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Preyer Distinguished Professor
Principal Investigator, Promoting Academic Success (Boys of Color)
Oscar Barbarin is the L.Richardson and Emily Preyer Bicentennial Distinguished Professor for Strengthening Families in the School of Social Work and a Fellow of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Barbarin’s work has focused on understanding the roles that families play in preschool child competence, including the links between home and school, the early learning needs of African American children and families, early childhood mental health, ethnic and gender-based achievement gaps, and the factors associated with and outcomes of preschool quality. In addition, Dr. Barbarin collaborated on a lengthy longitudinal study of child development in South Africa beginning after the end of Apartheid, including publishing a book in 2001, Mandela’s Children: Child development in post-Apartheid South Africa. Currently he is leading intervention studies targeting the academic needs of boys of color and their families. Dr. Barbarin recently organized and led the International Conference: Developmental Science and Early Schooling, sponsored by the Society for Research in Child Development and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute which involved presentation and discussion of issues of translating developmental research into educational practice. Dr. Barbarin received his B.A. from St. Joseph’s Seminary College, a M.A. from New York University in Counseling Psychology, and a M.S. in psychology and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Rutgers University. He was a post-doctoral fellow in Social Psychology at Stanford University. Before joining the faculty at North Carolina he was a Professor of Psychology, Professor of Social Work and Director of the University Center for the Child and the Family in the Graduate School at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
He is currently the Principal Investigator for PAS, a 5 year intervention project to reduce the achievement gap and promote academic achievement of boys of color. This work involves collaboration with school districts in Michigan, Illinois, Florida and North Carolina. This current work involves a multi-systemic intervention focusing on parental practices, development of teachers to work with boys of color, mentoring, after- , weekend and summer programs and moral/character development. Previously He collaborated on a longitudinal study of the effects of parental academic practices and publicly sponsored pre-k programs on early socio-emotional and academic development.
He is a Past President of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, a Fellow in APA’s Division 27 Society for Community Research and Action and an elected member of the Governing Council for the Society For Research in Child Development.
From 1979 to 2000 he trained undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology, School of Social Work and the Center for Afro-American and African Studies. Over the years he has taught a variety of courses in Social Work, Psychology and the Institute for Social Research ICPSR Summer Research Training program in areas reflecting his research interest in Africa, African American Children and Families, early emotional and academic development, health and mental health.
His research on African American children and families has explored the effects of social risks on mental health. One aspect of his work is the development of screening tools for the early detection of factors that interfere with the academic and psychological adjustment of children. He weds research with concern about its application. He has collaborated with organizations such as Head Start in Detroit and Boysville of Michigan to improve their services to African American and Latino communities. He continues to collaborate on cross national research in South Africa and the United States on Adversity and Social Development of children to advance understanding of the role of specific social risks in the development of behavioral, emotional, self-regulatory, attentional and social problems in young children.
Research and Professional Interests
- Academic success of boys of color
- Effects of early childhood programs and family life on Learning and social development;
- Development of Culturally sensitive methods for early detection and prevention of emotional and behavioral problems of young children.
- Cross national research on effects of poverty on the social emotional and academic development of children of African descent particularly in South Africa and United States.
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