Black Male Child Research Articles

School-Based Mental Health Counseling with Black Males in Title I Elementary School

Our study investigated changes in Black male children’s (N = 22) psychosocial functioning who participated in a school-based mental health counseling intervention at three Title I elementary schools. We collected the participating children’s psychosocial functioning data before their first counseling session, after the fifth session, and again after the tenth session. The results of the analyses for this single group design identified that the participants’ emotional and social behaviors changed over time, per parent report (η2 = .214). This study provides valuable implications for counselors working with Black male youth, highlighting the effectiveness of school-based mental health interventions in addressing the psychosocial needs of this population. This study’s findings also suggest that interventions focused on improving social-emotional functioning can have significant positive impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of Black male children.

1169: THE EPIDEMIOLOGY AND OUTCOMES OF NEONATAL IN-HOSPITAL CARDIAC ARREST IN THE US DURING 2000-2019

Introduction: The primary objective was to evaluate the trend in the prevalence of in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) and mortality among neonates in the U.S. between 2000 and 2019 using the Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID). Our secondary objective was to assess the influence of gestational age (GA). Methods: Neonates (< 29 days at the time of admission) in KID databases published in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2016, and 2019 were included in the study. Neonates who were transferred to another acute care hospital were excluded. IHCA was identified by ICD-9 or ICD-10 procedure codes for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. GA was grouped into extreme prematurity (EP; < 29 weeks), prematurity (P; 29-36 weeks), and term (T; >36 weeks). All analyses involving GA included neonates from 2003-2019. Linear trends were analyzed using the Extended Mantel-Haenszel test. The prevalence in each calendar year was adjusted for GA using binary regression analysis. For the national prevalence of IHCA, total yearly births in the U.S. were used. Results: The overall IHCA prevalence was 7.8 per 10,000 discharges and 6.62 per 10,000 live births in the U.S. The trend increased from 2000 to 2019 (p< 0.001). Most IHCA (72%) occurred on the day of admission. IHCA was more common in Black male infants, lower GA, urban teaching, and children’s hospitals (p< 0.05). Necrotizing enterocolitis and intraventricular hemorrhage were more often associated with IHCA (p< 0.001). The overall mortality rate for IHCA was 43.5%, and mortality increased from 34.7% in 2000 to 48% in 2019 (p< 0.001). In neonates with IHCA, extreme prematurity was present at 11% in 2003 and increased to 18.8% in 2019 (p< 0.001). The mortality rates for EP, P, and T neonates with IHCA were 72.8%, 39.6%, and 29.8%, respectively (p< 0.001). After adjusting for GA, the prevalence of IHCA was significantly higher from 2012 onwards (p< 0.05), and the mortality rate was higher in 2019 compared to 2003 (p=0.005). Conclusions: The prevalence of IHCA and associated mortality rate increased from 2000 to 2019 in neonates in the U.S. The increased prevalence of lower GA babies in IHCA may account for the increased mortality trend. A majority of IHCA occurring on the day of admission provides an opportunity for improvement in healthcare services in the delivery room.

Maternal Education Potentially Moderates the MAOA uVNTR Effects on Externalizing Behavior in Black South African Children

Interactions between the MAOA uVNTR and rearing environment are suggested to influence the developmental manifestations of childhood internalizing and externalizing behavior. However, few studies in the MAOA literature have included continental African children, or focused on non-clinical samples. We explored the main and interactive effects of the MAOA uVNTR (high and low activity alleles) in Black South African male (n = 478) and female (n = 540) children who were part of the longitudinal Birth to Twenty Plus cohort. Historical data on birth weight, gestational age at delivery, socioeconomic status, and maternal education were combined with genotypic information and analyzed using regression modeling. We found no significant main effects for the MAOA uVNTR on childhood behavior in either sex. A significant interaction (p = .04) was identified between MAOA and maternal education, suggesting that externalizing behavior in boys carrying a low activity MAOA allele varied in direct proportion to the education levels of their mothers. However, the model fit failed to reach significance, possibly due to our inclusion of only non-clinical pre-pubertal males. No significant interactions were detected for female children. Our findings lend tentative credibility to the Environmental Sensitivity metaframework, which suggests that MAOA is an important plasticity factor in childhood development.

