination stress, coping, and internalizing symptoms was obtained via adolescents' self-report....

The present study examined children's coping strategies as mediators and moderators of the association between parenting factors and outcomes in 235 African American children (mean age = 10.37 years). Information about parenting and child coping strategies was obtained by child self-report. School adjustment was assessed by standardized achievement...

The current study examined types of coping as either protective or vulnerability factors for youth exposed to community violence in a sample of 240 inner-city, African American pre- and early adolescents across sixth and seventh grade. Coping was conceptualized within a contextually relevant framework. It was predicted that avoidant coping would in...

The current study examined patterns of coping strategies in a sample of 497 low-income urban African American adolescents (mean age = 12.61 years). Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 4-factor structure of the Children's Coping Strategies Checklist (T. S. Ayers, I. N. Sandler, S. G. West, & M. W. Roosa, 1996) was not replicat...

This study sought to explore potential mechanisms through which uncontrollable, chronic stressors may lead to hopelessness in low-income, urban adolescents. In particular, the roles of specific coping strategies as moderators and/or mediators of the association between stressors and hopelessness were examined. Results suggest that chronic, uncontro...

Existing research leaves a gap in explaining why African American adolescents do not exhibit more anxiety and depression than other youth, at the same time that they experience more contextual risk factors. The current study examined the roles of social support as well as possible mediators self-esteem and ethnic identity (sense of belonging to one...

We examined child characteristics of coping strategies, age, and gender as moderators of the association between family stressors and internalizing, externalizing, and peer rejection in a sample of 228 3rd–5th grade children. Consistent with previous research, children in the current study who experienced a higher number of family stressors were si...

This meta-analysis examined 118 studies of the psychosocial outcomes of children exposed to interparental violence. Correlational studies showed a significant association between exposure and child problems (d = -0.29). Group comparison studies showed that witnesses had significantly worse outcomes relative to nonwitnesses (d = -0.40) and children...

Objective. We examined correspondence in parents' and children's perceptions of parenting and associations between these perceptions and children's social adjustment in the classroom. Design. The sample included 214 children (M age = 9) from third to fifth grades and their parents. Children and parents reported on parenting behavior. Results. Paren...

We present two studies examining the role of siblings as possible buffers against the negative impact of family stress on children's peer relations. In Study 1, we examined associations between stress, sibling status, and peer rejection in a sample of 206 children in grades 3–5 in a majority African-American, rural, lower SES sample. In this low-in...