#malesofcolor16
Beginning early in life boys and young men of color are at risk because of their race/ethnicity and their gender, with numerous data sources underscoring the additive and interactive risks that boys of color encounter. This meeting will focus on some of the critical issues currently affecting the developmental status of babies, boys, and men (emerging adults) of color, with a strong emphasis on understanding how experiences across multiple key contexts shape their development. The broad goals of this conference are to summarize the state of knowledge in the area and to identify key directions needed for knowledge and action. The meeting will offer opportunities for scholars to discuss and receive feedback future research and works in progress.
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Questions? Email programoffice@srcd.org
Registration
Conference registration included breakfast, lunch, and receptions.
| Registration Rate | |
| SRCD Members other than Students and Early Career | $550 |
| SRCD Early Career Member* | $490 |
| SRCD Student Member | $250 |
| Nonmembers other than Students and Early Career | $650 |
| Early Career Nonmember* | $590 |
| Student Nonmember | $350 |
*Early Career is within 5 years of receiving a Ph.D.
Meeting Location:
Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina
700 South Florida Avenue
Tampa, FL 33602
Registration Desk Hours (Second Level)
Wednesday: 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Thursday: 7:30am - 5:30pm
Friday: 7:30am - 6:00pm
Saturday: 8:00am - 1:00pm
Invited Program Participants
Keynote Speakers
Schooling for Resilience: Lessons from Single Sex Schools
Thursday, October 6: 9:00am - 10:00am, Florida Salons I-IV
A discussion session will immediately follow with Dr. Noguera until 10:30am
Pedro Noguera, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract: In recent years, policymakers and educators have increasingly embraced single sex schools as a remedy for the educational and social challenges confronting African American and Latino males. This presentation will present findings from a three-year study of seven single sex schools. While not intended to determine whether or not single sex schooling should be endorsed as solution, the study does yield interesting insights about the theory of change utilized by these educators and the strategies they employ to counter the perceived risks facing this population of students.
Biography: Pedro Noguera is the Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. His research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional and global contexts. He is the author of twelve books and over 200 articles and monographs. He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations and appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA he served as a tenured professor and holder of endowed chairs at New York University (2003 – 2015) Harvard University (2000 – 2003) and the University of California, Berkeley (1990 – 2000). From 2009 - 2012 he served as a Trustee for the State University of New York (SUNY) as an appointee of the Governor. In 2014 he was elected to the National Academy of Education. Noguera recently received awards from the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences, from the National Association of Secondary Principals, and from the McSilver Institute at NYU for his research and advocacy efforts aimed at fighting poverty.
A Phenotype of Risky Behavior in Youth and the Effect of Race on Face Perception
Friday, October 7: 9:00am - 10:00am, Florida Salons I-IV
A discussion session will immediately follow with Dr. Fair until 10:30am
Damien Fair, PA-C, Ph.D., Oregon Health and Science University
Associate Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Associate Scientist, Advanced Imaging Research Center
Abstract: Developmental differences regarding decision-making are often reported in the absence of emotional stimuli and without context, failing to explain why some individuals are more likely to have a greater inclination toward risky behavior. I will show how a specific phenotype (i.e. brain patterns that revert to a “younger” age in emotional contexts) relates to a group mean difference in risk perception – a pattern exemplified greatest in young-adults (ages 18-21). The results are suggestive of a brain phenotype that relates to being at “risk to be risky.” I will also highlight that some types of impulsive decision making may not only be related to the emotional states of the individual conducting the action, but also dependent on the features of a particular stimulus, e.g., race. I will emphasize new work describing how race affects brain responses in both positive and negative emotional contexts in distinct ways and may also influence impulsive decision-making.
Biography: Dr. Fair obtained his BA degree in 1998 from Augustana College, S.D. In 2001, he graduated with a master of medical science degree from the physician associate program at the Yale University School of Medicine, and practiced until 2003 at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He entered the neuroscience graduate program at the Washington University in St. Louis under the guidance of Bradley Schlaggar, M.D., Ph.D. and Steven Petersen, Ph.D. His postdoctoral fellowship was at Oregon Health & Science University under the direction of Joel Nigg Ph.D. He’s now an Associate Professor in the Behavioral Neuroscience Department at OHSU.
Dr. Fair's laboratory focuses on mechanisms and principles that underlie the developing brain. The majority of this work uses functional & functional connectivity MRI to assess typical and atypical populations. A second focus of his lab involves testing the feasibility of using various functional and structural MRI techniques in translational studies of developmental neuropsyciatric disorders. He is exploring ways to better characterize individual patients with these psychopathologies to help guide future diagnostic, therapeutic and genetic studies.
