A developmental investigation of sex differences in spatial (visual-analytic) and mathematical skills in three ethnic groups.

Investigated sex differences in mathematical and spatial (visual-analytic) skills in 3 ethnic groups (Black, Hispanic, and White) prior to and during adolescence. Ss were 240 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 9th graders, and instruments included the Children's Embedded Figures Test and the Modern Mathematics Supplement to the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Significant interaction effects were demonstrated between ethnic group membership and sex for both mathematical and spatial skills. In Hispanic adolescent groups, significant sex differences were found in scores on both skills in favor of the female. A similar but not significant trend was seen in the scores of Black adolescent groups. In contrast, White adolescent males scored higher than White adolescent females, but not significantly so. No prior study has reported the observed pattern of sex differences in Hispanic Ss, one that differs from that usually found in White Ss. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescents' reference-group choices, self-esteem, and adjustment.

330 Black, Hispanic, Asian, and White high school students reported their reference-group label as mainstream, bicultural, or strongly ethnically identified. Compared with other groups, White students were significantly more likely to be mainstream. Across ethnic groups, students reporting a strong ethnic identification held attitudes that were significantly more separatist, reported more ethnic pride, engaged in less cross-ethnic contact out of school, reported more cross-ethnic conflict, and used English significantly less often than other reference groups. Reference-group label was not associated with significant ethnic differences in self-esteem, social competence, or grade point average (GPA). The generational status of minority students is discussed as a potential influence mediating the impact of reference group on adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stressful events and individual beliefs as correlates of economic disadvantage and aggression among urban children.

Examined 3 factors that were hypothesized to increase risk for aggression among urban children: economic disadvantage, stressful events, and individual beliefs. Ss were 1,935 African American, Hispanic, and White elementary-school boys and girls assessed over a 2-yr period. Individual poverty (INP) and aggression were only significant for the White Ss, with significant interactions between individual and community poverty for the other 2 ethnic groups. A linear structural model to predict aggression from the stress and beliefs variables, INP predicted stress for African American Ss and predicted beliefs supporting aggression for Hispanic Ss. For all ethnic groups, both stress and beliefs contributed significantly to the synchronous prediction of aggression, and for the Hispanic children, the longitudinal predictions were also significant. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for preventive interventions in multiethnic, inner-city communities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor structure and psychometric properties of the Brief Symptom Inventory–18 in women: A MACS approach to testing for invariance across racial/ethnic groups.

This study used data from 3 sites to examine the invariance and psychometric characteristics of the Brief Symptom Inventory–18 across Black, Hispanic, and White mothers of 5th graders (N = 4,711; M = 38.07 years of age, SD = 7.16). Internal consistencies were satisfactory for all subscale scores of the instrument regardless of ethnic group membership. Mean and covariance structures analysis indicated that the hypothesized 3-factor structure of the instrument was not robust across ethnic groups. It provided a reasonable approximation to the data for Black and White women but not for Hispanic women. Tests for differential item functioning (DIF) were therefore conducted for only Black and White women. Analyses revealed no more than trivial instances of nonuniform DIF but more substantial evidence of uniform DIF for 3 of the 18 items. After having established partial strong factorial invariance of the instrument, latent factor means were found to be significantly higher for Black than for White women on all 3 subscales (somatization, depression, anxiety). In conclusion, the instrument may be used for mean comparisons between Black and White women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial/ethnic differences in the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests: A qualitative and quantitative review.

The correlation between cognitive ability test scores and performance was separately meta-analyzed for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White racial/ethnic subgroups. Compared to the average White observed correlation ( = .33, N = 903,779), average correlations were lower for Black samples ( = .24, N = 112,194) and Hispanic samples ( = .30, N = 51,205) and approximately equal for Asian samples ( = .33, N = 80,705). Despite some moderating effects (e.g., type of performance criterion, decade of data collection, job complexity), validity favored White over Black and Hispanic test takers in almost all conditions that included a sizable number of studies. Black–White validity comparisons were possible both across and within the 3 broad domains that use cognitive ability tests for high-stakes selection and placement: civilian employment, educational admissions, and the military. The trend of lower Black validity was repeated in each domain; however, average Black–White validity differences were largest in military studies and smallest in educational and employment studies. Further investigation of the reasons for these validity differences is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Who has the final word? Sex, race, and dominance behavior.

Investigated the effects of sex and race on dominance behavior as a function of a challenger's sex and race. Dominance was defined as the number of verbal challenges against an S's picture choice that an S withstood. Each of 128 undergraduate Ss and a confederate recorded individual preferences and joint decisions for the more attractive picture of 20 pairs of pictures. The number of challenges an S sustained each time a disagreement occurred regarding the more attractive picture of a pair was recorded. Results support the theory of status characteristics when Ss participated with White confederates: Black females were more dominant than White females and Black males, and White males were more dominant than Black males. With a Black confederate, however, Black males became significantly more dominant, whereas the behavior of the other 3 groups did not change. All Ss withstood significantly fewer challenges from females than from males. Results suggest that the characteristics of group members as well as the characteristics of a single person must be examined to obtain an accurate picture of mixed-sex or biracial interactions. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and eating behavior in obese and nonobese American Indians and White Americans.

