Coloring the "Boys Will be Boys" Chronicle: Gender, Race, and Early Childhood Behavior Problems Across Two Decades

Jayanti Owens, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Policy.

Rates of school suspensions have doubled in the U.S. since the 1970s. Increases have been largest among African American boys, resulting in larger gender gaps in school suspension among African American boys and girls, compared to those among Whites, Hispanics, and Asians. Despite significant implications for African American boys’ growing educational and economic disadvantage, neither the extent nor the origins of their growing disadvantage are understood. In this talk, Owens will discuss results from a study where she leverages consistent behavioral scales from two nationally-representative datasets -- the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child Supplement and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort -- to investigate whether there have also been concurrent shifts in mothers' ratings of the early childhood behavior problems that are key predictors of school suspension. She finds that African American mothers report a worsening in the behavior problems of even their sons with very low levels of early behavior problems. The presence of a younger brother is uniquely implicated, accounting for the vast majority of the higher behavior problem ratings among African American boys compared to girls. She will raise some possible explanations for this finding, including heightened scrutiny and policing of even the best-behaved African American boys’ behaviors beginning in early childhood. She will also discuss consequences for African American males' well-being and educational prospects, and implications for social inequality in the United States.

“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress.

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