Michigan Youth Project
Several factors determine the types of behavior and emotional problems
children exhibit. These include sociocultural backgrounds of children's
families and ensuing parenting practices. Parental attitudes and practices
may discourage some types of child problems while fostering others. Child
problem type and concomitant parental distress regarding these problems
may determine whether clinical intervention is sought. Possible linkages
between these factors were explored via surveys of clinic-referral problems
of children of African descent in two different societies: (a) the African-British
society of Jamaica which discourages child aggression and other externalizing
behavior but encourages withdrawal and other internalizing behavior; and
(b) the African-American society of Mid-Michigan which is of African-British
heritage, but exists in the United States where aggression and other externalizing
behavior are more widely accepted. Clinic records of African-American children
and adolescents ages 4-18 in Mid-Michigan were surveyed and corresponding
Jamaican data were collected. Parent-reported problems were recorded, coded
and summed as internalizing, externalizing, and other problems according
to an empirically derived classification system (i.e., Child Behavior Checklist;
CBCL). A 2 (nationality) x 3 (age-group; 4-5, 6-11, 12-18) X 2 (gender)
Analysis of Covariance with SES as a covariate was separately computed
for problems summed under each category and for total number of problems
reported. Following an earlier Jamaican clinic- survey procedure, problems
of African-American children that do not fit the CBCL system are being
recorded for the potential development of a classification system for future
assessment and study of this African-American population.
