Search

Copyright of Journal of Modern Science is the property of Alcide De Gasperi University of Euroregional Economy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives Abstract: The situation of the modern world, which was expressed by various signs of the times, was an impulse for the Catholic Church to rethink its place and role in today's culture and civilisation. The Vatican Council (1962-1965) was dedicated to the above issues. The Council outlined new lines of development for its own work. After it, the Church also encouraged all religious families to aggiornamento their charisms. The Salesians, reflecting on the preventive system, wanted their educational work with young people not to be different from the Church's mission, but to be rooted in it and to complement its mission. Keywords: preventive system, Second Vatican Council, poor youth, catechesis of evangelisation Material and methods An analysis of the documents of the General Chapters of the Salesian Society. Results For the author of the article, very interesting. Conclusions The content should be brought closer to the members of the Salesian Society

This article investigates everyday geography of young adults and the unequal importance that spatial accessibility to a range of urban services might have for their mental health to identify those who are truly disadvantaged. Whereas the literature on the socially differentiated vulnerability to place effects has traditionally focused on the neighborhood of residence, we consider daily activity locations to explore whether socially disadvantaged populations are more exposed to (differential exposure) or more affected by (differential effect) low spatial accessibility to services compared to their more advantaged counterparts. Data came from 1,983 young adults (between eighteen and twenty-five years old) living in Montreal, Canada. We observed that less educated young adults had lower spatial accessibility to services in their activity space than their more educated counterparts but also that they were more vulnerable to having lower numbers of services in their surroundings: Lower service accessibility in the activity space was associated with poorer mental health among less educated young adults but not among the more educated. We suggest three sociospatial mechanisms related to (1) place experiences, (2) flexibility in spatial behavior, and (3) rules regulating actual access to services to explore why the "objective" lack of services close to residential and activity locations might represent a greater burden to more socially disadvantaged people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During early childhood, economically disadvantaged children can experience challenges that affect their social-emotional, language, and physical health development across the lifespan. Psychologists have tested several interventions to address developmental problems during early childhood, but information about the degree to which economically disadvantaged children are included in such research is limited. The current paper reviews selected interventions in the areas of social-emotional, language, and physical health challenges to examine the degree to which economically disadvantaged children have been included in early childhood intervention research and to identify efficacious interventions for practitioners and researchers. The review suggests that some areas, such as interventions for Type 1 diabetes and child anxiety disorders, warrant additional research with economically disadvantaged children. The authors recommend increased dissemination, collaboration among early childhood professionals, and the replication of effective interventions with young children and their families to increase their access to quality early childhood care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called NEET youngster consists in those who neither study, nor work, nor search for employment. We analyze its construction as a social problem from a tripod: the unknowing and disinterest of poor youngster's experiences, the glamorization of the phenomena and the constitution of a group of practices to solve it. The analyzes presented are based on research that carried out a lexical analysis of semantic universes, using as support the ALCESTE program, about the so-called NEET youngster in nineteen (19) documents of the International Work Organization/OIT, and an intervention-research with fourteen (14) young. We had analyzed how micro-relations, the macro-politics, the institutional and cultural aspects contribute to the absence of the youngsters from school and work, which are opposed to the notions that needed investments to solve the built-up problem must come exclusively from individual dimension. We had problematized the notions that consider the thought of NEET youngsters as vulnerable individuals and as a risk group, and we highlight its construction as a simulation of youngster which has his/her rights denied daily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes how the Clubhouse Network has offered young people from low-income communities with a safe out-of-school setting in which to explore, experiment and express themselves through technology and life skills. Topics include the experiences of Clubhouses in Colombia, New Zealand and Nevada, principles of the Clubhouse learning model such as learning by designing, and the importance of addressing youth mental health issues.

