African American Parents Research Articles

Parental Support for HPV Vaccination Mandates Among African Americans: The Impact of Message Framing and Consideration of Future Consequences

ABSTRACTIs parents’ support for mandating human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for their adolescent children influenced by how the policy advocacy message is framed? In this research, we conducted an experiment in which a group of African-American parents were exposed to messages advocating HPV vaccination mandates that were framed in either gains or losses. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering the personality trait – consideration of future consequences – when assessing the efficacy of gain- and loss-framed health advocacy. We found that parents responded more positively to gain-frames if they focused on the distant future and to loss-frames if they focused on the immediate future. Thus, it is important to recognize that public support of HPV vaccination policy is not only contingent on the message-based educational strategy employed to parent, but on the degree to which parents consider how present behaviors influence future well-being.

Wellness coaches in intervention delivery: pediatric asthma as an example.

Asthma is the most common chronic illness among children, and parental psychosocial stress is a well-documented mediator of poor pediatric asthma outcomes. However, few interventions have targeted parental stress as a means for improving child asthma outcomes. The purpose of the study is to describe the feasibility and acceptability of the use of wellness coaches in a parent-focused stress management intervention in pediatric asthma. Data on the feasibility of wellness coach recruitment and training, intervention delivery and fidelity, and acceptability are provided from a randomized controlled trial intervention group sample of 107 African American parents of children aged 4-12 years (M = 6.6 years) with persistent asthma. Implementation of intervention strategies is described. Two wellness coaches were recruited and trained, and they conducted the four-session intervention for the study. The majority (79%) of possible intervention sessions were completed. The fidelity ratings of coach implementation of the intervention were high and indicated that 92%-95% of target intervention content was covered during the sessions. Participants reported high acceptability of working with the wellness coaches. Use of wellness coaches in a parent-focused stress management pediatric asthma intervention was feasible and acceptable. Using wellness coaches for parent interventions may be applicable across other pediatric conditions and has the potential to change clinical practice.

2451 Views of African American parent-child dyads on the immunization neighborhood to improve HPV vaccination rates

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: To better understand African American (AA) parents and their adolescents perceptions towards the immunization neighborhood to improve HPV vaccination rates. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We conducted qualitative interviews among a purposive sample of 30 AA parent-child dyads. We engaged the community (community advisory boards, community organizations) in the design and implementation of this study. Before each interview, we provided participants a brief survey to assess acceptability of various vaccination settings (i.e., pharmacies, health departments, and schools). An inductive, qualitative content analysis approach was used to analyze the data, and a constant comparison method was used to compare codes for theme development. Descriptives (i.e., frequencies) were used to analyze survey data with the SPSS version 23 software. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Findings demonstrate that many parents were willing to get their adolescents vaccinated at the health department (n=19) followed by the pharmacy (n=17). However, majority of parents were less willing to get their adolescent vaccinated at school (n=21). Mixed results were found for children with many having positive attitudes towards alternative settings (health department=21; pharmacy=14; school=16). Parents viewed the health department as being stigmatized and unclean for adolescent immunizations in general, while children were unsure of the difference between the health department and the medical home for the vaccine. Both parents and adolescents viewed the pharmacy as “too open” but would use it if a nurse administered the shot and had a good tracking system. Both also expressed strong feelings against school vaccinations, especially HPV vaccine shots. However, would consider for convenience or if administration was done by a nurse. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Findings from this study provide intervention targets to improve access to HPV vaccination in alternative settings. It further demonstrates the importance of community engagement for the success of translational research, in which we will use it to disseminate this study’s findings. Ultimately, this study could play a role in shifting the traditional model of the HPV vaccine being provided solely in the medical home to improve HPV vaccination rates.