Compared 80 lower-SES obese and nonobese American Indians and 80 lower-SES obese and nonobese White Americans from multinational backgrounds on a test of emotional arousal theory (EAT), which proposes that obese people overeat when emotionally aroused while nonobese people do not. Ss were administered the trait anxiety form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and then assigned to a high-anxiety (HA) or low-anxiety condition. They were then administered the state form of the STAI and given a taste task to determine whether EAT is predictive of eating behaviors for both ethnic groups. Results indicate that women were more trait and state anxious than were men; HA women, all HA Ss, HA American Indians, and nonobese American Indians were more state anxious than were corresponding groups. Behavioral indicator results generally supported EAT: All obese and high-anxiety-condition obese Ss consumed more food than did nonobese and low-anxiety-condition obese Ss, respectively. The overall consumption of food was greater with American Indians than with White Americans, indicating that EAT does not fully explain American Indian eating behavior. An alternative stress-reaction theory is proposed to more fully account for American Indian eating behavior. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of training in sentence construction on the comprehension of learning disabled children.

30 learning-disabled Hispanic, White, and Black children (mean IQ 88.60 and mean age 11.73 yrs) were randomly assigned to 2 conditions focusing on sentence comprehension: a sentence anagram/word grouping treatment and a more traditional sentence study treatment. With age, IQ, and pretest comprehension (Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests) controlled, Ss in the sentence anagram/word grouping condition had significantly higher cloze scores than Ss in the sentence study group. The greatest achievement benefits associated with the anagram treatment, however, accrued to Ss with higher initial reading achievement. As level of pretreatment achievement decreased, the magnitude of the treatment differences also tended to decrease. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and ethnic effects on motivation to manage among college business students.

Motivation-to-manage scores on the Miner Sentence Completion Scale were compared for male vs female and Black vs White business students (N?=?216) from 2 universities, 1 predominately White and the other predominately Black. A 2 (S sex)?×?2 (ethnic group) multivariate ANOVA yielded significant differences on motivation to manage for both S sex and ethnic group. A discriminant analysis revealed an underlying 2-dimensional structure, with females separated from males on one dimension by a lower desire to engage in competitive games and Black Ss separated from White Ss on a 2nd dimension by a lower orientation toward imposing wishes and standing out from the group and a greater affinity for the assertive role. Although significant S sex and ethnic group differences were found, further analyses suggested that a rather small amount of variance was explained by the sex and ethnic factors. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Single parenthood and school readiness in White, Black, and Hispanic 6- and 7-year-olds.

The aim of this research was to examine the circumstances under which single parenthood may or may not represent an adverse influence on school readiness and achievement in 6–7-year-old children of White, Black, and Hispanic families in a large national survey (NLSY). Home visits provided measures of maternal and family characteristics and of children's vocabulary, math, reading, and behavior problems. Single parenthood was essentially unrelated to the child outcomes in all ethnic groups, and it did not interact with maternal education, ability level, or employment or with poverty status or child gender. Although single- and 2-parent families differed in income, they were very similar in maternal ability and education levels, thus suggesting that in the presence of positive maternal or family characteristics supportive of children's development, single parenthood as such need not represent a risk factor for these early child outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drug abuse patterns, personality characteristics, and relationships with sex, race, and sensation seeking.

Examined interrelationships among sex, race, drug use patterns, and personality variables in 84 chronic users of illicit drugs (mean age 24.3 yrs). Ss were administered the MMPI, the Sensation Seeking Scale, and the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale for Measuring Intellectual Impairment and were interviewed using the Background Information Questionnaire. Comparisons were made between sex and ethnic subgroups on personality and drug use variables using analysis of covariance and chi-square procedures for Ss classified into high-, medium-, and low-sensation-seeking groups. Blacks were characterized by lower levels of sensation seeking, less psychopathology, use of fewer drug categories, and later drug use than Whites. Use and personality patterns among women differed little from those of men. Levels of sensation seeking were related to specific personality constellations, number of drug categories used, and motive for first alcohol use. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent drug use: Findings of national and local surveys.

Adolescent drug use increased until about 1981, but since then it has steadily declined. Current data show some drug use in the 4th and 5th grades and considerable increases from the 6th to the 9th grades. For drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and stimulants, lifetime prevalence continues to increase through high school; for drugs such as inhalants and heroin, lifetime prevalence may decline for Grades 10, 11, and 12, suggesting that students who use these drugs early may drop out. Drug use of rural youth is similar to that of other youth. Barrio, ghetto, and Native-American reservation youth may have high rates of use, but use of Black and Hispanic seniors may be equivalent to or less than that of White seniors. National data and broadly defined ethnic data, however, may cover up important subgroup differences. For example, Western Mexican-American girls have lower use than Western Spanish-American girls, possibly because of the greater influence of "marianisma." Different locations may also have very different patterns of adolescent drug use, calling for different types of local intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned helplessness in Black and White children identified by their schools as retarded and nonretarded: Performance deterioration in response to failure.

