Publications (16)47.58 Total impact
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Article: Parents' Participation in a Work-Based Anti-Poverty Program Can Enhance Their Children's Future Orientation: Understanding Pathways of Influence.
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ABSTRACT: Planning and preparing for life after high school is a central developmental task of American adolescents, and may be even more critical for low-income youth who are less likely to attend a four year college. This study investigates factors that led to the effects of the New Hope Project, a work-based, anti-poverty program directed at parents on youths' career-related thoughts and planning. The New Hope project was implemented in Milwaukee, WI, during the mid-1990s. 745 families participated (52 % male children; 56 % African American; 30 % Latino, and 15 % White non-Hispanic) and half were randomly selected to receive New Hope benefits, which included earnings supplements, job search assistance, and child and health care subsidies for 3 years. Importantly, effects on youths' future orientation were found 8 years after the program began (5 years after benefits ended). The present study investigates what factors sustained these positive impacts over time. Results indicate that parental perceptions of reading performance mediate the effects of New Hope on youths' cynicism about work. Additionally, parental perceptions of reading performance and youths' educational expectations mediate the effects of New Hope on boys' pessimism about future employment. These findings highlight the importance of youths' educational development to their career-related thoughts and planning.Journal of Youth and Adolescence 08/2012; · 2.72 Impact Factor -
Article: Gender Differences in the Educational Expectations of Urban, Low-Income African American Youth: The Role of Parents and the School
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ABSTRACT: This study examined how youths’ gender is related to the educational expectations of urban, low-income African American youth, their parents, and their teachers. As predicted, African American boys (ages 9–16) reported lower expectations for future educational attainment than did their female counterparts. Parents and teachers also reported lower expectations for African American boys (ages 6–16) than for girls. These findings held even when controlling for academic achievement. Contrary to predictions, the magnitude of the difference in expectations for males vs. females did not increase as a function of youths’ age. In keeping with our hypotheses, parental expectations fully mediated the relation between youths’ gender and youths’ expectations. Finally, certain school-based factors (i.e., positive teacher expectations and positive youth perceptions of the school environment) appeared to protect youths’ expectations from the deleterious impact of low parental expectations.Journal of Youth and Adolescence 04/2012; 36(4):417-427. · 2.72 Impact Factor -
Article: Exposure to violence and socioemotional adjustment in low-income youth: an examination of protective factors.
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ABSTRACT: Using a sample of 391 low-income youth ages 13-17, this study investigated the potential moderating effects of school climate, participation in extracurricular activities, and positive parent-child relations on associations between exposure to violence (i.e., witnessing violence and violent victimization) and adolescent socioemotional adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). Exposure to violence was related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. High levels of participation in extracurricular activities and positive parent-child relations appeared to function as protective factors, weakening the positive association between exposure to violence and externalizing problems. Contrary to prediction, school climate did not moderate associations between exposure to violence and socioemotional adjustment. Further, none of the hypothesized protective factors moderated the association between exposure to violence and internalizing problems.American Journal of Community Psychology 05/2011; 49(1-2):112-26. · 1.74 Impact Factor -
Article: How money matters for children's socioemotional adjustment: family processes and parental investment.
Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 01/2011; 57:33-72. · 1.17 Impact Factor -
Article: Assessing the effects of a work-based antipoverty program for parents on youth's future orientation and employment experiences.
