The Life Course Perspective and African American Adolescent Development in the Family

African Americans remain disproportionately represented in the low-income population, and there is a sizable literature addressing the influence of these circumstances on family well-being. There is, however, an increasing need for the integration of the life course perspective into research on economically disadvantaged African American families as they continue to be vulnerable to deleterious mental health outcomes and lower life chances. This article discusses the tenets of the life course perspective followed by a summary of the research on economically disadvantaged African American families and their adolescent youth’s developmental outcomes. In addition, new emerging areas of research are discussed. In conclusion, future directions of research on this population are addressed

Abstracting The Concrete, Concretizing The Abstract: Reframing Diversity Education Through Experiential Learning Theory

Framed by Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Theory (ELT), this article proposes ways to enhance diversity education’s effectiveness for all learners—regardless of identity group membership. It uses ELT to explain a faulty foundation upon which many diversity initiatives are built and to offer a solution to increase the learning outcomes of both majority and minority learners. The article offers propositions to guide future diversity education efforts

Unorthodox Support: How Mentors of Undocumented Immigrant Students Leverage Community Cultural Wealth to Pave the Way for College Success

This qualitative study explored the mentoring experiences of undocumented immigrant students (UIS) who have graduated from a four-year college or university in the United States. There has been an increase in research about undocumented immigrant students and there is an established body of literature about mentoring. However, there are few studies which focus on the mentoring of undocumented immigrant students. In addition, this study appears to be the first to focus primarily on the mentors of those students. The literature review establishes the multiple challenges that UIS face and their need for sustained support from capable mentors. Further, a prior examination of secondary data revealed that mentoring programs do not explicitly address the needs of UIS. The mentoring literature offers positive youth development theory (PYD) as a potential lens for examining the mentoring that UIS receive. Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth theory (CCW) lends itself well to identifying the strengths of UIS and how their CCW becomes capital. Using the framework of CCW as it relates to UIS and the lens of PYD to explore the support that their mentors provide, this study sought to answer three questions: 1. What kinds of mentoring relationships and specific aspects of mentoring help immigrant and undocumented students in high school to go on to college and those in college to graduate? 2. How do mentors of undocumented immigrant students help their mentees identify assets, known as community cultural wealth (CCW), that may not align with the assets that are valued by the current education system? 3. How do mentors and mentees leverage the aspirational, familial, social, linguistic, resistance, and navigational capital, derived from CCW, in order to transition from high school to college and then to graduate from college? UIS who graduated from a four-year college or university in the U.S. completed a questionnaire about their educational and mentoring experiences. They identified at least one mentor from their high school years and at least one mentor from their college years. Eighteen mentors agreed to participate in the study and answered semi-structured interview questions about their backgrounds, mentoring experiences, how their relationship with the UIS developed, and how they supported that student in high school or college. The data provides the following findings: 1. Mentors and UIS developed relationships in institutionally-mediated contexts 2. Mentors in the high school context used specific approaches that were effective 3. Mentors identified CCW that UIS possess and helped them convert CCW to capital 4. Mentors helped UIS increase their CCW and capital by offering specific types of support. The study also found that mentors helped UIS develop the forms of capital that CCW promotes, plus two additional forms of capital that are identified as persistent capital and leadership capital. This occurred with specific forms of support from mentors, who overwhelmingly provided what one of the mentors called “unorthodox” support. Analysis led to recommendations for educational institutions and mentoring programs to develop ways to explicitly support UIS. Since mentors are developing these relationships with UIS outside of structured programming, there are recommendations for mentors who may discover that they are providing the majority of the support for UIS in their context. Suggestions for future research include the development of a theory to study mentoring of UIS, the educational and mentoring experiences of UIS who do not go to college, the role of peer mentoring on UIS, addressing the delay between high school graduation and college matriculation for some UIS, and further studies that explore the additional forms of capital and mentoring approaches that this study identified

The Life Course Perspective and African American Adolescent Development in the Family

African Americans remain disproportionately represented in the low-income population, and there is a sizable literature addressing the influence of these circumstances on family well-being. There is, however, an increasing need for the integration of the life course perspective into research on economically disadvantaged African American families as they continue to be vulnerable to deleterious mental health outcomes and lower life chances. This article discusses the tenets of the life course perspective followed by a summary of the research on economically disadvantaged African American families and their adolescent youth’s developmental outcomes. In addition, new emerging areas of research are discussed. In conclusion, future directions of research on this population are addressed

Development of an Unorthodox Support Model to Mentor Undocumented Immigrant Students

This article addresses the need to better understand impactful mentoring models for undocumented immigrant students (UIS). Based on interviews of 18 mentors of UIS who were college graduates, findings include diverse effective mentoring models, specific mentoring styles and strategies, how mentors identified and leveraged the community cultural wealth of UIS, and the forms of support that mentors used which highlight an unorthodox approach to mentoring UIS. A new model for mentoring UIS is presented with a framework on how to engage in new research. Recommendations are provided for schools, districts, colleges, and universities

Resonances, radiation pressure and optical scattering phenomena of drops and bubbles

Acoustic levitation and the response of fluid spheres to spherical harmonic projections of the radiation pressure are described. Simplified discussions of the projections are given. A relationship between the tangential radiation stress and the Konstantinov effect is introduced and fundamental streaming patterns for drops are predicted. Experiments on the forced shape oscillation of drops are described and photographs of drop fission are displayed. Photographs of critical angle and glory scattering by bubbles and rainbow scattering by drops are displayed

