Heuristic model linking contextual processes to self-management in African American adults with type 2 diabetes.

PURPOSE: This article examines the influence of various environmental factors on the diabetes self-care practices of African American adults with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A heuristic model was developed that considers how community barriers and supports, availability and use of insurance, diabetes education, medical provider-patient relationships, extended family processes, and psychological functioning may indirectly affect metabolic control through the patient's ability to regulate diabetes. RESULTS: The proposed model offers a framework to demonstrate the complexity of diabetes management that may be unique to the African American experience. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive view of the environmental context will lead to new and more effective approaches in diabetes education and counseling for African American adults with type 2 diabetes.

African American single mothers and children in context: a review of studies on risk and resilience.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of research linking single-parent family structure to parenting processes, maternal well-being, and child developmental outcomes among African Americans. The approaches used to study these families, related methodological and conceptual concerns, and the factors linked to maternal well-being, effective parenting processes, family functioning, and child outcomes are addressed. Much work remains to be done on conceptualizing and assessing parenting processes among African Americans in general and single African American mothers in particular. Researchers must examine more carefully the circumstances that foster or impede successful parenting among these mothers. Studies also are needed to disentangle the interactions between economic stress and parenting behavior and to determine the extent to which the findings can be applied to middle-income single African American parents.

An ecological analysis of pregnancy resolution decisions among African American and Hispanic adolescent females.

Using data from the 1988 National Family Growth Cycle, IV, this study sought to identify specific individual, family, sociocultural, and social structure factors that influence pregnancy resolution decisions of first conception among African American and Hispanic adolescents aged 15 to 21 years. A hierarchical discriminant function analysis was used to determine the extent to which selected variables could distinguish those who terminated their first pregnancy from those who decided to carry their first pregnancies to full term. Three individual factors (age at conception, contraceptive behavior pattern, degree of self-disclosure about the pregnancy), two family-level variables (family sexuality socialization, family income), and each of the selected social structure (access to sexual health care facilities) and sociocultural factors (religious affiliation and church attendance) were found to discriminate between the two groups. However, the discriminating power of these variables differed depending on race/ethnicity.

The impact of sexual activity and fertility timing on African American high school graduates' later life experiences.

PIP: There has been national concern since the early 1980s over the need to prevent teen pregnancy. Much of that concern has stemmed from concerns over the notion that families formed as a result of adolescent parenthood are often poor and welfare dependent. Much of the research on adolescent childbearing implies that having a child disadvantages adolescents in terms of future life options. The author examined the life experiences of 1666 Black female high school graduates of average age 25.4 years 5 years out of high school using data from the National Survey of Family Growth Cycle IV. 474 virgins, 570 never-pregnant women, 65 ever-pregnant women, and 557 adolescent mothers were examined. Most of the women had never married, with virgins and adolescent mothers the least likely to be in marital relationships. Relative to the other subgroups, virgins reported higher educational, financial, and occupational achievement. However, a significant proportion of adolescent mothers were more successful than conventional stereotypes suggest. Several had secured professional jobs, had middle-income status, and were pursuing additional educational training. The implications for future research, education, and policy are discussed.^ieng

The influence of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting on African American children's affiliation with deviant peers.

This study focused on hypotheses about the contributions of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting to African American children's affiliation with deviant peers. A total of 867 families living in Georgia and Iowa, each with a 10- to 12-year-old child, participated. Unique contributions to deviant peer affiliation were examined using a hierarchical linear model. Community disadvantage derived from census data had a significant positive effect on deviant peer affiliations. Nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization processes were inversely associated, and harsh/inconsistent parenting was positively associated, with deviant peer affiliations. The effects of nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization were most pronounced for children residing in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.