B L Letiecq
Biographic Data
| ID | 51383 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B L Letiecq |
| GIVEN NAMES | B L |
| FAMILY NAME | Letiecq |
| SIGNATURE | LETIECQ B L |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Mason University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3330-8971 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 202 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Immigration‐related stress, depression, and positive parenting among undocumented Central American immigrant mothers
Family‐Led Systems Change for Equity in Early Care and Education
Families who experience structural marginalization are experts on how oppression manifests in their everyday lives and how systems reproduce inequities. They are often most motivated to transform systems for their liberation and, we argue, should be empowered to drive systems change. Yet, frameworks to guide such transformative, family‐led efforts remain nascent. This article details the development of the Critical Family Partnership Framework th…
Fighting for justice in the neoliberal university
“The spirit of a fighter”
Theorizing White heteropatriarchal supremacy, marriage fundamentalism, and the mechanisms that maintain family inequality
In this article, I draw upon critical feminist and intersectional frameworks to delineate an overarching orientation to structural oppression and unequal power relations that advantages White heteropatriarchal nuclear families (WHNFs) and marginalizes others as a function of family structure and relationship status. Specifically, I theorize that marriage fundamentalism, like structural racism, is a key structuring element of White heteropatriarch…
Good Trouble in the Time of Covid-19
The rapid circulation of COVID-19 misinformation posed one of the most vexing challenges to health communication scholars and practitioners during the pandemic. Within the communication field, our response to health misinformation has often focused on shoring up public trust in scientific knowledge and amplifying institutional expertise. But this strategy of rebuilding public trust in institutions has a serious weakness: it requires the leaders o…
Publicly housed Black mothers' experiences of structural racism in their everyday lives
Objective Drawing upon critical race and feminist theories, the objective of this qualitative study was to understand, through Black mothers' narratives, how structural racism operates within a public housing system located on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. Background Structural racism has been identified as a root cause of racialized housing segregation, concentrated poverty, and health inequity—factors that disproportionately affect Black mo…
Central American immigrant mothers' narratives of intersecting oppressions
Objective In partnership with Central American mothers, the objective of this study was to engage in the coproduction of a resistant knowledge project, delineating how racialized and gendered structural oppression in the context of illegality conditioned mothers' opportunities to work, live, and do family in an immigrant enclave in the Washington, D.C. region. Background While there is significant research describing Central American mother's exp…
Interlinking structural racism and heteropatriarchy
In the field of family science and in the broader family policy discourse, debate is ongoing about the importance of family structure for child outcomes. Missing from this debate is a full integration of how the foundational pillars of White supremacy, namely structural racism and heteropatriarchy, impact both family formation and child outcomes, especially among diversely configured Black families. From a critical intersectional lens, we argue t…
A place where my children could learn to read, write, and play’
Grandmothers raising their transgender grandchildren
This exploratory study builds upon previous research relating to grandparents of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) youth by investigating the experiences of 2 affirming grandmothers raising their transgender granddaughters (age 6 years at T1). Participants reported experiences similar to those reported by affirming parents of TGD children, such as facing resistance from their communities when affirming the children’s gender identities. Similar…
Central American Immigrant Mothers' Mental Health in the Context of Illegality
Using a community-based participatory research approach, we surveyed 134 undocumented Central American immigrant mothers to examine correlates of maternal mental health. Drawing upon an ecosystemic framework, predictors of depression included structural and familial stressors, parental concerns, and maternal health factors. Mothers' perceptions of child affect, traumatic stress, and general health ratings were among the most salient predictors. H…
Surfacing Family Privilege and Supremacy in Family Science
In family science, a great deal of scholarly work has focused on marginalized and disadvantaged families with stated goals of improving family outcomes and well‐being. Yet little attention has been paid to family privilege and the ways in which the advantages of privileged families are maintained within a White heteronormative hegemonic society to the continued disadvantage of others. In this article, I define family privilege and consider how it…
An Integrated Model of Family Strengths and Resilience
In this article, we theorize a new conceptual framework of family strengths and resilience emerging at the intersection of indigenous and Western approaches to family systems. Our work acknowledges that there are universal tenets pertaining to family and family relations within many cultural paradigms, yet few family theories have included or integrated an indigenous lens. Here, we draw on ecosystemic and “wheel of life” worldviews to guide our w…
Rural Native and European American Custodial Grandparents
Parenting Across Two Worlds
This study explored how low-income documented and undocumented Latina immigrant mothers negotiate motherhood and adapt to life in new cultural and structural contexts. Grounded in ecocultural theory, we analyzed data from 21 in-depth interviews with Latina immigrant mothers to surface how their experiences of motherhood in the United States were shaped by their country of origin experiences and their situatedness in the United States. We document…
Immigrant Family Resilience in Context
Immigrant families settling in the United States face pressures to acculturate and become self‐sufficient, yet their lives are highly regulated by restrictive and punitive policies and programs that may hinder their ability to cope with exposure to trauma and to build resilience. We theorize that U.S. policies and practices may exacerbate immigration‐related trauma experiences and/or create new traumas and stressors for families. To demonstrate o…
Depression Among Mexican Men on the Migration Frontier
How Can You Retire When You Still Got a Kid in School?”
