Critical examination of resilience and resistance in African American families: Adaptive capacities to navigate toxic oppressive upstream waters.

African American families navigate not only everyday stressors and adversities but also unique sociocultural stressors (e.g., "toxic upstream waters" like oppression). These adverse conditions are consequences of the historical vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow laws, often manifested as inequities in wealth, housing, wages, employment, access to healthcare, and quality education. Despite these challenges, African American families have developed resilience using strength-based adaptive coping strategies, to some extent, to filter these waters. To advance the field of resilience research, we focused on the following questions: (1) what constitutes positive responses to adversity?; (2) how is resilience defined conceptually and measured operationally?; (3) how has the field of resilience evolved?; (4) who defines what, when, and how responses are manifestations of resilience, instead of, for example, resistance? How can resistance, which at times leads to positive adaptations, be incorporated into the study of resilience?; and (5) are there case examples that demonstrate ways to address structural oppression and the pernicious effects of racism through system-level interventions, thereby changing environmental situations that sustain toxic waters requiring acts of resilience to survive and thrive? We end by exploring how a re-conceptualization of resilience requires a paradigm shift and new methodological approaches to understand ways in which preventive interventions move beyond focusing on families' capacity to navigate oppression and target systems and structures that maintain these toxic waters.

The Impact of COVID-19, Mental Health Distress, and School-Based Sociocultural Protective Factors among Elementary-Aged Children and their Caregivers.

Given the individual and systemic stress endured by children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic, research examining culturally responsive school experiences and supports to enhance resilience is critical. This study examined the relationship between caregivers' perceptions of COVID-19 impact, mental health distress among children and caregivers, and school-based sociocultural protective factors, including culturally responsive practices in schools and the relationships between teachers and caregivers, concurrently and longitudinally. Data were collected from caregivers of elementary-aged children at two-time points from March to April 2020 (N = 174) and one year later in 2021 (N = 114). Regression analyses revealed that COVID-19 impact positively predicted and parent-teacher joining negatively predicted mental health concerns among children and families, concurrently and longitudinally. Furthermore, there was a positive relationship between caregivers' perceptions of teachers' social awareness and justice practices and mental health symptoms for children in 2020. Parent-teacher joining longitudinally moderated the relationship between COVID-19 impact and caregivers' mental health concerns. This study provides implications regarding sociocultural resilience factors that should be considered in schools amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

"They are aware; they choose to ignore it": The state of culturally responsive school practices through the lens of parents.

There is a continuous push from researchers, accrediting bodies, and national education and behavioral health centers to address the safety, well-being, and success of our diverse student population in U.S. schools. However, several states are introducing or passing bills that ban or restrict culturally responsive practices in schools. The opposing views overshadow the importance of cultural responsiveness for children and the benefits of cultural responsiveness from the caregivers' perspective based on their lived experiences. Therefore, this study utilized phenomenological inquiry to gain caregivers' experiences of culturally responsive (and unresponsive) practices in their child(ren)'s preschool or elementary school. Interviews were conducted with 13 culturally diverse parents and caregivers from varying racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and financial backgrounds. An analysis of the interviews revealed six themes: (1) creating an inclusive and safe educational space, (2) establishing a parent-school alliance, (3) a need for cultural cognizance in the school community, (4) accommodation of religious and cultural holidays, (5) culture in the curriculum, and (6) equitable access to educational opportunities. This study reflects an essential step toward examining and incorporating the perspectives of parents and caregivers into our practice, research, and policy efforts for enhancing cultural responsiveness in schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).