African American and European American Mothers' Beliefs about Negative Emotions and Emotion Socialization Practices

OBJECTIVE: Mothers' beliefs about their children's negative emotions and their emotion socialization practices were examined. DESIGN: Sixty-five African American and 137 European American mothers of 5-year-old children reported their beliefs and typical responses to children's negative emotions, and mothers' emotion teaching practices were observed. RESULTS: African American mothers reported that the display of negative emotions was less acceptable than European American mothers, and African American mothers of boys perceived the most negative social consequences for the display of negative emotions. African American mothers reported fewer supportive responses to children's negative emotions than European Americans and more nonsupportive responses to children's anger. African American mothers of boys also reported more nonsupportive responses to submissive negative emotions than African American mothers of girls. However, no differences were found by ethnicity or child gender in observed teaching about emotions. Group differences in mothers' responses to negative emotions were explained, in part, by mothers' beliefs about emotions. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in beliefs and practices may reflect African American mothers' efforts to protect their children from discrimination.     

African American Women's Preparation for Childbirth From the Perspective of African American Health-Care Providers

Preparation for birthing has focused primarily on Caucasian women. No studies have explored African American women's birth preparation. From the perceptions of 12 African American maternity health-care providers, this study elicited perceptions of the ways in which pregnant African American women prepare for childbirth. Focus group participants answered seven semistructured questions. Four themes emerged: connecting with nurturers, traversing an unresponsive system, the need to be strong, and childbirth classes not a priority. Recommendations for nurses and childbirth educators include: (a) self-awareness of attitudes toward African Americans, (b) empowering of clients for birthing, (c) recognition of the role that pregnant women's mothers play, (d) tailoring of childbirth classes for African American women, and (e) research on how racism influences pregnant African American women's preparation for birthing.     

Help-Seeking Experiences and Attitudes among African American, Asian American, and European American College Students

The study examined African American, Asian American, and European American college students’ previous direct and indirect experiences of seeking professional psychological services and related attitudes. Survey data were collected from 254 European American, 182 African American and 82 Asian American college students. Results revealed that fewer African American and Asian American college students had sought professional psychological services, knew someone who had sought psychological services, and knew a close person who was diagnosed with a psychological disorder, relative to European American students. Furthermore, African American and Asian American participants showed less favorable attitudes on a variety of help-seeking attitudes, compared to the European American group.     

Intergroup attitudes of European American children attending ethnically homogeneous schools

Intergroup attitudes were assessed in European American 1st-grade (M=6.99 years, SD=0.32) and 4th-grade (M=10.01 years, SD=0.36) children (N=138) attending ethnically homogeneous schools to test hypotheses about racial biases and interracial friendships. An Ambiguous Situations Task and an Intergroup Contact Assessment were administered to all participants. Unlike previous findings with European American children attending heterogeneous schools, children rated minority perpetrators more negatively than majority perpetrators, and friendship as less likely when a minority than a majority perpetrator was portrayed. These findings suggest that intergroup contact contributes to racial bias in children's interpretations of peer dyadic encounters and to judgments about interracial friendships.     

The Association Between Narratives and Theory of Mind for Low-Income Preschoolers

This study investigated the relationship between narrative skills and theory of mind for low-income children. Two groups of low-income preschoolers, one African American (n = 33) and one European American (n = 36), created a narrative and participated in a false belief task. The European Americans outperformed African Americans on the false belief task, but there were no differences in the narrative skills across the groups. After controlling for children's age, false belief performance had no effect on European Americans' narrative abilities. However, African Americans who passed the false belief task told stories that were more grammatically coherent and social cognitively sophisticated than those African American children who did not pass the task.     