Increasingly, grandparents are being called on to rear their grandchildren when parents are unable or unwilling to fulfill their parenting role. These grandparent caregivers often find themselves in an economic bind. Financially, most are at a stage in life where they are looking toward retirement and reduced family spending and are unprepared for their new economic reality as second-time-around caregivers. Here, we use a framework of family fina…
Community-based participatory research with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination
In this article, we offer our reflections on our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in partnership with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination of the Rocky Mountain West. To set the stage for our work, we first present the Montana migration context – a unique context in which the migrant community is hard to define, locate, and engage. Next, we present who we are and how we forged a partnership with Mexican migrants in Mon…
Family Coping and Adaptation Among Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren
Over the past decade, grandparent caregiving, in which grandparents take on the sole custody of their grandchildren without a parent present, has been one of the fastest growing family forms in the U.S. Most studies on grandparent caregiver functioning have focused on the challenges and deficits of grandfamilies. Little research has been conducted on the adaptive processes of grandparent caregivers and the coping mechanisms they employ to deal wi…
Depression Among Rural Native American and European American Grandparents Rearing Their Grandchildren
Increasing numbers of grandparents are rearing their grandchildren because of their adult children's inability to parent. Researchers have begun to document the mental health outcomes of grandparent caregivers in general, yet none have examined the mental health of Native American and European American grandparent caregivers residing in rural communities. To shed light on this topic, the current study examined relationships between degree of rura…
We Have No Rights, We Get No Help
Guided by an ecological perspective on family policy, this qualitative study used family life history interviews to document the legal and policy dilemmas faced by 26 grandparent caregivers residing in Montana. Most grandparents ( n = 18) were caring for their grandchildren in informal or private care arrangements. Findings revealed four legal or policy contexts that hindered informal grandparent caregiving, including the lack of a kinship care n…
Marital Quality in Interracial Relationships
African American/White interracial couples are a rapidly growing segment of the population. However, little is known about factors related to marital quality for these couples. The authors examine the relationships between sex role ideology, perception of relationship unfairness, and marital quality among a sample of 76 married African American/White interracial couples from the mid-Atlantic region. The results indicate that interracial couples a…
Special Reviewers
Interlinking structural racism and heteropatriarchy
In the field of family science and in the broader family policy discourse, debate is ongoing about the importance of family structure for child outcomes. Missing from this debate is a full integration of how the foundational pillars of White supremacy, namely structural racism and heteropatriarchy, impact both family formation and child outcomes, especially among diversely configured Black families. From a critical intersectional lens, we argue t…
Surfacing Family Privilege and Supremacy in Family Science
In family science, a great deal of scholarly work has focused on marginalized and disadvantaged families with stated goals of improving family outcomes and well‐being. Yet little attention has been paid to family privilege and the ways in which the advantages of privileged families are maintained within a White heteronormative hegemonic society to the continued disadvantage of others. In this article, I define family privilege and consider how it…
Parenting in Violent Neighborhoods
This qualitative study represents one of the first efforts to examine how African American fathers protect their children from community violence. Eighteen African American biological and 'social' fathers of preschoolersin the Washington, DC, metropolitan area participated in focus groups addressing parentingin violent neighborhoods. Fathers described seven protective strategies reflecting three major themes: monitoring children, educating childr…