Be careful what you ask for: how inquiry strategy influences readiness mode

Much has been written about affecting change in the workplace, including how to help employees prepare for the process. However, little is known about how participation influences employees’ emotions and attitudes at the start of an intervention. By qualitatively analyzing conversations that were triggered by an organizational change effort, we explored how different inquiry strategies influence readiness for change. We examined four inquiry strategies by combining strength or deficit frames with individual or organizational focus. Distinctive conversational patterns emerged within each strategy, which we believe influence peoples’ change readiness. In this article we present four readiness modes to describe these patterns and conclude with implications for managers who seek to shape their change efforts more effectively

Effect of School Racial Composition on Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms from Adolescence Through Early Adulthood

We investigate the effect of high school racial composition, measured as percent of non-Hispanic white students, on trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to early adulthood. We also explore whether the effect of school racial composition varies by respondent race/ethnicity and whether adult socioeconomic status mediates this relationship. We analyzed four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health using 3-level linear growth models. We restricted our sample to respondents enrolled in grades 9-12 in 1994/5 who were interviewed at a minimum in Waves I and IV. This resulted in 10,350 respondents enrolled in 80 high schools in 1994/5 (5,561 whites, 2,030 blacks, 1,834 Hispanics, 738 Asians, and 187 of other race). As the percentage of white students increased at the high school respondents attended in 1994/5, blacks reported more depressive symptoms. This effect did not vary by age. In comparison, Asian and Hispanic respondents who attended predominantly white high schools had lower levels of depressive symptoms than their counterparts who attended predominantly minority schools, but they also experienced a slower decline in depressive symptoms through early adulthood. Adult SES mediated the relationship between high school racial composition and depressive symptoms for black, but not for Asian or Hispanic respondents. Our results suggest that high school racial composition is associated with trajectories of depressive symptoms through early adulthood, but the effect differs by respondents’ race/ethnicity. Racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during early adulthood may have their origins in adolescence

Effect of School Racial Composition on Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms from Adolescence through Early Adulthood

Introduction: We investigate the effect of high school racial composition, measured as percent of non-Hispanic White students, on trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to early adulthood. We also explore whether the effect of school racial composition varies by respondent race/ethnicity and if adult socio-economic status mediates this relationship. Methods: We analyzed four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health using 3-level linear growth models. We restricted our sample to respondents enrolled in grades 9-12 in 1994/5 who were interviewed at a minimum in Waves I and IV. This resulted in 10,350 respondents enrolled in 80 high schools in 1994/5 (5,561 Whites, 2,030 Blacks, 1,834 Hispanics, 738 Asians, and 187 of other race). Results: As the percentage of White students increased at the high school respondents attended in 1994/5, Blacks reported more depressive symptoms. This effect did not vary by age. In comparison, Asian and Hispanic respondents who attended predominantly-White high schools had lower levels of depressive symptoms than their counterparts who attended predominantly-minority schools, but they also experienced a slower decline in depressive symptoms through early adulthood. Adult SES mediated the relationship between high school racial composition and depressive symptoms for Black, but not for Asian or Hispanic respondents. Discussion: Our results suggest that high school racial composition is associated with trajectories of depressive symptoms through early adulthood, but the effect differs by respondents\u27 race/ethnicity. Racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during early adulthood may have their origins in adolescence

Challenges to generating political prioritization for adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Kenya: A qualitative study.

BackgroundDespite the high burden of adverse adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes, it has remained a low political priority in Kenya. We examined factors that have shaped the lack of current political prioritization of adolescent SRH service provision.MethodsWe used the Shiffman and Smith policy framework consisting of four categories-actor power, ideas, political contexts, and issue characteristics-to analyse factors that have shaped political prioritization of adolescent SRH. We undertook semi-structured interviews with 14 members of adolescent SRH networks between February and April 2019 at the national level and conducted thematic analysis of the interviews.FindingsSeveral factors hinder the attainment of political priority for adolescent SRH in Kenya. On actor power, the adolescent SRH community was diverse and united in adoption of international norms and policies, but lacked policy entrepreneurs to provide strong leadership, and policy windows were often missed. Regarding ideas, community members lacked consensus on a cohesive public positioning of the problem. On issue characteristics, the perception of adolescents as lacking political power made politicians reluctant to act on the existing data on the severity of adolescent SRH. There was also a lack of consensus on the nature of interventions to be implemented. Pertaining to political contexts, sectoral funding by donors and government treasury brought about tension within the different government ministries resulting in siloed approaches, lack of coordination and overall inefficiency. However, the SRH community has several strengths that augur well for future political support. These include the diverse multi-sectoral background of its members, commitment to improving adolescent SRH, and the potential to link with other health priorities such as maternal health and HIV/AIDS.ConclusionIn order to increase political attention to adolescent SRH in Kenya, there is an urgent need for policy actors to: 1) create a more cohesive community of advocates across sectors, 2) develop a clearer public positioning of adolescent SRH, 3) agree on a set of precise approaches that will resonate with the political system, and 4) identify and nurture policy entrepreneurs to facilitate the coupling of adolescent SRH with potential solutions when windows of opportunity arise