Using a longitudinal data set partially assembled from previous research, this project focuses (a) on how black as compared to white families support their children's cognitive and affective development and (b) on how minority/majority families in turn respond to children's cognitive and affective development. The research has two parallel components: (1) in the early years continuing to assemble data for the panel of students in grades 7, 8, and 9 who were earlier followed over the first 6 grades, and (2) analyzing data on these students for grades 1 through 6, and then extending the analysis to cover all 9 grades. The archive consists of information obtained directly from a random sample of Baltimore parents and children who are representative of all socioeconomic levels. Social structural variables include: ethnicity, family configuration, segregated/integrated schools attended, parent education and employment status, and others. Ethnicity effects can thus be studied net of socioeconomic status, family configuration and other factors often confounded with it. Children's cognitive development is tracked by semi-annual standardized test scores, periodic """"""""cognitive"""""""" tests, and teachers' marks. Children's affective development is tracked by repeated measures of self-image, locus of control, personal maturity, occupational and educational aspirations, efficacy feelings, perceptions of parents' beliefs, and others. Parallel measures of parent perceptions of school, their child's maturity, their child's ability, their own expectations and aspirations for the child, their own locus of control, and their feelings of stress are available. The general analytic strategy employs structural equation models. Particular attention would be paid to (a) how developmental processes of minority and majority youngsters differ, (b) how families help or hinder children negotiate transitions like school entry or school change; (c) the extent to which continuity or change characterizes the developmental trajectories of these """"""""typical"""""""" urban children; (d) how minority/majority children develop an academic self-image and sense of control, and especially how school performance shapes these aspects of development, (e) how children's development affects parents' responses to them. Understanding the social factors that shape """"""""normal"""""""" development is fundamental to providing environments in which all children can develop to their full potential, with family help.
