How African American Parents Describe Their Children

Issues have been raised about how to study American minorities (GarciaColl, Lamberty, Jenkins, McAdoo, Crnic, Wasik, & Vasquez-Garcia, 1996; Gordon, 1976; Guthrie, 1976). African American children historically and currently are the most studied of U.S. minority children (Caplan & Nelson, 1973; McLoyd, 1990; Wiese, 1992). Among U.S. minorities, African American children have remained at the center of the debate over methodological issues, although there is also interest in studying Hispanic American and Native American children (Powell, Yamamoto, Romero, & Morales, 1983).