Cultural factors such as health care access and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptom interpretations have been proposed as impacting delayed diagnosis and treatment for African American children with ASD. A qualitative study of urban African American families caring for their child with autism was conducted with 24 family members and 28 ASD…

Although the Common Core State Standards call on parents to support professional educators' efforts for improving student academic achievement, we have yet to examine how to best support parents in achieving this goal. The present study addresses this need by examining a five-month mathematics intervention which aimed to increase awareness of the…

In modern society, some African American women are choosing a career before accepting the traditional role of birthing a child or children at an early age and marriage is not always part of the equation. Women's freedoms (i.e., equality, personal choice, sexuality) have increased since their early struggles for their rights as citizens and as…

Previous research has indicated that having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) presents a unique set of challenges that impacts the entire family unit and individual family members' health, well-being, and experiences across the lifespan (Patterson, 2005; Turnbull, Turnbull, Erwin, & Soodak, 2006). Very few studies have addressed the…

A select few African American families who have a child with a disability have the skills and knowledge to be proactive in the special education process. Special education teams must guide and mentor African American students and their families through the special education process. However, African American families have consistently contended…

African American mother-child dyads (N = 99) were observed interacting on a collaborative puzzle exercise. Raters blind to the purpose of the study rated the dyads on several mother and child behaviors. Mothers of daughters were rated as more empathetic, encouraging, warm, and accepting and less negative than mothers of sons. Male children were…

This article compares patterns of television use between African American and Latino child care providers in low-income households that are caring for children under the age of 5 years. Everyday experiences such as television viewing may impede or support healthy child development. Because both poverty and minority status put children at risk for…

In a predominantly low-income population-based longitudinal sample of 1,292 children followed from birth, higher level of salivary cortisol assessed at ages 7, 15, and 24 months was uniquely associated with lower executive function ability and to a lesser extent IQ at age 3 years. Measures of positive and negative aspects of parenting and…

To highlight the individual and systemic practices that perpetuate the overuse of and reliance on kinship care and instead emphasize family reunification as the permanency plan for African American children in the child welfare system, the authors first discuss how kinship care is affected by federal child welfare policy and provide a historical…

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the mathematical ways of thinking present in a 15-minute interaction between an African American mother and her preschool son as they worked together on a craft project as part of a family involvement activity. This analysis, which was conducted as part of a broader ethnographic research project,…

Reading is arguably the most important skill that children learn in school--and yet many children struggle to become strong readers. This is especially true of African American children. Children growing up in low-income, under-resourced neighborhoods often struggle with reading. But even among Black children in wealthier neighborhoods, learning…

This generic qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of African American caregivers supporting their children to graduate from high school. In this study, there was a gap in the literature regarding parental support of African American children graduating from high school. Addressing this dearth of literature entailed answering the…

This study examined the link between socioeconomic status (SES) and school readiness, testing whether parenting (maternal sensitivity and negative behavior/intrusiveness) and financial stress mediated this association and if race moderated these paths. Participants included 164 mother-child dyads from African American and European American…

The present study describes the depressive symptomatology of 393 parents of prekindergarten children and assesses ethnic differences in the depression scores of these parents and their differential consequences for children's social competence. Data are drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) classroom study, a…

Low-income African American parents have the potential of not being actively involved with the individualized educational planning for a child with special needs but specifically, one with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This cohort of parents is particularly at risk of experiencing poor communication with, and disclosure from, the local…