The relationship between violent video games,acculturation, and aggression among Latino adolescents

Multiple factors are involved in the occurrence of aggressive behavior. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hypotheses that Latino middle school children exposed to higher levels of video game playing will exhibit a higher level of aggression and fighting compared to children exposed to lower levels and that the more acculturated middle school Latino children will play more video games and will prefer more violent video games compared to less acculturated middle school Latino children. This study involved 5,831 students attending eight public schools in Texas. A linear relationship was observed between the time spent playing video games and aggression scores. Higher aggression scores were significantly associated with heavier video playing for boys and girls (p < 0.0001). The more students played video games, the more they fought at school (p < 0.0001). As Latino middle school students were more acculturated, their preference for violent video game playing increased, as well as the amount of time they played video games. Students who reported speaking more Spanish at home and with their friends were less likely to spend large amounts of time playing video games and less likely to prefer violent video games (p < 0.05).     

Impact of Adolescent Childbearing on Families and Younger Sibling: Effects that Increase Younger Siblings' Risk for Early Pregnancy

To better inform educational policies for Latino students, this study explores the relations between Latino students' conceptions of their futures and their risk status for school dropout. Using the theory of possible selves, the study examines students' hoped-for, expected, and feared selves, the power of those selves to predict risk status for school dropout, and the content of their specificity and ideological beliefs. Four hundred fifteen ninth grade Latino students were surveyed, 30 who also participated in interviews. Results indicated that Latino students' possible selves differed significantly, with hoped-for selves representing the highest levels of educational and occupational attainment. Although hoped-for and expected selves did not predict students' academic performance, feared selves did. The interviews indicated that the specificity and ideological beliefs housed within possible selves might be integral to the mechanisms through which those selves influence academic performance. The implications of the study's findings for school reform policies, specifically those advocating standardized assessments, are discussed.     

Friends matter: Ethnic-racial identity and school adjustment among African American and Latino early adolescents

Abstract

The current study investigated the role of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) on early adolescents’ school adjustment, as moderated by their school friends’ aggregate ERI. The study drew data from a longitudinal socioemotional project in a Midwestern U.S. middle school. Surveys were administered twice over a 6-month interval with a sample of 161 African American and Latino sixth through eighth grade students. Results suggested a promotive role of ERI, as three dimensions (public regard, private regard, and resolution) were positively related to students’ school adjustment. Additional results demonstrated the importance of friend group aggregate ERI; participants with high resolution or private regard, or a friend group with high aggregate resolution or private regard, reported higher levels of school adjustment than those with low individual and friend group-levels of these ERI dimensions. The findings provide insights into the role of social contexts and friend group beliefs on adolescents’ ERI development and school experiences.     

Chronotype and the transition to college life

Social synchronizers of morningness-eveningness, or chronotype, begin to change during the developmental transition from adolescence to college life. The current study examined how these changes related to the sleep/wake patterns of 220 undergraduates (93 males/122 females) ranging in age from 18 to 29 yrs at a private university. Coping strategies students used to deal with early morning commitments and familial conflict over sleep patterns were also examined. Results revealed that evening chronotypes were more likely to report conflict with parents in junior high school and high school over going to bed and waking, followed by a shift to a later sleep/wake pattern in college. They also reported adjusting their schedules and using more coping strategies to accommodate their evening bias. Morning chronotypes, whose routines easily fit a conventional morning schedule, reported little change in schedules and sleep patterns from junior high school to college, and used fewer coping strategies in response to early morning commitments. The shift in social zeitgebers from junior high school to college are significant, and yet little research has examined the effect these changes can have on students' adjustment to college life and the role that chronotype plays in this process. Because students' ability to cope with these changes will ultimately influence how successful they are in their various endeavors, a greater understanding of how chronotype is related to adaptive functioning across this developmental period is needed.     

Bridging Multiple Worlds: How African American and Latino Youth in Academic Outreach Programs Navigate Math Pathways to College

Universities have launched outreach programs to enhance their ethnic diversity, yet little developmental research examines students' pathways to college. This study compares capital models (highlighting family background) with challenge models (highlighting students' challenges and resources) in predicting pathways to college. The Bridging Multiple Worlds Model frames this longitudinal study of 120 African American and Latino youth in outreach programs. We examined students' family backgrounds; challenges and resources across family, school, peer, and community worlds; and high school math pathways as predictors of college eligibility and enrollment. African American students more typically had U. S. born, college-educated parents, and Latino students, immigrant parents with high school education or less. Second, students saw parents as greater resources than teachers, siblings, and themselves; peers and teachers were their greatest challenges. Youth distinguished resources and challenges more by their source than form. Third, high school math and English grades rose and fell together, with early math grades predicting college eligibility. Five math pathways emerged: steady, slowly declining, rapidly declining, increasing, and "back on track" toward college, but pathways did not always predict college choices. Fourth, although family background predicted few outcomes, parents' and teachers' help and siblings' challenges predicted grades, eligibility, and admission to prestigious colleges. Findings highlight both capital and challenge models for science, policy, and programs involving diversity and equity.     

