Generativity and social involvement among african americans and white adults

The study examined the relation between generativity and social involvement in a sample of 253 community adults, approximately half African American and half White, between the ages of 34 and 65 years. For the sample as a whole, individual differences in generativity were positively asociated with social support from family and friends, involvement in religious activities, and political participation, and generativity among parents was associated with emphasizing prosocial values and viewing oneself as a role model and source of wisdom for one’s children. Controlling for mean education and family income differences between Blacks and Whites, African American adults scored significantly higher than Whites on measures of generative concern and generative acts as well as on indices of social support, religious participation, and parenting as a role model and source of wisdom. The results are discussed in terms of contemporary psychological research on the social ecology of generative lives and sociological studies of personal resources and adaptive coping among African American families.