Racial and ethnic differences in the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences: Findings from a low-income sample of U.S. women

Despite great interest in adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), there has been limited research on racial and ethnic differences in their prevalence. Prior research in the United States suggests that the prevalence of ACEs varies along socioeconomic lines, but it is uncertain whether there are racial/ethnic differences in ACE rates among low-income populations. This study examined the distribution of ACEs in a sample of 1523 low-income women in Wisconsin that received home visiting services. Participants ranging in age from 16 to 50 years were coded into five racial/ethnic groups, including Hispanics and four non-Hispanic groups: blacks, whites, American Indians, and other race. Following measurement conventions, ten dichotomous indicators of child maltreatment and household dysfunction were used to create a composite ACE score. Five other potential childhood adversities were also assessed: food insecurity, homelessness, prolonged parental absence, peer victimization, and violent crime victimization. Results from bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed that, while rates of adversity were high overall, there were significant racial/ethnic differences. Total ACE scores of American Indians were comparable to the ACE scores of non-Hispanic whites, which were significantly higher than the ACE scores of non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics. Whites were more likely than blacks to report any abuse or neglect, and they were more likely than blacks and Hispanics to report any household dysfunction. The results underscore the need to account for socioeconomic differences when making racial/ethnic comparisons. Potential explanations for the observed differences are examined.     

Relationships between age and raw score increases on the Kaufman-assessment battery for children

Raw scores on the 16 K-ABC subtests and the total raw scores on the sequential and simultaneous processing scales and the achievement scale were correlated with age in months for two separate samples, each subdivided by race and sex: the K-ABC standardization sample (N = 2000) and an additional group of blacks and whites tested during the development of the K-ABC sociocultural norms (N = 615). Within each sample, the highest and lowest correlations from all race/sex groups were contrasted across all K-ABC subtests and scales. All correlations between age and raw scores were statistically significant (p ⩽ .05). No significant differences occurred in the magnitude of these relationships as a function of race/sex grouping, supporting the construct validity of the K-ABC as a developmental measure of children's aptitude and achievement for blacks, whites, Hispanics, males, and females.     

The academic progress of Hispanic immigrants

Past research has shown that Hispanic students make test score gains relative to whites as they age through school; however, this finding stands in contrast to the experience of blacks, who show little change in their relative position over the same time frame. Distinguishing Hispanic students by immigrant generation, I find that the children of immigrants (first- and second-generation Hispanics) drive the improvement in Hispanic test scores. Later-generation Hispanics consistently perform slightly below whites, perhaps due to negative selection into ethnic identification. Thus, previous estimates vastly understate the progress of first- and second-generation Hispanic immigrants. From a negative gap in 3rd grade, these students surpass socioeconomically similar whites in math and reading by middle school and end 8th grade as much as a quarter of a standard deviation ahead. Assimilation alone cannot explain this progress; a potential explanation is that immigrant parents create a home environment that fosters achievement.     

An Experimental Study of the Effect on High School Sophomores of Teaching English with Emphasis on Guidance

Principal components factor analysis and Kaiser Varimax rotation was conducted on a correlation matrix of twenty-two subtests of a scholastic achievement test, a scholastic aptitude test, two critical thinking tests, a logical reasoning test, and a problem solving test. The subjects were “disadvantaged” Negroes, “disadvantaged” integrated Negroes and whites, and “non-disadvantaged” whites. Four factors were rotated. The largest rotated factor accounting for 50 percent of the variance was a scholastic achievement test and aptitude test factor. The second factor accounting for 21 percent of the variance was a Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal factor. The third factor accounting for 20 percent of the variance was primarily a Cornell Critical Thinking Test factor.     

Psychometric Properties of the Parenting Stress Index in a Sample of Low-Income African-American Mothers of Infants and Toddlers

Examined the psychometric properties of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) in 191 low-income, urban African-American mothers of infants and toddlers recruited from a primary health care facility. The subscales of the PSI had acceptable levels of internal consistency and stability over six months. Concurrent validity, examined through self-report and observational measures, revealed high convergence with mothers reporting consistent levels of stress across measures. Factor analysis suggested a 3-factor solution including parent, child, and parent-child interaction factors. In comparison with the nonnative sample, mothers reported elevated levels of stress on three of the seven parent subscales and all of the child subscales. These findings support the consistency of the psychometric properties of the PSI across samples that vary in ethnicity and socioeconomic status.     

