www.srcd.org

Child Development is inviting manuscripts for a Special Section on the Genetic Sciences and their Role in Understanding Child Development. The Guest Editors are Mary Dozier (University of Delaware) and Elena Grigorenko (Yale University). The goal of the Special Section is to provide an opportunity for researchers from around the world to comment on and present illustrations of the role of the molecular-genetic and genomic sciences in research and practice in child development. Both reviews and empirical contributions will be considered. Specific areas of interest are (1) studies of DNA structural variation; (2) gene expression studies; (3) epigenetic studies; (4) genome-wide association studies; (5) gxg and GxE studies with complex designs involving multiple genes/multiple environmental characteristics; and (6) candidate gene studies generating models of gene-brain-behavior functioning. Discussions and illustrations pertaining to both typical and atypical development are welcome. Regardless of the content, the contributions should be written at a level suitable for the readership of Child Development.

Potential contributors are asked to provide a brief letter of intent (500 words or less) describing the manuscript they wish to submit to the Special Section by April 1, 2010. The Guest Editors will review the letters of intent for their fit with this Special Section, and will select proposals that present the broadest possible array of quality papers that address a variety of questions related to genetics, genomics and child development. Following this initial review, potential contributors will be contacted to submit completed manuscripts for peer review by September 1, 2010. Initial inquiries and letters of intent regarding the Special Section may be directed to Mary Dozier (mdozier@udel.edu) or Elena Grigorenko (elena.grigorenko@yale.edu).

 

Child Development invites manuscripts for a Special Section on The Development of Children in Immigrant Families. The Guest Editors are Andrew Fuligni (University of California, Los Angeles) and Robert Crosnoe (University of Texas, Austin). The dramatic increase in migration around the world has resulted in a large population of children growing up in societies different from those of their parents. Building a knowledge base about the development of these children can both enhance our broader understanding of child development and provide needed information for policy makers attempting to facilitate immigrant adaptation to a new society.

A desired focus of this section will be the study of children from immigrant families by investigators from diverse disciplinary traditions. Therefore, we encourage submissions from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, demography, economics, education, public health, psychology, and sociology. Individual manuscripts that are interdisciplinary themselves are also welcome.

Manuscripts should be empirical and describe original research on the development of this population. We welcome manuscripts that address a variety of topics, but we particularly encourage submissions that address issues currently not well-represented in the literature, including: immigrants to nations outside of the United States, the role of official status (e.g., undocumented, guest worker, etc.), refugee families, and labor migrant families. We also encourage manuscripts that incorporate data from immigrants' countries of origin, either following the same individuals over time or through the use of comparison groups.
Contributors are encouraged to consider submitting manuscripts using either the empirical article format or the briefer, empirical report format (for more information on formats, see submission guidelines at http://www.srcd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=519).

Potential contributors are asked to provide a brief letter of intent (500 words or less) describing the manuscript and format they wish to submit to the Special Section by May 15, 2010. The Guest Editors will review letters of intent for fit with this Special Section and will work to provide the broadest array of quality papers that address a variety of questions related to children in immigrant families. Following this initial review, potential contributors will be contacted to submit completed manuscripts for peer review by October 15, 2010. Initial inquiries and letters of intent regarding the Special Issue may be directed to Andrew Fuligni (afuligni@ucla.edu) or Robert Crosnoe (crosnoe@austin.utexas.edu).

The development and well-being of ethnic and racial minority children have received sustained attention over the past few decades from policymakers, researchers, and practitioners (see Quintana et al., 2006, for a review). These efforts have resulted in a body of research that, while rigorous and insightful, has for the most part been conducted from a deficit-perspective that emphasizes the negative effects of inadequate economic and social resources and an elevated rate of behavior problems, decreased social competence, and reduced school success among these children.

Recently, there has been increased interest in the study of positive child development among minority children (Eccles & Gootman, 2002; Lerner, Jacobs, & Wertlieb 2003). This approach reflects the view that individual, family, and community factors can have both negative (e.g., behavior problems) and positive (e.g., success in school) effects on children's outcomes. Protective factors such as developing positive attachment relationships with healthy adults (MacDonald et al., 2008) and participating in growth-promoting activities such as early childhood education or after-school programs (Beeghly et al., 2006; Frank et al., 2002) may not only prevent the occurrence of later problems but also create a positive developmental pathway (Papini, Roggman, & Anderson, 1991). Similarly, the formation of a strong ethnic identity can be an important predictor of positive outcomes for children (Phinney, 1990; Yip, Seaton & Sellers, 2006). It is thus important to understand both risk and resilience in this population.

The purpose of this special issue is to invite scholars to present articles that summarize emerging trends or conclusions and advance our understanding of positive child development among ethnic minority children. Articles suitable for publication in Child Development Perspectives include reviews or commentary, as well as conceptual papers or papers that primarily discuss methodological issues. Manuscripts presenting new empirical data are not appropriate for this journal. All manuscripts will undergo a review process, although this process may be more abbreviated for some types of submissions (e.g., commentary) than others (e.g., author-initiated submissions).

Please send a 500-word abstract of the proposed manuscript to Nancy Eisenberg (Nancy.Eisenberg@asu.edu and Natasha Cabrera (ncabrera@umd.edu) by MAY 15, 2010; inquiries submitted after this date may also be considered. We will notify authors of acceptance by June 30, 2010. The deadline for submission of final manuscripts is September 30, 2010.

The abstract should include the following: Tentative title; name and contact information of first author, name and contact information of all co-authors, brief description of the content of the manuscript, and perceived fit between the submission and the theme of the special issue.