Educational Expectations in African American Families: Assessing the Importance of Immediate Performance Requirements

Prior research has shown that parents’ educational expectations contribute positively to several student academic outcomes, including grades in school, standardized test scores, and school completion. These expectations are typically conceptualized as long-term educational attainment beliefs, and consequently, it remains unclear how parents’ short-term expectations for performance (i.e., grades in school) impact their children’s academic success. It is conceivable, for example, that the greater immediacy and actionability of short-term performance expectations make them highly important to student achievement as well. Moreover, previous research on parents’ expectations of any type has rarely considered African American families specifically. In response, the present study uses hierarchical regression modeling with an intra-racially diverse longitudinal sample of African American families to examine the degree to which African American parents’ short- and long-term educational expectations simultaneously impact their children’s academic achievement. Results suggest that independent of prior performance and social background, African American parents’ short-term requirements for performance are more important to their children’s grades in school than are expectations for long-term attainment. This finding was likely obfuscated in prior research by a lack of simultaneous consideration of short- and long-term expectations, particularly in the African American family context. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Project SHINE: effects of a randomized family-based health promotion program on the physical activity of African American parents.

This study examined the effects of a family-based health promotion intervention on the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity, sedentary behavior, and fruit and vegetable intake of African American parents. Eighty-nine African American parents (41.5 ± 8.5years; 92% females; 74% obese; 64% < $40K income) and adolescents (12.5 ± 1.4years; 61% girls; 48% obese) were randomized to a 6-week behavioral skills plus positive parenting and peer monitoring intervention grounded in social cognitive, self-determination, and family systems theories or a general health comparison program. Parents wore accelerometers for 7days and completed three 24-h dietary recalls at baseline and post-intervention. Multilevel regression models (controlling for baseline variables) demonstrated a significantly greater increase in parent MVPA for those in the intervention versus comparison condition (b = 9.44, SE = 4.26, p < 0.05). There were no other significant effects. Family-based approaches that include African American parents and youth may increase parent MVPA and hold promise for preventing chronic diseases.

The Impact of Health Messages on Maternal Decisions About Infant Sleep Position: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) rates in African-Americans are more than twice national rates, and historically, African-American parents are more likely than other groups to place infants prone, even when they are aware of supine sleep recommendations. Prior studies have shown African-Americans have low self-efficacy against SIDS but high self-efficacy against suffocation. This study aimed to determine the impact of a specific health message about suffocation prevention on African-American parental decisions regarding infant sleep position. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 1194 African-American mothers, who were randomized to receive standard messages about safe sleep practices to reduce the risk of SIDS, or enhanced messages about safe sleep practices to prevent SIDS and suffocation. Mothers were interviewed about knowledge and attitude, self-efficacy and current infant care practices when infants were 2-3 weeks, 2-3 months and 5-6 months old. Analyses of covariance were conducted to estimate the change in knowledge, attitudes and practice in each group, and chi square tests were used to compare sleep position with each variable. Over the first 6 months, the proportion of African-American infants placed supine gradually decreased and was unchanged by enhanced education about SIDS, suffocation risk and sleep safety. While initially high self-efficacy against SIDS and suffocation correlated with supine positioning, by 5-6 months self-efficacy did not correspond to sleep position in either group.

The Impact of Religion on Family Functioning in Low-Income African American Families With Adolescents

The current study explores the association between religion and family functioning. Specifically, this study examined whether two aspects of religion, social religious support (from clergy and members of the congregation) and support from God (or spirituality), were related to frequency of household routines and parenting strategies as reported by both parents and adolescents, as well as adolescent problem behaviors. The sample consisted of 115 low-income African American mother-adolescent (age 14-18 years) dyads. Families were recruited as part of a larger study on the lives of low-income African American families with adolescents. Results indicated that higher levels of social religious support and spirituality were associated with increased levels of family routine as reported by caregivers. These results highlight the important roles relationships with God and other church members may play in supporting the lives of low-income African American parents and their children.

