Can you See What We See? African American Parents' Views of the Strengths and Challenges of Children and Youth Living with Adversity.

A premise of positive youth development is that social competencies can develop in adversity and co-exist with problem behaviors. This research tested whether African American youth ages 9-17 who had experienced significant family stressors would form groups that displayed combinations of adversity, problem behavior, and strengths. Parents of a nationally representative sample of African Americans children were interviewed on child difficulties and strengths as part of the CDC's 2019 National Health Interview Survey. About 15% of the national sample of African American youth had experienced violence or parental incarceration, depression, or drug abuse. Latent class analysis (LCA) using indicators of adversity and strengths identified four distinct classes. Class 1 included youth who experienced multiple adversities, exhibited few strengths, and were high in behavior problems. Members of both classes 2 and 3 were more likely to experience parental incarceration but exhibited altruism. Class 3 also experienced parental mental health problems. Members of class 4 had the highest exposure to violence but were comparatively high in altruism and affability. Regression analysis revealed that the groups differed from one another on emotional health but not on physical health controlling for age and gender. These findings support a focus by mental health prevention programs on building on the strengths of children growing up in adversity.

Working toward anti-racist perspectives in attachment theory, research, and practice.

Recent social movements have illuminated systemic inequities in U.S. society, including within the social sciences. Thus, it is essential that attachment researchers and practitioners engage in reflection and action to work toward anti-racist perspectives in the field. Our aims in this paper are (1) to share the generative conversations and debates that arose in preparing the Special Issue of Attachment & Human Development, "Attachment Perspectives on Race, Prejudice, and Anti-Racism"; and (2) to propose key considerations for working toward anti-racist perspectives in the field of attachment. We provide recommendations for enriching attachment theory (e.g. considering relations between caregivers' racial-ethnic socialization and secure base provision), research (e.g. increasing the representation of African American researchers and participants), and practice (e.g. advocating for policies that reduce systemic inequities in family supports). Finally, we suggest two relevant models integrating attachment theory with perspectives from Black youth development as guides for future research.

Attachment perspectives on race, prejudice, and anti-racism: Introduction to the Special Issue.

Central to attachment theory is the idea that behavior in close relationships can best be understood in context. Although decades of research have illuminated cross-cultural patterns of caregiving and attachment, there remains a critical need to increase research with African American families, examine the specific sociocultural context of systemic anti-Black racism, and integrate the rich theory and research of Black scholars. The goal of this special issue is to bring together attachment researchers and scholars studying Black youth and families to leverage and extend attachment-related work to advance anti-racist perspectives in developmental science. The papers in this special issue, highlighted in the introduction, illuminate pathways of risk and resilience in Black children, adolescents, and families and point to the protective power of relationships (and the limits of such protection) for mental and physical health. We highlight critical questions to guide ongoing dialogue and collaboration on this important topic.

Black boys unchained: Removing the constraints of racial disparities in discipline at school.

The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry has contributed significantly to scholarly discourse on race and racism especially in its coverage of issues related to the development and well-being of Black boys (BB) and men. Although disparate rates of exclusionary discipline for BB have been widely recognized as a problem, efforts to reduce them have failed. Because exclusion has negative consequences and is ineffective in changing behavior, it should be used rarely or not at all. This article advocates strict limits or outright bans on exclusion up to Grade 6. For BB, the time between pre-K and middle school is a developmentally critical period in which, for a variety of reasons, misconduct is high compared to other groups of children. Instituting bans will require a fundamental change in how school discipline is conceived. Schools will need to reimagine BB and strengthen their social competencies and emotional resilience. This will require a shift in emphasis from punishment to empathy for BB who misbehave. Implementing policies to prohibit exclusion will be difficult in light of opposition from school staff who are reluctant to surrender this tool and disagreements over the role of schools and the responsibility of families for boy's misbehavior. Recommendations for alternative programs and expansion of mental health services have been made in guidance from the federal government and adopted into law by several states. To reduce disparities, schools must establish a culture of caring and support, enact well-reasoned and collaborative regimes of control, and provide BB with interpretive frameworks that convey a sense of purpose and meaning. Together these approaches can free BB from the constraints of harsh and unfair discipline and help them to become the best versions of themselves. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychological science and COVID-19: An agenda for social action.

