Hip-Hop & Health Behavior:Relationships Between the Individual and Community

Raphael Travis, Jr., DrPH, LCSWTexas State University – San Marcos, School of Social Work

Hip-Hop & Youth Development Projects

HHYD

Practice 1 Syllabus (Students)

Full Course & Exercises:

Competence (SWers & Students)

Exercises: Therapy &

Change (Youth)

ETODAY Workshops

ETODAY Daily Guide (Youth)

Research: HHYD Attitudes

• Movement

Bboying

• Linguistic

Emceeing

• Musical

Deejaying

• Visual

Graffiti

High Risk Messages: Violence

47% Of Homicide DeathsAge 22 or younger

High Risk Messages: Substance Use

Drug-related Incarceration Stat:

High Risk Messages:Misogyny

“The Female Fear”

• Sexual victimization, • Verbal and physical

harassment, • Sexual exploitation

**Very High Risk**

Is that it?

EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment Any attempt to gain power over

decision-making, opportunities, or the meaning ascribed to one’s life.

Attitudes and behaviors that feel empowering to an individual or community may be risky or prosocial, or contain elements of both.

Travis & Deepak (2010): Individual & Community Empowerment (ICE)

Risk/Empowerment Framework based in the literature

Goal: Tool for understanding and practice Use: Prevention or intervention Value:

› building rapport; › general interactions (engagement) with youth; › assessment and goal development; › creates a structure for practice and evaluation.

What Do Young People Hear?

Content and Impacts

Characteristics (at Time 1) % of Sample nAge

13-1516-1819-2223+Missing

1843.824.212.51.6

235631162

GenderMaleFemaleMissing

Ethnicity

32.865.61.6

42842

African AmericanLatinoAsian/Pacific IslanderMulticulturalWhite, Not HispanicMissing

26.645.33.13.9

18.82.3

345845

243

Education/Grade LevelHigh SchoolCollegeMissing

49.245.35.5

63587

Demographics of Participants

Em

pow

erm

en

t Qu

estio

ns

Indiv

idual E

mpow

erm

ent

Com

munity

Em

pow

erm

ent

Hip-Hop music helps me make it through bad times

Hip-Hop music helps me think about doing more positive things

Hip-Hop encourages me to be proud of my ethnicity (community empowerment);

Hip-Hop helps me think critically about the world around me (community empowerment).

Ris

k Q

uestio

ns

Indiv

idual R

iskC

om

munity

Risk

“I am more comfortable with the idea of drinking alcohol while listening to Hip-Hop music”

“I feel more okay about committing some crimes after listening to Hip-Hop music”

“I am more comfortable with the idea of selling drugs after listening to Hip-Hop music”

“Treatment of women in Hip-Hop is worse than in movies”

“Violence talked about in Hip-Hop is worse than violence that I see in movies”

“Hip-Hop justifies criminal behavior”

Mean (SD) Potential Range

Alpha (Standardized)

# of Items

Individual Empowerment

Community Empowerment

Individual Risk

Community Risk

ICE Inventory Full Scale

30.9 (10.8)

13.3 (5.1)

29.2 (7.1)

26.7 (7.3)

100.2 (19.9)

11 – 55

5 – 25

7 – 35

10 – 50

33 – 165

.939

.877

.939

.859

.906

11

5

7

10

33

Table 7.ICE Inventory Subscale Means, Standard Deviations and Alpha ReliabilitiesNote. The variation in sample size is due to fluctuations in response rates for demographic information.

Empirical Results from Measurement and Structural Model for ICE Inventory

Key F

ind

ing

s:

Em

pow

erm

en

t

Indiv

idual E

mpow

erm

ent

Com

munity

Em

pow

erm

ent

37% of respondents reported that listening to Hip-Hop music has made it easier to talk about their problems.

Similarly, 39% of respondents reported that listening to Hip-Hop helps them think about doing more positive behaviors.

30% of respondents stated that Hip-Hop encourages me to be proud of my race/ethnicity.

33% of respondents felt that Hip-Hop they listen to gives them hope that conditions in their neighborhood can be better

23% felt Hip-Hop makes them want to do something positive for their neighborhood.

