Youth Civic Development: Implications of Research for Social Policy and Programs

Democracies must insure that each new generation of citizens identify with the common good and become engaged members of their communities. Such goals are prominent in the missions of public schools and community youth organizations. This report summarizes research which points to directions youth programs and policies should follow to achieve these civic goals

Changes in Parents' Work Status and Adolescents' Adjustment at School

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66386/1/j.1467-8624.1993.tb02907.x.pd

Residential setting and parent-adolescent relationships during the college years

The relationship of residential setting (living with parents vs. living away from home while attending college) and gender with late adolescents' perceptions of their relationships with parents was examined. Four hundred four undergraduates students (mean age=20 years, 4 months) from two midwestern universities completed surveys. Two hundred four subjects lived with their parents and commuted to school, and 200 lived away at college. Controlling for student's age, parents' education, and financial and family considerations as factors in the choice of a college, living away was associated with greater independence, support, and mutual respect between parents and adolescents. In contrast, students who lived at home felt parents underestimated their maturity, and reported more conflict and avoidance in their relationships with parents. Regardless of residential setting, women reported more mutuality and support in their relationships with parents than men. The results suggest the importance of considering contextual issues during the transition to adulthood .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45280/1/10964_2005_Article_BF01536651.pd

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Developmental Patterns of Social Trust Between Early and Late Adolescence: Age and School Climate Effects

Social trust (i.e., belief that people are generally fair and trustworthy) is important to the functioning of democracies, and trend studies show it has declined. We test hypotheses concerning the development of these beliefs in adolescence. Based on surveys of 1,535 adolescents collected over 2 years, we find that middle and late adolescents had significantly lower levels of trust than early adolescents and that these beliefs became more stable and less related to interpersonal trust between early and late adolescence. Results of multiple group structural equation models revealed that, regardless of age, adolescents\u27 reports that a strong sense of student solidarity characterized their school significantly increased social trust at T2, controlling for levels at T1, and opportunities to exchange perspectives with fellow students increased social trust at T2 indirectly, through feelings of student solidarity. The study points to the role of schools in nurturing the democratic dispositions of younger generations

Parenting Practices and the Development of Adolescents’ Social Trust

Social trust (ST) (i.e., beliefs that people are generally fair and trustworthy) is a critical disposition for democratic governance. Yet there has been scant research on its developmental foundations. We assess factors related to ST in 11–18 year olds with survey data collected over two years from 1150 U.S. adolescents and their mothers. Adolescents’ ST in year 1 and their reports of a positive neighborhood climate predicted ST one year later. Adolescents’ reports of family practices were stronger predictors of their ST than were mothers’ reports. Regression analyses revealed different factors predicting changes in ST for three adolescent age groups: With ST at T1 and background factors controlled, democratic parenting boosted ST for early- and middle-adolescents. Adolescents’ reports that parents encouraged compassion for others boosted ST for middle- and late-adolescents, and parental cautions about other people taking advantage diminished ST among middle adolescents. Results suggest that the disposition to trust others is formed, in part, by what adolescents hear from parents about their responsibilities to fellow human beings and by modeling of democratic parenting

Immigrant civic engagement: New translations

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Mark Hugo Lopez and Karlo Barrios Marcelo on the differences in the rates of civic engagement between first generation immigrants and native-born young people and another by Jane Junn and Natalie Masuoka on the links between politics and positive identifications with being Asian or Latino

Ties that bind: Correlates of adolescents' civic commitments in seven countries

The relationship of voluntary work, school climates, and family values to public interest as a life goal of adolescents is presented for a sample of 5,579 12–18 year olds in three stable and four transitional democracies. In five of the seven countries, females were more likely than males to be engaged in voluntary work, and in all seven countries girls were more likely than boys to report that their families encouraged an ethic of social responsibility. Regardless of gender or country, adolescents were more likely to consider public interest an important life goal when their families emphasized an ethic of social responsibility. In addition, engagement in volunteer work and a sense of student solidarity at school were formative components of public interest as a life goal for youth in some but not all countries