Third-Generation Koreans' Entry into the Workforce in Japan

A case study of third-generation Korean high schoolers in Japan reveals how they perceive employment market realities and decide upon and obtain employment. Sharing a collective perception of the labor market, these students exhibit intragroup variation in their destination preferences and the strategies taken. This article uncovers how the school intervenes in students' decision making and points to the potential for school intervention in linking minority students to employment.     

Clubs of culture and capital: immigrant and second-generation incorporation in a new destination school

The influx of Latin American immigrants into the US South since the early 1990s has changed the demographic face of the region, particularly among school-aged populations where the rate of growth among Latinos has been the fastest. Despite an emerging literature addressing changing racial and ethnic relations in the New US South, relatively little research has addressed the incorporation of Latino youths within southern schools. Relying on data from a four-year ethnographic and in-depth interview study in one North Carolina town, findings suggest powerful benefits of ethnic-identity based clubs for Latino youths in new immigrant destination schools. While both Latino and African American respondents faced discrimination within their community, Latino students received more formal support at school, which helped shield them from the negative impacts of discrimination.     

实施“三高”教学,创建“微生物学实验”课程新体系

深化微生物实验教学改革,实施“高起点、高效率、高质量”教学,从调整教学内容,改革教学方法,建立和完善考评机制入手,创建“以基础知识和基本技能为基础性内容,以创新能力培养为核心内容”的微生物学实验课程新体系,激发了学生对微生物学实验的兴趣,培养了学生独立思考、创新思维和综合动手的能力。     

"Playing between Classes": America's Troubles with Class, Race, and Gender in a Black High School and Community

A cultural and relational framework of social class is used to present an ethnographic portrait of class as it unfolds with race and gender in a black high school and community. Traditionally viewed as troubling, these students (and staff) play between classes in ways that impact structural analyses of class and their implications for public policy.     

Understanding Differences in College Persistence: A Longitudinal Examination of Financial Circumstances,Family Obligations,and Discrimination in an Ethnically Diverse Sample

Ethnic and generational differences in motivation and achievement have been well-established. However, minimal research has examined the role of social factors on educational outcomes among individuals from diverse backgrounds. With a longitudinal sample of 408 Latino, Asian, and European-American students, we examine family, discrimination, and financial factors in 12th grade and two years later as predictors of persistence four years after high school, and as mediators of ethnic and generational differences in persistence. Results indicate that family obligations, discrimination, and financial burdens are associated with reduced rates of persistence, while high school GPA, SES, and financial aid are associated with higher rates of persistence. Ethnic differences in persistence are related to high school GPA and SES, as well as financial circumstances. Reducing ethnic disparities in college persistence should thus involve attention not only to academic factors, but also to family circumstances that may cause college attendance to be a hardship.     

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Effects of Welfare Policies on Early School Readiness and Later Achievement

This study examined whether the effects of employment-based policies on children's math and reading achievement differed for African American, Latino and Caucasian children of welfare receiving parents, and if so, why. Two kinds of employment policies were examined: education-first programs with an emphasis on adult education and job training; and work-first programs with an emphasis on immediate employment. With data from two- and five-year follow-ups in four experimental demonstrations in Grand Rapids, Michigan (N = 591) and Riverside County, California (N = 629), there was evidence of small positive effects of the Grand Rapids and Riverside education-first programs on African American and Latino children's school readiness and math scores. An opposite pattern of effects emerged among Caucasian children. In one of the two sites, we found that Latino parents' higher levels of goals for pursuing their own education appeared to explain why their children benefited to a greater degree from the program than their Caucasian counterparts.     

Investigating high school students' conceptualizations of the biological basis of learning

Students go to school to learn. How much, however, do students understand about the biological basis of this everyday process? Blackwell et al. (1) demonstrated a correlation between education about learning and academic achievement. Yet there are few studies investigating high school students' conceptions of learning. In this mixed-methods research study, written assessments were administered to 339 high school students in an urban school district after they completed their required biology education, and videotaped interviews were conducted with 15 students. The results indicated that the majority of students know little about the biological basis of learning, even with prompting, and they recall having learned little about it in school. Students appear to believe that people control their own ability to learn, and some have developed personal hypotheses to describe the learning process. On written assessments, 75% of participants demonstrated a nonbiological framework for learning, and, during interviews, 67% of participants revealed misconceptions about the biological basis of learning. Sample quotes of these interviews are included in this report, and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

Having Arrived: Dimensions of Educational Success in a Transitional Newcomer School

This article examines a program for newly arrived, non-English-speaking immigrant children in a major California city. Focusing on students of Mexican and other Latino origin, I explore the local model of success and ask, How is student success defined and fostered? This study lays the ethnographic foundation for a comparison between settings for first-generation students. The research demonstrates how a nurturing setting, a culturally flexible teaching approach, linguistic and cultural validation, and a valued spatial environment can contribute to newcomer students' success and educational confidence. Further, it addresses both the personal and political tensions that can arise when such programs are physically separate and distant from the "home" or neighborhood school.     