20 Black and 20 White children who had been identified as retarded and nonretarded but were similar in MA (110.2–214.3 mo) were administered concept formation problems designed to reveal use of strategies. When feedback was veridical the groups did not differ in their use of effective strategies, but when feedback became consistently negative the groups diverged markedly. Under negative feedback, retarded Ss showed striking deterioration in strategy usage, but nonretarded Ss showed no deterioration. Consistent with these findings, teachers rated retarded Ss as significantly more helpless than their nonretarded peers on a checklist of relevant school behavior. Additional findings suggest that Black retarded Ss may be more susceptible to helplessness than are their White counterparts. Finally, group differences in verbalizations during problem solving bore little relation to group differences in actual performance. Findings point to helplessness deficits in retarded children that may interfere significantly with expression of their actual abilities. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluative race–class stereotypes by race and perceived class of subjects.

80 Black and 74 White college students assigned traits, from a list of 80, to the Black lower class, Black middle class, White lower class, and White middle class. Each S rated the 5 or fewer traits that he or she had chosen as being most typical of the respective race–class groups from –5 (unfavorable) to +5 (favorable) for the given groups. Ss also assigned themselves to 1 of 4 classes: lower class, working class, middle class, or upper class. On the basis of these judgments, the Ss within each racial group were classified as perceiving themselves to be above or below the median of their own race's distribution. White Ss assigned more favorable characteristics to the middle than to the lower class and did not rate Blacks lower than Whites. Black Ss made a similar, but smaller, social class distinction and, in addition, generally perceived Blacks more favorably than Whites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of race of examiner and cultural mistrust on the WAIS performance of Black students.

100 Black males (17–19 yrs old) were given the Terrell Cultural Mistrust Inventory, and groups with high and low levels of mistrust of Whites were identified. Half of the Ss in each group were then administered the WAIS by a White examiner. The remaining were tested by a Black examiner. The Black examiner/high mistrust group scored significantly higher than the White examiner/high mistrust group. In addition, the White examiner/low mistrust group scored significantly higher than the White examiner/high mistrust group. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparative analysis of Black women's and White women's sex-role attitudes.

An assessment of the sex-role attitudes (using J. P. Gump's Revised Fand Inventory) of 77 Black and 40 White female undergraduates refuted the characterization of the Black woman as matriarchal and the White woman as home centered and submissive. Black Ss, in comparison with White Ss, were more likely to define their identity with respect to the roles of wife and mother and were more home centered and more submissive; White Ss expressed significantly more interest in furthering their own development than in fulfilling the traditional role. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral correlates for the MMPI standard F scale and for a modified F scale for Black and White psychiatric patients.

Investigated the behavioral correlates for the standard F scale and for an alternate MMPI F scale derived from responses of normal Black Ss. 157 Black (mean age 33.75 yrs) and 157 White (mean age 36.75 yrs) psychiatric patients were given the MMPI and were rated on psychiatric and nurses' rating scales. Black and White Ss did not differ significantly on either of the 2 F scales. Fewer significant correlations were obtained between standard F scale scores and behavioral ratings for Black Ss than for White Ss. For White Ss, some significant correlations were obtained between the alternate F scale scores and behavioral ratings, but no significant correlations were obtained between alternate F scale scores and behavioral ratings for Black Ss. It is concluded that for Black patients, the alternate F scale is not related to psychopathology in the same way that the standard F scale is for White patients. Further, it appears that the standard and alternate F scales are assessing similar characteristics of test Ss. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability of the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices Test: Age and ethnic group comparisons.

Reports reliabilities for the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) for 3 age groups (5?–6?, 6?–7?, and 7?–8? yrs) and 3 ethnic groups. The Ss were 783 Anglo, Black, and Hispanic children. Reliability estimates were calculated using all CPM items and only those with p values between .20 and .80. Results indicate that the CPM did not appear to be equally reliable for all age groups, with the lowest reliability found for the youngest. The test appeared to be equally reliable for the 3 ethnic groups. Eliminating items with extremely low or high p values did little to affect the reliability of the test. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

No more than skin deep: Ethnic and racial similarity in developmental process.

Many studies adduce evidence of ethnic or racial dissimilarities in developmental outcomes (e.g., delinquency and achievement). Many researchers fail to distinguish between group average levels and developmental processes (correlations). Evidence is reviewed that developmental processes are nearly identical for US Black, Hispanic, White, and Asian ethnic and racial groups. Using diverse and representative data sources, covariance matrices were computed for these ethnic groups and then compared by using a LISREL goodness-of-fit test. Not only were these matrices nearly identical but they also were no less alike than covariance matrices computed from random halves within 1 ethnic or racial group. This article documents the importance of accepting ethnic and racial similarity of developmental processes. Thus, group average level differences may result from different levels of developmental antecedents working through common developmental pathways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)