Choosers, Obstructed Choosers, and Nonchoosers: A Framework for Defaulting in Schooling Choices

Background/ContextPrior research overlooks the importance of drawing distinctions within the category of defaulters or “nonchoosers” in schooling choices. Defaulters are both a theoretically and empirically interesting population, and understanding the processes by which families come to or are assigned the default school offers insight into the micromechanisms contributing to the reproduction of inequality through education.Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of StudyIn this study, I use in-depth interview data to understand defaulting and propose a basic framework that gets beyond a chooser/nonchooser dichotomy. The purpose of this work is to help researchers and school district officials to identify areas of school choice systems that are incompatible with would-be choosers. This study further offers a useful framework for thinking about defaulters and their role in the school choice process.Population/Participants/SubjectsThis study draws from survey and interview data from 28 low-income to working-class African American parents in the Chicago Public Schools whose children were at a choice juncture (the transition from eighth grade to high school).Data Collection and AnalysisThis study utilizes survey and in-depth qualitative interviews. Surveys and interviews were conducted in person and lasted from 30 minutes to 2 hours each. Parent respondents filled out a survey that included demographic information, family and child activities, community connectedness, and basic activity around choosing a high school and then answered open-ended questions about their specific choice activities, their ideas about education, and their information networks. I employed inductive coding to analyze the interview data.Findings/ResultsIn this study, I find that families who arrived at the default outcome did so in ways that followed patterns similar to those found in studies of choosers. Families’ inclination to choose, capacity for choice, and school preferences, as well external barriers, compose a framework that helps to explain how some parents labeled as “nonchoosers” or defaulters in other studies are actually actively engaging in the choice process and, further, how the choice process itself can lead those who perceive themselves as choosers to be classified by researchers as nonchoosers or defaulters.Conclusions/RecommendationsThe defaulter framework provides insight into the barriers that some families face to active choosing and, as such, suggests potential micro- and macro-level interventions to meet the needs of a variety of potential types of participants in choice systems.

Partner Support and Grandparent Support as Predictors of Change in Coparenting Quality

Young ethnic minority parents may lack psychological and financial resources to handle parenthood, increasing the risk of negative psychosocial and parenting outcomes. Partner support has been associated with positive coparenting, although findings have been mixed. Support from young parents' own parents ("grandparents") has been linked to adaptive family outcomes and may be particularly protective for African American and Latino parents whose cultures espouse interdependence. This study examined partner support and grandparent support as individual predictors of change in coparenting quality, and tested whether grandparent support moderated the relationship between partner support and change in coaprenting quality over the first postpartum year. Participants were 136 African American and Latina adolescent mothers (age range=15-21 years) and their babies' fathers (15-41 years). Partner and grandparent support were measured at 6 months postpartum. Coparenting quality was measured at 6 and 12 months postpartum, and change in coparenting quality was measured using latent change scores. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis that the relationship between partner support and change in coparenting quality would be moderated by grandparent support. Fit indices indicated a well-fitted model. Results demonstrated that the moderator term (partner support × grandparent support) significantly predicted change in coparenting quality. Specifically, partner support was positively associated with changes in coparenting quality when grandparent support was high; however, that association became weaker and changed direction for lower levels of grandparent support. Findings highlight the need to assess parents' social support networks and grandparents' impact on the coparenting quality of this at-risk population.

The Role of Parental Education, Household Income, and Race on Parents’ Academic Beliefs and the Provision of Home Learning Opportunities for 4- to 8-Year-Old Children

Previous research has highlighted the importance of parents’ education, household income, and race for children’s academic achievement. In addition, these factors relate to their beliefs about their children’s academic achievement and their provision of opportunities to strengthen learning. However, direct comparisons of the unique roles of parents’ education, household income, and race are rare and the current study seeks to fill this gap. A heterogeneous sample of 398 parents of 4- to 8-year-old children in the US completed a survey assessing beliefs about the importance of math and reading/writing for their child, how frequently they provided learning opportunities in these skill sets at home, and demographic information. We found that parents’ education was significantly related to their beliefs about the school’s importance in teaching their child math, but when splitting our sample by race, this effect was only significant for White non-Hispanic parents. No significant effects were found for parents’ education on their beliefs about the importance of the school or home in teaching their child reading/writing. In addition, we found that household income was significantly related to parents’ beliefs about the school’s but not the home’s importance in teaching their child math. Finally, household income was found to be significantly related to parents’ beliefs about the home’s but not the school’s importance in teaching their child reading/writing, but this effect was only significant for African American parents. These results suggest that parents’ education and income play different roles in determining parents’ beliefs about the importance of the school or the home in teaching math and reading/writing to their child and these relations were modulated by race.