"Points Ain't Everything": Emergent Goals and Average and Percent Understandings in the Play of Basketball among African American Students

This study examines the shifting nature of the cultural practice of basketball as players move from middle school to high school play and related shifts in players' statistical evaluations linked to play. Thirty-four middle and high school African American basketball players were observed and interviewed as they participated in the practice of basketball. Results show that the practice of basketball differs at these two levels of play corresponding to differences in mathematics linked to play.     

Rhetoric of Exclusion and Racist Violence in a Catalan Secondary School

Drawing on ethnographic research in a secondary school in Catalonia, Spain, this article analyzes the relationship between racist violence against students of African origin and racist ideologies held by students, described as a rhetoric of exclusion. I argue for a more detailed and painstaking characterization of students' ethnic discourses as a means of understanding the diversity of these discourses and their connection to intergroup relations.     

Cultural values and other perceived benefits of organized activities: A qualitative analysis of Mexican-origin parents’ perspectives in Arizona

The limited understanding on why Latino parents endorse organized activities is problematic given that these beliefs can help elucidate why they overcome barriers to support their children’s participation. In this study, we analyzed interviews from a diverse group of 34 Mexican-origin parents who resided in Arizona. Results of the study indicate that although organized activities were perceived as contexts that can help youth gain skills reflecting mainstream American values (e.g., school engagement, interpersonal skills), parents also thought that activities promoted positive behaviors associated with their ethnic culture based on traditional values related to respeto, familism, and religiosity. The implications of this study suggest that understanding Mexican-origin parents’ perspectives can help organized activity leaders design programs that fully address the benefits that families seek from organized activities.     

Being Seen and Heard: Listening to Young Women in Alternative Schools

This interview-based study examines nine young women's perceptions of their disconnection from high school and reconnection to school in an alternative program. Rather than focusing on a fixed notion of what "at-risk" students "need," the students and author note the importance of working with the messy, partial, and complicated sense of students' identities to gain better understandings of the schooling experiences of marginalized youth. With an eye toward practice- and theory-oriented representations and sense-makings, this article presents theoretical constructions of student disconnection and connection, student testimony as one useful pedagogy, and policy implications for schools.     

Blood circulation laboratory investigations with video are less investigative than instructional blood circulation laboratories with live organisms

Live organisms versus digital video of the organisms were used to challenge students' naive ideas and misconceptions about blood, the heart, and circulatory patterns. Three faculty members taught 259 grade 10 biology students in a California high school with students from diverse ethnolinguistic groups who were divided into 5 classes using microscopes (128 students) and 5 classes using digital video (131 students) to compare blood transport among invertebrates, fish, and humans. The "What Is Happening in this Class?" (WIHIC) questionnaire was used for assessment of microscope and video groups to detect students' perception of their learning environment following these teaching interventions. The use of microscopes had a clear effect on the perception of the investigative aspects of the learning environment that was not detected with the video treatment. Findings suggest that video should not replace investigations with live organisms.     

Bodily Remembering: Memory,Place, and Understanding Latino Folk Illnesses among the Amuzgos Indians of Oaxaca,Mexico

This paper takes the theoretical construct of popular nosology of Latino folk illnesses and combines it with Edward Casey’s concept of bodily remembering in order to more fully describe the role of memory and place in the illness experiences of the Amuzgos Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico. I ethnographically describe, across time, the interrelated links among social events, physical symptoms, and illness narratives of Latino folk illness popular nosologies as they are contextualized in their unique, social topographies. This enlarged theoretical perspective implies a smallest unit of meaning that is ethnographically defined, but that will often encompass more than the individual sufferer and more than one illness. The research objective of this study was to understand Amuzgan illness experiences through the narratives of detailed case histories and ethnographic observations that were gathered during 18 months of qualitative research. The data show that Amuzgos experience Latino folk illnesses as bodily rememberings of illness events combined with negative interpersonal interactions. Healing these Latino folk illnesses implies curing bodies, households, social relationships, and living environments.     

Segmented political assimilation: perceptions of racialized opportunities and Latino immigrants' partisan identification

Abstract

To account for Latino immigrants' assimilation into the American political mainstream, I derive social psychological factors from the contextual notion of ‘modes of incorporation’ in the segmented assimilation literature. These social psychological factors, perceptions of racialized opportunities (PROPs), relate to immigrants' adoption of political party identities (i.e. Democrat, Republican). I test these PROPs factors utilizing the 2006 Latino National Survey (N=5,717 immigrant Latino respondents). Multinomial logistic regressions predicting party identification, compared to either ‘Don't Know’ or ‘Don't Care’ options, indicate that PROPs are significantly related to Latino immigrants' identification as either Democrats or Republicans. High levels of identification with perceived white opportunities are related to Republican identity and high levels of identification with perceived black opportunities differentiate Democrats from Republicans.