Protective Impact of Future Orientation Domains for African American Youth Exposed to Community Violence

For African American adolescents, exposure to community violence continues to be a persistent public health concern with a range of maladaptive mental health outcomes. Despite one’s level of risk, there has been an increased focus on an individual’s degree of resilience. Protective factors, like future orientation, may buffer against negative outcomes. Future orientation is a complex, multistage, and multidimensional phenomenon, and it has been broadly defined as a cognitive-motivational construct that allows one to set goals and plan for the future. We aimed to examine how domains of future orientation during mid-adolescence may moderate the relationship between early adolescent exposure to community violence and late adolescent outcomes. Data from the current study focused on a subset of 721 African American youth from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect. Moderation analyses indicated that family future orientation was a significant moderator for exposure to community violence and delinquent behaviors, while education and career future orientation was a significant moderator for exposure to community violence and defensive avoidance. The current study highlighted the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of youths’ conceptualization of the future, as this can be a target of treatment to greatly impact outcomes.