Invited TED Talk: Teaching Race to Children and Adolescents
Friday, October 7: 1:15pm - 2:45pm, Florida Salons I-IV
Description: The focus of this talk is on how recent and past events of racial dehumanization of Black and Brown people and children have left parents struggling with how to raise children in such an hostile public environment. The stress of parenting boys and young men of color requires a racial literacy or the ability to read, recast, and resolve racially stressful encounters for youth and the parents. This talk will illuminate the research on the emotional costs of racial dehumanization on health, identify strategies for parents and youth to counter that dehumanization, and demonstrate how children influence parents equally through their struggles, triumphs and questions about racial politics.
Disrupting Racial Dehumanization: Bidirectional Conversations with Babies, Boys, and Men about Racism
Howard C. Stevenson, University of Pennsylvania
Intentional Parenting for Racial Equity and Justice
Diane Hughes, New York University
Biography: Dr. Howard Stevenson is the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana Studies, and former Chair of the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative at Penn, designed to promote racial literacy in education, health, and justice institutions.
He is a nationally recognized clinical psychologist and researcher on negotiating racial conflicts using racial literacy for independent and public K-12 schooling, community mental health centers, teachers, police and parents. Two mental health research projects funded by NIH examine the benefits of racial literacy. The PLAAY (Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth) Project uses basketball and racial socialization to help youth and parents cope with stress from violence and social rejection. With Penn professors Loretta and John Jemmott, and Christopher Coleman, Dr. Stevenson co-leads the SHAPE-UP: Barbers Building Better Brothers Project which trains Black barbers as health educators to teach HIV/STDS sexual and violence risk reduction and negotiation strategies to Black 18-24 year old males-- while they are cutting hair.
His recent best-seller book, Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences that Make a Difference, is designed to reduce racial threat reactions in face-to-face encounters.
Biography: Diane Hughes is Professor of Applied Psychology in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Development, and Education at New York University. She is also co-director of NYU’s Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education and former co-chair of the cross-university Study Group on Race, Culture, and Ethnicity. Dr. Hughes’ primary interests are in understanding racial dynamics in social settings (families, classrooms, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods) in relation to early adolescent development and in relation to parents’ beliefs, goals, and practices. Dr. Hughes has written extensively about the nature and consequences of parents’ teachings about race. She has also written about parents’ and adolescents’ discrimination experiences within workplaces, schools and peer groups and about influences on youths’ academic achievement. Based on this work, Hughes has also written about strategies for identifying cultural knowledge and for conducting culturally anchored research Hughes received her B.A. in Psychology and African American Studies from Williams College and her Ph.D. in Community and Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan. She spearheaded the development of Applied Psychology’s new doctoral training program in Psychology and Social Intervention. She is former chair of the MacArthur Midlife Network’s study of Ethnic Diversity and Urban Contexts, affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Network on Success in Midlife, and member of the Carnegie Corporations Consortium on Intergroup Relations among Youth. Her research has been supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Resisting Dehumanization Among Boys of Color: A Contextual and Developmental Process
Saturday, October 8: 9:00am - 10:00am, Florida Salons I-IV
A discussion session will immediately follow with Drs. Niobe and Rogers until 10:30am
Niobe Way, New York University and Onnie Rogers, Northwestern University
Abstract: Children develop within the macro context of cultures and ideologies infused with a set of stereotypes about what it means to be a particular sex, race, nationality, religion, sexuality, and social class as well as beliefs about what it means to be a mature, successful, and happy adult. In American culture, these stereotypes include portraying boys as thinkers and not feelers, girls as feelers and not thinkers, Asian boys as thinkers and not feelers, Latino boys as feelers and not thinkers, and Black boys, particularly from low-income families, as neither thinkers nor feelers. American culture also privileges the self over relationships, the individual over the community, and believes that maturity and happiness are attained simply through self-sufficiency and independence. Yet these cultural stereotypes and beliefs fail to recognize the humanity or the human potential, capacity, and needs of children growing up in American culture and thus they dehumanize them. Over the past three decades, research has indicated, however, that young people, including boys of color, systematically resist such dehumanization. In my keynote address, Onnie Rogers and I will describe our research on the development of resistance to dehumanizing stereotypes and beliefs among boys of color during adolescence; the link between such resistance and psychological and social wellbeing; and the contextual factors that foster resistance among boys. Drawing from over thirty years of mixed-method research with adolescents, we reveal the importance of resistance in the social and emotional development of boys of color and suggest that interventions aimed at such youth focus on fostering such resistance.
