Absence of culturally relevant measures of Black children's strengths inhibits psychometrically sound strength-based assessment, research, and appropriate use of strengths as scaffolds or targets for clinical intervention. Moreover, the sparse research literature on Black children is primarily deficit focused. Beginning to address these problems, considerable input was sought from the Black community in constructing behavioral and emotional strength forms for Black children. Exploratory factor analyses conducted separately on 559 parent reports, 489 teacher reports, and 417 adolescent self-reports revealed two unidimensional cross-informant factors labeled Resilience and Self-Regulation and Prosocial Behavior. Item response theory analyses revealed invariance across gender, socioeconomic status, and age, but variance across informant type and referral status, and that most items provide sufficient psychometric information to warrant retention for clinical assessment and research.
Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the child behavior checklist and 1991 profile. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
2.
Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101(2), 213-232.
3.
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms and profiles. Burlington: University ofVermont, Research Center for ChildrenYouth and Families.
4.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
5.
Boyd-Franklin, N. (1991). Recurrent themes in the treatment of African-American women in group psychotherapy. Women and Therapy, 11, 25-40.
6.
Cattell, R. B. (1966). The scree test for the number of factors. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1, 245-276.
7.
Coll, C. G., Lamberty, G., Jenkins, R., McAdoo, H. P., Crnic, K., Wasik, B. H., et al. (1996). An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. Child Development, 67(5), 1891-1914.
8.
Cooke, D. J., Kosson, D. S., & Michie, C. (2001). Psychopathy and Ethnicity: Structural item, and test generalization of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCLR) in Caucasian and African American participants. Psychological Assessment, 13, 531-542.
9.
Culbertson, J. L. (1999). Research methods with children. In P. C. Kendall, J. N. Butcher, & G. N. Holmbeck (Eds.), Research methods in clinical psychology(pp. 619-633). New York: John Wiley.
10.
Embretson, S. E., & Reise, S. P. (2000). Item response theory for psychologists. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
11.
Fabrigar, L. R., Wegener, D. T., MacCallum, R. C., & Strahan, E. J. (1999). Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 4(3), 272-299.
12.
Forehand, R., Frame, C., Wierson, L. M., & Kempton, T. (1991). Assessment of incarcerated juvenile delinquents: Agreement across raters and approaches to psychopathology. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 13, 17-24.
13.
Garcia Coll, C. G., & Garcia, H. A. (1995). Theory and research with children of color: Implications for social policy. Paper presented at the Biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN.
14.
Garmezy, N. (1991). Resilience and vulnerability to adverse development associated with poverty. American Behavioral Scientist, 34, 416-430.
15.
Gibbs, G. T. (1998). High-risk behaviors in African American Youth: Conceptual and methodological issues in research. InV. C. McLoyd& L. Steinberg (Eds.), Studying minority adolescents: Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues(pp. 55-85). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
16.
Hakstian, A. R., Rogers, W. T., & Cattell, R. B. (1982). The behavior of number-of-factors rules with simulated data. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 17(2), 193-219.
17.
Hambleton, R. K., Swaminathan, H., & Rogers, H. J. (1991). Fundamentals of item response theory. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
18.
Hobson, R. P. (1993). Emotional origins of social understanding. Philosophical Psychology, 6, 227-249.
19.
Hollingshead. (1975). Four factor index of social status. New Haven, CT: Yale University, Department of Sociology.
20.
Holmbeck, G. N., & Shapera, W. E. (1999). Research methods with adolescents. In P. C. Kendall, J. N. Butcher, & G. N. Holmbeck (Eds.), Research methods in clinical psychology(pp. 634-661). New York: John Wiley.
21.
Izard, C., Fine, S., Schultz, D., Mostow, A., Ackerman, B., & Youngstrom, E. (2001). Emotion knowledge as a predictor of social behavior and academic competence in children at risk. Psychological Science, 12, 18-23.
22.
Kazdin, A. E. (1999). Overviewof research design issues in clinical psychology. In P. C. Kendall, J. N. Butcher, & G. N. Holmbeck (Eds.), Research methods in clinical psychology(2nd ed., pp. 3-30). New York: John Wiley.
23.
Kline, T. J. B. (2005). Psychological testing: A practical approach to design and evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
24.
Knight, G. P., & Hill, N. (1998). Measurement equivalence in research involving minority adolescents. InV. C. McLoyd& L. Steinberg (Eds.), Studying minority adolescents: Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues(pp. 183-210). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
25.
Lagenbucher, J. W., Lebouve, E., Martin, C. S., Sanjuan, P. M., Bavley, L., Kirisci, L., et al. (2004). An application of item response theory analysis to alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine criteria inDSM-IV. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 72-80.
