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

The direct effects of religiosity and racial socialization on subjective stigmatization among 50 African-American adolescents were investigated. A stigma is a characteristic about which others hold negative attitudes and stereotypes. Subjective stigmatization measures the degree to which an individual internalizes such negative attitudes and stereotypes toward a social group of which he or she is a member. Participants who showed strong commitment to the church were more destigmatized than were participants who did not. Further, participants who received racial socialization messages stemming from a single "primary" category were more destigmatized than those who did not. Unexpectedly, the more racial socialization messages participants received, the more self-stigmatized they were. The importance of religiosity and racial socialization in the lives of African-American adolescents are discussed.