This report summarizes what is known about the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes ways for psychology organizations to engage in addressing pandemic-related challenges. A stress and coping framework is used to describe key factors that account for mental health difficulties resulting from the stress of pandemics including the pandemic course, political leadership and public response, cumulative stressors, risk and protective factors, and coping strategies. Psychology organizations could do much to provide help particularly to vulnerable healthcare and frontline workers, the elderly, and the socially isolated. They could offer clinical services and design prevention programs, train non-professional community workers to provide mental health first aid, assist NGO's and political leaders, and translate basic research on psychological factors that influence acceptance of public health measures. The pandemic occurs at a time of advanced connectivity that provides an opportunity for (a) scientific information exchange, (b) alleviation of distress of social isolation, but also (c) infodemic, unprecedented spread of hoaxes and online incitements to non-compliance with preventative measures. Psychology's role is not limited to addressing mental health needs but also includes promoting adjustment to changes in the economy, education and employment, and developing effective communication strategies that encourage acceptance of public health measures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Children's classroom engagement and school readiness gains in prekindergarten.

Child engagement in prekindergarten classrooms was examined using 2,751 children (mean age=4.62) enrolled in public prekindergarten programs that were part of the Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten and the State-Wide Early Education Programs Study. Latent class analysis was used to classify children into 4 profiles of classroom engagement: free play, individual instruction, group instruction, and scaffolded learning. Free play children exhibited smaller gains across the prekindergarten year on indicators of language/literacy and mathematics compared to other children. Individual instruction children made greater gains than other children on the Woodcock Johnson Applied Problems. Poor children in the individual instruction profile fared better than nonpoor children in that profile; in all other snapshot profiles, poor children fared worse than nonpoor children.

Home-School Differences in Beliefs, Support, and Control during Public Pre-kindergarten and their Link to Children's Kindergarten Readiness.

This study examines the prevalence of home-school match in child-rearing beliefs and socialization practices (control and support) and their relation to ethnicity and readiness skills of children (n=310) making the transition from publicly sponsored pre-k to kindergarten. Home-school match was operationalized both as a continuous absolute measure and as categories of match or mismatch. Overall, home-school match was more prevalent than mismatch. However, the results corroborate previous ethnographic studies showing higher rates of home-school mismatch among African Americans and Latinos than Euro Americans. Controlling for race and socioeconomic status, parents' beliefs and practices predicted readiness but teachers' did not. Absolute indicators of home-school differences were not related to kindergarten readiness. Directional indicators revealed that children attained greater skills when parents and teachers matched on child-centered beliefs, low control, and high support. Contrary to the cultural match hypothesis, home-school mismatch was associated with better outcomes than match in the case of adult-centered beliefs, control, and low support.

Measures of classroom quality in prekindergarten and children's development of academic, language, and social skills.

This study examined development of academic, language, and social skills among 4-year-olds in publicly supported prekindergarten (pre-K) programs in relation to 3 methods of measuring pre-K quality, which are as follows: (a) adherence to 9 standards of quality related to program infrastructure and design, (b) observations of the overall quality of classroom environments, and (c) observations of teachers' emotional and instructional interactions with children in classrooms. Participants were 2,439 children enrolled in 671 pre-K classrooms in 11 states. Adjusting for prior skill levels, child and family characteristics, program characteristics, and state, teachers' instructional interactions predicted academic and language skills and teachers' emotional interactions predicted teacher-reported social skills. Findings suggest that policies, program development, and professional development efforts that improve teacher-child interactions can facilitate children's school readiness.

Communicative Function Use of Preschoolers and Mothers From Differing Racial and Socioeconomic Groups.

