BUFFERING OR CHANNELING? POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRESS-LINKED ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AMONG ADOLESCENTS EXPOSED TO COMMUNITY VIOLENCE

Résumé

Community violence exposure is a common feature of adolescent life in many Nigerian urban settings, and the psychological distress associated with such exposure has been linked to changes in academic motivation. This study examined whether positive youth development (PYD) assets shape how psychological distress relates to achievement goal orientation among 298 in-school adolescents (150 male, 148 female; aged 10 to 21 years) in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. Two competing accounts were tested. Under a buffering account, PYD would weaken the relationship between community violence exposure (CVE) and distress itself. Under a channeling account, PYD would not weaken the association between violence exposure and distress but would moderate how distress relates to achievement motivation, particularly whether greater distress is accompanied by mastery-approach striving. The buffering account was not supported: PYD did not moderate the CVE-to-distress relationship, B = −.001, SE = .002, t = −.49, p = .623, and the indirect association between CVE and each achievement goal orientation through distress remained similar in magnitude across low, average, and high PYD. The channeling account received more support, though only for one of the four orientations examined. Distress and PYD interacted significantly in predicting mastery-approach goals, B = .0029, SE = .0013, t = 2.29, p = .022. Among adolescents higher in PYD, psychological distress was positively associated with mastery-approach goals (simple slope at +1 SD PYD: b = .062, p = .046); this association was not significant at average or low PYD. No comparable interaction emerged for mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, or performance-avoidance goals. These findings suggest that developmental assets do not appear to reduce the distress associated with violence exposure; rather, they appear to be associated with how psychological distress relates to adaptive mastery-oriented striving. Given that this pattern emerged for only one of four orientations tested, it is offered as a preliminary finding warranting replication rather than a firm conclusion.

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