Contemporary Coping Patterns Among Violence-Impacted Adolescent Black Males: An Interpretive Descriptive Study

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

1. Summary

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.

2. Questions for General Evaluation

Reviewer’s Evaluation

Response and Revisions

Does the introduction provide sufficient background and include all relevant references?

Yes

[Please give your response if necessary. Or you can also give your corresponding response in the point-by-point response letter. The same as below]

Are all the cited references relevant to the research?

Yes

Is the research design appropriate?

Can be improved

Specific comments as to the research design have been responded to point-by-point below.

Are the methods adequately described?

Yes

Are the results clearly presented?

Yes

Are the conclusions supported by the results?

Yes

3. Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments 1: Clarify Age Range and Terminology: While the paper references both "youth" and "adolescents," the focus is on 15 17-year-olds. It would be helpful to clarify this more consistently throughout and reflect on developmental nuances specific to this age group.

Response 1: We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We concur with your observation and have consequently revised the text to place greater emphasis on adolescent settings. These modifications were primarily textual and minor, as we previously used the terms youths and adolescents interchangeably. For instance, we now specifically mention an 'adolescent advisory board' instead of a 'youth advisory board' and have adjusted specific or nuanced contexts accordingly. All such revisions are documented throughout the document on various pages.

Comments 2: Digital Coping as a Standalone Theme: Given the growing significance of online thematic category rather than embedding it within other categories (e.g., humor, escapism). This could better foreground the intersection of technology and mental health.

Response 2: We would like to respectfully push back on this point. Digital coping emerged as a multifaceted strategy that could be either problem-focused or emotion-focused, and either adaptive or maladaptive, depending on context and use. While we seriously considered elevating digital coping to its own distinct thematic category, doing so would have disrupted the overall balance of our current thematic framework. However, as recommended by another reviewer, we plan to examine digital coping in greater depth in a follow-up study to better elucidate its specific forms and typologies among adolescent males.

Comments 3: Limited Generalizability: While the authors acknowledge the geographic specificity, the implications section could better distinguish which findings are most generalizable versus those shaped by hyper-local context.

Response 3: Agree. We agree and have made the recommended changes to this section to ensure that we differentiate how our findings apply at a hyperlocal context given that the study was conducted in Chicago, and how this may be different from implications in order communities and social contexts we hope that this distinguish meant satisfies the reviewers comments as recommended

Comments 4: Depth of Participant Voices: The analysis is rich, but a few sections (especially on spirituality and pornography) could benefit from deeper quotes or a broader range of illustrative examples to fully support claims.

Response 4: Agree. Thank you for your valuable feedback. We agree that additional examples could have further enriched the narrative. However, participant responses regarding spirituality and pornography were brief yet impactful, given the focus group nature of our study. We also encountered discussions about pornography in only one focus group of 15 youths but deemed it relevant to our analysis due to the level of consensus received. Overall, we have enhanced our analytical interpretation and integrated existing literature to better contextualize and support these findings. We believe this approach maintains the rigor and depth of analysis that qualitative research demands. We are open to removing these themes from our analysis, if recommended. We have added this to the manuscript, stating: “While quotes on spirituality were fewer and often brief, their recurrence across multiple groups reinforces the salience of spiritual coping. Other studies have indicated that YBM employ spirituality as a coping mechanism after experiencing a violent injury (Richardson et al., 2020).” [Lines 506 - 508]

5. Additional clarifications

We want to indicate that several other portions of the manuscript were edited to trim context, add nuance, or make grammatical corrections as needed

Comments 1: Authors would also do well to consider whether the digital mental health support findings would be better suited for a separate paper so that findings can be adequately fleshed out.

Response 1: Thank you for this thoughtful suggestion. We agree that the findings related to digital mental health support are rich and merit deeper exploration. At this stage, we believe they contribute important context to our broader analysis of coping strategies. However, we also recognize the potential for a follow-up paper that more fully unpacks the digital coping mechanisms, particularly their role in both adaptive and avoidant responses among Black male adolescents. We have revised the manuscript to more clearly situate the digital findings within the overall coping framework while limiting overextension, and we note in the discussion section that a dedicated analysis of digital support systems is underway for a future publication. We also say as much [lines: 756-758] “Given the increasing integration of digital life with real-world stressors, future research should explore how digital coping strategies intersect with mental health, social belonging, and risk behaviors among Black male teens.”