Community-based participatory research with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination
In this article, we offer our reflections on our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in partnership with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination of the Rocky Mountain West. To set the stage for our work, we first present the Montana migration context – a unique context in which the migrant community is hard to define, locate, and engage. Next, we present who we are and how we forged a partnership with Mexican migrants in Mon…
Depression Among Rural Native American and European American Grandparents Rearing Their Grandchildren
Increasing numbers of grandparents are rearing their grandchildren because of their adult children's inability to parent. Researchers have begun to document the mental health outcomes of grandparent caregivers in general, yet none have examined the mental health of Native American and European American grandparent caregivers residing in rural communities. To shed light on this topic, the current study examined relationships between degree of rura…
We Have No Rights, We Get No Help
Guided by an ecological perspective on family policy, this qualitative study used family life history interviews to document the legal and policy dilemmas faced by 26 grandparent caregivers residing in Montana. Most grandparents ( n = 18) were caring for their grandchildren in informal or private care arrangements. Findings revealed four legal or policy contexts that hindered informal grandparent caregiving, including the lack of a kinship care n…
Immigrant Family Resilience in Context
Immigrant families settling in the United States face pressures to acculturate and become self‐sufficient, yet their lives are highly regulated by restrictive and punitive policies and programs that may hinder their ability to cope with exposure to trauma and to build resilience. We theorize that U.S. policies and practices may exacerbate immigration‐related trauma experiences and/or create new traumas and stressors for families. To demonstrate o…
Marital Quality in Interracial Relationships
African American/White interracial couples are a rapidly growing segment of the population. However, little is known about factors related to marital quality for these couples. The authors examine the relationships between sex role ideology, perception of relationship unfairness, and marital quality among a sample of 76 married African American/White interracial couples from the mid-Atlantic region. The results indicate that interracial couples a…
Predictors of Depression Among Low-Income, Nonresidential Fathers
This article investigates the life conditions that contribute to low-income fathers' depression and that may jeopardize their relationships with their children. This work is based on a cultural-ecological framework that emphasizes the need to understand these fathers within their larger familial and social contexts. The sample consisted of 127 predominantly African American participants in two urban and rural responsible fatherhood programs. Of t…
Family Coping and Adaptation Among Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren
Over the past decade, grandparent caregiving, in which grandparents take on the sole custody of their grandchildren without a parent present, has been one of the fastest growing family forms in the U.S. Most studies on grandparent caregiver functioning have focused on the challenges and deficits of grandfamilies. Little research has been conducted on the adaptive processes of grandparent caregivers and the coping mechanisms they employ to deal wi…
Parenting Across Two Worlds
This study explored how low-income documented and undocumented Latina immigrant mothers negotiate motherhood and adapt to life in new cultural and structural contexts. Grounded in ecocultural theory, we analyzed data from 21 in-depth interviews with Latina immigrant mothers to surface how their experiences of motherhood in the United States were shaped by their country of origin experiences and their situatedness in the United States. We document…
How Can You Retire When You Still Got a Kid in School?”
