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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

From higher order thinking to higher order behavior: exploring the relationship between early cognitive skills and social competence in black boys.

This study examines the relations of higher order (i.e., abstract) thinking (HOT) skills to specific domains of social competence in Black boys (n = 108) attending publicly sponsored prekindergarten (pre-K) programs. Data for the study were collected as part of the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) Multi-State Study, a national, longitudinal study examining the quality and outcomes in a representative sample of publicly sponsored pre-K programs in six states (N = 240). Pre-K and kindergarten teachers rated randomly selected children on measures of abstract thinking, self-regulation, and social functioning at the beginning and end of each school year. Applying structural equation modeling, compared with earlier time points, HOT measured in the fall of kindergarten significantly predicted each of the domains of social competence in the spring of kindergarten, with the exception of peer social skills, while controlling for general cognitive ability. Results suggest that early intervention to improve HOT may be an effective and more focused approach to address concerns about Black boys' early social competencies in specific domains and potentially reduce the risk of later social difficulties.

Raising African American boys: an exploration of gender and racial socialization practices.

Although parental socialization practices are critical to a child's social development, little is known of the details of how parental practices function to meet the specific challenges of supporting young boys' development as African American and men. Accordingly, this article offers a window onto how 15 parents of African American boys (ages 3-8) conceive and implement strategies for their sons' social and emotional development. Using ethnographic observations and structured interview data, this article explores the ways they promote emerging racial and gender identities and socioemotional well-being. Findings reveal that highly incongruous messages and expectations are communicated to young boys about race and gender. The study's findings have implications for young African American boys' emerging racial and gender identities.

Adult outcomes as a function of an early childhood educational program: an Abecedarian Project follow-up.

Adult (age 30) educational, economic, and social-emotional adjustment outcomes were investigated for participants in the Abecedarian Project, a randomized controlled trial of early childhood education for children from low-income families. Of the original 111 infants enrolled (98% African American), 101 took part in the age 30 follow-up. Primary indicators of educational level, economic status, and social adjustment were examined as a function of early childhood treatment. Treated individuals attained significantly more years of education, but income-to-needs ratios and criminal involvement did not vary significantly as a function of early treatment. A number of other indicators were described for each domain. Overall, the findings provide strong evidence for educational benefits, mixed evidence for economic benefits, and little evidence for treatment-related social adjustment outcomes. Implications for public policy are discussed.

Patterns of disclosure of HIV status to infected children in a Sub-Saharan African setting.

OBJECTIVE: Adult caregivers provide children living with HIV with varying amounts and types of information about their health status that may affect their coping and health care behaviors. We aimed to describe patterns of information sharing with children and thoughts around disclosure among caregivers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. METHODS: A total of 259 primary caregivers of children aged 5 to 17 years in an HIV pediatric care and treatment program were screened; 8 adult caregivers (3%) had informed their child of the child's HIV status. We conducted structured interviews with 201 caregivers whose children had not yet been told their HIV status. RESULTS: Nearly 50% of caregivers had provided no information to their child about their health; 15% had given partial information without mentioning HIV, and 33% provided information that deflected attention from HIV, whether deliberately so or otherwise. Almost all caregivers said that the child should be told their status some day, and three-fourths reported having ever thought about what might lead them to tell. However, nearly one-third of caregivers saw no benefits to informing the child of her/his HIV status. A majority of caregivers felt that they themselves were the best to eventually disclose to the child but some wanted support from health care providers. CONCLUSIONS: HIV-infected children are given limited information about their health. Health care providers may serve as important sources of support to caregivers as they decide when and how to talk candidly with their children about their health.

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.

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.

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.