Children and youth are typically positioned as passive subjects in learning, and when talking about working class children in particular, the common belief is that attendance at school institutions will translate into social displacement; that is, that children and young people from this economic segment who invest in the study will be able rise economically. It is in this context that recent public policies aimed at maintaining and extending the presence of children and young people in educational institutions can be understood. Some of these policies aim to guarantee access by blacks and the poor to higher education, from which they have been historically excluded. This paper reports on a qualitative study that addresses the motivations that make young people from lower classes feel called to seek participation in higher education, and what are the subjective consequences of this movement. The study focused on 23 university students, beneficiaries of the Quota Law or the University for All Program, from two recognized quality higher education institutions located in Rio de Janeiro. The results demonstrate that the support of family and peers, a passion for studying per se, identification with the university as a life path, and the expectation of upward social mobility were factors that contributed to motivating young people toward higher education. As far as the university is concerned, we found that it delivers contradictory messages to young people from the lower classes. For one, entering an institution historically destined for another social class can make young people feel that they don't belong there, which promotes uncertainties about the future. Faced with these challenges, poor young people are driven to "bet on themselves" as a way of overcoming the hardships of the present. However, it was also observed that many of these young people want to use their knowledge and university status to bring about changes in reality. It is concluded that the university in the neoliberal context can reinforce a model of individualistic subjectivation, but that, on the other hand, it can also operate to open lines of escape from this model, in instrumentalizing the poor young person for action towards the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is argued that regular engagement in physical activity (PA) has the potential to mitigate the negative health and educational outcomes that disadvantaged children living in care frequently face. However, little is currently known about children in care's participation in PA. This scoping review primarily aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to PA participation for children in care. Methods: The main phases of the scoping review were 1) identifying relevant studies; 2) selecting studies based on predefined inclusion criteria; 3) charting the data; and 4) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. All relevant studies were included in the review regardless of methodological quality and design. Results: The 7 articles that met the inclusion criteria were published between 1998 and 2013 and conducted in the USA (3), England (2), and Norway (2). A social ecological model was incorporated to map results against levels of influence. Conclusions: Various factors influence PA engagement for children in care. Barriers include low self-efficacy, instability of their social environment, which impacts on schooling and maintaining friendship groups, and, specific institutional practices and policies that may prevent access to PA. Before fully considering policy implications, further research with children in care is warranted in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much discussion in educational policy on the apparent educational benefits for disadvantaged young people of engaging in schools' extra-curricular activities (ECAs). The evidence suggests strong associations between ECAs and improved educational attainments. Arguments made about the causal processes and underpinning associations tend to revolve around individualised notions of transfer, and in particular the suggestion that ECAs develop various 'non-cognitive' skills of transferable educational relevance. In reviewing key literatures, we argue that such a notion cannot be justified. Instead, our analytical contribution to the field suggests that learning and development generally, and the possibilities of school ECAs specifically, should be understood through the Deweyan notions of experience and temporality. Such notions suggest that the way young people experience ECAs and mainstream classrooms should not be viewed through the lens of transfer but instead be seen as part of a set of integrating experiences of life as event, that includes and yet goes beyond schooling, and that suggests young people's fullness of life as a unit of analysis. Our line of argument, therefore, suggests that the deployment of school ECAs as currently constituted cannot have generalisable predictive power in specifying causal outcomes for improved academic attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The satellite city of Elizabeth, located 30 km north of South Australia's capital Adelaide, was established in the 1950s as an experiment in urban sociological planning, populated with new arrivals and hailed as the 'City of Tomorrow'. By the 1970s, it had declined into one of the most disadvantaged communities in South Australia, with intergenerational unemployment, poverty and social dysfunction leading to disengagement and disenfranchisement of the current generation of young people living there. In 2007 the local council developed a community facility to attract young people into creative learning and expression through music and the performing arts. This was the council's response to its shared responsibility for caring for the young people in its community and their personal, social and educational wellbeing. 'Northern Sound System' offers programs and resources for contemporary music composing, recording and performance. This article reports on the affordances of applying a youth participatory inquiry approach in a study in Elizabeth, to establish young people's views on music and the creative arts in relation to their lifeworlds, in particular their interests, personal wellbeing and social interactions. Most young people reported music played a large part in maintaining a positive outlook. However, there were differences in how young men and women talked about the creative arts in their lives, which may have implications for the provision of programs and safe spaces for young people to 'hang out' and engage in creative pursuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital communication technologies play an important role in the social development of young people, but can create vulnerabilities to cyberbullying and other negative online experiences. The Blurred Lives project aimed to tackle cyberbullying innovatively using a co-participatory approach, collaborating with 14–16-year olds living in areas of socio-economic disadvantage in five European countries. In phase one, 2,658 teenagers were surveyed on their internet use and any unpleasant online experiences. This data informed the second phase where the participating countries worked together with 237 adolescents across 10 schools with adult facilitators to create original anti-cyberbullying resources for teachers, parents/carers, peers, and social media providers