George T. Rowan

Do Problems of Clinic-Referred African-American Children Overlap with the Child Behavior Checklist?

Many factors contribute to childrens psychopathology. African-American children, members of the largest U.S. minority group, are reportedly at high risk for psychopathology, but researchers and developers of diagnostic measures seldom focus on them. We surveyed the clinic records of 1,605 African-American children, ages 4–18. Coders recorded childrens problems, their gender, and age. They coded childrens problems according to the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Overlap between some problems African-American children presented and CBCL items emerged but other problems did not match CBCL items. For problems which matched the CBCL, associations between such problems and childrens age emerged and boys had more problems than girls. The content and cultural validity of the CBCL for African-American children may, however, be questionable.

Assessment of Behavioral and Emotional Strengths in Black Children: Development of the Behavioral Assessment for Children of African Heritage

Absence of culturally relevant measures of Black childrens strengths inhibits psychometrically sound strength-based assessment, research, and appropriate use of strengths as scaffolds or targets for clinical intervention. Moreover, the sparse research literature on Black children is primarily deficit focused. Beginning to address these problems, considerable input was sought from the Black community in constructing behavioral and emotional strength forms for Black children. Exploratory factor analyses conducted separately on 559 parent reports, 489 teacher reports, and 417 adolescent self-reports revealed two unidimensional cross-informant factors labeled Resilience and Self-Regulation and Prosocial Behavior. Item response theory analyses revealed invariance across gender, socioeconomic status, and age, but variance across informant type and referral status, and that most items provide sufficient psychometric information to warrant retention for clinical assessment and research.

Brownfields and Environmental Justice: The Threats and Challenges of Contamination

Environmental justice strives for equal access for all citizens to a healthy environment, and refers to unequal exposure to environmental contamination due to locational variables. Human health is often compromised by this contaminant exposure. “Communities of concern” are frequently communities populated by people of color and/or low income. In addition to air, water, and soil pollution, specific problems include degraded structures, poor schools, unemployment, high crime, and poor roads and transportation systems. This article addresses some of these issues and makes policy recommendations for business leaders, local government leaders, and those otherwise responsible for enhancing the quality of life in affected communities.

Adult Perspectives on Behavior and Emotional Problems in African American Children

Using vignettes describing African American children with internalizing (e.g., withdrawal) versus externalizing (e.g., quarrels) problems, parents, teachers, and clinicians made judgments regarding problem seriousness, prognosis, etiology, referral, and intervention needs. Opinions of parents, teachers, and clinicians differed markedly, especially with regard to judgments about children with externalizing problems. Black raters’ ratings significantly differed from those of Whites, especially for seriousness and prognostic judgments with regard to the problems. The findings suggest that interventionists who address problems that African American youth present should attend to the attitudes and judgments of adults who report on such problems. Clinicians can simultaneously harness appropriate judgments and attitudes and decrease counterproductive beliefs and behavior in their interventions with Black children.

Gender role socialization in african american men: A conceptual framework

From educational institutions to the media, images about African American men are transmitted throughout society with few, if any, positive portrayals. These myths, misconceptions, and stereotypes have been carried over to the developmental and socialization processes experienced by African American men. More systematic and comprehensive ways of explaining the plight of the African American male are needed in his quest for understanding his role in society. Otherwise, a perceptual genocide will continue to permeate the fabric of society and the African American male psyche.

Behavior and Emotional Problems of Clinic-Referred Children of the African Diaspora: A Cross-National Study of African American and Jamaican Children Ages 4 to 18

Societal factors influence the types of problems children of African descent exhibit and the steps adults take to ameliorate them. Cross-national research on children of African descent living in different nations can identify the societal issues associated with problems these children present, but few specifically focus on children of African descent. This article addresses these issues by surveying presenting problems in clinic records of 2,078 children of African descent in the United States and Jamaica. Recorders coded and categorized problems according to eight Child Behavior Checklist syndromes and internalizing (e.g., shyness) and externalizing (e.g., fighting) problems. ANCOVAs revealed significantly more problems for African American than Jamaican youth but the converse was true for severe problems. The findings suggest the need for further studies that test whether lower parental thresholds, a U.S. society that encourages more family openness, widely available treatment services within the United States, and stress associated with minority group membership may cause African American parents to report more child problems than Jamaican parents.

Child behavior and emotional problems in Jamaican classrooms: a multimethod study using direct observations and teacher reports for ages 6–11

Abstract International research on childrens problems relies heavily on parent and teacher ratings. Such ratings are helpful to professionals who assess children but are subjected to biases emerging from adults’ personal involvement with the children they rate, and their own cultural experiences. This study investigated whether ratings of teachers versus observers on Jamaican children ages 6–11 differed according to informant, urban versus rural area, gender, and age. Significantly higher total problem scores emerged for ratings by observers than those by teachers. Observers also rated younger children as more demanding and aggressive while both informants rated rural children as exhibiting more externalizing problems than urban children. Opportunity for discharging behavior in the environment may have caused rural children to present more externalizing problems. Media and training effects may have increased teachers’ tolerance for problems in children nationwide, but in contrast to observers’ circumscribed observation periods, teachers’ ratings may reflect their perspectives on childrens problems over an entire academic year.

Behavioral and Emotional Problem Scales of the Behavioral Assessment for Children of African Heritage (BACAH) Culturally Valid Measurement of Psychological Functioning in Black Children

Using extensive African American community input, Black researchers developed the Behavioral Assessment for Children of African Heritage (BACAH). Information regarding its strength dimensions is published but not its behavioral and emotional problem scales. Rational (i.e., expert opinion and mathematical) procedures grouped BACAH problem item responses from 1,465 youth, parent, and teacher informants into eight cross-informant scales labeled Anxiety-, Attention/Hyperactive-, Conduct-, Depression-, Hypomania/Mania-, Oppositional-Defiance-, Self-Destructive-, and Reality-Contact-Problems. Data analyses showed no response bias across child gender, socioeconomic status, or age groupings, but bias emerged across informant type, referral status, and rating scale type (i.e., presence and magnitude vs. concern levels regarding problems). Item linking reduced this bias. Items on each BACAH scale discriminate well for problem levels they assess and capably measure children’s problem levels, ranging from moderately below to above the mean. This study’s foundation and findings provide professionals and their test respondents with culturally valid, user friendly, economical, and highly flexible, clinical/research tools to assess Black children’s functioning.

Technological change and organizational differentiation in African American nonprofit human services

The relationship between the services provided to and received by African Americans generally and African American males specifically, relative to the growth of the nonprofit sector and the trends toward organizational development and technological change, is an area of study yet to be chartered. This study is the first body of research conducted of this type. Our preliminary analysis shows that, by and large, as the number of African Americans providing and receiving services increases, the hardware and software technology available, and organizational development, decrease.