Biography: Niobe Way is a Professor of Developmental Psychology in the Applied Psychology Department at New York University and the founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity (PACH;pach.org), a think and do tank that draws from the science of human connection to conduct research, develop curriculum, and engage in social activism aimed at creating a more just and humane world. Way is also the co-Director of the Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education at NYU and the past President for the Society for Research on Adolescence. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology and was an NIMH postdoctoral fellow in the psychology department at Yale University. Way's research focuses on the intersections of culture, context, and human development, with a particular focus on the social and emotional development of adolescents and how schools, families, and peers, as well as larger political and economic contexts, influence identities and relationships. The study of gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual identities and their intersections and the effects of cultural stereotypes on such identities and relationships are also at the core of her work. She conducts research across the globe, including in the U.S., China, and India. Way is an internationally recognized leader in the field of adolescent development and in the study of culture, context, and human development as well as in the use of mixed methods; she has been studying the social and emotional development of girls and boys for almost three decades. Way is widely published with over 60 scholarly articles and 6 books including Deep Secrets: Boys Friendships and the Crisis of Connection (2011; Harvard University Press); Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes and Creating Identities (1996; 2007; NYU press) and Growing up Fast: Transitioning to Adulthood among Adolescent Mothers (2001; Erlbaum Press) which won the best book award for SRA. She also regularly contributes blogs, letters, and articles in mainstream media outlets, including the Huffington Post, New York Times, and Washington Post.
Biography: Dr. Onnie Rogers is an assistant professor of psychology in the area of diversity of science and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Dr. Rogers' research lies at the intersection of psychology, human development and education. She is interested in social and educational inequities and the mechanisms through which macro-level disparities are both perpetuated and disrupted at the micro-level of identities and relationships. Her primary area of research investigates racial and gender identity development among racially diverse youth in urban contexts: how cultural stereotypes shape the development and intersectionality of identities; the extent to which youth resist or challenge racial and gender stereotypes; and the ways in which identity and resistance processes influence adolescents’ social-emotional wellbeing. Dr. Rogers earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from New York University, and a B.A. in psychology and educational studies from UCLA.
Invited Workshops
The Logic of Inquiry: Ethnography and the Study of African American Men Inside Complex Multi-Generation Families
Thursday, October 6: 3:00pm - 4:30pm, Meeting Room 12
Linda M. Burton, PdD, Dean of Social Sciences, Duke University, and Constance M. Dallas, PhD, R.N., FAAN, Associate Professor of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago
Description: Studying Black men in families is a complex endeavor characterized by myriad theoretical and methodological challenges. Few studies have considered men’s movement through space and time in fluid generations of kin who are frequently mired in structural inequalities around employment, education, health, and access to social services. Extant research often applies limited acontextual lenses to these men’s family lives focusing on their performance as fathers in natal units. These studies are indeed valuable, but often leave us wanting for insights on the malleability of roles, social networks, and place in Black men’s families. In this workshop we aim to encourage participants to pursue innovative research questions about Black men in families by first exploring the scientific warrants and logic of inquiry that can potentially inspire these innovations, and by providing exemplar approaches from our own longitudinal ethnographies to identify the nuanced dimensions of men’s family lives that offer a more holistic view of their journeys through the life course.
Biography: Linda M. Burton is the Dean of Social Sciences and the James B. Duke Professor of Sociology at Duke University. She is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty and serves on the Editorial Board of the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and the William T. Grant Faculty Scholars Advisory Board. She was recently a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Child Maltreatment, the Committee on the Science of Research on Families, the Advisory Board of the National Center for Marriage and Family Research, and the Board of Directors for the Family Process Institute. She was inducted into the Sociological Research Association in 2013 and is also a recipient of the Distinguished Career Award in Family Sociology, the Alexis Walker Award for Outstanding Research in Family Science, and the American Family Therapy Academy Award for Innovative Contributions to Family Research. Dr. Burton directed the ethnographic components of the Three-City Study and the Family Life Project.
Biography: Constance M. Dallas - As a family researcher I am most interested in examining how families in adverse circumstances negotiate the parenting role for men. In addition to struggling to achieve parental equity with mothers, African American males face unique challenges in trying to fulfill the fatherhood role as defined by mainstream society. My research has focused on family structures increasingly common among all racial and ethnic groups, but particularly prevalent within low-income African American communities, such as adolescent parenting and multiple partner fertility parenting. In order to develop a more comprehensive description I utilize qualitative research approaches that incorporate the perspectives of extended family members and other influential persons.