Fairness-related performance and explainability effects in deep learning models for brain image analysis.

Purpose: Explainability and fairness are two key factors for the effective and ethical clinical implementation of deep learning-based machine learning models in healthcare settings. However, there has been limited work on investigating how unfair performance manifests in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) methods, and how XAI can be used to investigate potential reasons for unfairness. Thus, the aim of this work was to analyze the effects of previously established sociodemographic-related confounders on classifier performance and explainability methods. Approach: A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to predict biological sex from T1-weighted brain MRI datasets of 4547 9- to 10-year-old adolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. Performance disparities of the trained CNN between White and Black subjects were analyzed and saliency maps were generated for each subgroup at the intersection of sex and race. Results: The classification model demonstrated a significant difference in the percentage of correctly classified White male ( ) and Black male ( ) children. Conversely, slightly higher performance was found for Black female ( ) compared with White female ( ) children. Saliency maps showed subgroup-specific differences, corresponding to brain regions previously associated with pubertal development. In line with this finding, average pubertal development scores of subjects used in this study were significantly different between Black and White females ( ) and males ( ). Conclusions: We demonstrate that a CNN with significantly different sex classification performance between Black and White adolescents can identify different important brain regions when comparing subgroup saliency maps. Importance scores vary substantially between subgroups within brain structures associated with pubertal development, a race-associated confounder for predicting sex. We illustrate that unfair models can produce different XAI results between subgroups and that these results may explain potential reasons for biased performance.

Reassessing the Hare Plan: 30 Years Later

Dr. Nathan Hare's pioneering research on Black families changed the trajectory of academia and blazed trails within higher education regarding the study of Black families and the Black child. Hare researched the state of Black families by addressing racial misconceptions and posing strategies to empower Black families and society. His 1991 book, written with Dr. Julia Hare and titled The Miseducation of the Black Child, addressed racial stereotypes and misunderstandings about Black families that impeded advancement, then included a detailed plan, the Hare Plan, that provided recommendations for improving the educational inequities and overall well-being of Black families and children. The plan first addressed educational and social inequities within the public-school system, then explained how society and the community at large carried a responsibility for improving the state of Black families; particularly the Black male child. Thirty years later, the Black male remains under societal attack, and the recommendations provided by the Hare Plan remain relevant and are in need of being revisited. African American males continue to face disparities within the educational system, continue to be misjudged and misunderstood, and disparities in the justice system continue to threaten the welfare of Black families overall. This purpose of this paper is to evaluate issues highlighted in The Miseducation of the Black Child and specifically the Hare Plan to assess the state of Dr. Hare's recommendations 30 years later.

Being mindful of the unintended consequences of having the talk with my black male child

As a mother of a Black male child, I am both excited and terrified as he grows into a young Black man in America. My son is 19 and saving for his first car. And what should be a celebratory and mom...

