Bibliographie complète

From popular culture to academia, there is national panic about the dismal life trajectories of Black males. This "Black male crisis" has contributed to emergent all-Black, all-male schools. Racial identity is commonly used to explain underperformance among Blacks, yet within-group gender disparity signifies the importance of gender relative to race. Minimal research exists on Black males' gender identities, and less on the intersections of gender and race. This longitudinal dissertation used quantitative and qualitative data to examine the development and intersections of racial and gender identity among Black adolescent males transitioning from co-educational grammar schools and entering the ninth grade at an all-Black, all-male high school. Findings are presented in two empirical papers. Paper 1 examined survey data collected from Black males (N = 183) to explain how boys' racial and gender identities were interrelated, changed over time, and influenced their psychological and academic adjustment. Results from the growth curve analysis revealed that boys' racial and gender identities were interrelated with each other and that higher levels of identity attachment were associated with better psychological and academic adjustment. Moreover, the strength of the relationship between gender identity and psychological adjustment increased over time, indicating that gender identity became increasingly important for boys' wellbeing. Paper 2 analyzed interview data with a subsample of Black males (n = 21) to examine how they resisted and accommodated racial and gender stereotypes. Results from the qualitative analysis revealed that boys were aware of the ways that racial and gender stereotypes overlap, but they responded to these stereotypes in different ways. Although some boys accommodated to both racial and gender stereotypes and others resisted these stereotypes, the majority of the boys responded by accommodating to gender stereotypes and resisting racial stereotypes. That is, they tended to perpetuate cultural stereotypes that require males to be the leader, emotionally stoic, and not to be feminine (i.e., gay) while challenging beliefs about the intellectual inferiority and incompetence of Black people. Findings are interpreted within the macro-context of cultural stereotypes and the micro-context of an all-Black male school. Implications for the study of identity, Black males, and single-sex education are discussed.