ABSTRACT
African-American adolescent girls living in the inner city are a population at risk, and face tremendous social and psychological obstacles. A number of poor and middle-class children are exposed to violence both direct and indirect. However, some groups of youth are at more risk of exposure to violence in the contextual domains of community, school, neighborhood, social activities, and home, and this exposure has profound implications for social and psychological development. (Tolan & Guerra cited in Black, Howard, Kim, & Ricardo, 1998) describe adolescence as the age of highest risk for victimization. First, social activities in these domains can be a persistent source of danger, stress, and other adverse outcomes for urban youth (Rasmussen, Aber, & Bhana, 2004). Adolescent girls must cope further with the consequence of their maturing bodies and the violence sometimes associated with unwanted sexual advances (Thorne & Luria, 1986; Thorne, 1993).
