At Odds With Assessment: Being a Critical Educator in the Academy

Are critical assessment practices possible? Is the role of assessment fundamentally at odds with critical library pedagogy? Assessment can be applied in multiple ways as a part of classroom pedagogy, but it is also a term that can be applied to larger institutional concerns such as program effectiveness, budget priorities, and accreditation. Assessing both instructor performance and student learning can justify academic programs or services, help refine learning outcomes, measure teacher performance accountability,or provide feedback on the efficacy of instruction. In this chapter, we are focusing on assessment as a classroom practice, in tandem with a discussion of institutional concerns that embody the more commodified aspects of higher education. We offer a summary of assessment criticism and an analysis of common classroom-based assessment practices that can be critically focused

The Enduring Significance of Skin Tone: Linking Skin Tone, Attitudes Toward Marriage and Cohabitation, and Sexual Behavior

Past evidence has documented that attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation are related to sexual behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. This study extends prior research by longitudinally testing these associations across racial/ethnic groups and investigating whether culturally relevant variations within racial/ethnic minority groups, such as skin tone (i.e., lightness/darkness of skin color), are linked to attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation and sex. Drawing on family and public health literatures and theories, as well as burgeoning skin tone literature, it was hypothesized that more positive attitudes toward marriage and negative attitudes toward cohabitation would be associated with less risky sex, and that links differed for lighter and darker skin individuals. The sample included 6872 respondents (49.6 % female; 70.0 % White; 15.8 % African American; 3.3 % Asian; 10.9 % Hispanic) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The results revealed that marital attitudes had a significantly stronger dampening effect on risky sexual behavior of lighter skin African Americans and Asians compared with their darker skin counterparts. Skin tone also directly predicted number of partners and concurrent partners among African American males and Asian females. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings for adolescence and young adulthood

Attachment to Conventional Institutions and Adolescent Rapid Repeat Pregnancy: A Longitudinal National Study Among Adolescents in the United States

There is limited research on rapid repeat pregnancies (RRP) among adolescents, especially using nationally representative samples. We examine distal factors—school, family, peers, and public/private religious ties—and their associations with RRP among adolescent mothers

Prevalence of High-Risk Sexual Behaviors Among Monoracial and Multiracial Groups from a National Sample: Are Multiracial Young Adults at Greater Risk?

The present study compared the prevalence and variation in high-risk sexual behaviors among four monoracial (i.e., White, African American, Asian, Native American) and four multiracial (i.e., White/African American, White/Asian, White/Native American, African American/Native American) young adults using Wave IV data (2008–2009) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 9724). Findings indicated differences in the sexual behavior of monoracial and multiracial young adults, but directions of differences varied depending on the monoracial group used as the referent and gender. Among males, White/African Americans had higher risk than Whites; White/Native Americans had higher risk than Native Americans. Otherwise, multiracial groups had lower risk or did not differ from the single-race groups. Among females, White/Native Americans had higher risk than Whites; White/African Americans had higher risk than African Americans. Other comparisons showed no differences or had lower risk among multiracial groups. Variations in high-risk sexual behaviors underscore the need for health research to disaggregate multiracial groups to better understand health behaviors and outcomes in the context of experiences associated with a multiracial background, and to improve prevention strategies

Beyond Age at First Sex: Patterns of Emerging Sexual Behavior in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Purpose—Although the emergence of sexual expression during adolescence and early adulthood is nearly universal, little is known about patterns of initiation. Methods—We used latent class analysis to group 12,194 respondents from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) into one of five classes based on variety, timing, spacing, and sequencing of oral-genital, anal, and vaginal sex. Multinomial logistic regression models, stratified by biological sex, examined associations between sociodemographic characteristics and class membership. Results—Approximately half of respondents followed a pattern characterized predominately by initiation of vaginal sex first, average age of initiation of approximately 16 years, and spacing of one year or more between initiation of the first and second behaviors; almost one third initiated sexual activity slightly later but reported first experiences of oral-genital and vaginal sex within the same year. Classes characterized by postponement of sexual activity, initiation of only one type of behavior, or adolescent initiation of anal sex were substantially less common. Compared to White respondents, Black respondents were more likely to appear in classes characterized by initiation of vaginal sex first. Respondents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to be in classes distinguished by early/atypical patterns of initiation. Conclusions—A small number of typical and atypical patterns capture the emergence of sexual behavior during adolescence, but these patterns reveal complex associations among different elements of emerging sexuality that should be considered in future research

Teen Pregnancy Among Sexual Minority Women: Results From the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

To explore the association between sexual orientation and teen pregnancy (before age 20) in a U.S. nationally representative cohort of young adult females aged 24–32

Our Buddies, Ourselves: The Role of Sexual Homophily in Adolescent Friendship Networks

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147776/1/cdev13052_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147776/2/cdev13052.pd

Age and Gender Effects on Time Discounting in a Large Scale Cash Transfer Programme

Understanding its determinants can provide vital insight into decisions ranging from savings and financial investment to smoking, obesity and human capital accumulation. This article contributes to a growing literature that seeks to identify the determinants of inter-temporal choice. We explore the role of income shocks, age and gender on time discounting using evaluation data from the Government of Kenya’s largest social protection programme, the Kenya Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (CT-OVC). Study participants were randomised to treatment and control arms in 2007 and data on time discounting was collected on participants four years after programme inception. Our paper confirms that middle-aged groups are more patient than younger and older adults. In contrast to the empirical evidence, females are less patient than males and this situation is more evident during young and adult life. Males lose their patient during old age. Considering the impact of the programme, the average treatment effect of the programme on time discounting is negligible. However, it varies strongly with age of the recipient, with large and statistically significant effects among prime-age recipients and no effects on younger or older recipients. Moreover, these results are stronger for females than males, an important result given that over 60 per cent of recipients in target households are females