African American Parents and Their High-Achieving Students: Issues of Race, Class, and Community in the College Choice Process

Although a significant body of research clearly identifies parents as one of the strongest influences in the student college choice process, researchers have limited information about the interactions between African American students and parents during this process, and about what African American parents value in institutions of higher education. African American parental behavior resonates with the general literature on parental influence and involvement; however, African American college choice criteria also reflect the racialized experiences and identities of African American families in the USA. This paper sheds light on how African American parents navigate the college choice process with their children, and it contributes to a relatively small body of knowledge focused on culturally constructed African American parental influence and school engagement.

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.

Nature's Return: An Environmental History of Congaree National Park by Hilary Green

Reviewed by: Nature's Return: An Environmental History of Congaree National Park by Hilary Green Daniel B. Thorp (bio) Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865–1890. By Hilary Green. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2016. Pp. 258. $125.00 cloth; $35.00 paper) Hilary Green's Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865–1890 adds nicely to our understanding of the extended nature of Reconstruction in the American South. Remaking the racial patterns of political, social, and economic life in the former Confederacy did not end with the departure of the Freedmen's Bureau and federal troops during the 1870s. Nor did the [End Page 544] full weight of Jim Crow laws immediately come crashing down on African Americans with the official end of Reconstruction in 1877. Rather, former slaves and their children continued pressing to gain the full privileges of citizenship—privileges to which they felt they were entitled and that they believed they had been promised at the time of their emancipation. As the title suggests, Educational Reconstruction considers this process through the lens of public education in the urban South. Specifically, Green focuses on the cities of Richmond, Virginia, and Mobile, Alabama, and explores the emergence and development of schools for African Americans through three distinct periods. The first two chapters detail the initial establishment of schools for freed-people by northern philanthropic societies, the Freedmen's Bureau, and freedpeople themselves. The next six chapters explore the transition to state-supported education that occurred after 1870 in both Richmond and Mobile and the "quality school campaigns" waged in each to effect improved conditions in the cities' racially segregated public school systems. Finally, an extended epilogue analyzes factors behind the failure of Congress to enact the Blair Education Bill in 1890 and the subsequent ascendancy of Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee model of industrial education for southern blacks. Green's research draws heavily on a variety of public records from the local, state, and federal levels; the archives of numerous religious and philanthropic organizations; and newspapers from Boston to New Orleans. From them she is often able to present the hopes and fears of African American educators, voters, and parents in their own words and demonstrate convincingly their belief that a quality education was essential to their campaign for full freedom and citizenship. That campaign, however, was never in the hands of African Americans alone. Green demonstrates convincingly that between 1865 and 1890 southern blacks found and worked with a changing array of white allies in their effort to secure a quality education for themselves and their children. These white allies did not control black efforts to improve their schools; in both Richmond and [End Page 545] Mobile African Americans knew what they wanted, articulated their demands clearly, and worked for them tirelessly. The presence and commitment of white allies was important, though. Indeed, Green maintains, it was the presence in Virginia of the Readjuster Party that explains why blacks in Richmond enjoyed greater success in their campaign for quality schools than their counterparts in Mobile did. Educational Reconstruction makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of southern society during the final third of the nineteenth century. It joins the work of scholars such as Steven Hahn and Michael Perman in demonstrating that black and white southerners continued to negotiate the boundaries of a new reality for years after federal troops left the region. In one regard, however, Green's interpretation of educational reconstruction may require a corrective. She views the triumph of Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee model as one of rural black southerners over their urban brother and sisters, yet in Southwest Virginia, at least, rural blacks also objected loudly to the shift from a more classical education to an industrial model. That notwithstanding, Hilary Green's Educational Reconstruction offers a valuable study of the long and determined effort made by black southerners to achieve educational equality in the decades immediately after the abolition of slavery. Daniel B. Thorp DANIEL B. THORP is an associate professor of history and an associate dean in Virginia Tech's College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences. He is the author of...

