ABSTRACT
Psychological well-being is especially important to examine during the undergraduate years, in that, in a study of adolescents living in rural poverty, junior high school students were more likely to report problems with loneliness and depression, while senior high students demonstrated higher levels of negative behavioral outcomes. Females have been found to report higher depression levels than males, and black adolescents are more likely to be depressed than whites. A study of junior high students found that low income adolescents reported higher depression scores than those in middle and upper classes. Another study which looked at contextual differences in well-being found that blacks in racially segregated southern schools reported higher levels of adjustment than blacks in racially mixed schools. Several behavioral outcomes are considered in the current study. These are: substance use, delinquency, school outcomes, and other risk factors associated with sexuality and gang membership.
