Author Archives: Jamar Little

Prosocial Peers as Risk, Protective, and Promotive Factors for the Prevention of Delinquency and Drug Use

Risk, protective, and promotive factors are instrumental in predicting and, in some cases, explaining human behavior. In the current study, an attempt was made to determine which of these three functions prosocial peers served with respect their effect on future … Read More

There’s a Place: How Parents Help Their Children Create a Capacity for Playfulness and can it be Sustained across the Lifespan

This article traces the ways that playfulness shifts and grows with the child and with the parent-child dyad. It also speaks to the paradoxical manner in which feeling essential as a parent is both necessary at the beginning of the … Read More

Supporting a Positive Racial Identity for Black, Indigenous, and Other Children of Color in Transracial Placements with White Parents

Part 1: Setting the stage This guide is designed to help parent group leaders facilitate discussions with their groups about their responsibilities as they parent children of color. These discussions will specifically help white parents and caregivers understand their critical … Read More

Supporting the School Readiness and Success of Young African American Boys Project: Reflections on a Culturally Responsive Strength-Based Approach

The Office of Head Start (OHS) is committed to programming that reflects culturally responsive, strength-based practices for ALL children birth to five and their families. Quality programming in Head Start and other early childhood programs incorporates knowledge of and respect … Read More

When Forced Marriage and Human Trafficking Intersect

What is Forced Marriage? Forced marriage occurs when one or both parties do not or cannot give consent to be married and in which there is force, fraud, or coercion. This coercion can manifest as physical, emotional, psychological, cultural, or … Read More

Rethinking Protection: Raising the Bar on Legal & Economic Protections for Survivors & Children

The legal structure that undergirds child welfare creates challenges to the safety and well-being of survivors of domestic violence and their children. Mandatory reporting creates a vast surveillance system of low-income children and families, who are disproportionately Black and Indigenous … Read More

An Approach to Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting in Cases of Questionable Confessions

Introduction The hypothetical case introduces the complex ethical and legal implications of physicians as mandatory reporters when treating patients with mental illness. When a patient with reality challenges (e.g., psychosis, mania, or delirium) endorses having sexual contact with minors, how … Read More

Rethinking Protection: Innovating to Advance Safety, Well-being, and Justice

Child welfare system responses to families experiencing domestic violence (DV) and child maltreatment are based largely on the premise that children need to be rescued from the parent(s) who have “failed to protect” them. This understanding of the problem justifies … Read More

Rethinking Protection: Keeping Domestic Violence Survivors Out of Child Welfare

In many states, mandated reporters are trained to report any and all concerns about a child’s exposure to domestic violence (DV) to the child protection system. Even in states where reporters have somewhat more discretion, child protection systems accept large … Read More

Audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Handling of Tips of Hands-on Sex Offenses Against Children

Introduction In July 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report on the Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Handling of Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Former USA … Read More