Papers by Margaret Spencer
Development and Psychopathology, Sep 19, 2023
Moving more deeply into the 21st century and acknowledging the ongoing patterned needs of childre... more Moving more deeply into the 21st century and acknowledging the ongoing patterned needs of children, there continues to be broadly voiced sentiments about the importance of all children's thriving, adaptive coping, and resiliency. This paper notes that social science more broadly and developmental science specifically is a major resource determinative of the nature of remedies conceptualized, designed, and implemented. Evident is that the harms experienced by children and the solutions implemented by delivery systems are frequently unaligned. Efficacy and impact do not appear to be improved by multisystem integration delivery. This paper explores the benefits of incorporating inclusive and shared human development theory. As well, it examines the need to question the character virtue of the multisystem integration efforts intended to afford supportive solutions required for youths' thriving and resiliency. Specifically, it addresses whether democratic and equity relevant character values are integrated into public and privately funded intended supportive systems. The position taken is that whether considered under conditions of trauma illustrated by the global COVID pandemic or the efficacy of systems intended to aid the most vulnerable youngsters, the character of the content of support and its delivery matter and can benefit from inclusive human development interrogation and theorizing.
Research in Human Development, 2019
Using multiple regression analysis and Pearson's R, the current exploratory study of 89 African A... more Using multiple regression analysis and Pearson's R, the current exploratory study of 89 African American male adolescents (M = 12.5 years old) examined relationships among REI (i.e., 20 as a socialization product of identity formation processes), prosocial behaviors (i.e., represented as supportive behavioral orientation in response to stress), and aggression (i.e., a reactive coping strategy). Significant relationships among racial public regard, age, and verbal aggression emerged. Older adolescents believed that other people have lower regard for their race, and this predicted an increase in verbal aggression. These findings demonstrate the importance of understanding contextual factors when examining outcomes.
Development and psychopathology, Mar 25, 2024
Since its launch in a 1984 Special Issue of Child Development, significant contributions and insi... more Since its launch in a 1984 Special Issue of Child Development, significant contributions and insights have followed that have expanded our understanding of psychopathology and normal human growth and development. Despite these efforts, there are persistent and underanalyzed skewed patterns of vulnerability across and within groups. The persistence of a motivated forgetfulness to acknowledge citizens' uneven access to resources and supports, or as stated elsewhere, "inequality presence denial," is, at minimum, a policy, social and health practice problem. This article will examine some of these issues from the standpoint of a universal human vulnerability perspective. It also investigates sources of resistance to acknowledging and responding to the scholarship production problem of uneven representations of basic human development research versus psychopathology preoccupations by race. Collectively, findings suggest interesting "patchwork" patterns of particular cultural repertoires as ordinary social and scholarly traditions.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jun 30, 2023
Development and Psychopathology, Mar 23, 2021
Edward Zigler's groundbreaking research on child development resulted in the historic Head St... more Edward Zigler's groundbreaking research on child development resulted in the historic Head Start program. It is useful to examine the theoretical implications of his work by applying a human development theoretical perspective. Phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) is a strengths-based theoretical framework that engages the variability of resource access and coping strategies that promote positive identity development for diverse children. While skill acquisition is a key focus of human capital theory's engagement of early childhood needs, this article highlights the on-going status of human vulnerability that undergirds identity development over the life course. The authors note that “inequality presence denial” combines with high-risk contexts, framed by geography and psychohistoric moments (e.g., The Great Recession, COVID-19), to alter diverse children's developmental pathways. The acknowledgement of “morbid risk” motivates the urgency for research that builds upon Zigler's innovations and privileges human development imperatives. The case study explores these concepts by examining the challenges and assets available to mothers in a low-income community. The article's closing notes developments in the field of economics that ameliorate human capital theory's conceptual limitations, underscoring human development's theoretical strength in motivating research and policies that are maximally responsive to children's positive identity development.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Aug 18, 2022
Child Development at the Intersection of Race and SES, 2019
This chapter's goal is to interrogate the intersectional significance of race and socioeconom... more This chapter's goal is to interrogate the intersectional significance of race and socioeconomic status for children of varied statuses of human vulnerability. It provides a context-connected, culture acknowledging, systems model and identity formation perspective. This strategy is ideal for delineating behavioral consistencies (and interpreting inconsistencies). When operationalized with programming opportunities, it accommodates the nation's diversity and aids the interpretation of findings. This chapter is divided into several sections: First, it interrogates critical insights afforded by a "resiliency-vulnerability" approach; second, it draws attention to the roles of culture, culturally competent practices, and justice-informed contexts for children's perception-based "meaning making" as each-increasingly with age-navigates multiple social ecologies. Third, it shifts to and emphasizes the intersectionally relevant factors of race (e.g., identifiability and skin color stereotyping) and socioeconomic status (i.e., both low resourced and privileging situations); and following a synthesis of the previous sections-as Section 4-it then frames the cumulative and integrated conceptual strategy (phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory: PVEST). In Section 5, the chapter presents theory-focused exemplars to illustrate the theory's efficacy, which are followed by results of two recent preliminary application projects. Salient is that the two projects presenting preliminary findings add to and afford important child development insights salient as strategies for neutralizing intersectionality effects and maximizing resiliency outcomes. To sum, synthesizing several decades of scholarship, theorizing, contemporary research and programming application efforts, the handbook chapter concludes with suggested strategies for creating more informed policies and practices relevant to all children's overall resiliency, healthy development and well-being.
