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Political efficacy, or a sense of confidence that “people like me” can understand politics and receive responsiveness from government, is central to the study of political behavior. However, the reference group that respondents view as “people like me” is not always immediately clear. This limits our ability to infer how efficacy informs political participation. We propose a specific concept and operationalization of racial group efficacy, and we distinguish this concept from racial identity, group consciousness, and conventional efficacy measures. Analyses of data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey reveal that for white, Black, Asian, and Latina/o Americans, racial efficacy is a more consistent and robust predictor of political participation than standard internal and external efficacy measures. Further, we show that racial efficacy exhibits associations with conventional and unconventional forms of participation that distinguish whites from people of color. We conclude by discussing how people’s racial efficacy informs their engagement in politics, from voting to protests.

In sexualized fiction written for young readers (ages 12–24), common narratives are meant to guide readers through their early sexual life, inform about the dangers and pleasures of sexuality, and validate the sexual lives of those deemed outside of the heterosexual norm. Young Adult (YA) novels comprise most of the canon of literature for readers of this age, but what young people read extends into other genres and formats, such as Adult fiction, graphic novels, and online amateur fiction. Literary scholars have criticized sexualized fiction for young readers for the presence of a sexually repressive ideology embedded within sexual relationships or scenarios. Most notably, didactic narratives meant to guide young persons through their early sexual life have typically associated sex with risk and not necessarily with pleasure or well-being, especially for young women. The argument, therefore, is that these texts are detrimental to the sexual well-being or liberation of young people. Contrary to this argument, sexualized fiction for young readers has also been subject to widespread censorship efforts in North America. Challenges or bans are typically based on concerns that these texts are pornographic, are unsuitable for young readers, or will inspire young people to act on their sexual impulses or engage in non-normative forms of sex. These two counterarguments parallel larger debates about what kinds of information about sexuality young people should have access to or how young people should perform—or not perform—their sexuality. The study of reading in the everyday lives of young people reveals complex relationships between text and reader, beyond those commonly cited as essentially repressive or corruptive. A case study on the reading experiences of young women in Canada shows that young readers engage with a wide variety of sexualized fiction and have nuanced relationships with these texts. This case study shows that as a literature that addresses the complexities of adolescent sexuality, sexualized fiction remains a source for transformative possibilities, where fictional narratives have the possibility to contribute to the sexual well-being of young people.

Objective The impact of cognitive function and decline on political ideology is unknown. We studied the relationship between cognition and both political orientation and political policy choices in a population of older persons. Design Longitudinal investigation. Setting A retirement community and its surroundings in Southern California. Participants 151 members of a longitudinal investigation of aging and dementia in the oldest-old (the 90+ Study), mean age 95 years. Measurements Participants self-reported their political ideology (7-point scale from extremely liberal to extremely conservative) and policy preferences for federal spending on public schooling, aid to the poor, and protecting the environment, as well as on preferences on immigration rates, death penalty, and university admission. The same political survey was mailed to participants twice: at time one and 6-months later. Cognitive function based on neurological examination and cognitive testing was classified as normal (55%), cognitive impairment/not dementia (CIND) (33%), or dementia (12%). We calculated rank correlations between ideology and policy choices, stratified by cognitive status, and agreement between Surveys 1 and 2. Results Political ideology/orientation was highly consistent over a six-month period (84% agreement) among the 122 who returned the second survey, with no significant relationship to cognitive status. Among cognitively impaired (CIND and dementia), however, there was significant loss of consistency between an individual's political orientation and their policy choices. Level of political engagement was high for participants, with more than 90% voting in the 2016 presidential election. Conclusion In this population of older persons, political identification on the liberal-conservative spectrum was resilient despite cognitive decline, but its meaning and function were changed. For the cognitively impaired it remained a self-defining label, but no longer operated as a higher order framework for orienting specific policy preferences. There appeared to be loss of coherence between the political orientation and political policy choices of cognitively impaired individuals. Given the high level of political engagement of these individuals, these results have substantial public policy implications.

Research consistently emphasizes the importance of religious institutions for influencing political action among Asian Americans. The social capital literature offers two theoretical explanations for why churches increase political activity: bridging capital between different groups and bonding capital among similar groups. The latter argues that individuals who attend racially homogeneous churches are more participatory. This paper expands on these accounts by examining another aspect of bonding. That is, how does similarity in political views among church members affect Asian Americans' political participation? Results from the 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey show that Asian Americans who attend politically homogeneous churches are more likely to vote and participate in conventional activities. The effects of racial homogeneity are limited once taking political homogeneity into consideration. These findings provide evidence that political homophily within religious organizations may facilitate the bonding of social capital between racial/ethnic minorities, and this homophily is indeed salient to democratic participation.

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO intensified debates on policing in Black and minority communities and served as a major catalyst for protest movements such as Black Lives Matter (...

The prevalence of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant rhetoric throughout the 2016 election season provides an opportunity to examine the factors shaping Asian Americans’ emotional responses to a threate...

This paper explores the role of racial group efficacy in shaping the emotions and political behavior of Black and White Americans. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey and an original survey experiment, we show significant variations in how Black and White people view their political influence as individuals and as members of collective racial groups. We uncover patterns that question whether the linkage between efficacy and anger as demonstrated by extant scholarship is effectively applicable to African Americans. Finally, we show that racial group efficacy is a stronger predictor of political behavior than conventional efficacy measures—particularly for African Americans. We discuss how a focus on racial group efficacy can greatly inform our understanding of racial divergences in political participation.

In recent years, research on adolescent sexuality in Young Adult (YA) Literature has included a discussion of its potential role in sex education. Based on the extensive yet problematic presentation of sexuality within these texts, it has gained both support and opposition. However, very few empirical studies have been done on how readers say YA Literature has informed their sexual lives. This thesis investigates how narratives of sexuality found within YA Literature may inform the sexual lives of young women readers by examining both readers’ experiences and YA texts. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 female participants (aged 18 to 24) on their experiences reading sexually-themed YA Literature. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and report themes found within the interview data. Second, a sample of YA texts of different genres and formats was closely read for presentations of adolescent sexuality. Textual analysis was used to analyse themes within four texts that were thematically significant in relation to readers’ experiences. This study found that YA Literature has the potential to give a more nuanced portrayal of sexuality than traditional sex education, but it also lacks content that appeals to some readers’ sexual curiosities and information needs. The readers reported that YA Literature informed them on many aspects of sexuality, including the biological, social, emotional, pleasurable, and painful aspects of sexual relationships. However, in many cases, these readers also “read up” or turned to online fiction to read more complex, erotic, or diverse stories. Along with these responses, the author uses YA texts to demonstrate how themes, tropes, and codes about sexuality may inform the sexual lives of young readers, sometimes in ways that were unexpected or have yet to be examined. The findings both support and refute previous studies on sexuality in YA Literature, revealing that although there are many positive qualities of YA Literature when informing young readers on sexuality, improvements need to be made in the areas of female character development, descriptive sex scenes, and positive representation of LGBTQ relationships. The author also makes recommendations for how librarians can help to improve access to sexually-themed materials for young people.