Increasingly, grandparents are being called on to rear their grandchildren when parents are unable or unwilling to fulfill their parenting role. These grandparent caregivers often find themselves in an economic bind. Financially, most are at a stage in life where they are looking toward retirement and reduced family spending and are unprepared for their new economic reality as second-time-around caregivers. Here, we use a framework of family fina…
Theorizing White heteropatriarchal supremacy, marriage fundamentalism, and the mechanisms that maintain family inequality
In this article, I draw upon critical feminist and intersectional frameworks to delineate an overarching orientation to structural oppression and unequal power relations that advantages White heteropatriarchal nuclear families (WHNFs) and marginalizes others as a function of family structure and relationship status. Specifically, I theorize that marriage fundamentalism, like structural racism, is a key structuring element of White heteropatriarch…
A place where my children could learn to read, write, and play’
Rural Native and European American Custodial Grandparents
Family‐Led Systems Change for Equity in Early Care and Education
Families who experience structural marginalization are experts on how oppression manifests in their everyday lives and how systems reproduce inequities. They are often most motivated to transform systems for their liberation and, we argue, should be empowered to drive systems change. Yet, frameworks to guide such transformative, family‐led efforts remain nascent. This article details the development of the Critical Family Partnership Framework th…
Marital quality of African American and white partners in interracial couples
In light of the growing number of interracial marriages in this country, the present study set out to examine the relative strength of one's racial identity, social support, and experience of discrimination in predicting interracial marriage quality. A total of 76 interracial couples (52 African American male/White female and 24 African American female/White male) participated in the study by completing mail surveys. Results revealed that for Afr…
Parenting in Violent Neighborhoods
This qualitative study represents one of the first efforts to examine how African American fathers protect their children from community violence. Eighteen African American biological and 'social' fathers of preschoolersin the Washington, DC, metropolitan area participated in focus groups addressing parentingin violent neighborhoods. Fathers described seven protective strategies reflecting three major themes: monitoring children, educating childr…
Special Reviewers
Predictors of Depression Among Low-Income, Nonresidential Fathers
This article investigates the life conditions that contribute to low-income fathers' depression and that may jeopardize their relationships with their children. This work is based on a cultural-ecological framework that emphasizes the need to understand these fathers within their larger familial and social contexts. The sample consisted of 127 predominantly African American participants in two urban and rural responsible fatherhood programs. Of t…
Marital Quality in Interracial Relationships
African American/White interracial couples are a rapidly growing segment of the population. However, little is known about factors related to marital quality for these couples. The authors examine the relationships between sex role ideology, perception of relationship unfairness, and marital quality among a sample of 76 married African American/White interracial couples from the mid-Atlantic region. The results indicate that interracial couples a…
Depression Among Rural Native American and European American Grandparents Rearing Their Grandchildren
Increasing numbers of grandparents are rearing their grandchildren because of their adult children's inability to parent. Researchers have begun to document the mental health outcomes of grandparent caregivers in general, yet none have examined the mental health of Native American and European American grandparent caregivers residing in rural communities. To shed light on this topic, the current study examined relationships between degree of rura…
We Have No Rights, We Get No Help
Guided by an ecological perspective on family policy, this qualitative study used family life history interviews to document the legal and policy dilemmas faced by 26 grandparent caregivers residing in Montana. Most grandparents ( n = 18) were caring for their grandchildren in informal or private care arrangements. Findings revealed four legal or policy contexts that hindered informal grandparent caregiving, including the lack of a kinship care n…
Family Coping and Adaptation Among Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren
Over the past decade, grandparent caregiving, in which grandparents take on the sole custody of their grandchildren without a parent present, has been one of the fastest growing family forms in the U.S. Most studies on grandparent caregiver functioning have focused on the challenges and deficits of grandfamilies. Little research has been conducted on the adaptive processes of grandparent caregivers and the coping mechanisms they employ to deal wi…
Community-based participatory research with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination
In this article, we offer our reflections on our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in partnership with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination of the Rocky Mountain West. To set the stage for our work, we first present the Montana migration context – a unique context in which the migrant community is hard to define, locate, and engage. Next, we present who we are and how we forged a partnership with Mexican migrants in Mon…
Depression Among Mexican Men on the Migration Frontier
How Can You Retire When You Still Got a Kid in School?”