using the Quality Circle approach. This methodology adopts an ethos of working together to solve a problem in small, peer-led groups. Each group was tasked with creating a resource for one of the target audience groups. The final resources comprise a rich variety of different formats including videos, comic strips, a board game, leaflets, posters, and newsletters. The pupil feedback highlights, for most but not all participants, an increased knowledge of cyberbullying and e-safety skills, as well as enhanced problem-solving skills, levels of confidence, and group work skills. Several operational challenges are also discussed, including the importance of school-level support, planning, staffing, and finding an appropriate balance between facilitator support and pupil agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychiatric disorders, particularly substance use disorders, are an impactful and highly prevalent public health concern in youth from low-income neighborhoods (YLINs). Indeed, prevention and intervention programs for mental health disorders that have evidenced improvements in youth from general population are not well integrated into community resources of YLINs and appear to be a poor fit for YLINs. Along this vein, experts have indicated there is an immediate need to empirically refine existing evidence-based mental health programs to be less stigmatizing, more culturally sensitive, relevant, and engaging for YLINs. To assist in addressing this need, we describe an innovative sport-specific optimization approach to mental wellness that is tailored for use in YLINs. Derived from Family Behavior Therapy, The Optimum Performance Programme in Sports (TOPPS) was developed to be implemented within the umbrella of well-established sport organizations that are accepted within low-income communities (e.g. YMCA, Boys & Girls Club) or primary and secondary school systems. TOPPS is designed to address both prevention and intervention of mental health disorders through a focus on overall wellness and sport performance, and incorporation of engagement methods, significant others, sport/physical education, and evidence-supported methods of addressing culture. Given the absence of sport-specific mental health intervention for youth, TOPPS may be appropriate in this population. However, formal evaluation of TOPPS in youth samples is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of structurally disadvantaged social groups report more frequent exposure to a variety of negative life events and chronic strains, yet little research has examined whether similar patterns exist for anticipatory stressors, or challenging circumstances that loom as potential threats in the future. This study uses data collected as part of a national survey of college seniors (N = 995) to examine how anticipatory stress regarding economic and residential security, exposure to traumatic events, and experiences of discrimination vary by gender identity, race-ethnicity, sexual orientation, and first-generation college student status. Consistent with stress theory, anticipatory stressors are more commonly reported by members of disadvantaged groups. Notably, variation in anticipatory stressors explains a nontrivial proportion of differences in depressive symptoms found across gender identity and sexual orientation categories. Findings signal the necessity of incorporating anticipatory stressors into research in the stress paradigm to further disentangle the contributions of social stressors to health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To examine spillover effects of job skills training (vs basic services only [e.g., adult basic education, job readiness training]) on substance misuse among low-income youths with employment barriers. Methods. Data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a longitudinal cohort study of youths born between 1980 and 1984 in the United States. Based on respondents' reports of substance misuse (past-month binge drinking and past-year marijuana and other illicit drug use) from 2000 to 2016, we estimated substance misuse trajectories of job skills training (n = 317) and basic services (n = 264) groups. We accounted for potential selection bias by using inverse probability of treatment weighting. Results. Compared with the basic services group, the job skills training group showed notable long-term reductions in its illicit drug misuse trajectory, translating to a 56.9% decrease in prevalence rates from 6.5% in year 0 to 2.8% in year 16. Conclusions. Job skills training can be an important service component for reducing substance misuse and improving employment outcomes among youths with economic disadvantages and employment barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant research has typically examined neighborhood characteristics in isolation using variable-centered approaches; however, there is reason to believe that perceptions of the neighborhood environment influence each other, requiring the use of person-centered approaches to study these relationships. The present study sought to determine profiles of youth that differ in their perceptions of their neighborhoods and objective neighborhood characteristics, and whether these profiles are associated with youth coping. Participants were low-income, African American youth (N= 733; 51.0% female, M age = 18.76 years, SD = 1.71) from a metropolitan city who were originally recruited for the Youth Opportunity program in Baltimore, Maryland. A latent profile analysis was conducted which included self-reported neighborhood social cohesion, collective efficacy, disorder, violence, and disadvantage derived from census data. Coping behaviors, specifically positive cognitive restructuring, problem-focused coping, distraction strategies, and avoidant behaviors were assessed via self-reported questionnaires. Four neighborhood profiles were identified: highest disorder (20.0%); highest violence/highest disadvantage (5.2%); high violence (26.6%); and highest cohesion/lowest disorder (48.2%). Individuals in the highest violence/highest disadvantage profile reported higher positive cognitive restructuring and problem-focused coping than the other profiles. These findings warrant an investigation into the individual assets and contextual resources that may contribute to more positive coping behaviors among youth in more violent and disadvantaged neighborhoods, which has the potential to improve resilient outcomes among youth in similar at-risk settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preoccupation with social continuity and the ideal ways of integrating young people in society, especially those from a poor background, makes the NEET (neither in employment nor in education or training) youth an adequate field for intervention by different social actors. The discomfort with the inactivity of poor youth is present along the history of brazilian youth and, today, it is under the term NEET that certain sections of the young population have been highlighted by the media, in social programs and politics. We analyse how the construction of the so called NEET youth as a social problem is sustained by a lack of knowledge of the experiences of poor youth, a tendency to create a spectacle around the fenomenon, and by the structuring of practices that intend to solve it. We reflect on how these titles renew the notion of a dangerous youth and construct paradoxical social practices.

