School Context Effects in Black Adolescents' Perceptions of Self and the Future.

The cultural compatibility hypothesis suggests that black children attending an Afrocentric school (the culturally compatible condition) should have more positive outcomes, as indicated by ethnic identity, future expectations, and optimism, than black adolescents in a mainstream school (cultural incompatibility condition). Adolescents from an Afrocentric middle school with a predominantly black faculty and a student body that was 85% African American and a mainstream middle school were compared through their responses in structured interviews. The sample was 71% female and 57% from middle-class homes. Only 6% of the sample from both schools was from impoverished backgrounds. Students in the two schools did not differ in ethnic identity or ethnic disaffiliation, but those in the Afrocentric school anticipated more future events than the mainstream students. They also anticipated more career-related events and were more optimistic about the future. Results support the hypothesis that culturally compatible schools transmit implicit and explicit expectations of success. (Contains one table and five figures.) (SLD)