Purpose: This study explores whether communicative function (CF: reasons for communicating) use differs by socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity, or gender among preschoolers and their mothers. Method: Mother-preschooler dyads (N = 95) from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's (2005) study of family and social environments were observed during 1 structured learning and free-play interaction. CFs were coded by trained independent raters. Results: Children used all CFs at similar rates, but those from low SES homes produced fewer utterances and less reasoning, whereas boys used less self-maintaining and more predicting. African American mothers produced more directing and less responding than European American and Latino American mothers, and Latino American mothers produced more utterances than European American mothers. Mothers from low SES homes did more directing and less responding. Conclusions: Mothers exhibited more sociocultural differences in CFs than children; this suggests that maternal demographic characteristics may influence CF production more than child demographics at school entry. Children from low SES homes talking less and boys producing less self-maintaining coincided with patterns previously detected in pragmatic literature. Overall, preschoolers from racial/ethnic minority and low SES homes were not less deft with CF usage, which may inform how their pragmatic skills are described. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5890255.

Understanding development of African American boys and young men: Moving from risks to positive youth development.

African American boys and young men in the United States face challenges unique to being a male and an ethnic minority in our society. Despite the marginalization of African American boys and young men, this article argues that African American boys and young men, like other individuals, are in large proportion able to overcome adversity and utilize positive youth development assets and resources, and that focusing on capabilities and strengths is worthy of primary emphasis (Lerner, Dowling, & Anderson, 2003; Stevenson, 2016). García Coll and colleagues' (1996) integrative model of developmental competencies in minority children lays the groundwork for conceptualizing the profound influence of racism, economic disadvantage, oppression, segregation, and other trauma-inducing experiences on the development of African American boys and young men. We extend that framework by adding notions of positive development and adaptive calibration to contextual challenges to account for prosocial development of African American boys and young men. We present descriptive and experimental research support for this approach and argue that it has the potential for increasing the validity, sophistication, and utility of developmental research on about African American boys and young men are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mental health screening of preschool children: validity and reliability of ABLE.

Children with behavioral, emotional or language problems struggle to do well at school often with limited success. ABLE (Attention, Behavior, Language, and Emotions), a new screening tool, was used to estimate the prevalence and the severity of concerns parents and teachers have about children's school adjustment and evaluate their need for services. Data obtained from the parents and teachers of children randomly selected from public Pre-K classrooms in 6 states (N = 415) and from a mental health screening of rural and urban children (N = 5,577) support the validity and reliability of ABLE. Parents identified severe problems in 18.4% of children and Pre-K teachers identified 10.5%. By kindergarten, the proportion of children identified by their teachers with serious problems more than doubled to 23%. Inattention/overactivity and behavior problems were identified most often. These children were 3.4 times more likely to be certified later for special education services by kindergarten than children not identified with problems by ABLE. However, fewer than 14% of children in public Pre-K identified with serious problems in Pre-K had received mental health services by the end of Kindergarten.

Children enrolled in public pre-K: the relation of family life, neighborhood quality, and socioeconomic resources to early competence.

This article presents data on the family and social environments of 501 children enrolled in public sponsored pre-K in 5 states and tests the relation of these resources to child competence. Structured interviews and questionnaires provide information from parents about the family's social and economic status. Direct assessments and teacher reports provide data on children's literacy, numeracy, and behavioral problems. A majority of the children served in public pre-K lived in poverty and showed decrements in language but not in other domains. A socioeconomic resource factor consisting of parental education, household income, and material need predicted all domains of children's functioning. Children from households high in socioeconomic resources entered pre-K with more well developed language and math skill but fewer behavioral problems than their disadvantaged peers. Neighborhood quality status was related to language competence and mother's marital status to math competence. Neighborhood quality and income level may have their impact on child competence through their relation to dyadic quality and the health and the psychological well-being of the parents.

Creating auspicious conditions for positive youth development in communities of color.