The conventional view since the early 2000s has been that participation in higher education (HE) is a risky pathway for disadvantaged young people in England; the social risk of entering an alien environment combines with the financial risk of rising costs and questionable long-term returns. This riskiness has been constructed as a major barrier to participation. However, national administrative data cast doubt on whether this analysis still holds true. Despite significant rises in tuition fees, the proportion of disadvantaged young people entering HE has continued to rise, with advantaged groups seemingly being more price-sensitive. Data from recent qualitative studies has also suggested that young people are now less attuned to risks. This paper considers whether circumstances in wider society have shifted perceptions of risk. The volatility resulting from the global financial crisis appears to have repositioned HE as a less risky option than early entry to the labour market, especially with more jobs becoming 'graduate', while the social risk has declined as HE has diversified. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives from Beck, Boudon, Simon and Kahneman to argue that many disadvantaged young people now view HE as a form of 'insurance' against an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charter school funding is typically set by formulas that provide the same amount for students regardless of advantage or need. I present evidence that this policy skews the distribution of students served by charters toward low-cost populations by influencing where charter schools open and whether they survive. To do this, I develop and estimate an equilibrium model of charter school supply and competition to evaluate the effects of funding policies that aim to correct these incentives. The results indicate that a cost-adjusted funding formula would increase the share of disadvantaged students in charter schools with little reduction in aggregate effectiveness. (JEL H75, I21, I22, I28) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participant–practitioner relationships in community 'sport-for-development' practices are seen as central in working towards broader developmental outcomes. Using Noddings' Ethics of Care as an analytical framework, we investigated relational strategies of practitioners in three community sport practices (Belgium) to understand the personal developmental potential of these relationships. Based on the data (participatory observations, interviews, focus groups), we identified the following themes that are viewed as fundamental in building relationships that hold the potential to instigate personal development for young people in disadvantaged situations: (a) time demanding interactions, (b) authenticity of practitioners, (c) equalizing expertise, (d) non-judgmental approach, (e) practitioners' cultural capital, (f) co-organizing activities, (g) a 'thousand chances' philosophy, and (h) providing individual support. The identified themes can be used to develop youth-centred and qualitative evaluation methodologies that are more congruent with the daily work of community sport workers and, by doing so, go beyond a narrow quantitative 'outcome-fixated' evaluation dogma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Youths' participation in organized activities has been repeatedly associated with better psychosocial adjustment. However, youth living in more disadvantaged contexts (e.g., lower-income, dangerous neighborhoods) have less access to organized activities. The current study aimed to compare hobbies and organized activities, in terms of their accessibility and associations with social functioning with peers, using a social ecological framework. We also examined the conditional effects of family and neighborhood disadvantage for the associations between activity engagement and peer functioning. Methods: Participants were 91 predominantly African American, urban-dwelling middle school girls (Mage = 12.43) and their primary caregivers. Dyads completed separate interviews and questionnaires on activity engagement, family and neighborhood disadvantage, and social functioning with peers. Results: Results suggest that hobbies are a distinct facet of activity engagement that might be more widely accessible than organized activities. Greater involvement in hobbies and organized activities showed unique associations with indices of better peer functioning. Moreover, some of these associations were stronger for youth living in more disadvantaged contexts. Conclusions: This study advances the understanding of an important yet neglected topic within the adolescent development literature on activity research, namely differential access to opportunities among ethnic minority youth. Results suggest that hobby engagement is an important aspect of activity engagement with social benefits, especially for youth living in more disadvantaged contexts. Further investigation is warranted to understand the range of potential benefits of youths' hobby involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study examined the longitudinal associations between environmental adversity (defined in terms of exposure to violence in the neighborhood, school, and media), complex trauma (operationalized as experiences of abuse and neglect), and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms.Methods: Using a cross-lagged panel research design, we investigated the moderating role of peer support in these relationships in a sample of 644 adolescents from a severely disadvantaged district of Lima, Peru, who were followed up in a 1-year prospective study.Results and Conclusions: We found significant unidirectional dynamic relations, where both types of adversity were associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Peer support significantly moderated this effect, but only for complex trauma, in that higher levels of peer support were associated with a decreased impact of complex trauma on internalizing and externalizing symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of social relations and the quality of peer relations in particular as factors that may mitigate the risk of early exposure to trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which uses photovoice, a participatory method that combines photography, interviews, and group discussion, to create change regarding the issue of improvement of reference services for marginalized students by academic librarians. Topics include struggles faced by marginalized students in higher education in their academic work, seeking of information by marginalized students in their everyday activities, and centering of user's idea by research of library services.

Scholars call for more attention to how marginalization influences the development of low-income and racial/ethnic minority youth and emphasize the importance of youth's subjective perceptions of contexts. This study examines how beliefs about the fairness of the American system (system justification) in sixth grade influence trajectories of self-esteem and behavior among 257 early adolescents (average age 11.4) from a diverse, low-income, middle school in an urban southwestern city. System justification was associated with higher self-esteem, less delinquent behavior, and better classroom behavior in sixth grade but worse trajectories of these outcomes from sixth to eighth grade. These findings provide novel evidence that system-justifying beliefs undermine the well-being of marginalized youth and that early adolescence is a critical developmental period for this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of education and training resulting from leaving education early might contribute significantly to high rates of unemployment and inactivity among young people. Education is also seen as a decisive means of tackling these problems. Therefore, acquiring knowledge about the conditions in which re-engagement with education occurs after it is prematurely interrupted deserves special attention. The study presented here explores the opinions of students attending a second-chance educational centre in Ceuta (where the aforementioned benchmarks have quite high levels) concerning their life courses prior to returning to education there and the impact they attribute to the centre. Data from in-depth, individual interviews were used to do this. These were performed with 39 unemployed young people at risk of social exclusion aged between 18 and 24 (29 had left school early and 10 had not), as part of a broader case study relating to a centre selected for its relative success and its reputation in Ceuta. The information provided by the participants in the form of stories was subjected to narrative analysis, using two processes: summary biographical tables, which represent relevant events from their lives alongside their views of them, and thematic analysis of the information contained in them. In broad terms, results indicate that the life courses the participants follow are shaped by decisions they take from options shaped by personal, institutional, and social circumstances. They are, therefore, something like choice biographies. In this context, early school leaving and re-engagement in training are recurrent, transitory, and reversible, precisely because of the important role played by the people who experience these situations, even if they do so constrained by their institutional and social setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religiosity and spirituality are influential experiences that buffer adverse effects of stressors. Spirituality typically declines during adolescence, although not universally. Using Latent Class Growth Analysis, we examined changes in spiritual connectedness among 188 early (52% female; M age = 10.77, SD = 0.65 years) and 167 middle (56% female; M age = 13.68, SD = 0.82 years) predominantly African American adolescents participating in a 4-year longitudinal study. Three distinct profiles of spiritual connectedness emerged: low and steady, moderate with declines over the study period, and high and steady. Profile distributions varied across developmental level: there were more early adolescents in the high and steady profile and more middle adolescents in the decliner profile. Youth in the high and steady profile evidenced more goal-directedness and life satisfaction and more effective emotion management and coping strategies than youth in other profiles. Contributions to the positive development literature are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is an important protective factor against poverty. However, not all young people growing up in poverty have equal chances to achieve certain educational success. Previous research acknowledges the importance of various individual-level and family-level predictors. The importance of individual-level predictors can be explained by the structural strains theory, whereas the poor family socialization theory explains the importance of family-level factors. In this study, we tried to test these theories and replicate previous findings on a sample of 345 young people who grew up in poverty and are currently social assistance recipients in 26 social welfare centres. We conducted the study using administrative files from Croatian social welfare centres as a data source. Our hypotheses were that males, national minorities, individuals who experienced educational difficulties and committed risky behaviours during their high school age would attain lower educational status (H1). We also proposed that young people from families with one legal guardian/parent, families with more children, families where parents demonstrate risky behaviours and have lower education would attain lower education status (H2). We expected that the most important predictor of educational attainment would be the level of education of their parents (H3). Research results confirmed the importance of individual- and family-related characteristics as important determinants of educational attainment of young people who grew up and still live in poverty, with parental education being the most important predictor. Further research and practice should be developed in recognition that youth in poverty are not a homogenous group and that practices should address adverse family surrounding and structural strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article mentions the creation of the Job Corps and discusses its reorganization. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 established the Job Corps to help low-income youths who needed remedial education, occupational training, or related services to find employment, continue in school, or fulfill entrance requirements for military service. The Job Corps' man-year operating cost exceeded that of other programs, so there were major objections to the program which centered on its budget and the reallocation of resources.

