Minority Group Children Research Articles

Adultification and the Youth Sports Industrial Complex

Adultification bias is where children are treated as being more mature than they actually are by a reasonable social standard of development. There are deleterious effects of treating children as adults. This has been shown in children of minority groups, specifically African Americans and their treatment in the justice system. It is postulated that a form of adultification is occurring in youth sports. Over the past several decades, there has been the increase of the youth sports industrial complex with concomitant phenomena of youth specialization. It has been noted that these individuals undergo more biomedical issues such as more musculoskeletal injuries, however other risks that have yet to be discerned. It is postulated, the youth sports industrial complex also is a form of adultification, with most children at risk for this, which may impact minority children even more so. We aim to introduce the concept of adultification in the context of youth sports, in order to spur more discussion, debate and research into the issue.

Dewey, Implementation, and Creating a Democratic Civic University

Dewey, Implementation, and Creating a Democratic Civic University

Racial and ethnic disparities in insufficient sleep among US in infants and preschoolers

ObjectiveTo examine racial and ethnic disparities and associated factors of insufficient sleep among children from infancy to preschool-aged. MethodsWe analyzed parent-reported data on US children ages 4 months-5 years (n = 13,975) from the 2018 and 2019 National Survey of Children's Health. Children who slept less than the age-specific minimum hours recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine were classified as having insufficient sleep. Logistic regression was used to estimate unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (AOR). ResultsAn estimated 34.3% of children from infancy to preschool-aged experienced insufficient sleep. Socioeconomic factors (poverty [AOR] = 1.5, parents’ education level [AORs] from 1.3 to 1.5); parent-child interaction variables (AORs from 1.4 to 1.6); breast feeding status (AOR = 1.5); family structure (AORs from 1.5 to 4.4); and weeknight bedtime regularity (AORs from 1.3 to 3.0) were significantly associated with having insufficient sleep. Non-Hispanic Black (OR = 3.2) and Hispanic children (OR = 1.6) had significantly higher odds of insufficient sleep compared to non-Hispanic White children. Racial and ethnic disparities in insufficient sleep between non-Hispanic White children and Hispanic children were largely attenuated by adjusting for social economic factors. However, the difference in insufficient sleep between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White children remains (AOR = 1.6) after adjusting socioeconomic and other factors. ConclusionsMore than one-third of the sample reported insufficient sleep. After adjusting for socio-demographic variables, racial disparities in insufficient sleep decreased but persistent disparities existed. Further research is warranted to examine other factors and develop interventions to address multilevel factors and improve sleep health among racial and ethnic minority group children.

"To be French is to be white": children’s uses of ethno-racial categorizations in France

ABSTRACT In the wake of sociological studies showing that social hierarchies’ uses are constituted from the first years of schooling, this article intends to understand how young children draw a distinction between “being French” and “not being French” based on the criteria associated, in adults, to the race relations. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork carried out in three very different schools it emerges that many children overlap between the four criteria that participate, in adults, in the processes of racialization. The use of these criteria and their ordering is much more important in schools where there are more children of minority groups. Staff plays a significant role in this clarification process. Moreover, this more or less advanced child's work of deconstructing entanglements is largely explained by the influence of their parents’ social position on the way in which they grasp the child's experiences within the school.

WEL Offers Leadership Development, Better Health for Women M.D.s

WEL Offers Leadership Development, Better Health for Women M.D.s

Sociodemographic Differences of Hospitalization and Associations of Resource Utilization for Failure to Thrive.

This study examines the sociodemographic differences between elective and nonelective admissions for failure to thrive (FTT). We investigate associations between admission type and hospital resource utilization, including length of stay and feeding tube placement. We included children <2 years old with FTT in the nationwide Kids' Inpatient Database. We described differences between elective and nonelective admissions using Fisher exact and t tests. To assess associations of admission type and hospital resource utilization, we used negative binomial and logistic regression for length of stay and feeding tube placement, respectively. In this study of 45,920 admissions (37,224 nonelective vs 8696 elective), we found differences by race and ethnicity, income, and insurance type, among other factors. Compared to elective admissions, nonelective admissions had higher proportions of infants who were Black, Hispanic, and of lower-income. Nonelective admissions were associated with longer lengths of stay (incidence rate ratio 1.46; 95% CI: 1.37-1.55), independent of child age, sex, neighborhood income, insurance, admission day, chronic conditions, and location. Nonelective admissions were associated with lower odds of feeding tube placement compared to elective admissions (adjusted odds ratio 0.62; 0.56-0.68). In the stratified analyses, children of racial and ethnic minority groups admitted nonelectively versus electively had relatively higher odds of feeding tube placement, while White children had relatively lower odds of feeding tube placement. There are various sociodemographic differences between elective and nonelective FTT admissions. Future research is warranted to elucidate drivers of these differences, particularly those related to racial and ethnic disparities and structural racism.