Unforgivable Blackness: Visual Rhetoric,Reader Response,and Critical Racial Literacy

Perceptions of black representations in literature and other visual mediums as positive or negative continuously cause consternation and debate (Fleetwood, 2011). Because African American children are literacy participants and consumers, they are not immune from experiencing this tension. This essay considers the effects and affective threads of racism and racialization connected to visuality (Foster, 1988), and how educators might support and nurture children’s roles as aesthetic critics and critical readers of books featuring racial imagery and representations. The young African American readers in this study resist a picturebook using colorist logic and macro-level social indexing of phenotypic traits. The author argues that negative social messages about blackness within the larger ethos of society, as well as the absence of diverse representations in children’s literature, contribute to such interpretations. She suggests explicitly teaching African American children about counter-visuality and the ways in which “art works” to shape and transform understandings about complex experiences like racism.     

The Association Between Narratives and Theory of Mind for Low-Income Preschoolers

This study investigated the relationship between narrative skills and theory of mind for low-income children. Two groups of low-income preschoolers, one African American (n = 33) and one European American (n = 36), created a narrative and participated in a false belief task. The European Americans outperformed African Americans on the false belief task, but there were no differences in the narrative skills across the groups. After controlling for children's age, false belief performance had no effect on European Americans' narrative abilities. However, African Americans who passed the false belief task told stories that were more grammatically coherent and social cognitively sophisticated than those African American children who did not pass the task.     

Cultural differences in Chinese American and European American children's drawing skills over time

Parents and early childhood teachers in Chinese societies and the United States have had dissimilar views about appropriate art instruction for young children. The Chinese view is that creativity will emerge after children have been taught essential drawing skills. The American view has been that children's drawing skills emerge naturally and that directive teaching will stifle children's creativity. Forty second-generation Chinese American and 40 European American young children participated in this longitudinal study at ages 5, 7, and 9 to explore possible cultural differences in and antecedents of their drawing skills and creativity. Chinese American children's person drawings were more mature and creative and their parents reported more formal ways of fostering creativity as compared to their European American counterparts. Correlations showed that children who had more opportunities to draw and who received more guidance in drawing were more advanced in their drawing. For Chinese Americans, fathers’ personal art attitudes and children's Time 1 drawing skills predicted 53% of the variance in children's drawing scores four years later.     

Children's Cross‐Ethnic Relationships in Elementary Schools: Concurrent and Prospective Associations Between Ethnic Segregation and Social Status

This study examined whether ethnic segregation is concurrently (fall) and prospectively (fall to spring) associated with social status among 4th‐ and 5th‐grade African American and European American children (n = 713, ages 9–11 years). Segregation measures were (a) same‐ethnicity favoritism in peer affiliations and (b) cross‐ethnicity dislike. Social status measures were same‐ and cross‐ethnicity peer nominations of acceptance, rejection, and cool. Among African Americans, fall segregation predicted declines in cross‐ethnicity (European American) acceptance and same‐ethnicity rejection, and increases in same‐ethnicity acceptance and perceived coolness. For European American children, fall segregation predicted declines in cross‐ethnicity (African American) acceptance and increases in cross‐ethnicity rejection. Results indicate that segregation induces asymmetric changes in social status for African American and European American children.     

"I'm Happy with My Mommy": Low-Income Preschoolers' Causal Attributions for Emotions

This study examined low-income African American and European American preschoolers' socioemotional causal attributions. Forty-seven Young (M = 48 months) and Old (M = 62 months) preschoolers were asked to justify a puppet's current emotion and to talk about their past emotional experiences. Responses were coded for Causal Theme and Clarity. Old preschoolers were twice as likely to attribute interpersonal themes, and Young preschoolers were 4 times more likely to generate causal themes that were uncodeable. In terms of clarity, children provided clearer responses for anger and fear than they did for happiness. Old preschoolers' explanations for emotions were clearer than young preschoolers' and young African Americans', who had the most difficulty explaining emotions. Results indicate that younger preschoolers, particularly young African Americans, may need help articulating emotions. Suggestions for how adults can scaffold preschoolers' emotional reasoning are discussed.     