Drawing on 150 in-depth interviews with African American male and female youth who have spent much of their lives in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, we explore the structural and cultural underpinnings of the elevated rate of unplanned childbearing among disadvantaged youth. We find that gender asymmetry in perceived opportunity costs, shared social meanings associated with condom use, and perceptions of health risk associated with hormonal and other female forms of birth control such as intrauterine devices--perceptions that may be rooted in a generalized distrust of the medical establishment--are promising explanations not usually considered in the literature on unintended fertility. These findings offer additional insight into how disadvantaged youth calculate the opportunity costs of childbearing and raise additional considerations for policies surrounding family planning and reproduction in the context of urban poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how digital inequalities give rise to privacy practices and resource acquisition strategies among disadvantaged youths. Based on in-depth interview data, the article probes the hidden costs of digital inequality among high school students in an agricultural belt of California. The analysis pays special attention to high-achieving students engaging in capital-enhancing activities such as schoolwork and college applications necessitating the use of digital resources. The findings examine the emotional costs paid by disadvantaged strivers whose privacy is compromised in their struggles to obtain the digital resources critical to college admissions, scholarship, and financial aid applications--almost all of which must be completed online. More specifically, the data show how youths facing a dearth of digital resources must manage their lack of physical privacy and digital footprints, as well as adaptively disclose private information to resource gatekeepers. When underresourced youths seek digital resources necessary for capital-enhancing activities, they must weigh the benefits of access to resources against the emotional costs of potentially shaming disclosures. In this way, for these youths lacking resources but with high educational aspirations, privacy and resource acquisition are negotiated processes that require emotional labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the learning dispositions of first-generation disadvantaged students at a university in South Africa's Western Cape Province. Based on qualitative data collected over a 2-year period, it focuses on findings from 7 purposively selected students at this university. Utilizing Bourdieu's concept of habitus and Wacquant's conceptual elaboration of this concept, the article explores the affective, cognitive, and conative (practices) dimensions of the students' habitus as interrelated aspects crucial to understanding how they develop their dispositions to learn. The article illustrates how the students' learning dispositions are produced through the active and strategic exercise of each of these 3 (affective, conative, and cognitive) interrelated embodied dimensions. I argue that understanding these embodied habitus generating practices are crucial for comprehending how they establish effective learning dispositions for successful educational engagement at their university. The significance of this article lies in offering a perspective of first-generation disadvantaged students' learning dispositions in respect of establishing their educational engagement practices at the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Planning for college is an increasingly common rite of passage for high school students. Institutional agents--nonkin adults who possess institutional resources--are important sources of support and guidance in this process. Purpose: This mixed-methods study examines social class differences in the involvement of school-based institutional agents such as teachers and school counselors in helping young people plan for college and the future. Population: Interviews were conducted with 61 middle-class, working-class, and poor young women to collect information regarding their future plans, social ties, and role of social ties in guiding their plans. In addition, the author uses survey data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) to examine the association between social class and the role of school-based ties in adolescents' college planning. Research Design: Analyses of in-person interview transcripts involved inductive coding and the development of effects matrices to compare coding output by class. Quantitative models were constructed based on qualitative findings. Based on these findings, analyses of ELS data used hierarchical models to estimate the association between social class background and receiving encouragement and information regarding college from social ties. Findings: Analyses of interview transcripts reveal that disadvantaged young women see school-based ties as their primary means for college planning, whereas middle-class young women often discount advice from these ties when other sources of advice are available. Quantitative models also show that disadvantaged youth rely on school-based ties for information in the college planning process to a greater extent than do middle-class youth. However, disadvantaged youth receive less encouragement to attend college from school and nonschool ties, even after accounting for academic performance. Conclusions: Inequality in access to college stems in part from differences in the resources available to high school students as they plan for the future. Disadvantaged youth look to schools to help them plan; if schools marshal their resources to assist these young people, they can help address existing inequality in access to college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates how the engagement of families and other community members in decision-making processes in a school may prevent early school leaving among vulnerable youth and simultaneously increase their enrolment in secondary education. Based on a