Child-Invested Contingent Self-Esteem and Parenting: Exploring Differentiations by Child Successes or Failures and Ethnicity/Race

Child-invested contingent self-esteem (CSE), or the extent to which parents derive their self-esteem from their children’s accomplishments, has wide implications for parents and the parenting context. This study investigates links between CSE and parenting behaviors and beliefs and differentiates between CSE based on children’s success versus failure. It also examines whether associations vary across ethnicity/race. Recruited through Qualtrics, participants were 1077 parents (50% fathers; 65% White, 16% Latinx, 13% Black; 6% Asian American) of children (55% boys) in 6th–12th grade. Structural Equation Modeling shows that parents who based their self-esteem on their children’s failures tended to also practice negative parenting behaviors and hold negative parental beliefs. However, parents who based their self-esteem on children’s successes reported positive behaviors and beliefs. Interactions suggest that CSE-success counteracts negative associations between CSE-failure and parenting, at least for White and Black parents. Additional differences across ethnicity/race and related implications are discussed.

Racial Regard and Physical Health Among Low-Income Black Caregivers of Children With and Without Asthma

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between child health, parent racial regard, and parent physical health in 87 African American and Black parents/caregivers of children with and without asthma from a low-income, under-resourced urban area. Participants completed the Private and Public Regard subscales of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI) and 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Parents of children with asthma reported having poorer physical health, while those with higher public and private racial regard reported better physical health. The association between public regard and physical health was surpassed by an interaction of child asthma status and public regard: as public regard decreased, so did physical health, but only for parents raising a child with asthma. Findings suggest that the stresses associated with raising a child with chronic illness and perceiving lower public racial regard may together confer additional risk for poor physical health in African American and Black parents.

Faith and FACES: Black Parents’ Perceptions of Autism, Faith, and Coping

Faith, spirituality, and religious involvement can promote stress-related coping for parents raising children with autism, yet little research has explored religious coping in Black parents raising children with autism. Given the high levels of religiosity and increased incidence of autism in Black families, the purpose of this qualitative study was to highlight perceptions of Black parents raising children with autism on mental health and religious coping within the context of a parent advocacy intervention efficacy study. We used a grounded theory method with structural coding of group session transcripts and written responses to center the voices of seven Black parents raising children with autism. Three significant findings emerged: (a) mental health conceptualization; (b) double disenfranchisement; and (c) communal coping.

I’m Helping My Son Get Into College; He Is My First Priority

Black male college graduation gaps pose critical questions for parents, teachers, policymakers, and the Black community. Black males face systemic challenges that derail them from higher education. This research, drawing on a larger study, investigated Black parental expectations, strategies, and activities used to cultivate academic success and foster the development of college aspiration in high schoolaged sons. The findings revealed a central theme of parenting with intent, that Black parents: (1) reinforced the importance of school and learning in a family-school nexus; (2) fostered a strong value of attending and completing college to attain success; (3) held high expectations that “set the bar” for academic excellence; (4) instilled class consciousness to develop an awareness of the utility of college; (5) aided in the development of responsibility, agency, and self-efficacy; and (6) evidenced a commitment to their sons as their “first priority” by helping them navigate the college admissions process.

An African School for African Americans: Black Demands for Education in Antebellum Boston

This article examines Black parents’ efforts to establish and secure quality education for their children in antebellum Boston, Massachusetts. It situates the African School, a Black-owned cultural institution, within Black nationalist politics and reveals how the schoolhouse became a site of political tension between Black Bostonians and the Boston School Committee. Analyzing petitions, school records, and newspapers, this essay finds that the African School cultivated Black citizenship ideologies that prioritized political activism. This study invites new understandings of the political intersections of education and citizenship, and it illuminates the utility of Black nationalism in antebellum Boston.

The COVID States Project #68: Heightened parental concerns about COVID-19 vaccinations for children

In early October 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize their COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11. The success of vaccinating children is, however, still contingent upon whether parents feel their children should get the COVID-19 vaccine.Before the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy among parents was prevalent in certain pockets of the US. Parental vaccine hesitancy led to decreased inoculation rates among children for immunizations such as the MMR vaccine. This subsequently led to outbreaks of previously-eradicated diseases - like the measles - among children in states such as Washington and New York in 2018, and Minnesota in 2017.With the COVID-19 vaccine, parental vaccine hesitancy could similarly lead to higher levels of COVID-19 cases among minors, while also transmitting the disease to other populations. Investigating parental vaccine concerns is important in understanding and addressing parental vaccine hesitancy surrounding COVID-19. For this reason, in June 2021 we asked parents across the country about various concerns regarding childhood COVID-19 vaccination. We isolated their top five concerns: how new the vaccine is, whether the vaccine has been tested enough, whether the vaccine actually works, immediate side effects of the vaccine, and long-term side effects of the vaccine. We asked parents about these concerns again in September 2021 to detect shifts over time.Across the board, we find that the proportion of parents who felt these five items were major concerns increased substantially. We also find that several groups tend to express more concern over vaccinating their children against COVID-19, including younger mothers, parents of younger children, parents of children who have not yet been vaccinated, Republicans and Independents, Hispanic and Black parents, the non-college educated, and rural residents.We also asked parents about the likelihood of vaccinating their kids against COVID-19. We found significant proportions of parental vaccine hesitancy. For instance, 34% of parents with kids under 12 said it was unlikely that they would vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Further, the likelihood of parents vaccinating their children against COVID-19 was highly related to parental vaccination status and mode of student instruction.Parents having concerns about vaccinating their children does not automatically result in vaccine hesitancy, and it is also possible that the vaccine hesitant adopt heightened concerns because they are vaccine hesitant. That said, the concerns and motivations driving COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among parents should be examined more closely.