I'm Happy with My Mommy: Low-Income Preschoolers' Causal Attributions for Emotions

This study examined low-income African American and European American preschoolers' socioemotional causal attributions. Forty-seven Young (M = 48 months) and Old (M = 62 months) preschoolers were asked to justify a puppet's current emotion and to talk about their past emotional experiences. Responses were coded for Causal Theme and Clarity. Old preschoolers were twice as likely to attribute interpersonal themes, and Young preschoolers were 4 times more likely to generate causal themes that were uncodeable. In terms of clarity, children provided clearer responses for anger and fear than they did for happiness. Old preschoolers' explanations for emotions were clearer than young preschoolers' and young African Americans', who had the most difficulty explaining emotions. Results indicate that younger preschoolers, particularly young African Americans, may need help articulating emotions. Suggestions for how adults can scaffold preschoolers' emotional reasoning are discussed.     

African American and European American children in diverse elementary classrooms: social integration, social status, and social behavior

With a sample of African American and European American 3rd- and 4th-grade children (N = 486, ages 8-11 years), this study examined classroom ethnic composition, peer social status (i.e., social preference and perceived popularity as nominated by same- and cross-ethnicity peers), and patterns of ethnic segregation (i.e., friendship, peer group, and cross-ethnicity dislike). African American--but not European American--children had more segregated relationships and were more disliked by cross-ethnicity peers when they had fewer same-ethnicity classmates. African American children's segregation was positively associated with same-ethnicity social preference and perceived popularity and with cross-ethnicity perceived popularity. European American children's segregation was positively associated with same-ethnicity social preference but negatively associated with cross-ethnicity social preference and perceived popularity.     

Toward a Democratic Ethnotheory of Parenting for Families and Policymakers: A Developmental Systems Perspective

Objective. This study examines ethnic group differences in the relation between parents' use of physical discipline and children's externalizing behavior problems in younger children and assesses both same-source and distinct-source data. Design. One hundred and twelve mothers of African American (N = 63) and European American (N = 49) children were interviewed regarding their parenting strategies and their child's behavior. Preschool teacher ratings of child behavior were obtained. Results. Regression analyses revealed significant main effects for gender and discipline on externalizing behavior problems. All 2-way interactions with ethnicity were significant, but only when predicting teacher-rated behavior problems. Post-hoc analyses showed that for African American men, there was a significant negative correlation between mother-reported physical discipline and teacher-rated externalizing behavior problems. Similar correlations for African American women and the European American gender groups were not significant. Conclusions. These findings show ethnic differences in the relation between physical discipline and externalizing behavior problems for young children when distinct-source information is obtained. The study extends the literature by showing this effect is particularly strong for boys.     

Factors Related to the Achievement and Adjustment of Young African American Children

Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were used to examine factors related to the achievement and adjustment of African American children in the early elementary grades. All African American children between the ages of 6 and 9 years for whom data were available in the NLSY were included in this study ( N = 378). Consistent with past research, there was a positive relation between the number of risk factors children were exposed to and the probability that they were experiencing academic or behavioral problems. Favorable outcomes in the cognitive and social-emotional domains (i.e., scoring in the top quartile for this sample) were associated with high scores on an "advantage index." The need for more research on successful African American children is discussed.     

Relations between colorblind socialization and children's racial bias: evidence from European American mothers and their preschool children

To examine European American parents’ racial socialization, mothers (n = 84) were videotaped while reading 2 race‐themed books to their 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children and completed surveys concerning their racial attitudes and behaviors. Children completed measures of their racial attitudes and both groups (mothers and preschoolers) predicted the others’ racial attitudes. Results indicated that nearly all mothers adopted “colormute” and “colorblind” approaches to socialization. Furthermore, neither children nor mothers accurately predicted the others’ views. Children’s racial attitudes were unrelated to their mothers’ attitudes but were predicted by their mothers’ cross‐race friendships; those children whose mothers had a higher percentage of non‐European American friends showed lower levels of racial biases than those children whose mothers had a lower percentage of non‐European American friends.     