large-scale, EU-funded study, this article focuses on the case of one school located in a deprived area inhabited mainly by Roma people - one of the vulnerable populations most affected by early school leaving - where a specific egalitarian participatory process of Roma families was implemented. According to the analysis of the collected data, this participation contributed to a reduction in student dropout rates during primary education, led to the implementation of compulsory secondary education in the same school, and increased the numbers of students who graduated from secondary school. These achievements transformed the educational and social prospects of vulnerable youth who were following the path to failure and who now dream of continuing their studies. Furthermore, these youth are acting as role models for younger children in primary education, helping to prevent school dropout and early school leaving from early ages. The case shows how the community participation in decision-making processes transformed the climate and expectations regarding education in the neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of urban social divisions and changing race relations on the experiences of disadvantaged youth living on the periphery of two Canadian cities: Vancouver and Toronto. We analyze a cross-national subsample of 60 disadvantaged youths’ perceptions of urban social conflict and changing race relations in their city and school. We raise the larger question of how and why economically disadvantaged young people might embody particular understandings of safety, race, the other and security in different spatial registers of the city. We utilize an ethnographic methodology drawing from diverse but interrelated fields: border studies, the phenomenology of estrangement and a materialist version of critical race studies [(Ahmed, S. 1999. “Home and Away Narratives of Migration and Strangeness.”International Journal of Cultural Studies2 (3): 329–347, Ahmed, S. 2010.The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Ahmed, S. 2013.The Cultural Politics of Emotion. London: Routledge; Kearney, R., and V. E. Taylor. 2005. “A Conversation with Richard Kearney.”Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory6 (2): 17–26)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: There is a need to explain reported trends of reduced alcohol and drug (substance) use in school-aged children in Australia. This study used student survey data collected in the states of Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland to examine trends in substance use and associated influencing factors.Design and Methods: Youth self-reports were examined from 11 cross-sectional surveys completed by 41 328 adolescents (average age 13.5 years, 52.5% female) across 109 Australian communities between 1999 and 2015. Multi-level modelling was used to identify trends in adolescent reports of lifetime alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use, adjusted for age, gender, social disadvantage and minority status. Trends in influencing factors were also examined that included: individual attitudes, and family, school and community environments. Multivariate analyses estimated the main contributors to alcohol use trends.Results: Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use all fell significantly from 1999 to 2015. Higher levels of use were observed in Victoria compared to Western Australia or Queensland. Multivariate analyses identified reductions in favourable parent attitudes and lower availability of substances as direct contributors to reducing alcohol use trends. Indicators of school and family adjustment did not show similar trend reductions.Discussion and Conclusions: Reductions in adolescent alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use from 1999 to 2015 were associated with similar reductions in parent favourable attitudes and availability of substances. It is plausible that a reduced tendency for parents and other adults to supply adolescent alcohol are implicated in the reductions in adolescent alcohol use observed across Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based after-school programs (ASPs) can promote social competence by infusing evidence-based practice into recreation. Through collaborative partnership, we developed and implemented a peer-assisted social learning (PASL) model to leverage natural opportunities for peer-mediated problem-solving. ASP-Staff (n = 5) led elementary-school youth (n = 30) through 21 activities that partnered socially-skilled and less-skilled children; outcomes were compared to children (n = 31) at another site, via quasi-experimental design. Findings were mixed, including strong evidence for fidelity (adherence) and feasibility (attendance, participation, enthusiasm) of implementation. Relative to Comparison children, PASL children demonstrated improved social skills and behavior, but no changes in problem-solving, peer likability, or social network status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: A high prevalence of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is reported in the population of Young Offenders (YO). However, little is known about the extent of the association between language and offending behaviour relative to social disadvantage, education attendance and non‐verbal intelligence (IQ), and neither has this association been investigated with particular reference to the expository discourse abilities of YOs on community orders in the UK. Aims: This study aimed to examine the direction and strength of the association between language and offending behaviour by comparing the receptive and expressive language and expository discourse abilities of male and female YOs and non‐offenders in the UK, relative to the confounds of social disadvantage, years of education attended and non‐verbal IQ. Examining expository discourse provided a measure of the YOs. ability to verbally communicate complex information; a communication ability that is fundamental to engaging effectively in youth offending services and secondary education. Methods: An opportunity sample of 52 YOs was recruited