A group of African-American parents are sitting around a Milledgeville recreation center, talking about their children.

“I just want him to do his best,” says a father of his son. “His best is good enough for me.” The group nods in agreement. Then someone asks about their fears.

They call out a chorus of concerns about their children: Hanging with the wrong crowd; drinking and doing drugs; getting pregnant; dropping out of school; getting in trouble with the law.

In another room, their children are talking about their dreams. “I want to be a singer,” says one. “A teacher. A professional athlete. A doctor or a lawyer,” say the others.

Their parents may not know what’s on their minds tonight, but seven weeks from now, after they’ve completed the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program, these 11-year-olds and their parents will have discussed a number of issues relevant to growing up African American in rural Georgia.

The Strong African American Families program was developed by two UGA researchers in the Department of Human Development and Family Science, Gene H. Brody and Velma McBride Murry, who have been studying rural African-American families for more than a decade. Their research examines what families and communities can do to help children succeed. Two 10-year longitudinal studies laid the foundation for the development of SAAF, and now the effectiveness of the program has been tested with more than 700 families.

“We’ve been able to identify what makes a difference in children’s lives,” Murry explains, “because we ask questions about what’s working.”

The families Brody and Murry study live in small towns across Georgia where poverty rates are among the highest in the nation and unemployment rates are above the national average.

These rural communities are witnessing a rapid increase in early sexual activity and alcohol/drug use among African-American youth. Pre-teens who take these risks are more likely to have an assortment of problems later, including school dropout and involvement with the criminal justice system. They are also more likely to contract HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

African-American families can’t afford for their children to go down that path, not when the typical black family has only 58 percent as much income as a white family, the black unemployment rate is more than double the white rate and one out of three African-American males born in 2001 will likely be imprisoned at some point in his lifetime.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to find out why things go wrong,” Brody insists. “But we are trying to develop models of what promotes competence. We ask ourselves why some kids do well in school, have good family and peer relationships and are free from behavioral and emotional problems even though they live in difficult situations.”

Tracy Ellington and her two children live in Baldwin County, where the dropout rate for African Americans is 7.3 percent, well above the national median of 4.2. Her daughter Kiambre, 11, is a good student, but her son Kendal, 14, struggles to stay on track. His behavior at home isn’t a problem, but at school he acts the clown, disrupts class and doesn’t turn in his homework. Last year he was suspended twice. She tells him, “If you don’t do it at home, don’t do it at school. Be respectful to me and to the school.” But she sees the crowd he hangs with wearing the colors, clothes and jewelry of local gangs, and she worries.

Back when Kendal was in fifth grade, Ellington signed the two of them up for SAAF—and she believes it helped them both. The main lesson that she recalls from SAAF is the importance of keeping up with her kids, knowing where they are and with whom they are spending their time.

Two years after completing SAAF, Ellington continues to apply the lessons she learned there to her family. She thinks it’s working because Kendal still talks to her about things that bother him, like how hard it is to stay out of trouble when his friends laugh at his antics.

Brody and Murry’s research shows that parents who monitor their children’s activities outside the home, get involved at their schools and have frequent family discussions raise children who are better able to cope with life’s challenges. Those parents also feel good about themselves and their childrearing abilities–a positive consequence of success that keeps the ball rolling in the right direction.

This research is coordinated at the Center for Family Research, a center of excellence within UGA’s Institute for Behavioral Research in Athens.

Cultural sensitivity is a hallmark of the research conducted at the center. The questionnaires, educational materials and group activities used in the prevention programs are developed in consultation with members of the African-American communities where the research is being conducted. Interviewers and group leaders are always African American so that participants will feel as comfortable as possible when discussing their personal lives.

The researchers have been recognized by their colleagues for their research. Most recently, Murry received a Creative Research Medal, which is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding accomplishment for a research project or creative activity with a single coherent theme. In 2004, Brody was named a Regents Professor, an honor bestowed by the University System Board of Regents on truly distinguished faculty of the University of Georgia whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized both nationally and internationally as innovative and pace setting.