2-018 - Exploring Cultural Factors in Parenting & Child Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The role of cultural factors in parenting and child development in has gained increasing currency in recent years. To date, most studies have examined these issues in ethnic minority populations, though research has gradually expanded to include White American populations (Hughes, Rivas et al., 2008). This panel will explore the role of cultural factors, construed broadly, in parenting from a variety of perspectives. In this panel, we define culturally relevant variables as constructs that are an explicit expression of cultural values, practices, and attitudes as expressed in the family context and also, the family’s adaptive response to stressors to which ethnic minority families are disproportionately exposed that impact child and family development. Paper 1 presents a typology of coping strategy socialization in a sample of African American mothers parenting early adolescents living in highly stressed communities. Paper 2 presents results from a long the role of cultural socialization in a multiethnic sample of parents of schoolagers using data taken from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The multiethnic nature of the sample presented a rare opportunity to investigate predictors of cultural socialization in White American and ethnic minority families alike. Lastly, in exploring the ways that African American fathers parent, Paper 3 presents results of a typology of fathering that includes in indicators of general parenting and elements of racial socialization. A national expert will discuss these findings and the expanding examination of cultural factors in promoting risk and resilience and optimal child development generally.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Mia A. Smith-Bynum, University of Maryland, College Park

Discussant

• Enrique W Neblett, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Individual Presentations

• A Latent Class Analysis of Coping Socialization in African American Families - Presenting Author: Noni K Gaylord-Harden, Loyola University Chicago; Emma-Lorraine Bart-Plange, Loyola University-Chicago; Grace Jhe Bai, Loyola University-Chicago; Latriece Clark, Loyola University-Chicago

• Multidimensional Parenting as a Context for Maternal Cultural Socialization in Middle Childhood - Presenting Author: Ciara P Smalls-Glover, Georgia State University

• Exploring African American Fathers’ Concerted Parenting Efforts: Implications for Adolescent Adjustment - Presenting Author: Shauna M Cooper, University of South Carolina--Columbia