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This commentary reflects on research studies included in this special issue, Black Lives Matter! Systems of Oppression Affecting Black Youth. A key finding in these studies is significance of developmental and social behavioral sciences to center systemic racism and oppression in studies of Black youth to more fully understand and explain how contextual factors and processes impact their everyday life experiences. This collection of papers offers insights and recommendations of ways advance research studies by expanding research to include upstream policies and practices and explain their roles in perpetuating oppression and discrimination. Applying multi‐socio‐ecological theoretical frameworks may demonstrate effective pathways to reduce environmental toxins that hinder positive health and well‐being for adolescents, their families, and communities.

ObjectiveTo identify pathways through which African American families successfully negotiate and navigate stressful life events to facilitate positive family functioning, relationships, and healthy developmental outcomes in their children.BackgroundDespite the advancement of African Americans since passing of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, racism remains a major stressor that affects everyday life experiences of 21st‐century African American families. Little is known about the cascading effects of race‐related exposure on processes in African American families, nor about what promotes healthy functioning among African American families.MethodThree waves of data on 867 families participating in the Family and Community Health Study were analyzed to identify pathways that forecast family functioning and developmental outcomes of youth as they transitioned from middle childhood to late adolescence.ResultsStressful life events heightened maternal depression and anxiety, which were associated with a more cynical and hostile worldview and poorer quality of family relations. Parenting practices and family relationship quality were linked with children's self‐pride, which was closely associated with more optimistic worldview. Self‐pride was also associated with future aspirations among youth, and future‐oriented youth tended to engage in fewer self‐harm behaviors as they transitioned from middle childhood to early adolescence.ConclusionReframing one's life situation, despite exposure to racial discrimination, serves a protective function for African American families. Exerting a sense of agency, internal will, capacity, and strength are effective strategies to transcend adversities.ImplicationsThat positive worldview can render more manageable family outcomes for African Americans, regardless of socioeconomic status, is worth considering in research, clinical practice, and preventive interventions.

Results from this study of 1,666 African American high school graduates' life experiences showed that a significant proportion of adolescent mothers were more successful than conventional stereotypes suggest Several had obtained professional jobs, had middle-income status, and were pursuing additional educational training. The author used data from the National Survey of Family Growth Cycle IV to examine a sample stratified by sexual activity and fertility timing: 474 virgins (28.5%), 570 never-pregnants (34.1%), 65 ever-pregnants (4%), and 557 adolescent mothers (33.4%). Across groups, most of the women had never married, with virgins and adolescent mothers the least likely to be in marital relationships. Of the four groups, virgins reported higher educational, financial, and occupational advancement. Implications for future research, education, and policy are discussed.

This article explored the implications of diverse family structures on adolescents' adjustment, with an emphasis on whether and, if so, how diverse family structures influence and predict developmental outcomes. Family relationships within the family unit are a stronger predictor of adolescents' development than the particular family structure. Transitions in families that result in notable reductions in effective parenting practices and economic well‐being will negatively affect youth, regardless of family structure. Family processes that promote optimal growth and development among youth in traditional two‐parent, heterosexual households work similarly for those growing up in nontraditional family structures. A conceptual model to advance this field of research is offered, and implications for research and policy are discussed.

Health inequities, social determinants, and intersectionality / Nancy Lopez and Vivian L. Gadsden -- Life span and legal/policy research as dual focuses for identifying and implementing opportunities to realize health equity / Patrick H. Tolan, Velma McBride Murry, Angela Diaz, and Robert Seidel -- Challenges and promise of health equity for native Hawaiians / Noreen Mokuau, Patrick H. DeLeon, Joseph Keawe'aimoku Kaholokula, Sade Soares, Joann U. Tsark, And Coti Haia -- Expulsion and suspension in early education as matters of social justice and health equity / Shantel E. Meek and Walter S. Gilliam -- Stories about black men in the media and their consequesnces for health / Karen E. Dill-Shackleford, Srividya Ramasubramanian, and Lawrence M. Drake II -- The character assassination of black males : some consequences for research in public health / Alford Young, Jr -- Promoting positive development, health, and social justice through dismantling genetic determinism / Richard M. Lerner -- Principles of adolescent/young-adult-friendly care : contribution to reducing health disparities and increasing health equity / Angela Diaz and Ken Peake -- Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in African American communities : continuing the quest for prevention / Carl C. Bell -- Crisis urgent dispatch : calling on leadership to respond to violence in black neighborhoods / Sharon Toomer and Raquel Mack -- Lessons for health equity : military medicine as a window to universal health insurance / Jeff Hutchinson, Raquel Mack, Tracey Perez Koehlmoos, and Patrick H. DeLeon -- Philosophical perspectives on social justice : a framework for discussing a children, youth, and families health policy/research agenda / Robert Seidel, Patrick H. Tolan, Velma McBride Murry, and Angela Diaz

AbstractMuch of what happens inside Black families involves spillover effects and consequences of macro‐level stressors. Racism is a major stressor that cascades through Black families' lives, with detrimental consequences for their everyday life experiences. To understand ways in which Black families successfully navigate social, environment, and cultural pressures and constraints, we sought to gain insight into these processes by conducting a systematic, deep excavation, in order to (a) critically examine the adequacy and accuracy of traditional frameworks used to study stress in Black American families, (b) determine whether the studies of stress in Black families in the era of the first Black family in the White House stimulated new areas of research, and (c) advance the field of stress research in general and for Black Americans, in particular, by proposing a heuristic model anchored in a historical, contextual, life‐span perspective, with emphasis on culturally specific strengths‐based coping adaptation.

Functional changes in rural African American single‐mother‐headed families after the implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families were explored from an ecological risk–protection perspective. The sample included 96 single mothers who received government assistance and their 10‐ or 11‐year‐old children. Links among maternal employment status, mothers' physical health and psychological functioning, parenting, and children's attributions about the causes of poverty were examined. Maternal psychological distress was linked with children's attributions about the causes of poverty, both directly and indirectly through its association with parenting. Children who did not attribute poverty to social causes had higher academic goals than did those who attributed poverty to social, economic, or political barriers. Further research is needed on barriers to employment and the influence of maternal psychological functioning on parenting.

AbstractWe use Hamilton's (1999) tripartite conception of the positive youth development (PYD) literature – that is, PYD as a theoretical construct, PYD as a frame for program design, and PYD as an instance of specific youth development programs – as a framework for reviewing scholarship involved in the PYD field across the second decade of the 21st century. Advances were made in all three domains and, as well, new issues emerged; chief among them was a focus on the promotion of social justice. We discuss ways in which social justice issues are being addressed within each of these domains and we present a vision for enhancing the PYD‐social justice relation in future scholarship involving theory, research, program design, and community‐based PYD programs.