The epidemiology of paediatric burn injuries in Johannesburg, South Africa

BackgroundChildren remain the most common victim of burns in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study describes the epidemiology of paediatric burn injury among patients admitted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. MethodsHospital based cross-sectional, prospective study. Results509 patients were admitted to the unit over a 12-month period, with 482 patients included for baseline analysis. 50% of admitted patients were between 15 and 47 months with a median age of 25 months. 58% of participants were male. The predominant mechanism of injury was scalding (84%), in the winter season (32%). The most common site of burn was upper limb (75%). 63% of all admissions received first aid. Among those who received first aid, a described first aid method was provided in 74% of the cases. 226 out of 482 participants (47%) provided sociodemographic information. Access to basic amenities was high, with most admissions coming from households with access to electricity (91%). 90% of caregivers held at least a high school leaving certificate. Migrant caregivers made 19% of the caregivers, which was four times the proportion of foreign nationals counted in the national census. Most admissions (79%) were referrals from other centres as opposed to walk-ins. Severe burns were associated with thermal mechanism of injury, multiple burn sites, and receiving first aid prior to admission. ConclusionChildren under two years of age and children of minority groups are at greatest risk for burn injury and should therefore be targeted for injury prevention strategies and education on appropriate first aid. Level of evidenceAccording to the Journal of pediatric Surgery, this research corresponds to Level II evidence as a prospective study with less than 80% follow-up.

Mexican-American Moderates and the Shaping of Federal Education Policy: The Case of the May 25, 1970 Memorandum

During the past several decades, historians have investigated various aspects of the Chicano movement. In most of these studies, the important role that moderate liberal activists have played in promoting significant social change during the same period has been slighted. By moderate liberal activists, I mean those who depended on the federal government to help solve the problems facing the Mexican-American community, trusted mainstream institutions and political leaders to eliminate discrimination, and, most importantly, rejected the politics of protest. Little is known about these individuals. Who were these men and women, and how did they contribute to the struggle for social justice and educational equality?&#x0D; The following study examines the role that some moderate liberal educators played in promoting school reform during the height of the Chicano movement. It focuses on the drafting of the May 25, 1970 memorandum and the role played by Mexican Americans in shaping its development. This memorandum was the first major policy developed by the Office for Civil Rights to deal with the issue of discrimination against linguistically distinct children in the public schools. It clarified the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s (HEW) position on the responsibility of local school districts to “provide equal educational opportunity to national origin minority group children deficient in English language skills.” I argue that while Mexican- American moderates did not play a direct role in the formulation of this policy due to their exclusion from federal agencies prior to the 1960s, they did play a crucial role in its enforcement. Their involvement in the implementation of the memorandum was the origins of meaningful Mexican-American participation in the shaping of educational policies at the national level.

The Politics of Mother Tongue Education in Ethiopia

This study uncovers controversies about the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in Ethiopia. It examines motives for the use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction at the elementary level, and on which grounds the rights of minority linguistic groups to be instructed in their mother tongue are overlooked. To this effect, data were gathered from government language policy-related documents as well as 28 purposefully selected key informants through in-depth interviews. The data were analysed through a critical discourse analysis approach. Data showed that the government uses mother-tongue education for political motives and has the power to put its political interests into practice without conducting any societal needs assessments. On the other hand, the government lacks commitment to putting its language-use ideology into practice. It has used only some of the languages as mediums of instruction, with the result that many children of minority groups are not learning their daily lessons effectively. The study recommends that the government should confirm the right to learn through mother-tongue instruction at an elementary level to benefit children so that they can enjoy the opportunities of learning in their languages.

Mitigating the Impact of Coronavirus Disease-2019 on Child and Family Behavioral Health: Suggested Policy Approaches

Mitigating the Impact of Coronavirus Disease-2019 on Child and Family Behavioral Health: Suggested Policy Approaches

Double burden of malnutrition in ethnic minority school-aged children living in mountainous areas of Vietnam and its association with nutritional behavior.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVESAlthough children of ethnic minority groups are experiencing a transition from a predominance of undernutrition to overnutrition, there is little evidence of a dual-malnutrition burden. Therefore, this study examined the double burden of malnutrition among school-aged ethnic minority children living in mountainous areas and its association with their diets.SUBJECTS/METHODSA cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2019 to March 2020 in 3 mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam among 1,556 ethnic minority school-aged children. The prevalence of under-nutrition (stunting and thinness) and over-nutrition (overweight and obesity) were measured using the WHO 2006 child growth standards (height-for-age and BMI-for-age Z-score). Nutritional practices were evaluated by the frequency of food consumption based on a 4-level scale.RESULTSThe percentage of children with stunting and thinness were 14.0% and 5.4%, respectively, while the figure for overweight/obesity was 9.4%. The factors positively associated with stunting were living in a family with more than 2 children or being Muong/other ethnicities compared to the Tay ethnicity. Children who consumed fish/shrimps/crabs or milk weekly/daily were less likely to be undernourished compared to those who never consumed these foods. By contrast, children who never consumed foods rich in vitamin A precursors and vitamin A and fruit or consumed daily snacks/junk food were more likely to be overweight/obese.CONCLUSIONSUndernutrition remains a common issue among school-aged children and adolescents of ethnic minority groups, while over-nutrition exists simultaneously. Public health nutrition programs promoting adequate diets and positive lifestyle changes related to nutrition are essential to tackle the double burden of malnutrition among ethnic minority children.

COVID-19-Associated Orphanhood andCaregiver Death in the UnitedStates.

Most coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) deaths occur among adults, not children, and attention has focused on mitigating COVID-19 burden among adults. However, a tragic consequence of adult deaths is that high numbers of children might lose their parents and caregivers to COVID-19-associated deaths. We quantified COVID-19-associated caregiver loss and orphanhood in the United States and for each state using fertility and excess and COVID-19 mortality data. We assessed burden and rates of COVID-19-associated orphanhood and deaths of custodial and coresiding grandparents, overall and by race and ethnicity. We further examined variations in COVID-19-associated orphanhood by race and ethnicity for each state. We found that from April 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, >140 000 children in the United States experienced the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver. The risk of such loss was 1.1 to 4.5 times higher among children of racial and ethnic minority groups compared with non-Hispanic White children. The highest burden of COVID-19-associated death of parents and caregivers occurred in Southern border states for Hispanic children, in Southeastern states for Black children, and in states with tribal areas for American Indian and/or Alaska Native populations. We found substantial disparities in distributions of COVID-19-associated death of parents and caregivers across racial and ethnic groups. Children losing caregivers to COVID-19 need care and safe, stable, and nurturing families with economic support, quality child care, and evidence-based parenting support programs. There is an urgent need to mount an evidence-based comprehensive response focused on those children at greatest risk in the states most affected.