Maternal intrusiveness, maternal warmth, and mother-toddler relationship outcomes: variations across low-income ethnic and acculturation groups

The present study investigated the extent to which maternal intrusiveness and warmth during play, observed in 579 European American, 412 African American, and 110 more and 131 less acculturated Mexican American low-income families when children were approximately 15 months old, predicted 3 dimensions of the mother-toddler relationship 10 months later. Intrusiveness predicted increases in later child negativity in all 4 groups. Among African Americans only, this association was moderated by maternal warmth. Intrusiveness predicted negative change in child engagement with mothers only in European American families. Finally, near-significant trends suggested that intrusiveness predicted later decreased dyadic mutuality in European American and more acculturated Mexican American families, but not in African American or less acculturated Mexican American families.     

Early Head Start and African American families: Impacts and mechanisms of child outcomes

Persistent disparities exist between African American children and their European American counterparts across developmental domains. Early childhood intervention may serve to promote more positive outcomes among African American children. The current study examined whether and how the Early Head Start (EHS) program benefited African American children at the end of the program, when they were 36 months of age, as well as the parenting these children experienced and how this affected their developmental outcomes. The data show a wide and strong pattern of impacts of EHS for African American children and families. Path analysis yielded findings that suggested a direct effect of EHS on specific child outcomes and parenting processes within this group of African American families. Parental supportiveness and cognitive stimulation emerged as important direct influences on African American children's outcomes and as pathways through which Early Head Start benefits these children. These findings are discussed in the context of early childhood intervention practice.     

Economic stress, parenting, and child adjustment in Mexican American and European American families

To assess the impact of economic hardship on 111 European American and 167 Mexican American families and their 5th-grade (M age=11.4 years) children, a family stress model was evaluated. Structural equation analyses revealed that economic hardship was linked to indexes of economic pressure that were related to depressive symptoms for mothers and fathers of both ethnicities. Depressive symptoms were linked to marital problems and hostile parenting. Paternal hostile parenting was related to child adjustment problems for European Americans, whereas marital problems were linked to child adjustment problems for Mexican Americans. Maternal acculturation was associated with both higher marital problems and lower hostile parenting. The utility of the model for describing the effects of economic hardship in Mexican Americans is noted.     

Cultural Vibrancy: Exploring the Preferences of African American Children Toward Culturally Relevant and Non-Culturally Relevant Lessons

Despite the laudable intent of various educational initiatives in raising the achievement level of all children, limited progress has been made. In an effort to diminish the achievement gap of students of color, some researchers have examined the cultural relevancy of the curriculum in promoting student achievement. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the preferences of African American children toward culturally relevant and non-culturally relevant lessons, through a six-week series of lessons in an American History classroom. Critical Race Theory and Racial Identity Development provided the theoretical underpinnings of this study. This study takes place in an ethnically diverse high school in Colorado. Culturally relevant lessons were rich in oral traditions, music, historical connections, and a structured culturally relevant field trip. Non-culturally relevant lessons were administered devoid of cultural referents, and utilized the existing curriculum guide. Study results revealed statistically significant findings for African American children’s preferences for culturally relevant lessons. These lessons were found relevant to their culture when administered by a culturally responsive and caring teacher. Recommendations are made for educators and administrators in promoting achievement through culturally relevant lessons and curriculum.     

A Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Computers on the Cognitive Development of Low-Income African American Preschool Children

Research Findings: The current study examined the impact of daily classroom computer use on the cognitive development of preschool children in 14 urban Head Start classrooms. The sample consisted of 208 predominantly African American low-income children with a mean age of 48.8 months. A quasi-experimental design was used in which 7 classrooms had computers and 7 classrooms served as the control. Assessments were made at baseline and at 6, 12, and 18 months. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to assess differences between the computer and control groups on cognitive developmental trajectories. Children in the computer condition displayed significantly greater increases in quantitative development than did children from the control condition. Practice or Policy: Children’s access to computers at home and at school has become increasingly prevalent. However, there is still a substantial disparity in access to technology between different socioeconomic groups. The preschool years may offer a promising opportunity to close this gap in access; however, little is known about the impact of computers on the developing minds of children, particularly those from low-income African American families. Findings from the current study suggest that daily use of computer centers in the Head Start classroom may benefit quantitative outcomes for young children.