Psychometric Properties of the Parenting Stress Index in a Sample of Low-Income African-American Mothers of Infants and Toddlers

Examined the psychometric properties of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) in 191 low-income, urban African-American mothers of infants and toddlers recruited from a primary health care facility. The subscales of the PSI had acceptable levels of internal consistency and stability over six months. Concurrent validity, examined through self-report and observational measures, revealed high convergence with mothers reporting consistent levels of stress across measures. Factor analysis suggested a 3-factor solution including parent, child, and parent–child interaction factors. In comparison with the nonnative sample, mothers reported elevated levels of stress on three of the seven parent subscales and all of the child subscales. These findings support the consistency of the psychometric properties of the PSI across samples that vary in ethnicity and socioeconomic status.     

The merits of a longer school day

This paper presents results of an empirical study of the effects of increasing the amount of math and reading instruction offered to third through sixth grade students. The data come from a nationwide random sample for the 1976–1977 school year. While blacks and Hispanics received significantly greater hours of instruction than whites, all groups experienced diminishing returns at the observed amounts of instruction. In nearly all cases there appeared to be little benefit expected from a further increase in the amount of math and reading instruction offered per day.     

Adverse childhood experiences,mental health,and excessive alcohol use: Examination of race/ethnicity and sex differences

Responses from N = 60,598 interviews from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (the 10 states and the District of Columbia that included the optional Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) module) were used to test whether associations between childhood adversity and adult mental health and alcohol behaviors vary by race/ethnicity and sex. ACE items were categorized into two types – household challenges and child abuse. Outcomes were current depression, diagnosed depression, heavy drinking and binge drinking. Logistic regression models found ACEs significantly associated with depression and excessive alcohol use, but sex did not moderate any relationships. Race/ethnicity moderated the relationship between ACEs and heavy drinking. In stratified analyses, compared to those not exposed to ACEs, non-Hispanic blacks who experienced either type of ACE were about 3 times as likely to drink heavily; Non-Hispanic whites who experienced child abuse or both ACE types were 1.5–2 times as likely to drink heavily; and Hispanics who experienced household challenges or both ACE types were 1.2 and 11 times as likely to report heavy drinking. ACEs impact depression and excessive alcohol use similarly across men and women. With the exception of heavy drinking, ACEs appear to have the same association with excessive alcohol use across race/ethnicity. It may be prudent to further investigate why the relationship between ACEs and heavy drinking may differ by race/ethnicity such that prevention strategies can be developed or refined to effectively address the needs of all sub-groups.     

Sensory, cognitive, and linguistic factors in the early academic performance of elementary school children: The Benton-IU project

Standardized sensory, perceptual, linguistic, intellectual, and cognitive tests were administered to 470 children, approximately 96% of the students entering the first grade in the four elementary schools of Benton County, Indiana, over a 3-year period (1995--1997). The results of 36 tests and subtests administered to entering first graders were well described by a 4-factor solution. These factors and the tests that loaded most heavily on them were reading-related skills (phonological awareness, letter and word identification); visual cognition (visual perceptual abilities, spatial perception, visual memory); verbal cognition (language development, vocabulary, verbal concepts); and speech processing (the ability to understand speech under difficult listening conditions). A cluster analysis identified 9 groups of children, each with a different profile of scores on the 4 factors. Within these groups, the proportion of students with unsatisfactory reading achievement in the first 2 years of elementary school (as reflected in teacher-assigned grades) varied from 3% to 40%. The profiles of factor scores demonstrated the primary influence of the reading-related skills factor on reading achievement and also on other areas of academic performance. The second strongest predictor of reading and mathematics grades was the visual cognition factor, followed by the verbal cognition factor. The speech processing factor was the weakest predictor of academic achievement, accounting for less than 1% of the variance in reading achievement. This project was a collaborative effort of the Benton Community School Corporation and a multidisciplinary group of investigators from Indiana University.     

