Nneka Ibekwe‐Okafor
Biographic Data
| ID | 5145000 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nneka Ibekwe‐Okafor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nneka |
| FAMILY NAME | Ibekwe‐Okafor |
| SIGNATURE | OKAFOR N I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6587-3481 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Beyond Risk and Deficit Perspectives
Early childhood policy in the United States is largely organized around identifying and mitigating risk, often operationalized through standardized indicators such as poverty, adverse experiences, and academic vulnerability that shape how systems define need and allocate resources. Although this approach has generated important insights, it provides a partial, often deficit-focused, view of children's developmental contexts. Developmental science…
Beyond Direct Exposure
Investigating the Differential Effects of Early Child Care and Education in Reducing Gender and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps From Kindergarten to 8th Grade
We used the generalized propensity score method to estimate the differential effects of five Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) experiences (Prekindergarten, Head Start, Center-based Child Care, Home-based Child Care, and Parental Care) in reducing math and reading achievement gaps between boys versus girls, Latinx versus Whites, and Blacks versus Whites. Findings revealed differential effects of ECCE in reducing gender and racial achievement …
Black Families’ Social and Cultural Capital During Covid
We used NVivo for inductive semantic coding of 619 Black caregivers’ qualitative responses from the RAPID Survey regarding about they were coping with the challenges of COVID-19. Kinship networks and religion/spirituality were the two most frequently mentioned coping strategies followed by government financial support (e.g. stimulus money, food stamps), workplace flexibility (e.g. working from home or taking time off), engaging in COVID-related h…
Introduction to the Supplemental Issue
The goal of this supplement is to expand the extant literature about racism's toxic effects on the nation's youngest children– infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The supplement contains articles that (a) focus on how racism is manifested in early care and education systems, policies, and programs, (b) demonstrate how racism influences the economic and community contexts children live in, and (c) highlight the cultural assets racially and ethnic…
Black motherhood and the dual pandemics
The dual pandemic (racial discrimination and COVID‐19) has contributed to mental health disparities across various social identities. Black mothers, in particular, have shouldered the heightened stresses of being Black and female during a time of immense anti‐Black racism and societal pressures to assume caretaking roles at the expense of, or in addition to, other financial obligations. Thus, this study examines the relationship between COVID‐19 …
Effects of Racism on Child Development
Racism, a multidimensional system of oppression and exclusion, is part of the foundation of the United States and is detrimental to the health and well-being of Black communities and other racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) communities. There is an emerging body of literature that draws attention to the impact of racism and different racialized experiences on the lives of REM children. Based on the Racism + Resilience + Resistance Integrat…
Antiracism defined as equitable sociocultural interactions in prekindergarten
This study used secondary data from the My Teaching Partner-Math/Science 2013–2016 randomized control trial to explore whether equitable sociocultural classroom interactions (see Curenton et al., 2019) were associated with the skills of 105 four- and five-year-olds (52% boys; drawn from 20 unique video recordings of preschool teachers/classrooms; 43% were Black, Latine, Asian, or other racially marginalized learners). Equitable interactions predi…
Contextual predictors of child fatality and near fatality cases due to abuse and neglect
Little is known about what factors predict fatality and near fatality (NF) involving child maltreatment and if predictors differ between them. Analyses of cases in 2017 and 2018 in one Mid‐Atlantic state revealed that prior child welfare history and prevalence of risk factors, such as substance abuse, mental illness, interpersonal violence, chronic abuse, incarceration, sibling injuries, and unstable housing did not differ between fatality and NF…
Examining the relationship between discrimination, access to material resources, and black children's behavioral functioning during Covid-19
Attending to the Adversity of Racism Against Young Black Children
The first 1,000 days is one of the most consequential times for children’s development. As a hugely ignored adversity embedded in all aspects of black children’s lives before birth and throughout their life course, racism in all forms deserves more attention in the developmental science literature. Racism—including structural, institutional, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and cultural—negatively impacts the health, learning, and well-being of blac…
Examining the relationship between discrimination, access to material resources, and black children's behavioral functioning during Covid-19
Black motherhood and the dual pandemics