from a youth offending service. The YO group was matched on years of education, social disadvantage and non‐verbal IQ to a purpose selected comparison group of 25 non‐offenders. All participants had English as their first language and were not currently receiving any speech and language intervention. Participants completed standardised measures of receptive and expressive language and an expository discourse measure. The incidence of DLD was identified and compared across offender group using scores from the language and expository discourse measures and gender differences were also explored. Finally, logistical regression analysis was used to test the association between language performance and offending status relative to the confounds of social disadvantage, education attendance and non‐verbal IQ. Outcomes & Results: A large proportion of YOs scored below test norms for the language and expository discourse measures, which indicated a high incidence of DLD that was much larger than that displayed by the non‐offenders. No differences were found on language performance between male and female YOs. Logistic regression analyses found that as language performance increased, the probability of being a non‐offender significantly increased. Conclusions & Implications: Participants were over 1 to 5 times more likely to be classified as a non‐offender for every unit increase in the language and expository discourse scores. The statistically significant positive association found between language and offending behaviour relative to other confounds, highlights the important role of language in understanding offending behaviour. YOs displayed high incidences of DLD in their language and expository discourse abilities despite having not received any speech and language intervention prior to their involvement in this study. This has implications for their effective engagement in education and in youth offending and criminal justice services (CJS). Professionals in education, health and social care and youth justice should be made aware of the language needs of both YOs and children with emotional behavioural difficulties, and these language needs should be identified and targeted as early as possible to enable them to be effective communicators who can engage effectively in their provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Almost 2 million U.S. youth are estimated to live on the streets, in shelters, or in other types of temporary housing at some point each year. Both their age and living situations make them more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, particularly during adolescence, a time of increased risk taking. Much of self-control appears related to the development of the prefrontal cortex, which is at a particularly crucial period of elaboration and refinement during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Executive processes like decision-making, inhibition, planning, and reasoning may be vulnerable to adversity experienced as a result of homelessness and related impoverishment during childhood and adolescence. No study to date, to our knowledge, has directly investigated differences in risk-taking by homeless youth as it relates to their developing executive control. Objective: Examine the relationship between the level of self-reported executive function (EF) and engagement in risk taking behaviors among a sample of shelter-living urban homeless youth. We predicted that homeless youth who have lower levels of self-reported EF would more readily engage in risky behaviors that could lead to negative outcomes. Participants: One hundred and forty-nine youths between 18 and 22 years of age were recruited from homeless agencies in Chicago. Of this study sample, 53% were female and 76% African American. Measures: All participants completed, as part of a broader neuropsychological assessment, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning-Adult Version (BRIEF-A), the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Analyses: Groups were separated based on level of self-reported EF, with two groups identified: High self-reported EF fell >1 SD above the normative average, and low self-reported EF fell >1 SD below the normative average. All analyses utilized Chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests. Results and Conclusions: Analyses revealed a relationship between the level of self-reported EF and risk taking behaviors in this group of sheltered homeless urban youths. Those with lower self-reported executive functioning had higher rates of engagement in multiple substance-related risk taking behaviors. These findings are important because they are a first step towards identifying contributions to risk-taking behavior in urban homeless youths. Identifying potential factors like low self-reported EF better allows us to potentially intervene, thereby providing focused support to youths who are at higher risk for engaging in problematic behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, federal funding under Title 1 is provided to schools to improve academic achievement for disadvantaged students. Many students attending schools eligible for Title 1 funding are from families in poverty and at risk for negative outcomes. Identifying instructional factors that mitigate this risk must be a priority for teachers and school administrators, especially in high-poverty schools. Active instruction that increases student engagement has long been identified as a critical element of academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' use of teacher behaviors representing active instruction (specifically, provision of opportunities to respond [OTR] and feedback) in 22 high- and low-performing Title 1 elementary schools. Results of multilevel modeling indicated that although school-level variance was limited, teachers varied in rates of group OTR and negative feedback across schools: teachers in high performing schools delivered higher rates of group OTR and lower rates of negative feedback. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Educación XX1 is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)