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.

&lt;em&gt;Expanding their Opportunities to Engage: A Case of the African American Parent Council&lt;/em&gt;

&lt;em&gt;Expanding their Opportunities to Engage: A Case of the African American Parent Council&lt;/em&gt;

Factors Influencing African American Parents’ Decisions to Enroll Their Child in a Mentoring Program

Factors Influencing African American Parents’ Decisions to Enroll Their Child in a Mentoring Program

The Refugee Crisis in the American Civil War

The Refugee Crisis in the American Civil War Lorien Foote (bio) handra Manning. Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. 396 pp. Figures, maps, notes, bibliography, and index. $30.00. David Silkenat. Driven from Home: North Carolina's Civil War Refugee Crisis. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016. viii + 290 pp. Figures, maps, notes, bibliography, and index. $49.95. During the American Civil War, hundreds of thousands of southerners—black and white, men and women, old and young, rich and poor—fled their homes. Refugees outnumbered the men who served in the Confederate Army, and by the war's end, between 12–15% of the U.S. slave population lived in contraband camps. Their precipitate movement created a refugee crisis on a scale that historians are just now coming to appreciate. Two excellent works by Chandra Manning and David Silkenat, especially when read in tandem, provide scholars with a better understanding of the refugee experience and the political, military, and social consequences of their actions. Manning focuses solely on African Americans in the contraband camps of the Union Army, but provides a sweeping national picture of the camps and the process of emancipation, while Silkenat explores the full diversity of the refugee experience within a single southern state, North Carolina, whose interior location made it a destination for refugees from across the Confederacy. These books will change how scholars conceptualize the Civil War home front and the dynamics of population movement during the conflict. In addition, historians will benefit from considering how these authors balance the role of individual agency with the role of structural conditions in the story they have to tell. Silkenat's Driven From Home compares five different streams of refugees and locates fugitive slaves within a complex and far-reaching refugee crisis. Whereas previous scholarship considers African Americans in isolation, Silkenat effectively demonstrates that studying the full variety of refugee movements "illuminates dynamics between them that have remained invisible when looking at them individually (p. 4)." The distinct refugee groups in North Carolina were the African Americans and white Unionists who fled to Union [End Page 451] lines in the eastern part of the state after Gen. Ambrose Burnside's invasion of February 1862; white Confederates who sought safety in central North Carolina from Union military operations in other states; slaves moved to the central and western regions of the state from other parts of the Confederacy to keep them from running away and to put them to work; and young women sent to boarding schools to keep them out of harm's way. The African American refugee stream moving east to Union lines created the stream that moved west because runaways prompted masters to relocate slaves in vast numbers. Silkenat's conclusions regarding the situation for African Americans in Union-occupied eastern North Carolina matches the finding of Manning for those "exiting slavery" across the South. A complex interaction between the U.S. Army, U.S. government officials, northern philanthropic workers, and refugees, all of whom had different priorities, shaped conditions in contraband camps and the experiences of its occupants. Both external structural forces, such as location and the outcome of nearby battles, and individual agency, particularly the attitudes of army personnel, mattered to the quality and longevity of a camp. Northern philanthropists and military officials believed that government aid fostered dependence; this widespread assumption governed their response to the refugee crisis. In eastern North Carolina, the Union Army welcomed fugitives from slavery and issued general orders that instituted free labor, provided rations to children, and acknowledged African-American parents' legal claim to their children. Military officials saw refugees as a labor pool, civilian relief workers were primarily interested in meeting spiritual and physical needs, and the refugees desired education and autonomous communities. Because President Lincoln hoped to return eastern North Carolina to civilian government as quickly as possible, he appointed Edward Stanly as military governor, who sought to enforce antebellum slave laws and break apart refugee communities. The resulting conflict between Stanly and the military, and the departure of aid workers who advocated for them, left the refugees in limbo for months. After the Emancipation Proclamation...

