Ethnic Differences in Women's Emotional Reactions to Parental Nonsupportive Emotion Socialization

Recent evidence suggests that the association between parents’ use of nonsupportive emotion socialization practices and their children's subsequent negative emotional outcomes varies based on ethnicity. The goal of this study is to test the proposition that African American women interpret parental nonsupportive emotion socialization practices less negatively than European American women. In this study, 251 European and African American women completed a measure on recalled feelings when their parents engaged in nonsupportive emotion socialization practices during childhood. Results indicated that African American women reported feeling more loved and less hurt and ashamed than European American women when their parents enacted nonsupportive emotion socialization practices such as ignoring, punishing, minimizing, and teasing them when distressed. Possible mechanisms for this difference and the need for additional research exploring ethnic differences in emotion socialization and its effects on adjustment are discussed.     

Adolescent Behavioral,Emotional, and Cognitive Engagement Trajectories in School and Their Differential Relations to Educational Success

The current study used a multidimensional approach to examine developmental trajectories of three dimension of school engagement (school participation, sense of school belonging, and self‐regulated learning) from grades 7 to 11 and their relationships to changes in adolescents’ academic outcomes over time. The sample includes 1,148 African American and European American adolescents (52% females, 56% black, 34% white, and 10% others). As expected, the downward trajectories of change in school participation, sense of belonging to school, and self‐regulated learning differed as did their predictive relationships with academic performance and educational aspiration, with school belonging declining most markedly, but being least predictive of changes in grade point average.     

The influence of gender and ethnicity on judgments of culpability in a domestic violence scenario

Using an experimental analog design, in this study we examined 503 European American, African American, and Latino undergraduate students' responses to a domestic violence scenario in which the ethnicity and gender of the perpetrator were manipulated. Results indicated that participants perceived perpetration of domestic assault significantly more criminal when committed by a man than when committed by a woman. That finding was robust across European Americans, African Americans, and Latinos and was expressed by both genders. Also, European American participants expressed significantly more criticism toward African American perpetrators of assault than they did toward European American and Latino perpetrators of the exact offense, suggestive of racial bias consistent with stereotypes about African Americans being excessively aggressive. Finally, Latino participants expressed significantly more sympathy toward women who assault their husbands than toward assaulting husbands. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Perceived Paternal and Maternal Acceptance and Rural African American and European American Youths' Psychological Adjustment

This study explores the following question: Are rural African American and European American youths' experiences of paternal and maternal acceptance equally related to their self‐reported psychological adjustment, or do youths' experiences of paternal acceptance account for an independent portion of the variance in psychological adjustment, over and above the portion of variance explained by their experiences of maternal acceptance? This study also explores possible social‐class, age, gender, and paternal‐residence differences in perceived paternal and maternal acceptance and youths' psychological adjustment. The research is based on a proportional, stratified, random sample of 281 African American and European American families in a poor, rural, biracial county of Georgia, U.S.A. Results of multiple regression analyses indicate that only perceived paternal acceptance is significantly related to European American youths' self‐reported psychological adjustment when controlling for the influence of perceived maternal acceptance. In African American families, both perceived paternal acceptance and perceived maternal acceptance are significantly related to youths' self‐reported psychological adjustment. Finally, results of analyses indicate that relationships between perceived paternal and maternal acceptance and youths' psychological adjustment within the ethnic groups are not related significantly to youths' age, gender, paternal residence, or social class.     

Relationships Between Parenting Environment and Children's Mental Health Among African American and European American Mothers and Children

This study examined the relationship between aspects of the parenting environment and children's conduct problems and anxious symptoms among socioeconomically comparable samples of African American and European American mothers and their kindergarten children. Ethnic differences in parenting may lead to differences in the relationship between parenting and child outcomes. Thus, the moderating role of ethnicity for the relationships between parenting and children's mental health was tested. African American and European American parents were similar in their parenting practices. European American children reported a higher number of anxious symptoms, however. Parenting and family interaction patterns were associated with children's anxious symptoms and conduct problems. Although many relationships were similar across ethnic groups, there were ethnic differences in the relationships between maternal parenting efficacy and anxiety and between hostile control and conduct problems. These similarities and differences are discussed in light of theory and familial, cultural, and environmental niches.     

The Process of Field Instruction

This article reports on the results of two surveys that asked BSW and MSW students to evaluate the supervision provided by their field instructors at two points during their practicum. Students responded to a variety of questions pertaining to the supervisory assignments and activities of their field instructor. The author discusses the relationship between supervisory skills and students’ perceptions of enhanced learning. Early in the practicum, activities reported as most helpful to students were those that introduced them to the agency and clarified expectations of their performance. At the end of their experience, students perceived as most helpful those activities which helped them to be self-critical and to link classroom and field learning.     

