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The Effect of Social Problem Solving Skills in the Relationship between Traumatic Stress and Moral Disengagement among Inner-City African American High School Students

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Abstract

This study examined the relationship between traumatic stress, social problem solving, and moral disengagement among African American inner-city high school students. Participants consisted of 45 (25 males and 20 females) African American students enrolled in grades 10 through 12. Mediation was assessed by testing for the indirect effect using the confidence interval derived from 10,000 bootstrapped resample’s. The results revealed that social problem-solving skills have an indirect effect on the relationship between traumatic stress and moral disengagement. The findings suggest that African American youth that are negatively impacted by trauma evidence deficits in their social problem solving skills and are likely to be at an increased risk to morally disengage. Implications for culturally sensitive and trauma-based intervention programs are also provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Kendell L. Coker, Jeannie S. Brooks & Mark B. Sobell

  2. Lansing Correctional Facility, Lansing, KS, USA

    Uduakobong N. Ikpe

  3. Department of Forensic Psychology, Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA

    Brian Page

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Kendell L. Coker

Authors
  1. Kendell L. Coker
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  2. Uduakobong N. Ikpe
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  3. Jeannie S. Brooks
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  4. Brian Page
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  5. Mark B. Sobell
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Correspondence to Kendell L. Coker.

Additional information

This research was drawn from Kendell L. Coker’s doctoral dissertation, submitted to the School of Psychology of Nova Southeastern University, and supervised by Dr. Mark Sobell, Dr. Edward Simco, and Dr. Lenore Walker. This article is dedicated to Dr. Coker’s cousin, Shannon T. McKinney.

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Coker, K.L., Ikpe, U.N., Brooks, J.S. et al. The Effect of Social Problem Solving Skills in the Relationship between Traumatic Stress and Moral Disengagement among Inner-City African American High School Students. Journ Child Adol Trauma 7, 87–95 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-014-0012-1

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