Exploring the underlying factor structure of the home literacy environment (HLE) in the English and Spanish versions of the Familia Inventory: A cautionary tale

Few research-based measures of the family literacy environment are commercially available, especially in Spanish. One exception is the Familia Inventory (Taylor, 1995). The present study investigated the 10 subscales of this instrument and the factor structure they imply, using data from a low-socioeconomic (SES), largely Hispanic population. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the structure of the instrument as well as whether it is invariant across English and Spanish language versions. The scale was administered to 232 parents of preschoolers. Results of the CFA revealed that the a priori dimensions of the Familia Inventory were not supported for this sample. Follow-up analyses suggested poor fit both within and between subscales. The scale fit poorly within both English and Spanish, precluding testing of invariance across language. Supplemental analyses using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on a subset of the items that had adequate variance suggested that a four-factor solution accounting for 53% of the variance best represented the English data and that a two-factor solution accounting for 43% of the variance best represented the Spanish data. Implications are discussed.     

Toward a research-based assessment of dyslexia: using cognitive measures to identify reading disabilities

One hundred five participants from a random sample of elementary and middle school children completed measures of reading achievement and cognitive abilities presumed, based on a synthesis of current dyslexia research, to underlie reading. Factor analyses of these cognitive variables (including auditory processing, phonological awareness, short-term auditory memory, visual memory, rapid automatized naming, and visual processing speed) produced three empirically and theoretically derived factors (auditory processing, visual processing/speed, and memory), each of which contributed to the prediction of reading and spelling skills. Factor scores from the three factors combined predicted 85% of the variance associated with letter/sight word naming, 70% of the variance associated with reading comprehension, 73% for spelling, and 61% for phonetic decoding. The auditory processing factor was the strongest predictor, accounting for 27% to 43% of the variance across the different achievement areas. The results provide practitioner and researcher with theoretical and empirical support for the inclusion of measures of the three factors, in addition to specific measures of reading achievement, in a standardized assessment of dyslexia. Guidelines for a thorough, research-based assessment are provided.     

Interaction of race with other variables on achievement in school

This study was concerned with academic performance in black and white children and the interactions of race with other variables on school achievement. Subjects were 334 blacks and 637 whites in grades three to six. Data consisted of general background information and grade equivalent scores on the California Achievement Tests. They were analyzed using multiple re- gression analysis of variance. Results indicated that blacks scored lower than whites and fell farther behind as they progressed from grade to grade. Significant interactions were revealed for sex, social class, family structure, and teachers. Means for black children were generally less variable than for white children.     

THE PREDICTION OF GRADES FOR BLACK AND WHITE STUDENTS AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

The regression equations of sophomore year cumulative grade point averages on five ability and achievement test scores for blacks and whites at Michigan State University showed a significant difference. However, use of these separate regression equations would not be in favor of black students. The variance accounted for by the predictors was similar for both groups.     

Academic pressures and the black adolescent

This study examined the relationships among social class, race, and academic pressure in an inner city public high school. Previous research outside the inner city on U.S. and English high school students, who were predominantly white, has yielded four major factors: parental stress, peer stress, importance of school, and fear of failure. The primary purposes of this study are (1) to measure academic stress in an inner city setting, (2) to observe differences and similarities between blacks and whites and between middle- and lower-class adolescents, and (3) to determine if the four previously observed factors would be as pertinent for this sample as they were for previous samples. Race differences were observed on 4 of 10 factors with blacks indicating significantly more pressure than whites. A race by class interaction was observed on one factor and no significant differences were observed on the five remaining factors.     

WISC-R factor structures among White,Mexican American,and African American children: A research note

The factor structure for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) was investigated for White (n = 183), Mexican American (n = 129), and African American (n = 139) nonreferred school-age children (6.8 to 14.6 years) of low-to middle-class socioeconomic background. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. The WISC-R factor structure model tested was Kaufman's (1975) three-factor solution that consisted of Verbal Comprehension (VC, Factor 1), Perceptual Organization (PO, Factor 2), and Freedom from Distractibility (FD, Factor 3). The results of the exploratory analyses showed Kaufman's three-factor solution for the three ethnic groups, but the order of Factor 2 and Factor 3 was reversed for the Mexican American and African American samples—thus raising questions about the comparability of the WISC-R factor structure across groups. The confirmatory analyses, which used the orthogonal nested factors approach by Gustafsson and Balke (1993), resulted in a model (for each of the ethnic groups) in which a G factor explained most of the variance (followed by the nested first-order factors—VC, PO, and FD). The results of the confirmatory analyses provide some support for David Wechsler's (1974) original intentions that the WISC-R structure is best described as having a general, or global, factor. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The role of ethnicity in choosing and leaving science in highly selective institutions