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ABSTRACT: The impacts of New Hope, a 3-year work-based antipoverty program to increase parent employment and reduce poverty, on youth ages 9-19 (N = 866) were assessed 5 years after parents left the program. New Hope had positive effects on the future orientation and employment experiences of boys, especially African American boys. Compared to boys in control group families, boys in program group families were less cynical about work, less pessimistic about their employment prospects, and more involved in employment and career preparation. They also worked for longer periods during the school year than did control group boys. Comparable effects were not found for girls. The developmental significance of the findings, possible processes that led to the impacts, and the policy implications of the findings are discussed.Child Development 01/2011; 82(1):113-32. · 4.72 Impact Factor -
Article: Assessing the Effects of a Work‐Based Antipoverty Program for Parents on Youth’s Future Orientation and Employment Experiences
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ABSTRACT: The impacts of New Hope, a 3-year work-based antipoverty program to increase parent employment and reduce poverty, on youth ages 9–19 (N = 866) were assessed 5 years after parents left the program. New Hope had positive effects on the future orientation and employment experiences of boys, especially African American boys. Compared to boys in control group families, boys in program group families were less cynical about work, less pessimistic about their employment prospects, and more involved in employment and career preparation. They also worked for longer periods during the school year than did control group boys. Comparable effects were not found for girls. The developmental significance of the findings, possible processes that led to the impacts, and the policy implications of the findings are discussed.Child Development 12/2010; 82(1):113 - 132. · 4.72 Impact Factor -
Chapter: Poverty and Socioeconomic Disadvantage in Adolescence
10/2009; , ISBN: 9780470479193 -
Article: A latent class analysis of maternal depressive symptoms over 12 years and offspring adjustment in adolescence.
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ABSTRACT: The authors used data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to model patterns of maternal depressive symptoms, from the period of infants' age 1 month to adolescence (age 12 years), and then examined adolescent adjustment at age 15 years as a function of the course and severity of maternal symptoms. The authors identified 5 latent classes of symptoms in 1,357 women, while also taking into account sociodemographic measures: never depressed, stable subclinical, early decreasing, moderately elevated, and chronic. Women with few symptoms were more likely to be married, better educated, and in better physical health than were women with more elevated symptoms. At age 15 years, adolescents whose mothers were in the chronic, elevated, and stable subclinical latent classes reported more internalizing and externalizing problems and acknowledged engaging in more risky behavior than did children of never depressed mothers. Latent class differences in self-reported loneliness and dysphoria were also found. Discussion focuses on adolescent adjustment, especially among offspring whose mothers reported stable symptoms of depression across their childhoods.Journal of Abnormal Psychology 09/2009; 118(3):479-93. · 4.86 Impact Factor -
Article: Escaping poverty and securing middle class status: how race and socioeconomic status shape mobility prospects for African Americans during the transition to adulthood.
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ABSTRACT: This article draws on extant research from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and economics to identify linkages between individual, family, community, and structural factors related to social mobility for African Americans during the transition to adulthood. It considers how race and class together affect opportunities for social mobility through where African Americans live, whom they associate with, and how they are impacted by racial and class-related stigma. Of particular interest is social mobility as accomplished through academic achievement, educational attainment, employment, economic independence, and homeownership. Research on five issues is reviewed and discussed: (a) the unique vulnerabilities of newly upwardly mobile African Americans, (b) wealth as a source of inequality, (c) racism and discrimination, (d) the stigma associated with lower-class status, and (e) social and cultural capital. The article concludes with a summary and directions for future research.Journal of Youth and Adolescence 03/2009; 38(2):242-56. · 2.72 Impact Factor -
Article: Does endorsement of physical discipline matter? Assessing moderating influences on the maternal and child psychological correlates of physical discipline in African American families.
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ABSTRACT: Using longitudinal data from a subsample of 890 African American families in the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study examined whether maternal endorsement of physical discipline moderates the link between (a) maternal psychological distress and spanking frequency and (b) spanking frequency and child depressive symptoms. As predicted, physical discipline administered by nonendorsing mothers was more strongly linked to maternal psychological distress than physical discipline administered by endorsing mothers. Also in keeping with the authors' hypothesis, the relation between spanking frequency and child-reported depressive symptoms was stronger for children of nonendorsing mothers than for children of endorsing mothers. In particular, the positive relation between physical discipline and children's depressive symptoms was significant only for children of nonendorsing mothers. These findings suggest that within-group variation in African American mothers' attitudes about physical discipline partially regulates the conditions under which these mothers use physical discipline and the probability that physical discipline contributes to depressive symptoms in children. Conclusions and implications for future research are discussed.Journal of Family Psychology 07/2007; 21(2):165-75. · 1.66 Impact Factor -
Chapter: Childhood Poverty, Policy, and Practice
05/2007; , ISBN: 9780470147658 -
Article: Impacts on children of a policy to promote employment and reduce poverty for low-income parents: new hope after 5 years.