Pediatric Otolaryngology During COVID-19: Parental Concern About Elective Surgery

Objective: To identify the concerns of parents whose children may need elective surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In December 2020, parents of pediatric otolaryngology patients were recruited for a survey about concerns related to elective surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Likert scale quantified concern. The 1 was anchored “Not at all important” and 5 was “Most important.” Demographics included gender, age, race, education level, number of children in household, and whether their child had surgery since March 2020. Results: About 253 participants were included. Medians ranged from 1 for concerns about emotional and family support to 4 for concerns about their child being exposed to COVID-19 in the Emergency Room. Black parents were more concerned about the risks of COVID than White parents; they were more concerned about their child contracting COVID-19 during surgery compared to White parents, median was 4 versus 3 ( P = .027). Black parents had a median score of 3 for concern about medical expenses compared to a median of 2 ( P = .001). Parents of children who had surgery since March 2020 had less concern about their child being exposed to COVID-19 during hospitalization ( P = .045) and less concern about critique from others ( P = .024). Conclusion: Parents were most concerned about the risk of seeking Emergency Room care. Black parents were generally more concerned about having their child undergo elective surgery. Whether this is translated into fewer Black children undergoing important but elective surgery requires more study.

Conversations about race in Black and White US families: Before and after George Floyd’s death

Research has shown that Black parents are more likely than White parents to have conversations about race with their children, but few studies have directly compared the frequency and content of these conversations and how they change in response to national events. Here we examine such conversations in the United States before and after the killing of George Floyd. Black parents had conversations more often than White parents, and they had more frequent conversations post-Floyd. White parents remained mostly unchanged and, if anything, were less likely to talk about being White and more likely to send colorblind messages. Black parents were also more worried than White parents—both that their children would experience racial bias and that their children would perpetrate racial bias, a finding that held both pre- and post-Floyd. Thus, even in the midst of a national moment on race, White parents remained relatively silent and unconcerned about the topic.

“A Personal Decision”: A Mixed-Methods Study of Parents’ Opposition to School-Based Public Health Initiatives in the Wake of COVID-19

Schools play a key role in promoting public health. Yet, these initiatives also face opposition from parents, and such opposition may be increasing in the wake of misinformation campaigns and efforts to politicize public health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, parent opposition helped derail schools’ efforts to require masks and vaccines. Thus, it is important for educators and policymakers to understand the extent, source, and nature of parents’ opposition to new school-based public health initiatives. Combining data from a national survey of US parents (N=1,945) with a content analysis of a Facebook group for parents in one politically divided school community, we found that, at the peak of the pandemic (December 2020), nearly one third of parents opposed each of our two focal initiatives. We also found that parents based their opposition to (or support for) school-based public health initiatives on individualistic calculations about the costs and benefits those initiatives would impose on their individual child. Those calculations, however, did not always follow the same logic. In light of those varied logics, vaccine opposition was most common among Republicans, mothers (especially white mothers), parents without college degrees, and Black parents. Meanwhile, opposition to mask mandates was disproportionately common among Republicans, fathers, and college-educated parents (especially among white parents), as well as among those who had COVID-19. We conclude that individualistic approaches to parental decision-making are preventing communities from enacting and maintaining school-based public health initiatives and undermining health and education as public goods.

“The Talk” and Parenting While Black in America: Centering Race, Resistance, and Refuge

“The Talk” refers to a specific type of racial socialization message that many Black parents have with their children about how to safely conduct themselves when interacting with police officers and other individuals in positions of power. With the recent increased exposure of racialized violence against Black people at the hands of police and vigilantes in the United States, many parents of young Black children now feel especially compelled to initiate these conversations to equip their children with the necessary knowledge to protect themselves when interacting with police officers. Black parents bear the unjust burden of striking a balance between alerting their children of possible harm while also not villainizing every member of law enforcement their child may encounter. This qualitative study examines “the Talk” occurring between 45 Black American parents and their young school-age children via observational methods. Findings of this study help to illuminate this critically important experience that characterizes Black familial processes and particularly the plight of parents socializing Black children. Implications for parent education and clinical interventions are also provided.