One of the primary roles of parents is to guide and socialize children to make meaningful life choices. African American parents, in particular, have the additional tasks of preparing their children to thrive in an environment that has historically been hostile toward African Americans. Yet, many African American parents are often depicted as…

While the link between parenting and delinquency is well established, there is less consensus among scholars with regards to the processes that account for this link. The current study had two objectives. The first was to disentangle the effects of African American parents' use of corporal punishment and verbal abuse on the conduct problems of…

Objective: To investigate racial/ethnic differences in teachers' and other adults' identification and/or encouragement of parents to seek treatment for psychiatric problems in their children and to evaluate if and whether identification/encouragement is associated with service use. Method: Data on identification/encouragement to seek treatment for…

The authors examined the sociocultural representations of black children in picture books. Three critical perspectives were used to examine 23 picture books containing black characters. Questions used in this critical analysis were derived from sociocultural implications of implicit messages within texts, critical literacy, and cultural and social…

Rural African American children living in poverty have a higher prevalence rate of mental health disorders than their urban counterparts. While access to mental health services is lacking in resource scarce rural communities, African American rural residents may also be the most likely to confront significant barriers to care and help-seeking.…

This important book provides African American parents with the knowledge to diversify K-12 school choices beyond traditional neighborhood public schools in order to optimize the educational chances of their own children, and it will help educators and policymakers to close the black-white academic achievement gap throughout America. In November…

A randomized prevention design was used to investigate a moderation effect in the association between a polymorphism in the "SCL6A4"("5HTT") gene at 5-HTTLPR and increases in youths' risk behavior initiation. Participation in the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program was hypothesized to attenuate the link between 5-HTTLPR status and risk…

Across several measures, the interracial and intra-racial views of 7- and 9-year-old African-American children were examined. Overall, children showed more negative views toward other African-Americans, labeling pictures of African-American children with more negative adjectives than pictures of European-American children. Children displayed more…

The relation of social and linguistic input measures to early vocabulary development was examined in 30 low-income African American mother-infant pairs. Observations were conducted when the child was 0 years, 1 month (0;1), 0;4, 0;8, 1;0, 1;6, and 2;0. Maternal input was coded for word types and tokens, contingent responsiveness, and…

Increasing research documents the negative short- and long-term effects of relational aggression on children's behavior and social-emotional functioning. Although parents likely play an important role in the way children learn to cope with and attempt to resolve relational aggression, there is little research on this issue. The present study…

Previous research has demonstrated that African American children do not always relate to the literature available in their classrooms. The study examined fifth-grade students' responses to African American literature to determine the criteria students use to select books. Students' selection criteria were then compared with teachers' selection…

As the number of people choosing to marry has plunged during recent decades, the tally of children living with one parent and having limited or no contact with the other has soared. Attuned to the hazards that such separations impose upon children but also upon parents who, studies show, fare physically and emotionally better in a thriving…

Tracing the history of black schooling in North America, this book emphasizes factors in society at large--and sometimes within black communities--which led to black children being separate from the white majority. This separation was continued and reinforced as efforts by European immigrants to provide separate Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist…

This study continues the line of research on children's racial preferences that dates to Kenneth and Mamie Clark's classic research that revealed that Black children preferred White dolls and attributed more positive characteristics to White dolls than to Black dolls. In the current research, the authors examined Black and White preschool…

Background: Asthma is a chronic health condition that has a disproportionate effect on low-income minority children who reside in large urban areas. African American children report significantly higher rates than the general population of children and have more-severe asthma and poorer outcomes. This article describes the prevalence of asthma in…