In the United States, racial-ethnic differences on tests of school readiness and academic achievement continue. A complete understanding of the origins of racial-ethnic achievement gaps is still lacking. This article describes social equity theory (SET), which proposes that racial-ethnic achievement gaps originate from two kinds of social process,…

The influence of parenting skills on adolescent outcomes among children affected by maternal HIV/AIDS (N = 118, M age = 13) was investigated. Among families with more frequent family routines, over time adolescents showed lower rates of aggression, anxiety, worry, depression, conduct disorder, binge drinking, and increased self-concept. Among…

The development of gender attitudes in 402 youth (201 firstborn and 201 secondborn siblings) in 201 European American families was examined using data collected on seven occasions across 9 years. Pooling across siblings and using multilevel modeling, we examined gender attitude development from ages 7 to 19. Consistent with an ecological…

Studied early family experiences of boys who later emerged as both aggressive and bullied during middle childhood. Found that aggressive victims had experienced more punitive, hostile, and abusive family treatment than others. Nonvictimized aggressors had greater exposure to adult aggression, but not victimization, than the normative group,…

Studied impact of family background, parental attitudes, peer support, and adolescents' attitudes and behavior on academic achievement of adolescents from immigrant families. Found that first- and second-generation students received higher mathematics and English grades than peers from native families; the strong educational emphasis by students,…