FIBROMYXOMA IN THE MANDIBLE: CASE REPORT

A 7-year-old black male child complained of increased volume in the face with no relevant medical history. Extraoral physical examination showed an increased volume in the jaw body of the left side, hard to palpation and with unknown evolution time. A painless hard volume increase at the palpation of the vestibule was in the mouth. Computed tomography scan revealed a solid expansive lesion by inflating the vestibular cortical of the jaw body to the left. Incisional biopsy was performed, and the histologic slices stained in hematoxylin and eosin showed a pattern of spindle cells arranged in regular bundles in addition to mitochondrial areas with little cellularity. Immunohistochemistry was positive for vimentin and Ki67 (4%) and negative for smooth muscle actin, desmin, S100, CD34, and caldesmon, leading to a diagnosis of fibromyxoma. The mandibulectomy was performed associated with application of liquid nitrogen for 3 months without signs of local recurrence. A 7-year-old black male child complained of increased volume in the face with no relevant medical history. Extraoral physical examination showed an increased volume in the jaw body of the left side, hard to palpation and with unknown evolution time. A painless hard volume increase at the palpation of the vestibule was in the mouth. Computed tomography scan revealed a solid expansive lesion by inflating the vestibular cortical of the jaw body to the left. Incisional biopsy was performed, and the histologic slices stained in hematoxylin and eosin showed a pattern of spindle cells arranged in regular bundles in addition to mitochondrial areas with little cellularity. Immunohistochemistry was positive for vimentin and Ki67 (4%) and negative for smooth muscle actin, desmin, S100, CD34, and caldesmon, leading to a diagnosis of fibromyxoma. The mandibulectomy was performed associated with application of liquid nitrogen for 3 months without signs of local recurrence.

Case Report: Bilateral Ainhum in a 6-year-old Black African Male child

Background: Ainhum is an uncommon surgical condition and rarer still in children, and is gradually disappearing due to improved socioeconomic condition of the populace. This has consequently led to paucity of literature on the lesion, making it relatively unknown and may be unrecognized by many. This case report describes the clinical features of this relatively uncommon condition occurring in a black African child, in order to facilitate recognition and appropriate management. Case Summary: The patient was a 6year old child born to a polygamous family, that presented with complains of bilateral progressive pain and swelling in the 5th little toes for about 5months. Attendance to other health facilities including traditional medications has not yielded any improvement. A bilateral constriction at the base of both fifth toes was found on examination. A diagnosis of bilateral Ainhum of the 5th digits was made followed by bilateral amputation at the metatarsophalangeal joint after counseling and due investigations. He had uneventful recovery. Conclusion: Ainhum may occur in children ultimately leading to mutilation, and amputation being the only viable option of treatment. Socio-demographic factors play an important role in the changing pattern of surgical diseases, more ostensibly in Africa, these needs to be considered in the planning of health services.

The emotional labor of playing cool: How Black male transracial adoptees find ways to cope within predominately White settings

This article is concerned with the efforts used by Black male adoptive children to cope with systemic White racial oppression when raised by White adoptive families, specifically the emotional labor expended through the use of cool pose. Drawing from theoretical concepts and frameworks from the social and behavior sciences, this article analyzes the “cool” element as a protective factor and posits this phenomenon is more than esthetic, but instead a fundamental aspect of Black male survival no matter the context. The central aim of this paper is to provide information to White adoptive parents, social workers, psychologist, academics, and other childcare advocates or professionals with cognitive tools to understand the behavior of Black male adoptees, as they search for meaning in their lives and find ways to manage the pain and frustration they often hide deep beneath the skin.

The Editor’s Note

The author contemplates the writings of W.E.B. Dubois and Haim Ginott and calls for schools and teachers to recognize that they exert an extraordinary amount of power and control over children, and for them to use that capacity to positively shape their interactions with black male children as well as all students.

Boyz to men? Teaching to restore Black boys’ childhood

Many schools see teaching African American boys as a daunting challenge. However, in many schools the primary focus of Black male children’s educational experience is maintaining order and discipline rather than student learning and academic achievement. By the time Black boys reach the 3rd or 4th grade their teachers and other school personnel no longer treat them like children, but rather like men. This paper will describe the current state of education for Black male students and propose ways to ensure that we teach all children, particularly Black boys in intellectually, socially, and culturally appropriate ways.

