Date of Award

May 2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Psychology

First Advisor

Thomas W. Baskin

Committee Members

Shannon Korell, Katie Mosack, Anthony Hains, Christopher Slaten

Keywords

African American, Anger, Emotion, Forgiveness, Support, Youth

Abstract

The role of forgiveness, anger, and emotional support, among the adolescent population, continues to receive significant interest among the research community. To date, there are no measures of forgiveness, anger, and emotional support that have exclusively examined these constructs among the African-American, adolescent population within a short-term, specified amount of time. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a measure of perceived level of anger, support, and forgiveness among African-American adolescents. In addition, these measures were specifically created to be utilized in future research to capture the relational dimension between level of perceived anger, forgiveness, and support within the African-American, adolescent population. In order to examine the psychometric properties of each measure, the study was divided into 2 independent studies. Study #1 involved preliminary item analyses for each measure; participants included 90 African-American high school students who completed measures of forgiveness, anger, and support. Study #2 involved tests of reliability and validity; participants included 220 African-American high school students who completed measures of forgiveness, anger, support, and depression symptomology. The results imply that with some initial adjustment each measure produced overall strong reliability. Overall, validity was indicated by significant correlations with corresponding constructs. The results of this investigation indicate a relational dimension between anger, forgiveness, and support. This study provides significant implications for the field of psychology and future research.

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