Using a Resiliency Framework to Examine Natural Mentoring Relationships and the Coping Efficacy as Buffers of the Negative Impact of Stressors on Academic Outcomes in Urban, Low-Income Ethnic Minority Youth

This paper used Resiliency theory to examine natural mentoring and coping efficacy as protective factors that may buffer the negative impact of stressors on academic and psychosocial outcomes in urban, low-income, Latino youth. Research has demonstrated that natural mentoring may serve a protective role for youth who are experiencing high levels of stressors, and that coping efficacy may correlate with positive outcomes. The present study used Structural Equation Modeling to test the compensatory and protective factors models of resilience to examine the ways in which stress, coping efficacy and natural mentoring interact to predict a variety of academic outcomes for 422 urban, low income Latino youth. Results demonstrated support for viewing coping efficacy as a compensatory factor, but do not support viewing natural mentoring as a compensatory factor, or viewing coping efficacy or natural mentoring as protective factors. These results address gaps in the literature on the characteristics of natural mentoring relationships that predict positive academic outcomes, and on the role of coping efficacy in promoting positive academic outcomes

Aspirations and expectations in Latino youth: The role of barriers and support in the transition out of high school

This study uses a possible selves framework to examine the future aspirations and expectation of Latino youth in the transition from high school. A mixed-methods design was used to explore the nature of youth\u27s educational and occupational aspirations and expectations, including the gaps between expectations and aspirations and the gaps between expectations and behavior, and to examine the role of barriers and social support in youth\u27s aspirations and expectations. Thirty-two Latino adolescents completed a quantitative survey while seniors in high school and then participated in one-on-one qualitative interviews on year later during their transition from high school. Results supported the hypotheses that there was a gap between participants\u27 expectations and aspirations at T1 and T2, and that participants\u27 aspirations and expectations were lower at T2 than T1. Qualitative data analyses were conducted in order to explore the nature of participants\u27 aspirations and expectations and the role of barriers and social support in aspirations and expectations during the transition. New themes also emerged, such as the role of values and expectations of others, in the development of possible selves. Results suggest important changes to possible selves theory in order to make it relevant for low income Latino youth in the transition from high school. These results contribute to sparse research on the gap between aspirations and expectation in Latino youth, and help to explain the role of barriers experienced during the transition from high school in future aspirations and expectations

Trends in the lifetime risk of developing cancer in Great Britain: comparison of risk for those born from 1930 to 1960

BACKGROUND: Typically, lifetime risk is calculated by the period method using current risks at different ages. Here, we estimate the probability of being diagnosed with cancer for individuals born in a given year, by estimating future risks as the cohort ages. METHODS: We estimated the lifetime risk of cancer in Britain separately for men and women born in each year from 1930 to 1960. We projected rates of all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and of all cancer deaths forwards using a flexible age-period-cohort model and backwards using age-specific extrapolation. The sensitivity of the estimated lifetime risk to the method of projection was explored. RESULTS: The lifetime risk of cancer increased from 38.5% for men born in 1930 to 53.5% for men born in 1960. For women it increased from 36.7 to 47.5%. Results are robust to different models for projections of cancer rates. CONCLUSIONS: The lifetime risk of cancer for people born since 1960 is >50%. Over half of people who are currently adults under the age of 65 years will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime