Recent work regarding children’s rights has advocated for research in non-Western settings and with participants who are ethnic/racial minorities. We addressed these issues through secondary analysis of interviews with 63 mixed-race South African children (9-, 11-, and 13-year olds) and their mothers. Participants’ responses to hypothetical vignettes depicting children’s nurturance and self-determination rights scenarios were coded using social cognitive domain theory and subsequently analysed with mixed-design anovas. Outcomes figured prominently in children’s and mothers’ reasoning. Moral reasoning was primarily invoked when discussing the right to privacy, extending earlier work and suggesting the importance of privacy across cultural contexts.
The present qualitative study examined low-income urban adolescents’ understanding of children’s rights. Using a written instrument, sixteen 11–15 year olds responded to hypothetical vignettes in which a child story character expresses the desire to exercise a nurturance or self-determination right. Participants were asked whether they, their parents, and their peers would support the story characters’ rights and to provide justifications for their responses. Results indicated that in general participants were in favour of supporting children’s nurturance and self-determination rights. However, participants believed that while their parents would support children’s nurturance rights they would show less support for children’s self-determination rights. In contrast, participants suggested that their peers would likely reject children’s nurturance rights but support the story-character’s self-determination rights. The types of explanations young people used to explain their thinking showed clear differences for nurturance and self-determination rights. Findings are discussed in relation to the available theory and research on young people’s views and understanding of children’s rights.
Growing national concern about the increase in Black youth's suicide rates has led to calls for closer examinations of disparities in young people's mental health outcomes and their underlying causes, including differences in access to healthcare and willingness to use mental health services, and systemic inequities. The present research brief answers this call through a critical analysis of racial discrimination and other adverse mechanisms that perpetuate negative mental health outcomes for Black youth. Our approach draws from principles of developmental psychology and intersectional theory. We begin by arguing for a biopsychosocial consideration of the effects of discrimination on Black youth's development. Then, we review the multilevel impact of racism on mental health outcomes. Although examining global patterns for Black youth as a group has value, our paper will instead focus on within-group differences and the intersecting social factors that shape them. Finally, we end with research-based proposals for policies that prioritize Black youth's well-being.
Over the past century, Black American scholars have designed, applied, and promoted conceptual frameworks and research models that propose nuanced understandings of psychological development. This article highlights examples of their contributions to understanding the differential impact of diverse contextual and situational factors. Through examinations of the psychological effects of Blackness on the development of cognition, competence, identity, and social functioning, Black psychologists outline pathways and provide tools for ecological culturally rooted methodologies. These multidisciplinary approaches run in contrast to dominant trends in the field and thus broaden developmental science's reach and influence. In the 1950s, developmental research by Black psychologists was instrumental to the fight for civil rights. Today, it continues to provide a basis for advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
Public Significance StatementRecent calls for representation, discussions of systemic issues, and closer attention to the mental health of Black Americans highlight the need for renewed attention to the contributions Black scholars have made to our understanding of how culture and context impact lived experiences. This article outlines how Black scholars have designed, applied, and promoted nuanced approaches to the study of human growth and development. Research by Black scholars was foundational to the fight for civil rights and continues to provide a basis for advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.