Previously tested relationships between parenting behaviors and youth problems need to be validated in African American families using equivalent measures preferably based on observation rather than self-report. We validated observer ratings of parenting behavior during structured interaction tasks using a sample of African American and European American families of early adolescents. Two further questions were addressed: (a) Are there mean differences in the level of each latent construct across race? and (b) Are the relationships between the parenting and youth constructs comparable across race?
