This research examined the effects of racial imagery (Black and White characters) and cultural themes (African American and Euro-American) in reading content on comprehension and recall in African American children. The participants, consisting of 109 elementary school children attending a developmental research school in Tallahassee, Florida, listened to prerecorded stories while attending to an accompanying story manuscript. The participants were assigned to one of three treatment groups. Participants in Story Treatment Condition I listened to a story composed of Black characters and African Americans themes; participants in Story Treatment Condition II experienced a story with White characters and traditional/Euro-American themes; and participants in Story Treatment Condition III were exposed to a story with Black characters and traditional Euro-American themes. After the presentation of the story, participants were asked six questions designed to elicit their recall of the story's characters and events and their level of comprehension of the story. It was hypothesized that stories depicting Black characters would facilitate more efficient recall and comprehension than stories depicting White characters. The results provided support for this hypothesis regarding comprehension although the hypothesis pertaining to recall was not supported. Additionally, the data analysis revealed significantfindings in support of the hypothesis that the stories reflecting themes consistent with the sociocultural experiences of African Americans would have a facilitating effect on recall and comprehension in African American children. The findings are discussed as supportive of the facilitative effects of culturalfactors on reading in African American children.

This study explored the relations between aspects of family functioning (parent-child relationship, family and self-expressiveness, and interparental conflict) and young adults' patterns of anger expression. Contrary to the hypothesis that family and self-expressiveness would be related to interparental conflict, the results suggested that young adults'retrospective reports of interparental conflict were related only to family expressiveness. Self-expressiveness, however, appeared to be associated more with the socialization of emotional expression within a family than with how parents handled angry emotions between themselves. As hypothesized, negative selfexpressiveness was associated with negative family expressiveness. Positive self-expressiveness, however, was related to positive and negative family expressiveness. Interparental conflict was related to the experience and expression of anger, especially with violent marital conflicts. The findings supported the hypothesis that interparental conflict would be negatively related to perceptions of the parent-child relationship and parental emotional availability. The findings better illustrate the relationship between one's family environment and various aspects of functioning in young adulthood. Individual and family therapy implications are discussed.

This study investigated the relationships between perceived attractiveness, facial features, and African self-consciousness (ASC). Attractiveness was assessed by having subjects assign descriptive adjectives (that varied from negative to positive) to three pictures: an African American female with a high prevalence of African facialfeatures, an African Amenican female with a low prevalence of African facial features, and a White female picture. A total of 149 African American college students participated. It was hypothesized that subjects high in ASC would select more positive adjectives in their descriptions of the high African facialfeatures picture than would low ASC subjects, who, in turn, would select more positive adjectives in their description of the White picture than high ASCsubjects. A 2 x 3 x 3 mixedANOVA was computedforsex, ASC (low, medium, and high), with the three pictures as a repeated measures variable. The dependent variable was the assignment of adjectives to the pictures. There was a main effect forpictures: The two African American pictures were rated higher (more positive adjectives selected) than the White picture. There was a significant ASC by picture interaction. As predicted, highASCsubjects used more positive adjectives in their descriptions of the high African facial features picture than did the medium or low ASC subjects. The results are discussed within the context of Afrocentric values in the lives of African Americans.