Wayne State University Psychology Professor Rodney Clark along with WSU Professors Ramona Benkert ( College of Nursing ) and John Flack ( School of Medicine ) just published an article in Psychosomatic Medicine on “Violence and Optimism” that focuses on inner city black youth. 

           The article discusses the association of youth being exposed to violence in their home and neighborhoods and how their outlook was related to changes in blood pressure and pulse rate resulting from exposure to violence. 

           Despite the fact that most inner city areas have disproportionately higher rates of violence and high 

blood pressure, the article by Clark and colleagues found that the youth in the study have a way of buffering blood pressure responses to violence. Particularly those youth who have a more optimistic attitude regarding the future. Psychosomatic Medicine is an upper-tier journal in psychology and psychiatry. 

          One of Clark ’s areas of research includes cardiovascular psychophysiology/epidemiology, particularly among minorities. Clark has been on Wayne State ’s faculty since 1997. 

           Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit .