Ethnographic literature on inner‐city life argues that adolescents react to their uncertain futures by abandoning hope, leading them to engage in high levels of risk behaviour. However, few quantitative studies demonstrate this relationship. This study tests this relationship using a survey of 2468 inner‐city adolescents, asking them questions about hopelessness, violent and aggressive behaviour, substance use, sexual behaviour, and accidental injury. Nearly 50% of males and 25% of females had moderate or severe feelings of hopelessness. Moreover, hopelessness predicted of each of the risk behaviours considered. These results suggest that effective prevention and intervention programmes aimed at inner‐city adolescents should target hopelessness by promoting skills that allow them to overcome the limitations of hopelessness.

Although many African Americans share a sociohistorical background, empirical research on family and marital processes has often overlooked a great deal of heterogeneity within the group. In addition, African Americans face different stressors and life circumstances from the general population. Given that a high proportion of African American marriages end in divorce and that African Americans report relatively low levels of marital quality, it is important to consider factors that may not be addressed in models of marriage that were developed using the majority population. We introduce a model that includes components relevant to understanding marriage among African Americans, including financial strain, racial discrimination, and minority status. Using the model, we review the literature and highlight gaps in existing research.

Much has been written in recent years about hopelessness among residents of impoverished inner-city neighborhoods, but little research has been conducted on the origins of hopelessness. The literature on social disorganization and the literature on child development independently suggest two possible causes of hopelessness among adolescents: disruptive events and lack of connectedness to people and institutions. We explore these two factors as predictors of hopelessness for 5895 youths living in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods in Mobile, Alabama. The longitudinal data for this study allow us to explore the development of hopelessness over time, predicted by prior levels of disruption and connectedness. The results show that over time several variables associated with disruption (Change in Mother Figure, Exposure to Violence, Traumatic Stress, Worry) and connectedness (Sense of Community, Warmth Toward Mother, Religiosity) are positively or negatively associated with increased feelings of hopelessness among inner-city adolescents.

Youths growing up in low-income inner-city neighborhoods are at substantial risk for initiating substance use, violent behavior, and sexual intercourse at early ages; these risk behaviors continue at comparatively high rates through adolescence. Hopelessness has been implicated as a risk factor for these behaviors. In this paper, we consider how race influences this process. African Americans form a demographic minority within the United States, but they are often the majority within inner-city neighborhoods. For Caucasians, the opposite typically holds. Mixed-race populations form a minority within both contexts. Using longitudinal data, we examine the relationship between race and risk behaviors in several impoverished inner-city neighborhoods where African Americans form the distinct majority and Caucasians and people of mixed racial heritage form a small minority. We also consider how race moderates the relationship between hopelessness and risk behavior. Our findings show that compared to Caucasian or mixed-race adolescents, African American adolescents are less likely to engage in risk behaviors, and that hopelessness has a less important impact on their behaviors.