Key F

ind

ing

s: R

isk

Indiv

idual R

iskC

om

munity

Risk

22% of respondents reported feeling more violent while listening to Hip-Hop.

20% reported feeling more comfortable about drinking alcohol while listening to Hip-Hop, while

16% of respondents reported feeling more comfortable with smoking marijuana.

Comfort with use of ecstasy, cocaine and codeine promethazine ranged from 9% to 13% of respondents.

40% of respondents felt Hip-Hop justifies criminal behavior.

40% of respondents felt violence in Hip-Hop is worse than what they see in movies.

Demographic Differences

Females and college students scored significantly higher for each subscale with the exception of community risk.

Table 8.Relationship between demographic variables and scale scores (n=120).

ScaleOutcome Variable

IndividualEmpowerment

CommunityEmpowerment

Individual Risk

CommunityRisk

ICE FullScale

Intercept

Age

Gender

Ethnicity

Grade

22.6 (2.6)*** 10.1 (1.3)*** 23.3 (1.8)*** 24.7 (1.9)*** 80.7 (4.5)***

0.1 (1.5) -0.1 (0.7) 0.9 (1.0) 1.0 (1.1) 1.9 (2.6)

5.1 (6.1)** 2.5 (0.9)** 3.4 (1.3)** .05 (1.4) 11.0 (3.3)**

0.8 (0.9) 0.4 (0.5) 0.9 (0.6) 0.5 (0.7) 2.6 (1.6)

8.0 (2.7)* 2.5 (1.3) 2.6 (1.9) -0.3 (2.0) 12.9 (4.7)**

R-square .205 (9.7)*** .119 (4.8)** .140 (6.6)** .015 (7.2) .250 (16.8)***

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001Note. The variation in sample size is due to fluctuations in response rates for demographic information.

Table 9. One-Way ANOVAs and Post-Hoc Contrasts for ICE Inventory Scores by Gender and Age (n=126)

ScaleGender Age

Male Female 13-15 16-18 19-22 23+

M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)

Individual Empowerment

27.3 (9.3)* 32.8 (11.0)* 30.6 (10.6)* 26.8 (10.7)* 35.4 (9.3)* 37.6 (7.6)*

Community Empowerment

11.7 (4.5)* 14.2 (5.1)* 14.1 (5.3) 11.7 (5.1)* 14.8 (4.9)* 15.2 (2.8)*

Individual Risk 27.0 (7.8)* 30.7 (6.1)* 25.8 (9.2)* 29.3 (6.4)* 31.5 (4.7)* 31.0 (6.6)*

Community Risk

26.8 (8.6) 27.0 (6.4) 26.0 (8.8) 27.0 (6.9) 26.5 (6) 28.8 (7)

ICE Inventory 92.7 (20.1)* 104.7 (17.4)* 96.4 (25.6)* 95 (16.6)* 108.2 (16.7)* 112.7 (10.2)*

* Difference from other category is significant at the 0.05 level (Gender = Analysis of Variance; Age = Fisher’s Least Significant Difference test, LSD)Note. The variation in sample size is due to fluctuations in response rates for demographic information.

Table 11.Correlations ICE Inventory Subscales, Self-Esteem & Depression Variable

Scale EST DEP IE CE IR CR

EST 1

DEP .215* 1

IE .011 .000 1

CE .109 -.055 .873** 1

IR -.303** -.120 .156 .115 1

CR -.134 -.084 -.114 -.032 .407** 1

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Note for Scales: EST is self-esteem; DEP is depressive symptom; IE is individual empowerment, CE is community empowerment, IR is individual risk, and CR is community risk

ESTEEMNEW

INDRISKRCX

0,

SE11

0,

IR11

IDENTITYRC

0,

I1

1

INDEMPRCXCOMMEMPRCX

0,

ie1

0,

ce1

1 1

Age Recode

0,

a1

1

Gender

0,

gend1

1

FEW SAD, UNHAPPY, DEPRESSED DAYS SERC

0,

sad1

1

How many hours do you listen to music?

0,

HL1

1

COMMRISKRCX

0,

cre1

ICE: Study Findings

Reliable…. Can inform prevention and intervention

Brief… Can be used over time to capture shifts in attitudes.

Identity and esteem are influential in how people perceive what they listen to.