Unpacking Racial Socialization: Considering Female African American Primary Caregivers' Racial Identity

The relationship between female African American primary caregivers' racial identity and their racial socialization emphases was examined. Three components of racial identity were evaluated: (1) the importance of race to the self‐concept (centrality), (2) affective feelings toward group membership (private regard), and (3) perceptions of how group members are perceived by nonmembers (public regard). Latent class cluster analysis was used to identify racial identity profiles, or dominant combinations of racial centrality, private regard, and public regard among a sample of 208 female African American primary caregivers. Mean differences in the content of caregivers' socialization emphases by profile group were then assessed. Findings indicated that caregivers with different identity profiles emphasized different messages. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

Intercultural teaching competence: a multi-disciplinary model for instructor reflection

Abstract

This article presents a model for Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC) that instructors may use as a tool for reflection as they prepare to facilitate learning across cultures. Building on previous research on intercultural competence, culturally relevant teaching, intercultural trainer competencies, and student-centred approaches to teaching, the model identifies concrete facilitation techniques for instructors who would like to further develop their own teaching practice or mentor colleagues in effective teaching across cultures. The model consists of 20 instructor competencies grouped into three categories: foundational skills, facilitation skills, and curriculum development skills for intercultural learning. While intended as a tool to guide instructors in individual and group reflection on inclusive teaching practices, the ITC model may also be used by educational developers to guide feedback during classroom observations or while supporting curriculum internationalisation initiatives. Recommendations for use in faculty learning communities and workshops are included at the end of the article. The ITC model will benefit instructors in a variety of disciplines who teach in diverse and multidisciplinary classrooms, discuss global or social justice issues in their class, and those who seek to include intercultural and Indigenous perspectives in their curriculum.     

Racial Barrier Socialization and the Well‐Being of African American Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Mother–Adolescent Relationship Quality

Racial socialization has been suggested as an important factor in helping African American adolescents cope effectively with racism and discrimination. Although multiple studies have reported a positive link between racial pride socialization and psychological adjustment among African American youth, assessments of the association between adolescent adjustment and another dimension of racial socialization—racial barrier socialization—have yielded inconsistent findings. Using a sample of 190 African American adolescents, the present study focuses on the quality of mother–adolescent relationships as an indicator of affective context, and examines its moderating influence on the association between racial barrier socialization and adolescent adjustment. Regression analyses indicated that the link between racial barrier socialization and adolescent adjustment is moderated by mother–adolescent relationship quality. However, these associations varied by gender.     

Identifying and Distinguishing Value Profiles in American and Israeli Adolescents

Although research has examined how values are correlated with behavior, little has examined how the system of values predicts behavior. In a cross‐cultural sample of American (109 European American; 216 African American) and Israeli (318 Arab Israeli; 216 Jewish Israeli) adolescents, the present study used latent profile analysis to identify groups which reflected the theoretical structure of values across both cultures. Four profiles were found: self‐focused, anxiety‐free, other‐focused, and undifferentiated. Results indicated that Self‐Focused adolescents were the most aggressive and viewed as leaders by their peers compared to the other groups. Self‐Focused and anxiety‐free youth reported more delinquency than their peers. Few differences between cultural groups emerged, suggesting that this approach is a promising avenue for understanding heterogeneity in behavior.     

African American Adolescent Girls in Impoverished Communities: Parenting Style and Adolescent Outcomes

The relationship between parenting style and adolescent functioning was examined in a sample of 302 African American adolescent girls and their mothers who lived in impoverished neighborhoods. Although previous research has found that authoritative parenting, as compared with authoritarian, permissive, and disengaged parenting, is associated with positive adolescent outcomes in both European American, middle‐class and large multiethnic school‐based samples, these parenting categories have not been fully explored in African American families living at or near poverty level. Data were collected from adolescent girls and their self‐identified mothers or mother figures using in‐home interviews and self‐administered questionnaires. Parenting style was found to be significantly related to adolescent outcome in multiple domains including externalizing and internalizing behaviors, academic achievement, work orientation, sexual experience, and pregnancy history. Specifically, teens whose mothers were disengaged (low on both parental warmth and supervision/monitoring) were found to have the most negative outcomes.     

Differentiating Characteristics and Needs of Minority Grandparent Caregivers

Abstract

Data collected over a three-year period compared two groups of African American grandparent caregivers with a group of European American grandparents who were raising their grandchildren. Gender, marital status, and household income differentiated minority from nonminority participants. Statistically significant differences among certain of the demographic variables between the two groups of African American grandparents were also found. Practical implications of the results for research and practice are discussed through illustrating differences in advocacy needs and agenda-making between two grandparent caregiver support groups.     

