Parent- and Preschool-Teacher-Perceived Strengths among Black and Latino Boys: Links to Early Success in Elementary School

• In Event: 2-074 - Building on Family Strengths to Promote the Academic Development of Young Black and Latino Children

Integrative Statement

Challenges experienced by young Black and Latino boys in schools are well known. Lower grades and test scores, higher suspension rates, lower graduation rates, and over-representation in special education are discussed in research, policy, and mass media. Therefore, research that explores the strengths of young boys of color is valuable. Black and Brown boys enter school full of enthusiasm, energy, and desire for learning, and for too many cases, schools let them down. Rather than ask why such boys fail, we need to reframe the questions, such as “How do boys of color from low-resourced schools navigate that context and manage to succeed? What competencies do Black and Brown boys use to negotiate the school context? Children’s social and behavioral skills prior to school entry are important components of school readiness that relate to long-term academic success. Parents and teachers, however, can have different perceptions of children’s strengths, and parental racial socialization choices, and teacher ethnic bias likely play a role.

We examined parent and preschool teacher reports of the social and behavioral skills of predominantly low-income boys of color (N = 13,448; 64% Latino, 36% Black) using the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA; Lebuffe & Naglieri, 1999) in the Miami School Readiness Project. We also examined the extent to which these reports predicted later academic outcomes in K and 1st grade. Parents and preschool teachers completed the DECA [subscales Initiative + Self-Control + Attachment = total protective factors (TPF) and behavior concerns (BC)] at age 4 in either English or Spanish, and children were followed through 1st grade in public schools and their teacher-assigned grades in K and G1, standardized math and reading scores in G1, whether or not the boy was retained in 1st grade, and whether or not the boy was suspended in 1st grade were collected from school records.

Results revealed consistent main effects of rater, and ethnicity, and some ethnicity-by-rater interactions via 2 way mixed ANOVAs (see Table 1 and Figure 1). Teachers rated boys of color as having stronger social skills and behavioral strengths than parents on all subscales, with parents of Black boys being particularly “tough” with their ratings. Latino preschoolers were perceived as showing slightly stronger skills than their Black peers. These findings may be explained by parental racial socialization among Black families emphasizing that Black boys must show immaculate behavior in order to prevent negative and potentially deadly consequences. Parent and teacher agreement in terms of relative ranks/correlations for these boys of color was slightly lower than that found in previous studies with all students, suggesting that caution is needed when interpreting teacher and parent reports of the behavior of young boys of color. In term of informant reports predicting later outcomes, both parent and teacher reports of child behavior at age 4 predicted GPA, test scores, school suspension, and retention in K and 1st grade, with parent ratings of social skills being more predictive of later academic performance for Black boys than for Latino boys.

Authors

• Angelique B. Williams, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Courtney Ricciardi, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adam Winsler, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author