March 2024Vol. 25, No. 2Webinar Explores Racism's Impact on Child Development
The intersection between policy, systemic inequalities, racial disparities, and children’s health and development is the topic of a recent webinar hosted by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
In this 1-hour recorded webinar, Dr. Stephanie Curenton, associate professor in the Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Department at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development and the director of the Center on the Ecology of Early Development, leads a conversation with a diverse panel of experts that explores how racism gets “under the skin” to impact children’s development and contributes to inequity in the places where children live and grow.
Dr. Curenton and the following panelists share their latest research and strategize ways to dismantle systemic barriers and promote healthy child development:
- Dr. Nathaniel Hartnett, director of the Neurobiology of Affective and Traumatic Experiences Laboratory at McLean Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
- Dr. Mavis Sanders, senior research scholar of Black children and families at Child Trends
- Dr. Natalie Slopen, assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The webinar is part of the Place Matters Webinar Series, which expands upon the Center’s work to understand how influences from our environments play a role in shaping early childhood development beginning before birth. It highlights scientific and community expertise and offers strategies to work towards fairness of place and create conditions that encourage children to thrive.
Access the webinar “Understanding Racism’s Impact on Child Development: Working Toward Fairness of Place in the United States” to learn more.
Related item: We highlight the Harvard paper Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development in the Child Welfare Research section of this issue of CBX.