Gender- and Context-Linked Sources of Vulnerability and Resiliency: PVEST analysis of opportunities and challenges to well-being
Friday, October 7, 10:15am - 11:45am, Meeting Room 12
Margaret Beale Spencer, Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Chairperson, Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago
Description: Particularly salient for the life course experiences of males of color, character relevant attributes of the ecology—such as the presence or absence of myriad representations of power—matter. The beliefs infuse programs of research, inform training designed to assist well-being, and apprise policy considerations intended to promote life course heath. The presentation uses a particular theoretical framework—Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST)—for analyzing how the nature of the context—past and present—undermines or provides affordances for males’ life course well-being. Data illustrations for males of color aid in demonstrating the efficacy of the framework for interpreting outcomes. The analysis takes a human vulnerability/resiliency theoretical stance which suggests that all humans are vulnerable although—given differences in the accessibility to and presence of equity linked power, vulnerability level varies. The conceptual strategy explores opportunities and confronts challenges to resiliency and authentic 21st century social stability.
Biography: Margaret Beale Spencer is the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education, and is an alumna of the Committee on Human Development. Before returning to Chicago, she was Director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Health Achievement Neighborhood Growth and Ethnic Studies (CHANGES), and also guided as its director the W. E. B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute. Spencer's Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) serves as the foundation for her gendered and race-ethnicity focused research emphasis, which addresses resiliency, identity, and competence formation processes for diverse youth both in the United States and abroad.
In addition to Spencer's ongoing program of research, she frequently collaborates with groups for the purpose of applying the research findings to settings having a stated mission or purpose which addresses youths' emerging capacity for healthy outcomes and constructive coping methods. Given that the basic evaluation research activities of intervention collaborations occur in challenging contexts, the outcomes of the collaborations have significant implications for understanding not just the "what" of human development but the "why" of particularly developmental trajectories. The life-course coping knowledge accrued, as a function of basic research as well as collaborative applications, together, promote new lines of basic scholarly inquiry. Thus, in addition to the ongoing basic research, as a recursive process, the outcomes of application opportunities have implications for Spencer's ongoing theory-building efforts.
Opportunities and Challenges in doing Research with African American Adolescents
Saturday, October 8: 10:15am - 11:45am, Meeting Room 12
Michael Cunningham, Professor of Psychology, Tulane University
Description: The workshop will highlight opportunities and challenges of doing research with African American adolescent males. In doing so, the workshop will examine correlates of hypermasculine attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, what is associated with hypermasculine attitudes and behaviors and what are the consequences stemming from them? Are hypermasculine attitudes and behaviors reactive coping methods used by males? When does a hypermasculine attitude or behavior become an ingrained part of male identity? These questions will be addressed in the workshop by highlighting how developmental considerations such as physical maturation and identity processes are linked to hypermasculinity. Using an ecological systems framework, the workshop will demonstrate proximal and distal factors that need to be considered with working with African American adolescent males.
Biography: Michael Cunningham is a Professor of Psychology and Africana Studies at Tulane University. He also serves as an Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and Research. Mike has a program of research that focuses on racial, psychosocial, and socioeconomic processes that affect psychological well‐being, adjustment to chronic stressful events, and academic achievement among African American adolescents and their families. He uses mixed methods in his current research project to examine gender‐specific patterns of resilience and vulnerability in urban African American adolescents. Mike has received external funding from the National Science Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, and The Department of Education. He received Tulane’s highest teaching award, which comes with the designation as a Suzanne and Stephen Weiss Presidential Fellow. Mike completed his doctoral work at Emory University after completing an undergraduate degree at Morehouse College. He also completed a post‐doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Invited Paper Symposia
Context, Community and Culture as Social Determinants of Men’s Health Disparities
Thursday, October 6: 1:15pm - 2:45pm, Florida Salons I-IV
Chair: Derek M. Griffith, Vanderbilt University
Integrative Statement: As we move from explaining to implementing efforts to improve men’s health and reduce men’s health disparities, it is critical to develop a precise understanding of the determinants of the health of men of color. Beyond identifying what behavioral, biological and psychological factors influence health, there is a great need to understand what constrains and facilitate these factors. In this symposium, we move beyond identifying social factors that influence health to articulating why and how these factors shape the health outcomes of men of color. Using a combination of theoretical innovations and empirical research, we explore three social determinants that shape the health profiles and patterns of men of color: context, community and culture. While research on health disparities and the health of men of color have typically identified the determinants of health that shape differential access to resources, opportunities to be healthy and stressors, a particularly important yet understudied aspect of the health of men of color is why these factors have meaning for men’s lives and health. Little attention has been paid to exploring how social contexts, neighborhood and community factors and cultural norms, beliefs and values shape if and how men of color prioritize and promote their health. Through these illustrative presentations, we will identify and examine not only the unique pathways and mechanisms that may be responsible for the consistently poor physical health of men of color, but also the cultural strengths that could be the foundation of interventions to improve the health of this population.