Increasingly, grandparents are being called on to rear their grandchildren when parents are unable or unwilling to fulfill their parenting role. These grandparent caregivers often find themselves in an economic bind. Financially, most are at a stage in life where they are looking toward retirement and reduced family spending and are unprepared for their new economic reality as second-time-around caregivers. Here, we use a framework of family fina…
Immigrant Family Resilience in Context
Immigrant families settling in the United States face pressures to acculturate and become self‐sufficient, yet their lives are highly regulated by restrictive and punitive policies and programs that may hinder their ability to cope with exposure to trauma and to build resilience. We theorize that U.S. policies and practices may exacerbate immigration‐related trauma experiences and/or create new traumas and stressors for families. To demonstrate o…
Central American Immigrant Mothers' Mental Health in the Context of Illegality
Using a community-based participatory research approach, we surveyed 134 undocumented Central American immigrant mothers to examine correlates of maternal mental health. Drawing upon an ecosystemic framework, predictors of depression included structural and familial stressors, parental concerns, and maternal health factors. Mothers' perceptions of child affect, traumatic stress, and general health ratings were among the most salient predictors. H…
Surfacing Family Privilege and Supremacy in Family Science
In family science, a great deal of scholarly work has focused on marginalized and disadvantaged families with stated goals of improving family outcomes and well‐being. Yet little attention has been paid to family privilege and the ways in which the advantages of privileged families are maintained within a White heteronormative hegemonic society to the continued disadvantage of others. In this article, I define family privilege and consider how it…
An Integrated Model of Family Strengths and Resilience
In this article, we theorize a new conceptual framework of family strengths and resilience emerging at the intersection of indigenous and Western approaches to family systems. Our work acknowledges that there are universal tenets pertaining to family and family relations within many cultural paradigms, yet few family theories have included or integrated an indigenous lens. Here, we draw on ecosystemic and “wheel of life” worldviews to guide our w…
Rural Native and European American Custodial Grandparents
Parenting Across Two Worlds
This study explored how low-income documented and undocumented Latina immigrant mothers negotiate motherhood and adapt to life in new cultural and structural contexts. Grounded in ecocultural theory, we analyzed data from 21 in-depth interviews with Latina immigrant mothers to surface how their experiences of motherhood in the United States were shaped by their country of origin experiences and their situatedness in the United States. We document…
Grandmothers raising their transgender grandchildren
This exploratory study builds upon previous research relating to grandparents of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) youth by investigating the experiences of 2 affirming grandmothers raising their transgender granddaughters (age 6 years at T1). Participants reported experiences similar to those reported by affirming parents of TGD children, such as facing resistance from their communities when affirming the children’s gender identities. Similar…
A place where my children could learn to read, write, and play’
Central American immigrant mothers' narratives of intersecting oppressions
Objective In partnership with Central American mothers, the objective of this study was to engage in the coproduction of a resistant knowledge project, delineating how racialized and gendered structural oppression in the context of illegality conditioned mothers' opportunities to work, live, and do family in an immigrant enclave in the Washington, D.C. region. Background While there is significant research describing Central American mother's exp…
Interlinking structural racism and heteropatriarchy
In the field of family science and in the broader family policy discourse, debate is ongoing about the importance of family structure for child outcomes. Missing from this debate is a full integration of how the foundational pillars of White supremacy, namely structural racism and heteropatriarchy, impact both family formation and child outcomes, especially among diversely configured Black families. From a critical intersectional lens, we argue t…
Good Trouble in the Time of Covid-19
The rapid circulation of COVID-19 misinformation posed one of the most vexing challenges to health communication scholars and practitioners during the pandemic. Within the communication field, our response to health misinformation has often focused on shoring up public trust in scientific knowledge and amplifying institutional expertise. But this strategy of rebuilding public trust in institutions has a serious weakness: it requires the leaders o…
Publicly housed Black mothers' experiences of structural racism in their everyday lives
Objective Drawing upon critical race and feminist theories, the objective of this qualitative study was to understand, through Black mothers' narratives, how structural racism operates within a public housing system located on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. Background Structural racism has been identified as a root cause of racialized housing segregation, concentrated poverty, and health inequity—factors that disproportionately affect Black mo…
Fighting for justice in the neoliberal university
“The spirit of a fighter”
Sociology (20 works) · Political science (18 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (9 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (9 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Immigration (7 works) · Law (7 works)