In the United States, Black Male Children have an Increased Risk of Food Allergy: Results from NHANES 2005-2006

In the United States, Black Male Children have an Increased Risk of Food Allergy: Results from NHANES 2005-2006

Street Children's Experiences of Aggression during Interaction with Police

The research investigated street children's experiences of aggression during interaction with police. The participants were 16 black male street children (aged =13 to 18 years) residing in a temporary shelter in Hillbrow of Johannesburg. Data were collected through phenomenological individual interviews, drawings and group interviews. Street children experienced aggression during interaction with police in a variety of ways which included physical abuse, verbal abuse accompanied by threats, and sexual abuse. Street children associated these experiences of police aggression with negative feelings such as fear, a sense of hopelessness and uncertainty, abandonment/rejection, sadness, loss of trust, disillusionment and intense resentment/vengeance. Life skills facilitation and peer support program could assist these children to interact with the police in healthier ways.

Delayed Sudden Death in an Infant Following an Accidental Fall

Several controversies exist regarding ultimately lethal head injuries in small children. Death from short falls, timing of head injury, lucid intervals, presence of diffuse axonal injury (DAI), and subdural hematoma (SDH) as marker of DAI are the most recent controversial topics of debate in this evolving field of study. In this area of debate, we present a case of delayed death from a witnessed fall backwards off a bed in a 9-month-old black male child who struck his head on a concrete floor and was independently witnessed as "healthy" postfall for 72 hours until he was discovered dead in bed. Grandmother, babysitter, and mother all independently corroborated under police investigation that the child "acted and behaved normally" after the fall until death. Autopsy showed a linear nondisplaced parietal skull fracture, diastasis of adjacent occipital suture, subgaleal hemorrhage with evidence of aging, small posterior clotting SDH, marked cerebral edema, and a small tear of the midsuperior body of the corpus callosum consistent with focal axonal injury (FAI). No DAI was seen, and there were no retinal hemorrhages. All other causes of death were excluded upon thorough police and medical examiner investigation. Although this seems to be a rare phenomenon, a delayed, seemingly symptom-free interval can occur between a clinically apparent mild head injury and accidental death in a young child.

Fatal Accidental Hanging from a Lanyard Key Chain in a 10- Year-Old Boy

Lanyard chains are commonly worn around the neck to hold keys and identification badges. A ten-year-old Black male child was home alone jumping and swinging of the raised crossbars on his mother's four-poster bed. He commonly did this. He also wore a lanyard around his neck with his house key, which he used to let himself in after school. His mother found him hanging on the corner of the bedpost by the lanyard when she returned from work. The death scene showed that he was jumping on the bed and the lanyard hooked over the top of the corner bedpost, causing first and second cervical vertebrae dislocation of an abrupt "drop-type" hanging with neck abrasion marks. Lanyards, or any loose rope material around the neck, are inherently dangerous due to their strength and ability to catch fixed or moving objects. Safety modifications to the lanyards are easily made with "breakaway" Velcro-type or plastic clip fasteners. This is the first reported case of an accidental hanging after review of the medical literature and files of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

At the Breast: Ideologies of Breastfeeding and Motherhood in the Contemporary United States

A colleague of Linda Blum advised her against using the word breasts in her book about mothH erhood, breastfeeding, and how our notions of both are inextricably tied to ideologies of genH der, class, and race. While the comment could not have been made in all seriousness, when I read Blum's account of this conversation I couldn't help but feel the same way. Indeed, as I toted the book along with me over the course of several weeks, was impossible to ignore the stares and questioning looks the book's title incited. The comments ranged from the sarcasH tic to the bemused, but most were some variaH tion on the theme of What on earth are you reading? It was through these interactions that the significance of Blum's research was driven home to me. As I explained over and over again what the book was about, my female colleagues, friends, and family members shifted from puzzled to intrigued-with most asking for more details, and some asking to borrow the book. In studying breastfeeding, Blum has clearly found a topic that speaks to women, yet the negative responsH es the book's title received show just how much families which she uses to compare childHrearing beliefs and parenting strategies. Hill juxtaposes childHdevelopment and childHrearing theories that stigmatize black parents as dysfunctional with interviews of black and white parents to show that they have similar values, views of parH enting roles, and discipline strategies. Black parH ents have the additional burden of teaching their children that racism exists but it is not to be used as a 'crutch' (p. 94). Hill challenges feminist scholars' claim that race is an issue for black families, but that genH der is not. She notes that black parents have had to teach their children how to survive. Girls could not adhere to traditional gender norms. Rather, they were taught to work and to support themselves. Hill is disappointed by the dearth of information on parents' strategies to raise black males. This problem is quite disturbing given the racial discrimination they face and the violence they encounter or bring to bear on their own communities. Hill is not averse to asking diffiH cult questions: Do family socialization patterns also disadvantage black male children? Do mothers protect their sons more; and if so, do they do so out of fear for their sons' safety? Or do

