Does Teacher Care Protect African American Youth with Adverse Adolescent Experiences from Risky Behaviors

Background: Adverse childhood and adolescent experiences impact approximately half of all youth in the United States. However, adverse childhood and adolescent experiences are not homogeneously distributed; partly due to racialized poverty and sustained systems of inequality, adolescents living in low-resourced, urban neighborhoods, experience high exposure to adverse experiences. Some youth in low-resourced neighborhoods reside in a distressed home environment where they witness parental mental health problems, drug use, and incarceration. A strong relation has been found between exposure to adverse experiences and various negative outcomes in adolescence, such as sexually risky behaviors, bullying, drug use, and violence perpetration, which can be explained by the general strain theory. However, the effects of adverse childhood and adolescent experiences can be buffered by supportive and caring relations with adult figures. For some adolescents in impoverished communities, however, their relationship with caregivers is likely to be negatively affected as their caregivers may be emotionally unavailable. In such a situation, teachers in school might play a crucial role in providing support to help adolescents cope with challenges. Teachers play an important role in students’ psychosocial development. Students spend most of their time in school where attendance is compulsory, which provides an opportunity for the development of bonds not only between students but also between students and teachers. The current study examines the role of teacher care in protecting African American adolescents from under-resourced neighborhoods who have experienced adverse life events.

Methods: In this exploratory study, a cross-sectional survey was administered to 638 African American adolescents between August 2013 and January 2014 in Chicago. Variables include adverse adolescent experiences, presence of teacher care, risky sexual behavior, bullying perpetration, substance use, and violent behaviors. The study explored the protective moderating role of presence of teacher care in the association between adverse adolescent experiences and risky sexual behavior, bullying perpetration, substance use, and violent behaviors. Analyses include univariate analysis and hierarchical multiple regression.

Results: Teacher care had a significant moderating effect on the association between adverse experiences and both bullying perpetration and violent behaviors. Adolescents who perceived their teachers as caring showed lower tendencies towards bullying and violence, even in the context of adverse experiences.

Conclusions/Implications: Navigating adolescence can be a challenging developmental period under typical circumstances. Managing adolescence while residing in low-resourced communities where there are lower rates of social, political, and economic investments coupled with higher rates of policing, parental incarceration, parental mental health difficulties, and substance youth can further challenge positive youth outcomes. This study highlighted that positive adult influences in the form of teacher care moderate the relationship between adverse adolescent experiences and risky behaviors. Caring for and building positive relationships with students, in particular vulnerable students and students of diverse ethnic backgrounds, should be promoted both in teachers’ pre-and in-service training.