50 Years Ago in TheJournalofPediatrics: The Status of Measles and Rubella Immunization in the United States

Krugman S. Present status of measles and rubella immunization in the United States: a medical progress report. J Pediatr 1971;78:1-16. In 1971, the challenge with the relatively new measles and rubella vaccines was determining “which one” was best. Multiple strains of both live attenuated and inactivated vaccines were being trialed. Thus, Dr Saul Krugman reviewed the state of the vaccines less than 10 years after the first measles vaccine and 2 years after the first rubella vaccine. After assessing the data from numerous serologic studies from as far away as the Faroe Islands, Krugman concluded that the 2 measles vaccines (Edmonston B and Schwartz) were effective and that one dose should provide long-term immunity to measles for 98% of children. At the time, Krugman could not have predicted how health disparities and antiscience beliefs would impact vaccine delivery. Between 1989 and 1990, measles cases surged from 3700 to 18 193, with outbreaks fueled by unvaccinated preschool-aged children of racial and ethnic minority groups living in inner-city areas.1Atkinson W.L. Orenstein W.A. Krugman S. The resurgence of measles in the US: 1989-1990.Annu Rev Med. 1992; 43: 451-463Crossref PubMed Scopus (100) Google Scholar In addition, that year an outbreak with high fatality rates occurred in Philadelphia in an unvaccinated church community.2Rodgers D.V. Gindler J.S. Atkinson W.L. Markowitz L.E. High attack rates and case fatality during a measles outbreak in groups with religious exemption to vaccination.Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1993; 12: 288-292Crossref PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar These outbreaks led to the current 2-dose series of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) and a decline in the incidence of measles. Unfortunately, over the past decade with the promulgation of a discredited study linking MMR to autism and the growing social media presence of antivaccine misinformation, the US incidence rose from 43 cases in 2007 to 1282 cases in 2019.3Centers for Disease Control and PreventionMeasles Cases and Outbreaks.https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.htmlDate accessed: July 6, 2020Google Scholar The pediatric community is faced with again combating a once-vanquished, deadly disease, but in the midst of a pandemic and a climate of disinformation and antiscience sentiment. Dr. Scott Krugman is Dr. Saul Krugman's eldest grandson and is a third generation pediatrician.

Reading with Minor Feelings: Racialized Emotions and Children’s (Non)agency in Judges 10–12

Abstract In this article, I read the story of Jephthah and his daughter in Judges 10–12 within the contemporary context of racism and discrimination in the U.S. Particularly focusing on the affective and emotional dimensions of the lived experiences in racially/ethnically minoritized communities, I engage the biblical story with what poet and writer Cathy Park Hong calls, “minor feelings.” Reading the biblical narrative alongside Hong’s crudely personal—and yet pervasively common—accounts of Asian American racial trauma, I critically reflect on the notion of childhood agency, and suggest that the Western conception of agency neither reflects nor promotes the lives of the children in minority groups. In turn, I ask: What if we moved away from the traditional notions of agency and voice in our critical works, and, instead, turned towards emotions, sensations, and other embodied experiences as a site of interpretation, critique, and movement for social change?

Out-group prosocial giving during childhood: The role of in-group preference and out-group attitudes in a divided society

Amid protracted conflict, children are raised in divided contexts that shape the development of their intergroup attitudes and behaviors. Social identity development theory (SIDT) suggests that in-group preference may contribute to more negative out-group attitudes and behaviors in middle childhood. In such contexts, in-group favoritism may shape resource distribution, a key indicator of prosocial behavior. This study examined the predictors of resource distribution among 387 children (age: M = 9.59, SD = 2.34) of majority (Jewish) and minority (Arab-Muslim) groups in Israel. Rooted in SIDT, a multiple-group chain mediation found that the effect of age on out-group prosocial giving was serially mediated by the child’s in-group symbol preference and negative out-group attitudes. The mediation held across both majority and minority groups, highlighting the underlying developmental process of prosocial giving across group lines in a divided society.

Advancement Of Teledentistry At The University Of Rochester's Eastman Institute For Oral Health.

Dental caries is the most prevalent infectious disease among US children. National surveys have shown that poor and minority-group children are not only disproportionately affected by dental caries but also have limited access to oral health care. Following successful exploratory applications of both synchronous and asynchronous models at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, teledentistry has been demonstrated to be a practical and cost-effective way to improve oral health care for rural and disadvantaged children. These models support the role of teledentistry in reducing the costs of and barriers to accessing oral health care, improving oral health outcomes, increasing use of oral health care resources, and leading to the establishment of a dental home for underserved children. The advancement of teledentistry underscores the need for its integration with local, regional, and national telehealth programs and the role of policy makers in establishing a balanced framework for teledentistry within the overarching health care system.