African American and European American Women's Marital Well‐Being

Using a sample of 247 African American and European American women in their 3rd year of marriage, this study compared the predictors of marital well‐being for each group by focusing on the influences of individual, interpersonal, and social and economic resources. Regression analyses revealed that emotional health (individual), trusting one's spouse (interpersonal), and feeling underbenefited in the relationship (interpersonal) were significant predictors of marital well‐being for both groups of women. Physical health (individual) and in‐law relations (social and economic), however, affected the marital well‐being of only African American women. Findings from this study suggest the need to examine marital well‐being within the context of race.     

A comparison of African American and white college students’ affective and attitudinal reactions to lesbian,gay, and bisexual individuals: An exploratory study

African American (n = 70) university students were compared with White students (n = 140) on their affective (homophobia) and attitudinal (homonegativity) reactions to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. The results initially suggested that African Americans had modestly higher homophobia and homonegativity scores than Whites. However, those ethnic differences vanished after controlling for frequency of church attendance, religious commitment, and socioeconomic status. For both ethnic groups, gender and religiosity variables significantly predicted homophobia and homonegativity. Men in both ethnic groups had significantly higher homophobia and homonegativity scores than their female counterparts. Lastly, additional regression analyses revealed that one aspect of African American culture—family practices—significantly predicted homophobia, but not homonegativity, above the predictive ability of religiosity. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Differences in African American and White college students' drinking behaviors: consequences, harm reduction strategies, and health information sources

The authors explored the differences between African American and White college students' drinking behaviors and their attitudes toward consequences, harm-reduction strategies, and health information sources. They collected data from a randomly selected sample of 1,110 students in a large public university to examine the effects of a high-risk drinking prevention intervention. In the current analysis, they compared African American and White students on indicators of high-risk drinking, drinking consequences, harm-reduction strategies, the sources that students typically used for health information, and the believability of those sources. The African American students scored lower on drinking measures than the White students did, reported fewer negative consequences, and more regularly employed drinking-reduction strategies, with one exception--choosing a designated driver. Both African and White respondents reported that their parents were their most frequent and usual sources of health-related information and said that parents and health professionals were the most credible sources.     

The Effects of Ethnic Identity on Household Budget Allocation to Status Conveying Goods

The theory of compensatory consumption suggests that a possible lack of traditional avenues for fulfilling needs for social status may lead ethnic minorities to shift measures of social status from traditional indicators such as occupational prestige to consumption indicators of status conveying goods. In this study we investigate whether a household’s ethnic identity affects its budget allocation to status conveying goods. Annual budget shares for apparel, housing, and home furnishings are used for measuring status consumption. Results show that Asian American households allocate more of their budget to housing, while African American more to apparel, compared to European households. Hispanic households allocate more of their budget to both apparel and housing than European American households, but to a lesser degree compared to Asian Americans to housing and African Americans to apparel.     

The Relation Between Peer Victimization and Adolescents' Well‐Being: The Moderating Role of Ethnicity Within Context

This study examined the moderating effects of individual ethnicity and school ethnic composition on the relation between peer victimization and adolescents' well‐being. Participants were 4,593 sixth grade students attending 36 schools categorized as ethnically diverse or predominantly African American, European American, or Latino American. Multilevel models revealed relations between participants' ethnicity and their reported frequency of overt but not relational victimization. Findings did not support the hypothesis that adolescents in the minority group in their school would be more frequently victimized than adolescents in the majority group. Furthermore, contrary to hypothesis, the relation between the reported frequency of victimization and well‐being did not vary as a function of the interaction between adolescents' ethnicity and their schools' ethnic composition.     

Actor's Status and Conformity to Norms: A Study of Students' Evaluations of Instructors*

The relationship between behavior and interpersonal evaluation is examined from the perspective of role theory. We hypothesize that others' evaluation of a role actor–his or her status–is related to the actor's conformity to their norms. Students in 50 university classes were asked (a) to indicate their expectations for a “typical university instructor” by filling out a 55-item questionnaire which incorporates Jackson's Return Potential Model for measuring normative role phenomena, or (b) to judge the frequency of the class instructor's behavior on the same 55 items. An index was constructed which indicates the degree to which each instructor's behaviors conform to students' expectations for a typical instructor. This index correlated with students' mean evaluation of each instructor: his or her status (r=.64, p<.001). We demonstrate, however, that this relationship between conformity and status holds more strongly for intense, powerful norms, and only for instructors with a moderate rather than a relatively high reputation, that is, estimated status.