Effects of religiosity and racial socialization on subjective stigmatization in African-American adolescents

The direct effects of religiosity and racial socialization on subjective st igmatization among 50 African-American adolescents were investigated. A sti gma is a characteristic about which others hold negative attitudes and ster eotypes. Subjective stigmatization measures the degree to which an individu al internalizes such negative attitudes and stereotypes toward a social gro up of which he or she is a member. Participants who showed strong commitmen t to the church were more destigmatized than were participants who did not Further, participants who received racial socialization messages stemming f rom a single "primary" category were more destigmatized than those who did not. Unexpectedly, the more racial socialization messages participants rece ived, the more self-stigmatized they were. The importance of religiosity an d racial socialization in the lives of African-American adolescents are dis cussed. (C) 1999 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolesce nts.