The dual pandemic (racial discrimination and COVID‐19) has contributed to mental health disparities across various social identities. Black mothers, in particular, have shouldered the heightened stresses of being Black and female during a time of immense anti‐Black racism and societal pressures to assume caretaking roles at the expense of, or in addition to, other financial obligations. Thus, this study examines the relationship between COVID‐19 …
Attending to the Adversity of Racism Against Young Black Children
The first 1,000 days is one of the most consequential times for children’s development. As a hugely ignored adversity embedded in all aspects of black children’s lives before birth and throughout their life course, racism in all forms deserves more attention in the developmental science literature. Racism—including structural, institutional, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and cultural—negatively impacts the health, learning, and well-being of blac…
Effects of Racism on Child Development
Racism, a multidimensional system of oppression and exclusion, is part of the foundation of the United States and is detrimental to the health and well-being of Black communities and other racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) communities. There is an emerging body of literature that draws attention to the impact of racism and different racialized experiences on the lives of REM children. Based on the Racism + Resilience + Resistance Integrat…
Antiracism defined as equitable sociocultural interactions in prekindergarten
This study used secondary data from the My Teaching Partner-Math/Science 2013–2016 randomized control trial to explore whether equitable sociocultural classroom interactions (see Curenton et al., 2019) were associated with the skills of 105 four- and five-year-olds (52% boys; drawn from 20 unique video recordings of preschool teachers/classrooms; 43% were Black, Latine, Asian, or other racially marginalized learners). Equitable interactions predi…
Contextual predictors of child fatality and near fatality cases due to abuse and neglect
Little is known about what factors predict fatality and near fatality (NF) involving child maltreatment and if predictors differ between them. Analyses of cases in 2017 and 2018 in one Mid‐Atlantic state revealed that prior child welfare history and prevalence of risk factors, such as substance abuse, mental illness, interpersonal violence, chronic abuse, incarceration, sibling injuries, and unstable housing did not differ between fatality and NF…
Examining the relationship between discrimination, access to material resources, and black children's behavioral functioning during Covid-19
Black motherhood and the dual pandemics
The dual pandemic (racial discrimination and COVID‐19) has contributed to mental health disparities across various social identities. Black mothers, in particular, have shouldered the heightened stresses of being Black and female during a time of immense anti‐Black racism and societal pressures to assume caretaking roles at the expense of, or in addition to, other financial obligations. Thus, this study examines the relationship between COVID‐19 …
Investigating the Differential Effects of Early Child Care and Education in Reducing Gender and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps From Kindergarten to 8th Grade
We used the generalized propensity score method to estimate the differential effects of five Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) experiences (Prekindergarten, Head Start, Center-based Child Care, Home-based Child Care, and Parental Care) in reducing math and reading achievement gaps between boys versus girls, Latinx versus Whites, and Blacks versus Whites. Findings revealed differential effects of ECCE in reducing gender and racial achievement …
Black Families’ Social and Cultural Capital During Covid
We used NVivo for inductive semantic coding of 619 Black caregivers’ qualitative responses from the RAPID Survey regarding about they were coping with the challenges of COVID-19. Kinship networks and religion/spirituality were the two most frequently mentioned coping strategies followed by government financial support (e.g. stimulus money, food stamps), workplace flexibility (e.g. working from home or taking time off), engaging in COVID-related h…
Introduction to the Supplemental Issue
The goal of this supplement is to expand the extant literature about racism's toxic effects on the nation's youngest children– infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The supplement contains articles that (a) focus on how racism is manifested in early care and education systems, policies, and programs, (b) demonstrate how racism influences the economic and community contexts children live in, and (c) highlight the cultural assets racially and ethnic…
Beyond Direct Exposure
Beyond Risk and Deficit Perspectives
Early childhood policy in the United States is largely organized around identifying and mitigating risk, often operationalized through standardized indicators such as poverty, adverse experiences, and academic vulnerability that shape how systems define need and allocate resources. Although this approach has generated important insights, it provides a partial, often deficit-focused, view of children's developmental contexts. Developmental science…
Psychology (9 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Developmental psychology (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (6 works) · Racism (6 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Political science (3 works)