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ABSTRACT: The impacts of New Hope, a program to increase parent employment and reduce poverty, were measured 5 years after parents were randomly assigned to program or control groups. New Hope had positive effects on children's school achievement, motivation, and social behavior, primarily for boys, across the age range 6-16. In comparison to impacts measured 2 years after program onset, effects on achievement were robust, but effects on social behavior were reduced. The program produced improvements in family income and use of organized child care and activity settings, suggesting possible pathways by which the New Hope package of policies influenced children's behavior.Developmental Psychology 12/2005; 41(6):902-18. · 3.21 Impact Factor -
Article: Economic pressure in African American families: a replication and extension of the family stress model.
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ABSTRACT: This study of 422 two-caregiver African American families, each with a 10-11-year-old focal child (54% girls), evaluated the applicability of the family stress model of economic hardship for understanding economic influences on child development in this population. The findings generally replicated earlier research with European American families. The results showed that economic hardship positively relates to economic pressure in families. Economic pressure was related to the emotional distress of caregivers, which in turn was associated with problems in the caregiver relationship. These problems were related to disrupted parenting practices, which predicted lower positive child adjustment and higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The results provide significant support for the family stress model of economic hardship and its generalizability to diverse populations.Developmental Psychology 04/2002; 38(2):179-93. · 3.21 Impact Factor -
Article: Children and Poverty: Issues in Contemporary Research
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ABSTRACT: The state-of-the-art research in this volume is based on complex, multidimensional conceptions of poverty. Current research goes beyond description to emphasize analysis of processes by which effects occur and variations in effects associated with race, gender, and ethnicity. Child care, school, neighborhood, and community are studied as well as family contexts. The child outcomes investigated include both intellectual development and socioemotional functioning. It is multidisciplinary, using a broad range of analytic frameworks and research methods from economics, sociology, health, psychology, and other disciplines. In this introduction, the overall research trends are described, and new questions for future research are identified.Child Development 03/1994; 65(2):275 - 282. · 4.72 Impact Factor -
Article: Economic well-being and children's social adjustment: the role of family process in an ethnically diverse low-income sample.
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ABSTRACT: Using latent variable structural equation modeling, a family economic stress model that links economic well-being to child well-being in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample of 419 elementary school-age children was evaluated. The sample was 57% African American and 28% Hispanic, and most families were headed by single mothers. The results provided support for the position that family process is a critical mediator of the effects of economic hardship on children's social adjustment. Lower levels of economic well-being, and the corollary elevated perceptions of economic pressure indirectly affected parenting behavior through an adverse impact on parental psychological well-being. Distressed parents reported feeling less effective and capable in disciplinary interactions with their child and were observed to be less affectionate in parent-child interactions. In turn, less than optimal parenting predicted lower teacher ratings of children's positive social behavior and higher ratings of behavior problems. Multiple-group analyses revealed that the pathways by which economic hardship influences children's behavior appear to operate similarly for boys and girls, and for African American and Hispanic families.Child Development 73(3):935-51. · 4.72 Impact Factor -
Article: Social support and parenting in poor, dangerous neighborhoods.
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ABSTRACT: This study investigated how stressful environmental conditions influence the relation between mothers' social support and parenting strategies, utilizing interview data from a sample of 262 poor, African American single mothers and their seventh- and eighth-grade children, as well as objective data about respondents' neighborhoods. In general, the results indicated that neighborhood conditions moderate the relation between social support and parenting behaviors. Specifically, as neighborhood conditions worsened, the positive relation between emotional support and mothers' nurturant parenting was weakened. In a similar fashion, the negative relation between instrumental social support and punishment was stronger in better neighborhoods. As the surrounding environments became poorer and more dangerous, the relation between greater instrumental support and a lower reliance on punishment was weakened. Thus, on the whole, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the positive influences of social support on parenting behavior were strained and attenuated in poorer, high-crime environments.Child Development 73(4):1310-21. · 4.72 Impact Factor
Top co-authors
Top Journals
Institutions
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2012
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University of Texas at Austin
Port Aransas, TX, USA
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2005–2012
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Department of Psychology
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
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1994–2011
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University of Michigan
- Department of Psychology
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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2009
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University of Pittsburgh
- Psychology
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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