Comments 2: ABSTRACT - Which “significant generational changes” are being referred to (Line 8)? (This is again referenced in lines 76-77)

Response 2: We have added further clarification here as follows: “Moreover, adolescent coping strategies are evolving, influenced by generational changes (such as broader social and cultural changes in how young people understand identity, mental health, and masculinity compared to prior generations), increased gun-related injuries and homicides” [Lines 86-89] 

Comments 3: The introduction is well-written but reorganization would be beneficial. In particular, the “Gaps in Literature” section should be moved before the “Current Study” section.

Response 3: Agree. We have restructured this section, moving the “Gaps in Literature” section before the “Current Study” section.

Comments 4: It would be helpful to expound upon the way in which coping is “transactional” in nature (Line 81) 

Response 4: Agree. Thank you for this insightful comment. We have revised the manuscript to more clearly explain the transactional nature of coping, as originally conceptualized by Lazarus and Folkman (1984). Specifically, we now note that coping is not a static trait or fixed response, but rather a dynamic process that unfolds through continuous interaction between the individual and their environment. This model emphasizes how appraisals of stress and the perceived controllability of a situation influence the selection and effectiveness of coping strategies. We have updated the relevant section to clarify this theoretical foundation and its relevance to our study population. []

Comments 5: To establish a more robust comparison, it would be helpful to include which kind of coping mechanisms sixth-grade girls were utilizing less (than their male counterparts) and the time-period in which “delinquency and aggression” peaked (Lines 120-122) 

Response 5: Agree. Thank you for this insightful comment. We have revised the manuscript to more clearly explain the transactional nature of coping, as originally conceptualized by Lazarus and Folkman (1984). Specifically, we now note that coping is not a static trait or fixed response, but rather a dynamic process that unfolds through continuous interaction between the individual and their environment. This model emphasizes how appraisals of stress and the perceived controllability of a situation influence the selection and effectiveness of coping strategies. We have updated the relevant section to clarify this theoretical foundation and its relevance to our study population. [Lines 87-90]

Comments 6: Were instances of witnessing online or virtual youth and community violence accounted for? 

Response 6: Unfortunately, we did not measure this during our enrollment process.

Comments 7: Sentence: “Some used journaled in phone notepads to process their thoughts and feelings” (Lines 371-371) is unclear

Response 7: Agree. We have revised this to say “Some individuals used phone notepads to journal their thoughts and feelings.” [Line 402-404]

Comments 8: All of the findings are very important but well-described. It almost begs the question of whether this should be two papers. A paper on digital coping and then another general coping strategies. 

Response 8: Agree. Thank you for this thoughtful suggestion. We agree that the findings on digital coping present a compelling and timely area of inquiry, particularly given the increasing role of online spaces in shaping adolescent experiences. Our goal with this manuscript was to present a comprehensive yet nuanced picture of the full range of coping strategies used by Black male adolescents, including both general and digital mechanisms, as they often coexist and interact in real-world settings. That said, we appreciate your point and plan to explore digital coping further in a follow-up manuscript with a different sample, and deeper focus on specific digital platforms, virtual stressors, and intervention implications. 

Comments 9: Is there a reason as to why YBM’s use of the journal and Motivation applications were included in the findings section, but not in the formal discussion around Digital Coping and the Expansion of Virtual Stressors? 

Response 9: Agree. We have incorporated journaling and app use into the discussion section as follows: “Additionally, participants turned to solitary practices like music, journaling, and drawing, forms of creative coping that offered a sense of agency and potentially, some emotional regulation. These culturally embedded practices, long recognized as resilience-building tools among Black youth, point to the need for interventions that honor and expand these existing strengths.” [lines 750-754] 

Comments 10: Based upon mention of “digital mental health support” in the abstract and “stressors in online and virtual spaces” (referenced in lines 70-75) presented as gaps in literature, I’m not sure if the topics of digital mental health support and digital stressors were adequately addressed and explored in the findings and discussion sections of the paper, however mention of “integrating digital support” resurfaced in the implications & future directions section of the paper. Given the depth of the findings and results, and the importance of considering digital mental health supports, the authors might consider making this a separate paper. 

Response 10: Thank you for highlighting the importance of coherence between framing, findings, and implications. We agree that digital mental health support and stressors in online spaces is significant to further explore. While digital mental health support emerged as a key point, we did not exhaustively examine digital coping as a discrete phenomenon but contextualized it within contemporary coping patterns shaped by sociocultural realities.

We acknowledge that a deeper exploration of digital mental health tools and preferences among YBM is warranted in future studies. However, this will require a new sample. So as not to loss these preliminary findings regarding digital mental health support and stressors, we propose and have better addressed digital coping mechanisms in the discussion section to integrate it more explicitly.