Journal of Adolescence, Jun 1, 1988
The study was concerned with dele .... ~atlonshfp of economic diversity to stress reactivity, Par... more The study was concerned with dele .... ~atlonshfp of economic diversity to stress reactivity, Parenta~ etence and hehavioural problems were obtained for following a long-term and highly acute stress: t[ youth murders. Intellectual and identity.formation dat~ obtained both before and after the crisis were ¢,'tth the parental ratl gs of youth thee and behavioural Consistent socmeconom!c" status links between the mediated by socioeconomic status and psychological factors. INTROD UCTION The concept of adaptation)nvolv :s adjustment to novel or new conditions. Historical accounts and contem~rary statistics su st a legacy of chronic untoward experiential cond t~ons for minority group rnem~rs. The issu~ are consistent with thc~se raised by Toff!er (r97o) who delineated the stre~ and disorientation accompanying rapid satin{ chan~. The need for a simultaneous focus on socio-eultural concerns, histoficM conditions, biologieaI determinants and psychol~ical outcom~ has been described as an important perspective for understanding life course experiences and outcomes (Lerner artd Spanier, ~98o, p. 7)-The relationships are dyrmmie and ir~eractive, although they are seldom discussed in e i' " tke~ terms from an mp rlcat research perspecuve. Bronfenbrenner (x977) and Garbarino's (I982) ecoiogiea| focus has been he|pful in describing the Reprint requests to
... DeFries. ... Broad, societal influences such as structural racism (Spencer, Harpalani, &a... more ... DeFries. ... Broad, societal influences such as structural racism (Spencer, Harpalani, & DeIl'Angelo, 2002) and racial stereotyping (Harpalani, 1999) are filtered through macrosystems to impact the development and experiences of minority youth; regardless of their Page 93. ...
... Login to save citations to My List. Citation. Database: PsycINFO. [Chapter]. Challenges in st... more ... Login to save citations to My List. Citation. Database: PsycINFO. [Chapter]. Challenges in studying minority youth. At the threshold: The developing adolescent. Spencer, Margaret Beale; Dornbusch, Sanford M. Feldman, S. Shirley (Ed); Elliott, Glen R. (Ed), (1990). ...
Advances in Education in Diverse Communities: Research, Policy and Praxis, Mar 11, 2005
... Blendon, Aiken, Freeman, and Corey (1989) found significant Black-White disparities in access... more ... Blendon, Aiken, Freeman, and Corey (1989) found significant Black-White disparities in access to health care. ... Mondragon (1993) posited that the focus in health intervention for minorities should be contextual rather than individual. ...
Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2017
Routledge eBooks, Feb 17, 2015
Psychology Press eBooks, Apr 15, 2013
Beginnings. Understanding and Diagnosis. Mapping. Alliance. Focus. History Taking: How Much is En... more Beginnings. Understanding and Diagnosis. Mapping. Alliance. Focus. History Taking: How Much is Enough? Encounter, Conversation, and Patient Activity: Engaging Ourselves and the Patient in the Process. What Material is Important? How Can We Be Sure? Trial Interventions and Feedback. Symptoms as Solutions: Four Models of Underlying Developmental Disruption. What Has Gone Right? Strengths and Resilience. The Structural Weaknesses Model. The Trauma Model. The Maladaptive Character Model. The Conflicts and Splits Model. Helping the Patient Form an Alliance: Mapping Paths of Trust and Repair. Perception and Conclusions: Reality Testing and Reasoning. Dysregulation, Resilience, and Stability: The Maturation of Emotional Balance. Developing Our Ability to Connect: The Maturation of Relatedness. Developing Our Place in the World: The Maturation of Moral Sense. Respecting the Psychological Costs of Change. The Patient's Learning Style. The Power of Expectations: Their Influence on Focus, Modality, and Style. Modalities. Priorities and Treatment Episodes. Am I the Right Person?
American Psychological Association eBooks, 2000
Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Jan 21, 2022
This article highlights the invisible power those in racial and gendered privilege continue to ho... more This article highlights the invisible power those in racial and gendered privilege continue to hold in the contemporary United States and the harmful psychological effects of this power on both those it oppresses and, importantly, those who wield it. A lack of empathy and an inability for compassion arise in individuals holding sociopolitical and cultural power, and we highlight how this psychological condition is qualifiable as psychosis and question why it has not been discussed as such in the literature until now. We also, however, bring attention to the invisible psychological power that marginalized populations in the United States hold, invisible because it has been left largely unrecognized by mainstream cultural forces. By centering the ways American cultural minorities successfully navigate multiply oppressive structural systems, we conclude with a reflection on how intersectional feminism can offer a philosophical lens through which to mitigate the unhealthy developmental outcomes and effects of White heteronormative male power.
SAGE Publications, Inc. eBooks, May 15, 2012
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Papers by Margaret Spencer