Rural Ethnic Minority Youth and Families in the United States Theory, Research, and Applications

This book explores the risk and protective factors of rural life and minority status for youth and their families. It provides innovative perspectives on well-documented developmental challenges (e.g., poverty and lack of resources) as well as insights into the benefits of familial and cultural strengths. Coverage includes recent theories in child development, empirical studies of rural minority populations, and leading-edge interventions for urgent issues. The volume presents a spectrum of opportunities for understanding and providing services for youth in the United States through the lens of a diverse collection of ethnic minority experiences in rural settings.

Topics featured in this volume include:

• Theoretical models focused on the intersection of ethnicity and rural settings.
• Family processes, child care, and early schooling in rural minority families.
• Promising strategies for conducting research with rural minority families.
• Strengths-based educational interventions in rural settings.
• Promoting supportive contexts for minority youth in low-resource rural communities.

Rural Ethnic Minority Youth and Families in the United States is a valuable resource for researchers and professors, clinicians and related professionals and graduate students across such disciplines as clinical child, school and developmental psychology, family studies, social work and public health.

Lisa J. Crockett, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is an expert on adolescent development, risk behavior, parenting and ethnic group differences. Her work on rural youth includes a 10-year longitudinal study extending from early adolescence to early adulthood and a study of the psychological, cultural and contextual factors that contribute to adjustment among Latino/a youth from rural and urban communities.  Her research has been funded by NIH and NSF and published in numerous journal articles and books. Her co-edited volumes include Negotiating Adolescence in Times of Social Change, Asian American Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Health Disparities in Families and Youth: Research and Applications.

Gustavo Carlo, Ph.D., is the Millsap Professor of Diversity and Multicultural Studies, the Director of the Center for Family Policy and Research and the Co-Director of the Center for Children and Families Across Cultures, at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. He is an expert on child and adolescent development, cultural studies, parenting, and personality. His research on prosocial competencies in diverse children and families has been published in well over 100 peer-reviewed articles and he has co-edited several volumes (e.g., Handbook of U.S. Latino Psychology; Health Disparities in Youth and Families: Research and Applications; Moral Development Across the Life Span). NSF and NIH have funded Dr. Carlo’s research. He has also worked on education programs and evaluation focusing on Latino/a children and is currently PI or Co-PI on several programs focusing on early childhood education in low-SES families.