Individual and Social Factors Related to Urban African American Adolescents’ School Performance

Monte Piliawsky Wayne State University The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to the academic success of urban, African American youth. Participants were 118 African American male and female ninth graders from a large urban high school in the Midwest. A majority of students at the school receive free or reduced lunch. Factors studied were social support from five sources (parent, peer, teacher, classmate, close friend) and six educational attitudes and behaviors (educational intentions, educational behavior, personal control, persistence, and understanding of the personal and financial value of educational attainment). The major purpose of this study was to examine the role of these various sources of social support in the educational attitudes and behaviors and academic achievement of this sample of African American youth. Results indicated that social support was mildly correlated with better grades, with parent and peer support relatively the more important forms of support. Moderate and strong correlations were found between the five support variables and most of the educational attitudes and behaviors variables, with support from parents, teachers, and peers most strongly related. The combination of all predictors explained a large proportion of variance in achievement, with educational intentions and personal persistence the strongest contributors. Detailed results and implications of the results are discussed.