Prevalence and characteristics of children with serious hearing impairment in metropolitan Atlanta, 1991-1993.

There is a paucity of data describing the epidemiology of serious hearing impairment among children in the United States. This report provides information on the prevalence of serious hearing impairment among children born in the 1980s and living in the metropolitan Atlanta area in 1991-1993 and on the characteristics of children with serious hearing impairment. Data for this report are drawn from the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program, an ongoing, active case-ascertainment system for mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, and vision impairment among children 3 to 10 years of age. Hearing impairment was defined as a bilateral, pure-tone hearing loss at frequencies of 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz averaging 40 decibels or more, unaided, in the better ear. Both severity and type of hearing loss were examined. Cross-sectional as well as birth cohort prevalence rates of serious hearing impairment were computed by sex and by race. The presence of mental retardation, cerebral palsy, vision impairment, or a seizure disorder was also assessed. An attempt was made to determine the probable etiology of a subset of the cases. The average, annual prevalence rate for moderate to profound hearing loss was 1.1 per 1000. The prevalence rate increased steadily with age. Ninety percent of all cases for which the type of loss was recorded were sensorineural. The highest rate was seen among black male children (1.4 per 1000). Thirty percent of case children had another neurodevelopmental condition, most frequently mental retardation. Black male children also experienced the highest rate of presumed congenital hearing impairment. The mean age at which children with presumed congenital hearing impairment first met the surveillance case definition was 2. 9 years. A probable etiology could only be found for 22% of cases born in the study area. The data presented here provide information on the descriptive epidemiology of serious hearing impairment among United States children. The reasons for the higher rates among black children, especially males, may be a fruitful direction for further research.

Granulocytic sarcoma in children with acute myeloblastic leukemia and t(8;21).

Granulocytic sarcomas (GS) have been associated with t(8;21). The prognosis of patients with GS is generally regarded as being less favorable than of patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML). GS occurs relatively commonly in Africa and has been reported to affect 10-25% of black children presenting with AML. We sought to establish the incidence of GS in our pediatric population, to determine whether an association with t(8;21) existed, and to report on the outcome of these cases in a single series. The records of consecutive pediatric patients treated for de novo AML in Johannesburg between January 1985-December 1995 were reviewed. Fifteen cases of GS among a total of 88 cases of AML presented to the Paediatric Haematology/Oncology Clinics of the Johannesburg and Baragwanath Hospitals. Fourteen (93%) of these patients were black male children. All 9 cases of orbital GS (60%) and almost all cases with concurrent AML M2 had t(8;21). This translocation was present in only 4 n(8.5%) of the remaining 47 AML cases without GS for which cytogenetic data were available. One case presented with a complex chromosomal translocation not previously associated with GS. The median disease-free survival of the GS patients, using conventional chemotherapy treatment protocols, was significantly better than for the patients with AML and no GS (P = 0.0004). Our data support a strong association between orbital GS, t(8;21), and AML M2 in the pediatric population. This entity occurred virtually exclusively in black male children at presentation. One third of these children who presented with AML had a GS. The favorable prognosis noted in our GS patients on standard induction and intensification therapy without local irradiation conflicts with some previous reports but is consistent with the favorable outcome documented in AML with t(8;21).

