Behavior Patterns for Success by Ms. D Warren

From my profile page, I speak of my own future endeavors but never mention my background nor what lead me to the psychological and behavioral fields.

Well, I am a Queens, NY native. I come from a single-parent household (matriarchal) and am the youngest of two. My mother, my sole provider, maintained a full-time job ever since I was born. I had a number of resources (grandmothers, aunts, neighborhood friends and family) which aided in my development. I grew up in a residential area (most of Queens is) but my surroundings were very urban and became infested with drugs. Drop-out rates and teen pregnancy were increasing by the week. I never had a relationship with my deceased father, and school was the main thing in my life I was really good at. My brother became another statistic to many others… dropping out of high school. From this point on the human psyche became my driven purpose in life (particularly in children).

I say this to say that easily, I could have been like many others I grew up with and know now; but there are a lot of risk factors in a minority youth’s future.

~Resources: The lack thereof can contribute to whether a child can succeed in school, extra-curricular activities and clubs. I feel it is important for a child to have the opportunity to explore their interests, whether it is through sports, writing, dance, etc. Exploration of interests allows for healthy emotional growth and can influence a career pursuit for adolescents. This is also when a youth learns to develop social and peer-relationships in a healthy manner.

~Mentor / Parental Relationship: I did a research proposal during my graduate work that proposed how minority children who have a positive influence in their lives can achieve self-efficacy which can lead to successful careers. Consider this, how many of us had or have someone contributing to our development and influencing us to achieve? Personally, my mother took this role. Her strength showed me that I can and her constant interest in my academic work and extracurricular activities showed me that I will. Many of the adolescents that I see encounter hardship because they lack a mentor or parent-relationship. A counselor’s role is to instill hope that a youth can and will. Not to be mistaken a counselor is someone who is empathetic, good listener and can be there for healthy and appropriate candid interaction (connotations to this is that mentors and experience professionals, like ourselves can serve this role to our youth).

~Genetic Predisposition: Being from the social science field, it’s fitting that I factor in biological/genetic components for a youth’s development. It is particularly important to know where you come from. Looking at a child's genogram (identifying one’s maternal and paternal aspects of their family, whether it is psychiatric, substance, and medical/physical illnesses) can be one of many "key" explanations to whether or not success is skewed. Looking at my own genogram I learned a lot about my development, just knowing what was prevalent in my family history. This factor can determine certain setbacks in a youth's development – when not handled appropriately it can lead to lack of achievement. For example depression can be prevalent in a child's family, ultimately predisposing that child and may go unnoticed because of the lack of awareness about depression or substance dependence in their family.

A child may have oppositional behaviors, leading to school suspension, the juvenile justice system, and continual cycle. This can prohibit the achievement of success, but questions are in order for this child's defiance.

·         What lead this child to the system?

·         Why was the child suspended?

·         How can this be preventative in the future for this child?

·         It is particularly important to treat the person and not to make generalizations, each person is unique and we must take this attitude when trying to help our youths.*

Acting out behaviors always have reasons behind them.  Addressing trauma and environmental factors, and awareness of genetic predispositions to mood and substance-induced disorders surrounding the child are essential in their development into a successful young Black Professional.

** Also** Resiliency has definitely been studied within developmental research and it is unknown as to whether there is a biological component, but many minority youth who have encountered traumatic environments, and grew up in unstable households or "dysfunction" can develop resilience despite their odds and become successful societal beings as well.

How do you feel about this subject????? What do feel about the characteristics that I propose? Agree or disagree?