Ethnic effects when facing children: An ERP study

Abundant research has highlighted a disadvantage experienced by children of ethnic minority groups in, for example, educational and health care settings. In order to understand implicit attitudes that contribute to ethnic disparities, underlying neural correlates have been widely studied. However, this has been limited to the context of adults. Using a sample of nulliparous Caucasian females (N = 46), the current study is the first to examine how early attentional and facial perceptual processing stages, assessed with event-related brain potentials (ERPs), differentiate for stimuli of young ingroup (of the same ethnicity) or outgroup (of a different ethnicity) children. Additionally, we assessed how a differentiation in ERPs may relate to subsequent adult responsiveness to children by measuring both cuteness ratings and motivation to view child faces. Similar to previous findings for adult facial stimuli, we found significant differences in attentional (N200) and facial perceptual (N170) processing when adults were faced with children of different ethnicities. Furthermore, increased differentiation in attentional processing (N200) for ingroup and outgroup children was associated with reduced cuteness ratings of outgroup children. Importantly however, participants showed no overall preference for ingroup child faces, as motivation to view child faces was even greater towards outgroup child faces. In addition, increased self-reported motivation for parental care was related to enhanced cuteness appraisals of outgroup child faces. Taken together, these findings reveal how early social categorization processes may lead to biased behavior when interacting with children of ethnic minorities.

Do the Kaufman tests of cognitive ability and academic achievement display construct bias across a representative sample of Black, Hispanic, and Caucasian school-age children in grades 1 through 12?

As the demographic profile in the United States continues to change and becomes ethnically more diverse, the need for culturally appropriate test instruments has become a national concern among educators, clinicians, and researchers. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-2nd Edition (KABC-II) and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement-2nd Edition (KTEA-II) are 2 popular tests of intelligence and achievement, known to appeal to an ethnically diverse client population. The present study investigated test bias in terms of the test scores' construct validity across a nationally representative sample of Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic (N = 2,001) children in Grades 1-12. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess whether increasing sets of equality constraints fit the test scores' underlying theoretical model equally well for all 3 ethnic groups. Results showed that factorial invariance of the factor structure, based on 7 Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model broad abilities, was met for all 3 groups. Outcomes contribute to a scarce body of literature on ethnic test bias that goes beyond the simple comparison of mean score differences. Results of this study provide the evidence needed to justify continuous use of the KABC-II and KTEA-II in the assessment of minority group children and adolescents. Furthermore, findings are generalizable beyond the Kaufman tests to other popular tests of intelligence and achievement; this is because this study is based on the CHC factor structure, a universal theory of cognition that is used as the theoretical underpinning by many well-known tests of intelligence and achievement, including the most recent versions of the Wechsler scales. (PsycINFO Database Record

Which of the Three KABC-II Global Scores is the Least Biased?

In order to create fairer measures for the assessment of ethnic minority group children, the test authors of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children–Second Edition (KABC-II) created three different global indexes: the comprehensive Fluid-Crystallized Index (FCI); the Mental Processing Index (MPI), which excludes subtests that assess crystallized knowledge; and the Nonverbal Index (NVI), which excludes any subtest that requires verbal expression. The test authors encourage clinicians to use the MPI for children with cultural differences and the NVI for children with language differences. The implication is that the FCI is more biased than the MPI and NVI for assessing children from ethnic minorities. However, there has been no empirical evidence to support that hypothesis. Using structural equation modeling, we investigated the predictive validity of the three KABC-II global scores in predicting reading, writing, and math in a nationally representative sample of Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic school-aged children across three grade groups (1–4, N = 724; 5–8, N = 743; and 9–12, N = 534). Contrary to the test authors’ predictions, the FCI emerged as the fairest predictor of achievement across all age and grade groups. Alternatively, the MPI and NVI showed a persistent intercept overprediction of African-American and Hispanic students’ achievements across grades 5–8. The results provide evidence that more comprehensive global scaled scores might, in fact, be fairer predictor variables than less culturally and linguistically influenced indexes when predicting the achievement of children and adolescents from ethnic minorities.

Rights-Based Education in Nepal: Existing Status and Challenges

This paper is an attempt to deal with the issues and challenges of rights-based education in Nepal with specific reference to minority and disadvantaged group children at school level. Data and information are from three year formative research activities completed under the commission of CERID, TU, Nepal. Discourses of various stakeholders were solicited in order to elicit information. Students’ interactions, class observations, focus group discussions with people in local communities and district level officials, and district as well as national level workshops were conducted in order to elicit information for the study. The findings of the study indicate that the provisions for rights-based education are still inefficient in order to achieve the EFA goals. In spite of the attempts made by community, government, NGOs and INGOs, there are many challenges to provide rights-based education to those who are socially excluded.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ttp.v8i0.11506The Third PoleVol. 8-10, PP 1-8:2010