Paper 1: Context as a social determinant of men’s health disparities
Marino A. Bruce, Vanderbilt University
Paper 2: Community as a social determinant of men’s health disparities
Roland J. Thorpe, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Paper 3: Culture as a social determinant of men’s health disparities
Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, Saint Louis University
Chair Biography: Derek M. Griffith, PhD is the Director of the Institute for Research on Men’s Health and an Associate Professor of Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt he also has appointments as an Associate Professor in the departments of American Studies, General Internal Medicine and Public Health, Health Policy and Sociology. Dr. Griffith is trained in clinical-community psychology and public health, and he uses qualitative and quantitative methods to inform and evaluate interventions to improve African American men’s eating practices and physical activity in cancer and diabetes outcomes. He is particularly interested in three broad areas: the links between notions of masculinity or manhood and health among men of color; the role of stress and coping processes in men’s health disparities; and how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, SES and other variables to shape men’s physical and mental health behavior and health outcomes.
Lessons Learned in Longitudinal Studies of Youth of Color: Positive Development Contributors
Friday, October 7: 3:00pm - 4:30pm, Meeting Room 12
Chair: Patrick H. Tolan, University of Virginia
Discussant: Valerie Maholmes, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Integrative Statement: This symposium will bring presentations by three seasoned investigators who have focused on development of youth of color over their careers. Each has conducted at least one longitudinal study of over 10 years tracking children or adolescents of color into the next life phase or more. The presenters (Patrick Tolan, Nancy Gonzales, Milbrey McLaughlin) have each engaged in such work over multiple decades and through multiple studies. Each will present lessons learned from these studies and related work, commenting on important findings from their work for understanding and promoting positive development of men of color, key contributors and impediments to such development, and important issues in building empirical understanding of positive development (successful outcomes) for babies, boys, and men of color. In addition, each presenter will comment on important unresolved and challenging issues and suggest impending opportunities for important advances in better understanding of what can promote and support positive development of youth of color. Valerie Maholmes PhD, Chief, Pediatric Trauma & Critical Illness Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at NIH will act as discussant.
Paper 1: Long-term Preventive Intervention Effects on Adolescent Alcohol Use, Abuse, and Disorder
Michaeline Jensen, Arizona State University
Paper 2: Critical Turning Points for Urban Youth of Color
Milbrey W. McLaughlin, Stanford University
Paper 3: Tracing Success of Inner-City Boys of Color: Connection, Support, Skills
Patrick H. Tolan, University of Virginia
Chair Biography: Patrick H. Tolan is Director of Youth-Nex: The UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development and Professor of Education and Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. Youth-Nex is a cross-university, multidisciplinary center combining research, practice, and policy. For the past 30 years he has conducted longitudinal research with multiple collaborators on an ecological-developmental understanding of youth development. Much of that work focused on high-risk urban communities and utilized randomized prevention trials. He also has advocated for 20+ years use of empirically tested approaches in practice and policy. His recent publications focus on advancing the science of positive youth development, including critical comparative analyses of leading models and promoting multiple methods in developmental science. Dr. Tolan is one of the founding members of the Boys of Color Collaboration. He is the 2016 recipient of the Nicholas Hobbs Award from the Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice.
Lunch Hour Events
Thursday: Lunch with Leaders BBMC Lunch with Leaders Scholars
October 6, 12:00 to 1:00pm, Florida Salons V - VI
This lunch hour session is open to students and early career professionals to network with a senior scholar in a relaxed setting. Please be sure to sit at the table for which you registered.
Friday: Mentoring Workshop: No registration is necessary - grab a lunch and join us!
Strategies for Success in Academic, Research, and Advocacy Roles
October 7, 12:00 to 1:00pm, Florida Salons V - VI
During this luncheon session, geared towards junior faculty and advanced graduate students, Drs. DIane Hughes and Howard Stevenson will facilitate discussion about core dilemmas that tenure-track faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and advanced graduate students often face in pursuing careers in academia, research, and action. They will discuss strategies for success and common challenges at pitfalls encountered in these roles, including time management, balancing work and leisure, seeing work through to publication, managing research and advocacy roles and developing community relations. The format is a combination of individual and group excercises, discussion, and question /answer periods.