This study sought to assess the role of ethnicity in both initial choice of, and persistence in, science majors. Standardized test scores, high school records, initial concentration preference, college grades, and final majors of all the white, Asian, black, and Hispanic students who enrolled in 1988 at four highly selective institutions provided the database. Despite relative deficits in scores on measures of preparation and developed ability, blacks entered college with a strong interest in majoring in science. Black students interested in science also suffered the highest attrition from it; Asians were lowest, with whites and Hispanics near the average attrition of 40%. Ethnicity did not add significantly to ability and achievement variables in predicting attrition from science. The results are discussed in terms of two main issues: first, the effect of different standards of selection for the various groups on their success in science curricula; and second, the relevance of various well-known intervention strategies to the problems of minority attrition in science in highly selective institutions.     

The impact of culture contact and desegregation on the whites of an urban high school

Conclusion Desegregation has generally been presented as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement and as an attempt to redress the educational disadvantages blacks have suffered as the result of a racial imbalance. Given the general theoretical considerations of resource allocation, the assumption has been that reallocations of resources to blacks would necessarily mean reallocation of these resources to blacks from whites. This view is also part of the popular culture where the process of desegregation has caused turmoil and disturbance among whites based, manifestedly at least, on the notion that improving educational benefits for blacks necessarily means a reduction in the same benefits for whites.Based on an analysis of the experiences of teachers and students at one polyethnic inner-city high school, we suggest that not only have whites at this school not been disadvantaged by the desegregation process but that there is evidence indicating that there have been more advantages for whites than for blacks. What, then, are the advantages of desegregation for whites, both students and teachers? In this school it was found that the advantages differed for white students and for white teachers, with white students experiencing more positive outcomes than white teachers experienced.     

The prediction of academic and clinical performance in medical school

Prior studies have suggested the importance of distinguishing between performance in the earlier and later years of medical education. Factor analysis of grades by year and faculty ratings of clinical and general medical competence for 661 medical students identified two uncorrelated factors clearly reflecting this distinction. The clinical performance factor, accounting for 48% of the communality of the matrix, was more or less unpredictable from aptitude and premedical academic achievement indices; it was marginally predictable from scales on the Adjective Check List. The academic performance factor, accounting for 31% of the variance among criteria, was forecast with acceptable accuracy (cross-validated R=0.43) by equations based on the Medical College Admission Test and premedical grade point average. Future study should stress the clinical performance factor; this criterion appears to be more important than academic attainment, and it is also less accurately predicted by current measures.     

Racial differences in factors associated with bachelor's degree completion: A nine-year follow-up

This study employed a sample of 5,577 students initially enrolling in 352 four-year colleges and universities. The study's purpose was to investigate racial differences in the factors associated with bachelor's degree completion. The sample was followed over a nine-year period, from 1971 to 1980. Tinto's (1975) theoretical model guided the selection of 19 predictor variables. This set of predictors accounted for between 15% and 29% of the variance in attaining the bachelor's degree for white and black men and women. For all race and sex subgroups, measures of the collegiate experience (e.g., number of institutions attended, academic and social integration, and subsequent institutional commitment/satisfaction) had the strongest and most consistently positive regression weights with degree completion. Only a small number of significant race or sex differences were found in the factors associated with degree completion. For black men, the number of institutions attended and the size of the institution initially attended had significantly stronger negative associations with degree attainment than they did for white men. Institutional commitment/satisfaction had positive regression weights for all subsamples, but the magnitude was greater for men of both races than it was for women. Within samples, academic integration was a somewhat stronger predictor of degree attainment than social integration for whites but not for blacks.     

三重意识的张力之源：理查德·赖特笔下的种族关系

理查德.赖特在文学作品里以自己独特的视角和笔调揭露了美国20世纪三四十年代紧张的种族关系,认为种族隔离和种族界限是以人为的方式把处于共生关系的黑人和白人进行了活生生的社会切割,导致这两大种族之间的误解和仇恨。白人在教育、司法等方面对黑人实施双重标准,引起黑人对白人的更加反感和不信任。种族隔离和种族界限是黑人与白人相互仇视的根源,白人对黑人的仇恨和种族压迫引起部分黑人率先形成自己的第三种意识,激化了他们三重意识中的张力,从而促使更多的黑人加入到追求种族平等和社会公正的斗争中去。