Examining African American Parent-Daughter HIV Risk Communication Using a Black Feminist-Ecological Lens: Implications for Intervention.

Using a framework of ecological systems theory and Black feminist theory, this article provides a conceptual exploration of barriers and facilitators to HIV risk communication between African American parents and daughters. African American female adolescents are disproportionately diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and are more likely to engage in sexually risky behaviors, which increases their risk of contracting HIV. Researchers have documented the importance of parental beliefs, knowledge, and communication about sexual and HIV risk as a protective factor in influencing safe sexual behavior in their daughters. By incorporating the ecological influences that affect familial processes among African American parents, in addition to highlighting Black feminist concepts, this article proposes a racial and gender-specific theoretical model to guide future family-based HIV prevention interventions.

Race in Place: Black Parents, Family–School Relations, and Multispatial Microaggressions in a Predominantly White Suburb

BackgroundResearch has demonstrated the importance of understanding the multiple factors that shape parents’ relationships with schools, including the resources parents have at their disposal, their own educational histories, and the influence of school cultures and policies. Less is known, however, about how parents’ engagement relates to their everyday experiences across school and community spaces, particularly for Black parents in nonurban, predominantly White settings.PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine Black parents’ school and community experiences in a predominantly White suburb and how their experiences and engagement may vary based on social class and gender (and their intersections).ParticipantsA socioeconomically mixed sample of 56 Black parents (16 men, 40 women) with children in Grades K–7 participated in the study, as well as 2 longtime residents whose children attended district schools.Research DesignThe findings are based on an ethnographic study of Black family–school relationships in a predominantly White Wisconsin suburb. The data include semi-structured parent interviews; field notes taken in monthly districtwide African American Parents (AAPO) meetings; an analysis of district and AAPO documents related to district resources, demographics, academics, and family engagement; and an analysis of census and demographic trends in the suburb and the broader county.FindingsResults reveal that parents supported their children's education in a variety of ways, and most parents valued the resources and opportunities the suburban district and community context provided their children. Yet parents described experiences with racial microaggressions in their interactions with school officials and community members. These microaggressions were often classed and gendered, and, for a number of parents, relived and reinforced in their children's schools. The results reveal both the everyday racism Black parents encountered in the predominantly White suburban community and school district, as well as the dynamic ways they navigated, resisted, and sought to change barriers to Black student and family success.RecommendationsThe research findings suggest the utility of educators recognizing the often racialized arenas many Black parents traverse in their everyday lives, legitimating parents’ alternative forms of engagement, and building on what parents are already doing to support their children's education and well-being. Given the growing number of students of color in suburban districts, educational researchers have both an opportunity and responsibility to engage in studies that interrogate urban-focused frameworks and explore the intersections of race, class, gender, and place in families’ experiences.

Disparities in parental human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine awareness and uptake among adolescents

Trends in HPV vaccine awareness among parents of adolescent girls and boys (ages 13–17) and HPV vaccine uptake (≥1 dose) among girls (ages 13–17) were evaluated in Los Angeles County, California. Between 2007 and 2011, parental HPV vaccine awareness increased from 72% to 77% overall, with significant increases among mothers, Latinos, and respondents with daughters and Medi-Cal insured children. In 2011, parents who were male, older, less educated, Asian/Pacific Islander, and had sons remained significantly less likely to be aware. HPV vaccine initiation among daughters nearly doubled from 25% in 2007 to 48% in 2011, and girls who were older, uninsured, and had access-related barriers showed the largest improvements. In 2011, daughters who were younger and who had older and African American parents were at risk for low uptake. Thus, initiatives targeting male and younger adolescents, culturally-relevant information, and access to vaccination may help to reduce identified disparities.