Revisioning Attachment Theory, African American Parenting, African American Youth Development: A Strength-based, Cultural Assets Framework

• In Event: Attachment Theory and Black Youth Development: New Directions for Cross-disciplinary Dialogue

Abstract

According to attachment theory, it is through early social interactions with caregivers that children develop internal working models to interpret and function in his/her social world (Bowlby, 1969/1982). Responsive and sensitive parenting fosters securely attachment, characterized by positive internal working models of the self, others, and the environment; in turn, securely attached children have been shown to be adaptable and to develop a variety of social-emotional competencies (Cassidy & Shaver, 2016). Attachment research often assumes that aspects of these processes are universal, regardless of sociohistorical and environmental contextual processes. For example, minoritized families are greatly impacted by systemic racism and oppression, and such experiences impose harm that profoundly shapes the everyday lives of African Americans. Yet, many African American families have enduring strengths—ordinary magic (Masten 2001)—to navigate their daily lives and prepare their children to live in society that frequently devalues them and their families. Given this, we contend that there is a need to reimagine and expand tenets of attachment theory to more fully capture the experiences, adaptation, and functioning of African American parents, in particular, the cultural assets they draw on to navigate the consequences of systemic racism and oppression to raise secure and competent children (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Lerner, 1982; Murry et al., 2018).

In the current study we provide insights on: “How do African American primary caregivers raise secure, competent, and emotionally stable children?” using three waves of the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS), a multi-site, panel study of neighborhood and family effects on health and development. Participants in this large-scale study of African American children and their caregivers included 897 families, 475 in Iowa and 422 in Georgia. Each family included a child who was 10 or 11 years old when recruited; families with children of this age were chosen for study because systematic analyses of developmental and family processes among this population are rare. Using a strength-based, cultural asset framework, structural equation models will be developed to identify direct and indirect effects of systemic racial and parental and youth coping on parenting processes and family social relationship quality, which in turn, are predicted to influence youth internal working models (e.g., emotional and self-regulation, racial identity, self-esteem), and in turn, forecast variability in mental health functioning (e.g., social competence, self-confidence, anxiety, and depression) as youth transition from middle childhood to early adolescence.

Authors

• Velma McBride Murry, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Catherine Gonzalez-Detrés, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dominique Bulgin, Duke Univeristy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erica Coates, Georgetown University Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marlena Debreaux, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Misha N. Inniss-Thompson, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Walter Wilson, HealthPoint Family Care, Inc.
  Non-Presenting Author