26.
Lambert, M. C., Rowan, G. T., & Lyubansky, M. (2002). Behavior and emotional problems of clinic-referred African American children and adolescents: Parent Reports for ages 4-18. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 11, 271-285.
27.
Marshall, G. N., Orlando, M., Foy, D. W., & Blezberg, H. (2002). Development and validation of a modified version of the Peritraumatic Dissociative Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 14, 123-134.
28.
McAdoo, H. P. (1993). Ethnic families: Strengths that are found in diversity. In H. P. McAdoo (Ed.), Black families(3rd ed. pp. 3-14). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
29.
McLoyd, V. C. (1995). Poverty, parenting, and policy: Meeting the support needs of poor parents. In H. E. Fitzgerald, B. Lester, & B. S. Zuckerman (Eds.), Children of poverty: Research, health, and policy issues. Reference books on family issues, Vol. 23 and Garland reference library of social science, Vol. 968(pp. 269-303). New York: Garland.
30.
McLoyd, V. C. (1999a). Conceptual and methodological issues in the study of ethnic minority children and adolescents. In H. E. Fitzgerald, B. E. Lester, & B. S. Zuckerman (Eds.), Children of color: Research, health and policy issues(pp. 3-24). New York: Garland.
31.
McLoyd, V. C. (1999b). Cultural influences in a multicultural society: Conceptual and methodological issues. In A. S. Masten (Ed.), Cultural processes in child development: The Minnesota symposia on child development(pp. 123-135). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
32.
McLoyd, V. C., & Ceballo, R. (1998). Conceptualizing and assessing economic context: Issues of race and child development. In V. C. McLoyd & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Studying minority adolescents: Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
33.
McLoyd, V. C., & Randolph, S. M. (1984). The conduct and publication of research on Afro-American children: A content analysis. Human Development, 27(2), 65-75.
34.
McLoyd, V. C., & Randolph, S. M. (1986). Secular trends in the study of Afro-American children: Areviewof child development, 1936-1980. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(4/5), 78-92.
35.
McLoyd, V. C., & Steinberg, L. (1998). Preface. InV. C. McLoyd& L. Steinberg (Eds.), Studying minority adolescents: Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues(pp. vii-x). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
36.
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory(3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
37.
Orlando, M., & Marshall, G. N. M. (2002). Differential Item functioning in a Spanish translation of the PTSD checklist: Detection and evaluation of impact. Psychological Assessment, 14, 50-59.
38.
Phinney, J. S., & Landin, J. (1998). Research paradigms for studying ethnic minority families within and across groups. In V. C. McLoyd& L. Steinberg (Eds.), Studying minority adolescents(pp. 89-109). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
39.
Resnicow, K., Ross-Gaddy, D., & Vaughan, R. D. (1995). Structure of problem and positive behaviors in African American youths. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 594-603.
40.
Reynolds, A. J. (1998). Resilience among Black urban youth: Prevalence, intervention effects and mechanisms of influence. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68, 84-100.
41.
Samejima, F. (1996). Graded response model. InW. J. van der Liden& R. K. Hambleton (Eds.), Handbook of modern item response theory(pp. 85-100). New York: Springer.
42.
Scientific, Software, International. (2002). IRT from SSI: Bilog-MG, multilog, parscale and test facts. Lincolnwood, IL: Author.
43.
Segal. (1988). Teachers have an enormous power in effecting a child's self-esteem. Brown University Child Behavior and Development Newsletter, 4, 1-3.
44.
Singh, J. (2004). Tackling of measurement problems with item response theory: Principles, characteristics, and assessment, with an illustrative example. Journal of Business Research, 57, 184-208.
45.
Staples. (1999). The Black family: Essays and studies(6th ed.). Albany, NY: Wadsworth.
46.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
47.
Thissen, D. (2001). Software for the computation of the statistics involved in item response theory likelihood-ratio tests for differential item functioning. Unpublished manuscript, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
48.
Vogt, D. S., King, D. W., & King, L. A. (2004). Focus groups in psychological assessment: Enhancing content validity by consulting members of the target population. Psychological Assessment, 16, 231-243.
49.
Werner, E. E. (1984, November). Resilient children. Young Children, pp. 68-72.
50.
Werner, E. E. (1993). Risk, resilience, and recovery: Perspectives from the Kunai longitudinal study. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 503-515.
51.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1992). Overcoming the odds: High risk children from birth to adulthood. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
52.
Zickar, M. J., & Drasgow, F. (1996). Detecting faking on a personality instrument using appropriateness measurement. Applied Psychological Measurement, 20, 71-87.
