African American-Black

While Louisiana’s economy has improved in recent years, people of color are still disproportionately represented among the state’s economically insecure. Men of color face particular barriers to employment due to discrimination and gaps in work-based skills. If full employment was achieved across all gender and racial groups, Louisiana's economy could be $3.5 billion stronger each year. Investing in men of color and critical education and training systems for Louisiana’s workforce will shift the state toward a course for greater prosperity for all.

Previous research has explored how differential youth outcomes are associated with racial socialization and parenting style individually, but very little work has examined whether democratic-involved parenting style bolsters the positive link between racial messages and adolescent outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine mothers’ use of democratic-involved parenting as a moderator of the association between racial socialization (e.g., racial pride, racial barrier, and self-worth messages) and youth engagement.

This study examined parent characteristics and barriers to participation in a community-based preventive intervention with a sample of 201 parents from low-income and predominantly ethnic minority backgrounds. Person-centered analyses revealed five subgroups of parents who demonstrated variability in their parent characteristics, which included psychological resources and level of parental involvement in education.

Since 1965 the purpose of Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act has been to improve the educational outcomes of economically disadvantaged students and reduce achievement gaps. This paper presents analysis of data from a nationally representative sample of African American and Latinx kindergartners who attended public schools operating school-wide Title I programs in the 2010–11 school year. The purpose of analysis was to examine the associations between Title I programming and achievement gaps.

Forty-four Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to enriched intervention (Head Start REDI—Research-based, Developmentally Informed) or ‘‘usual practice’’ conditions. The intervention involved brief lessons, ‘‘handson’’ extension activities, and specific teaching strategies linked empirically with the promotion of: (a) social-emotional competencies and (b) language development and emergent literacy skills. Take-home materials were provided to parents to enhance skill development at home.

Female family headship has strong implications for endemic poverty in the United States. Consequently, it is imperative to explore the chief factors that contribute to this problem. Departing from prior literature that places significant weight on welfare-incentive effects, our study highlights the role of male marriageability in explaining the prevalence of never-married female family headship for blacks and whites. Specifically, we examine racial differences in the effect of male marriageability on never-married female headship from 1980 to 2010.

We examine the relationship between early youth employment and behavior problems and ask whether this relationship differs by race, job quality, or work intensity. Drawing on Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, we depict the employment patterns of American youth aged 12 through 18 and test conflicting hypotheses about mediating mechanisms through which youth employment shapes children’s behavior. Results show that employment is associated with fewer behavior problems but only when the jobs offer opportunities for human capital development and only when working moderate hours.

This video and its accompanying presentation slides are from the 2018 Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS). On many measures of economic well-being, African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Hispanic and Latino children and families appear to be worse off than white children and families. This panel drew linkages among data, conceptual, and practical work to help us develop a better understanding of factors that may contribute to the persistence of these racial and ethnic disparities, to their identification, and to their amelioration.

The analysis in this issue brief examines apprenticeship programs over the past decade—from fiscal year 2008 through 2017—to observe gaps in participation and wages among women and people of color. In general, it finds that women remain deeply underrepresented in apprenticeship programs and that wages among women and black or African American apprentices are much lower than those of other apprentices. Even though these programs are intended and have the potential to develop the U.S.

Until recently, researchers have focused most of their attention on psychosocial factors that contribute to obesity and related behaviors, such as diet and physical activity. However, there is increasing recognition of the important role that environmental factors play in these behaviors.