Self-evaluation processes of African American youth in a high school completion program

In the present study, regression analyses were used to determine whether particular domains of perceived competence, alienation from school, and cultural mistrust of society in general predicted judgments of global self-worth and global self-discrepancy in a group of African American high school dropouts in a compensatory program. The participants were 31 African American high school dropouts between 16 and 24 years of age (M = 17.7 years, SD = 1.81) who were enrolled in a state-sponsored high school completion program. Perceived job competence and peer-related social competence were the most significant predictors of self-evaluations. Cultural mistrust of society was associated with students' self-evaluation and overshadowed alienation from school in the prediction of global self-worth. The implications of these results for interventions with African American high school dropouts in this type of program are discussed.