Representations of young people in the national media conjure unsavory images of urban youth as out of control, emotionally labile, unmotivated, and unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. Moreover, young persons of color are often represented in stories about failing high schools in which students fall behind peers in skills and seem to be incapable of overcoming problems at home or to benefit from instruction at school. Dominant narratives about young people in urban environments are often replete with images of the hypermasculine "thug" who operates according to a street code in which status is based on the ability to intimidate, and respect comes from the barrel of a gun. Although these images are gross exaggerations that apply to a very small number of young people, they are undisputed depictions that have come to dominate the narrative about urban youth and the difficulties they represent for families and communities. This article provides ways to move toward auspicious community conditions for youth development. To do so, it is necessary to delineate what is meant by positive youth development in terms of the outcomes desired as young people make the transition to adulthood.

Overcoming the educational disadvantages of poor children: How much do teacher preparation, workload, and expectations matter.

This article reviews data on aspects of the learning environment most closely associated with successful development of early academic competence, compares children from low socioeconomic backgrounds to children with higher socioeconomic status (SES) on access to academically auspicious environments, and uses the findings to identify promising targets for social innovations aimed at improving the educational prospects of poor children.

Social risks and child development in South Africa: a nation's program to protect the human rights of children.

Poverty, violence, social inequality, rapid urbanization, the HIV epidemic, and an erosion of traditional values create a challenging environment for development in South Africa. The nation has responded with a range of efforts to promote child welfare, often through efforts to strengthen family functioning. The nation's struggles, failures, and successes at safeguarding the developmental rights of children and providing for their needs offer lessons to others about what can and must be done if they are to live up the obligations assumed as signatories to the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child.

Economic Status, Community Danger and Psychological Problems among South African Children.

An extensive literature links community violence and poverty in the US to psychological difficulties in children. To test the cross-national generalizability of these relationships, 625 young, South African mothers residing in black townships with different levels of community danger and material hardship rated their 6-year-olds on emotional functioning and behavioral problems. Most mothers were African, employed and of low educational attainment. Community danger was confirmed as a risk factor for anxiety, depression, aggression, opposition and low affability in children. A composite measure of socioeconomic status as indexed by education and job status was unrelated to behavioral and emotional adjustment. However, children experiencing material hardship had fewer problems related to behavioral self-control than children in families with greater access to material resources.

Editing on the edge in Denver, New Orleans, and Williamston-and soon in Dallas and Lincoln, too.

This editorial provides a farewell from the coeditors of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Creating developmentally auspicious school environments for African American boys.

African American (AA) boys face serious barriers to academic success, many of which are uncommon--or absent--in the lives of AA girls, other children of color, and European American children. In this chapter, we identify nine critical challenges to the successful education of AA boys and review possible solutions. In addition, we evaluate one particular reform, public single-sex schooling, as a possible solution to the challenges facing AA boys. Considering the evidence, we argue that recent efforts to expand the existence of public single-sex schools are rarely grounded in empirical findings. Given the lack of compelling evidence and the high stakes for AA boys, we call for more rigorous evaluations of the outcomes of sex-segregated programs that specifically target AA boys.

Predicting long-term outcomes for children affected by HIV and AIDS: perspectives from the scientific study of children's development.

The immediate and short-term consequences of adult HIV for affected children are well documented. Little research has examined the long-term implications of childhood adversity stemming from caregiver HIV infection. Through overviews provided by experts in the field, together with an iterative process of consultation and refinement, we have extracted insights from the broader field of child development of relevance to predicting the long-term consequences to children affected by HIV and AIDS. We focus on what is known about the impact of adversities similar to those experienced by HIV-affected children, and for which there is longitudinal evidence. Cautioning that findings are not directly transferable across children or contexts, we examine findings from the study of parental death, divorce, poor parental mental health, institutionalization, undernutrition, and exposure to violence. Regardless of the type of adversity, the majority of children manifest resilience and do not experience any long-term negative consequences. However, a significant minority do and these children experience not one, but multiple problems, which frequently endure over time in the absence of support and opportunities for recovery. As a result, they are highly likely to suffer numerous and enduring impacts. These insights suggest a new strategic approach to interventions for children affected by HIV and AIDS, one that effectively combines a universal lattice of protection with intensive intervention targeted to selected children and families.