"Resilience Looks Like Me": Community Stakeholder Perspectives on Resilience in Black Boys and Young Men Exposed to Community Violence

• Published in: The American psychologist 2024-11, Vol.79 (8), p.1092-1108
• Main Authors: Walker, Indya A., Smith Lee, Jocelyn R., Payton Foh, Erica, McKoy, Precious, Johnson, Miaya H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Black or African American - psychology; Black People; Communities; Community-Based Participatory Research; Exposure to Violence; Exposure to Violence - psychology; Female; Human; Human Males; Humans; Male; North Carolina; Qualitative Research; Resilience, Psychological; Stakeholder; Violence; Violence - psychology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0003-066X; 1935-990X; 1935-990X
• DOI: 10.1037/amp0001343

Black boys and young men are disproportionately burdened with navigating contexts of community violence resulting from race-based structural inequities and concentrated disadvantage. Despite this chronic adversity, many Black boys and young men thrive; however, resilience research has traditionally focused on identifying individual- and family-level factors that support resilience. Research has yet to fully examine community-level resources that facilitate processes of resilience for Black boys and young men in the contexts of trauma, violence, and poverty. Guided by ecological frameworks and using the community-based participatory method of action-oriented community diagnosis, our qualitative study examines the perspectives of diverse community stakeholders (N = 29) whose roles and influence span systems levels and shape contexts of violence and healing for Black boys and young men in Greensboro, North Carolina. Findings point toward relationship (mentoring), community (safe spaces to heal), and societal (interventions to dismantle racism) level opportunities and barriers ("terroristic territorialism") to promote resilience in Black boys and young men. Implications for research and praxis that broadens the scope of resilience research from successful adaptation to conditions of community violence to community-level intervention to promote resilience and transformation are discussed. Public Significance Statement Community violence is a public health epidemic that disproportionately affects the psychological, emotional, physical, social, and behavioral well-being of Black boys and young men. As communities and cities search for ways to reduce and prevent violence, identifying ways to promote resilience is necessary for mitigating the negative outcomes associated with community violence exposure for Black boys and young men.