PROJECT 2000: An Educational Mentoring and Academic Support Model for Inner-City African American Boys

School failure appears to be a major risk factor and harbinger of the crime, violence, and other disasters that often characterize the experiences of African American boys in urban America. Starting with the first grade and continuing throughout secondary school, PROJECT 2000 is one approach aimed at addressing this problem. With the support of civic and corporate sponsors and volunteers, this community-based program provides Black boys with adult male role models who offer assistance with academic subjects, comradery, and guidance. This article outlines the scope and vision of the program, and its impact on the education of Black male youth. The model for black male child development is broken, and we must fix it. (Bridges, 1988) The above statement, made by an African American educator and former superintendent of the Wake County (Raleigh, NC) Public School System in the late 1980s, is as true today as it was nearly a decade ago. The evidence that the two major societal institutions responsible for child development in the United States-the family and the school-have failed this segment of the nation's offspring is everywhere. Violence, crime, and mayhem of seemingly endless and increasingly alarming variety-perpetrated by or involving Black males in our nation's urban centers-are reported almost daily in newspapers and on television. Within the African American community, it is widely accepted that many, if not most, of the single-parent, female-headed, poor households from which today's inner-city Black male youth come have not and perhaps cannot provide them with the psychosocial skills these youth need to avoid involvement in violent activity, much less to succeed in society's mainstream. Common knowledge too is the fact that a large percentage of the urban schools these boys attend fail to provide them with the educational tools they will need to survive in the technologically oriented 21st century. Key among those tools are the abilities to read, to write, and to perform computer operations at ever more rigorous levels of proficiency. The new world order, with its global village dimensions, demands individuals who are literate in many areas of comprehension-from reading, writing, and mathematics to computer skills, electronic data processing, and critical thinking skills. Never before in our nation's history has the depth and extent of one's literacy determined one's fate as obviously as it does today and in the future, yet failure in school remains a salient characteristic of inner-city African American boys. The academic fate of these youth often serves as a harbinger of the violence and crime that has become endemic in urban communities. The epidemic of academic failure witnessed among African American boys from urban environments was documented by several school systems during the 1980s. The most comprehensive of these studies was conducted by the Committee to Study the Status of the Black Male in the New Orleans Public Schools (Garibaldi,1988). This study reports that during the 1986-87 academic year, Black males represented 43% of the New Orleans public school population yet accounted for 57.5% of the nonpromotions, 65% of the suspensions, 80% of the expulsions, and 45% of the dropouts. Nonpromotions in the primary grades during that same year reflected the following: of 1,470 first-graders retained, 817 were Black males; of 768 second-graders retained, 440 were Black males, and of 716 third-graders retained, 438 were Black males. For grades 4 through 11, Black males constituted more than 50% of the total number of students retained at each grade level. Not until the 12th grade did these figures fall below 50% for New Orleans's Black male students. Unfortunately, these findings can easily be generalized to almost every urban school district in the United States. A vast array of intervention strategies have been tried to bring about academic success for America's inner-city children. …

The Rorschach Mutuality of Autonomy Scale in the Assessment of Black Father-Absent Male Children

This study examined the utility of the Rorschach Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (MOA, Urist, 1977) in the assessment of two groups of 40 father-absent Black male children (aged 6 to 12 years): those whose fathers had left voluntarily versus those whose fathers had left involuntarily. Children who had experienced involuntary father-absence reflected less adaptive object-relations attainment status as measured by the MOA, t(38) = 2.37, p = > .02, when compared to children whose fathers had negotiated their departure. Although the Rorschach MOA can be a useful measure of assessing psychological functioning in Black father-absent male children, a multimethod assessment of object-relations status for ethnic minority children is proposed.