Joint Book-Reading Strategies in Working-Class African American and White Mother-Toddler Dyads

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 583-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Anderson-Yockel ◽  
William O. Haynes
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Book Reading ◽  
African American Mothers ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Parental Occupation ◽  
Joint Book Reading ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
American Children

Twenty working-class mother-toddler dyads were videorecorded during three joint book-reading activities. Ten of the dyads were white, and 10 were African American, balanced for parent educational level, family income, and parental occupation. The children ranged in age from 18 to 30 months and were normally developing. The parents read an experimental book to their child two times and a favorite book they brought from home one time. Videotapes of the joint book-readings were analyzed to determine cultural differences and the effects of book familiarity on the occurrence of maternal and child communication behaviors. The results show many similarities between the cultural groups in joint book-reading behaviors. However, statistical analyses revealed a significant difference between the cultural groups in the use of questions. African American mothers used significantly fewer questioning behaviors compared to the white mothers. White children produced more question-related communications, and African American children produced more spontaneous verbalizations. Several effects of familiarity were also found. The findings are compared to anthropological reports on caretaker-child interaction in African American families and implications are discussed.

Qualitative Descriptions of Middle-Class, African American Mothers’ Child-Rearing Practices and Values

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 868-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie M. Curenton ◽  
Jocelyn Elise Crowley ◽  
Dawne M. Mouzon
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
African American Mothers ◽  
Family Friendly ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
American Children ◽  
Decision To Stay ◽  
The Cost

During qualitative phone interviews, middle-class, mostly married African American mothers ( N = 25) describe their child-rearing responsibilities, practices, and values. They explain (a) why they decided to stay home or take work leave to attend to child rearing, (b) how they divided child-rearing responsibilities with their husbands/romantic partners, (c) whether they faced unique parenting challenges raising African American children, and (d) whether they identified as feminists. Responses revealed the decision to stay home or take work leave comprised values about gender roles, concerns about the cost and/or quality of child care, and the availability of family-friendly workplace policies. Most couples shared child-rearing responsibilities, although mothers admit to doing more. Their unique parenting challenge was protecting their children from racism, stereotyping, and discrimination. Only one third of the mothers identified as being feminists. These results have implications for furthering our knowledge about African American coparenting from a positive, strength-based perspective.

Differences in Motor Proficiency According to Gender and Race

1992 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol E. Plimpton ◽  
Celia Regimbal
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Motor Development ◽  
Short Form ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Motor Proficiency ◽  
White Children ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Hand Eye Coordination ◽  
American Children

To assess possible differences in children's motor development data were collected from intact first-grade classrooms on six subtest items from the short form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Analysis of variance of scores for agility, balance, strength, and hand-eye coordination tested the significance of differences between gender and racial groups. Gross motor proficiency of 111 children of a suburban school system and 69 from an urban elementary school was evaluated. African-American children were significantly faster and more agile than the white children; scores for African-American boys were significantly higher than those for all girls, and scores in strength for white boys were significantly higher than those for white girls. White boys had significantly higher scores on hand-eye coordination than all other children but no significant difference on balance among groups was noted.

scholarly journals Joint Book Reading across Cultures: A Comparison of Surinamese-Dutch, Turkish-Dutch, and Dutch Parent-Child Dyads

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana G. Bus ◽  
Paul P.M. Leseman ◽  
Petra Keultjes
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Text ◽  
Book Reading ◽  
Low Ses ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Child Behaviors ◽  
Joint Book Reading ◽  
Behavioral Coding ◽  
Simple Narrative ◽  
Reading Session

This article reports about in-depth analyses of how parents from different cultural groups mediated a simple narrative text to their 4-year-old children. The sample included 19 Surinamese-Dutch, 19 Turkish-Dutch, and 19 Dutch low-SES dyads. The sessions videotaped in the families' homes were transcribed and coded with a detailed behavioral coding system that maps the function and content of parent and child behaviors. In addition, the sessions were rated on four 7-point scales for how parents interacted with their children in terms of supportive presence. Overall the study supports the hypothesis that when reading is less important for the parents personally, they are less inclined to deviate from the text in order to negotiate meaning. Their children initiated more interactions than other children did, but low-cognitive-demand behaviors such as naming details or identifying pictures of characters characterized these interactions. The ethnic groups also differed in how parents interacted with their children, but these characteristics of the reading session were not related to parental literacy.

scholarly journals Cultural differences in emotional responses to success and failure

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lewis ◽  
Kiyoko Takai-Kawakami ◽  
Kiyobumi Kawakami ◽  
Margaret Wolan Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Japanese Children ◽  
White American ◽  
American Children

The emotional responses to achievement contexts of 149 preschool children from three cultural groups were observed. The children were Japanese ( N = 32), African American ( N = 63) and White American of mixed European ancestry ( N = 54). The results showed that Japanese children differed from American children in expressing less shame, pride, and sadness, but more of both exposure and evaluative embarrassment. African American and White American children did not differ from one another. American children however showed more evaluative as opposed to exposure embarrassment. This finding supports the idea that success and failure are interpreted differently by Japanese children during the preschool years. The low amount of sadness and shame expression, and the limited range of number of different expressions observed in the Japanese children agree with the general finding that East Asian infants and young children differ from Western infants and children primarily in the display of negative expressions. These results demonstrate that cultural differences, whether due to temperament or direct socialization of cultural values, influence how children respond to achievement situations.

Final Consonant Deletion in African American Children Speaking Black English

1993 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Moran
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black English ◽  
African American Children ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Speech Evaluation ◽  
American Children

The purpose of this study was to determine whether African American children who delete final consonants mark the presence of those consonants in a manner that might be overlooked in a typical speech evaluation. Using elicited sentences from 10 African American children from 4 to 9 years of age, two studies were conducted. First, vowel length was determined for minimal pairs in which final consonants were deleted. Second, listeners who identified final consonant deletions in the speech of the children were provided training in narrow transcription and reviewed the elicited sentences a second time. Results indicated that the children produced longer vowels preceding "deleted" voiced final consonants, and listeners perceived fewer deletions following training in narrow transcription. The results suggest that these children had knowledge of the final consonants perceived to be deleted. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.

Language and Literacy Predictors of Dialect Density Among School-Age African American Children From Two Geographic Regions

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-820
Author(s):  
Lena G. Caesar ◽  
Marie Kerins
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
School Age ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Geographic Regions ◽  
American Children

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral language, literacy skills, age, and dialect density (DD) of African American children residing in two different geographical regions of the United States (East Coast and Midwest). Method Data were obtained from 64 African American school-age children between the ages of 7 and 12 years from two geographic regions. Children were assessed using a combination of standardized tests and narrative samples elicited from wordless picture books. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to determine relationships to and relative contributions of oral language, literacy, age, and geographic region to DD. Results Results of correlation analyses demonstrated a negative relationship between DD measures and children's literacy skills. Age-related findings between geographic regions indicated that the younger sample from the Midwest outscored the East Coast sample in reading comprehension and sentence complexity. Multiple regression analyses identified five variables (i.e., geographic region, age, mean length of utterance in morphemes, reading fluency, and phonological awareness) that accounted for 31% of the variance of children's DD—with geographic region emerging as the strongest predictor. Conclusions As in previous studies, the current study found an inverse relationship between DD and several literacy measures. Importantly, geographic region emerged as a strong predictor of DD. This finding highlights the need for a further study that goes beyond the mere description of relationships to comparing geographic regions and specifically focusing on racial composition, poverty, and school success measures through direct data collection.

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