Parenting Practices and Adolescents’ Eating Behaviors in African American Families

Parents play an important role in developing the eating behaviors of their children by adopting specific parenting practices. As the prevalence of obesity is high amongst African American adolescents, investigations into associations of specific parenting practices and adolescents’ eating behaviors are essential. In this exploratory study, 14 African American parent–adolescent dyads were interviewed to characterize the influence of eight different parenting practices on the consumption of three main food categories (dairy, fruits and vegetables, and unhealthy snacks). The results revealed that authoritarian parenting practices were correlated with a higher BMI percentile in adolescents, whereas modeling and monitoring are correlated with a higher parent BMI. In addition, reasoning, monitoring, modeling, and authoritative parenting practices were associated with less unhealthy snack consumption among adolescents. Reasoning and monitoring were the only parenting practices associated with higher fruit and vegetable consumption. Finally, a significant correlation was found between eating fruits and vegetables and unhealthy snacks and the location of eating. In conclusion, different parenting practices and environmental factors may impact BMI and food consumption of African American dyads. The results of this study can be used to guide improvement in, and/or development of, nutritional education interventions considering the cultural differences of racial minorities.

The Great Black Hope: An Examination of African American Parent Perspectives at Bass Charter Academy

Since the conception of education in the United States, schools have been the battlegrounds for equal opportunities among African American students. In an effort to improve educational options and achievement for such students, charter schools have emerged as a popular solution for African American parents. Findings from this study shed light on the experiences of African American parents who enrolled their children in Bass Charter Academy. The level of hope that was evident from the parent narratives centered on nonquantitative measures such as cultural pride and caring environments and mirrored that of pre-Brown schools that served African American students.

Resisting and Redirecting: Agentive Practices Within an African American Parent–Child Dyad During Digital Storytelling

This article examines the digital storytelling practices between an African American mother and son. We used agency as a theoretical framework to explore how the two exercised their own power to collaborate on their digital story. As digital technologies became part of their practice, challenges and tensions arose when both participants attempted to override each other’s agency, as demonstrated in their interviews. Data were collected during digital storytelling workshops conducted at a university computer lab, church, and the participants’ home. Using thematic coding, we analyzed audio-recorded interviews to determine the participants’ agency in the context of their digital storytelling activity. We found how a mother and son worked together through resisting and redirecting when creating a digital story, and how their digital storytelling practices displayed evidence of agency. Implications include how familial interactions in digital storytelling practices contribute to the ways agency is conceptualized for families, educators, and researchers.

A Parent’s Perceptions of Physical and Emotional Sibling Violence

The inclusion of parental perspectives in research on physical and emotional sibling violence has been minimal, with parents of various ethnic backgrounds being particularly absent from the literature. Drawing on witnessed interactions with her own children and her personal experiences with a sibling in childhood, this article presents a view of physical and emotional sibling violence from the perspective of an African American parent identified by social services to be at risk for child abuse and neglect. Themes emerging from the interview center around the intersection of sibling violence and parental/family stress, parental normalization of violence between siblings, witnessing community violence, sibling versus peer fighting, and ways to address/prevent sibling violence. The need for more ethnically and socioeconomically inclusive research related to physical and emotional sibling violence is highlighted along with a discussion of practice implications as mechanisms for intervention.

Skills and Strategies of African American Parents in the Management of ADHD: A Qualitative Study

Objective: The purpose of this study is to use a strengths-based approach to determine African American parents’ skills and strategies for management of children with ADHD. Method: Four focus groups were conducted to identify African American parent beliefs about appropriate ADHD management. Sixteen parents participated and reported having a total of 21 children diagnosed with ADHD. Results: Participants discussed several parenting challenges but advocated for the child by working closely with the child’s school and physician. They also managed relationships with family members to protect the child from possible physical or emotional harm. However, parents desired more social support for management of ADHD. Conclusion: African American parents possess key skills and strategies in their management of children with ADHD. Further research is needed to determine the roles and responsibilities of extended family members for children with this disorder, and to identify the social supports parents access to aid with ADHD management.