ORIGINAL PAPER Racial Discrimination and African American Adolescents’ Adjustment: Gender Variation in Family and Community Social Support, Promotive and Protective Factors Shauna M. Cooper • Charity Brown • Isha Metzger • Yvette Clinton • Barbara Guthrie Published online: 17 June 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Abstract The current investigation explores the promotive and protective role of family and community-specific social support on the association between perceived racial dis- crimination and African American adolescents’ adjustment (e.g., depressive symptoms, school suspensions, school engagement). One thousand nine-hundred forty-two African American adolescents (ages 12–18, M = 15.12; SD = 1.83; 59 % female) from a large Midwestern city participated in this investigation. Regression analyses revealed that per- ceived racial discrimination was associated with less positive adjustment outcomes for boys and girls. Additionally, there was partial support for gender variation in the promotive role of social support and adolescent adjustment. In particular, while only maternal support was associated with boys’ adjustment, both maternal and paternal support was associ- ated with girls’ adjustment. Also, there was partial support for gender differentiation in the strength and directionality of protective factors. Though in an unpredicted direction, father support moderated the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and girls’ adjustment. Community supports (religious connection and mentor presence) emerged as protective factors for boys’. Findings highlight the role of gender in understanding potential promotive and protective factors for African American adolescents. Keywords African American Á Racial discrimination Á Adolescence Á Gender Á Psychological adjustment Á School adjustment Introduction Investigations have demonstrated the deleterious impact of racial discrimination among African American youth including increased depressive symptoms (Gaylord-Harden and Cunningham 2009; Neblett et al. 2008; Seaton and Yip 2009; Sellers et al. 2003) and problem behaviors (Brody et al. 2006; Copeland-Linder et al. 2011). Further, studies have demonstrated an inverse relationship between racial discrimination and youths’ academic engagement (Cha- vous et al. 2008; Dotterer et al. 2009; Smalls et al. 2007). With this in mind, scholars have sought to identify factors that may mitigate this relationship. In particular, social support, which includes resources provided to an individual by important others (Thoits 2011, p. 146), has been sug- gested as an important mechanism to help one cope with stress. Stress-buffering models (Cohen and Wills 1985) assert that social support can have a positive impact through two pathways—(1) a direct association with well- being (e.g., promotive) and (2) buffering against dimin- ished well-being and adjustment in the face of stress (e.g., protective). Several studies with adolescent populations have provided evidence for the main effect of social support and as a protective factor against race-related dis- crimination (Benhorin and McMahon 2008; Copeland- Linder et al. 2011; Hammack et al. 2004; Lindsey et al. 2010). Acknowledging the multidimensionality of social This research was funded by a contract awarded to the last author from the State of Michigan Department of Community Health. S. M. Cooper (&) Á C. Brown Á I. Metzger Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA e-mail: smcooper@sc.edu Y. Clinton CNA Corporation, Alexandria, VA, USA B. Guthrie School of Nursing, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06536, USA 123 J Child Fam Stud (2013) 22:15–29 DOI 10.1007/s10826-012-9608-y