ABSTRACT
This chapter draws some parallels between the theoretical and research underpinnings of the literature on children of color and the formulation of social policies that affect these children and their families. Most social policies that have been targeted to serve low-income families and children of color have been based on a compensation or remediation framework. Early childhood compensation programs for low-income children became widespread after the desegregation and destratification of the American educational system. Parent education programs vary considerably in the scope of competencies they hope to teach parents and in how they deliver services. The varying scope of parenting programs has made an aggregate assessment or generalization of their impact on children’s development difficult. A number of global developmental theories have had heuristic value in guiding the study of normative developmental processes in children of color by introducing the notion of contextual influences on children’s development into models.
