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Previous research has demonstrated that Latino young adults are uninsured at higher rates relative to other ethnoracial groups. Recent implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) has increased access to health insurance for young adults, in part by maintaining health coverage through their parents until age 26. This paper examines patterns of Latino young adults' insurance coverage during early ACA implementation by addressing three questions: 1) To what extent do Latino young adults remain uninsured relative to their peers of other ethnoracial groups? 2) How do young adults' family socioeconomic background, immigrant characteristics, college enrollment, and employment status mediate their coverage? And, 3) do patterns of insurance coverage differ for employer-provided coverage versus other sources of coverage (including parents' health insurance)? Using a 2011 representative sample of U.S.-born and 1.5-generation immigrant young adults in California, we find that Latinos are more likely than other ethnoracial groups to remain uninsured. While they are as likely as similar peers to obtain employer-provided health insurance, they are less likely to possess insurance through other sources (including their parents). This study contributes to our understanding of the limits of the ACA in reducing disparities in insurance coverage for Latinos by highlighting the importance of family socioeconomic background, immigrant characteristics, college enrollment, and employment in shaping coverage among this age group.

A rich civic infrastructure of community-based organizations (CBOs) can help generate, diffuse and maintain a culture of engagement and health that benefits marginalized populations most at risk for illness, disability, and poor health. Attention to CBOs advances "meso-level" frameworks for understanding health cultures and outcomes by going beyond attention to social networks and social identities. We focus on three mechanisms: CBOs can (1) empower individuals by developing civic capacity and personal efficacy; (2) foster solidarity by building networks, social identities and a shared commitment to collective well-being; and (3) mobilize people to have a voice in health-related policies and programming, thereby affecting community well-being. We draw on theory and research in sociology, political science and psychology, and we illustrate the utility of a CBO approach by examining survey and semi-structured interview data from participants in youth civic groups in 13 low-income, predominantly immigrant communities in California. Interview data illustrate the ways in which CBOs enhance members' civic capacities, provide a sense of empowerment and efficacy to engage in healthy behaviors, develop solidarity among diverse participants, and elaborate networks among those committed to community well-being. We also discuss CBO-led campaigns in which youth mobilized for change in policies and practices of local institutions to illustrate possible community-wide health consequences of CBO engagement. CBOs can thus generate individual-level well-being effects, and reduce structural barriers to good health through changes in the broader environment.

Over the last five years, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 - the “Justice for Janitors” union - has recognized educational improvement as a key quality of life issue for its predominantly Latino immigrant Los Angeles membership. Most Local 1877 members with children send their children to low-performing public schools. Yet many view their children’s education as the key to securing the future well-being of their families, especially since economic gains obtained through a janitors’ union contract can only go so far. Union members believe that SEIU Local 1877 should become involved in efforts to improve educational opportunities for their children. SEIU Local 1877 has taken several steps to respond to union members’ interests in their children’s education. The union has partnered with UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (UCLA IDEA), the UCLA Labor Center, and UCLA School of Law’s Program in Public Interest Law and Policy to understand the educational issues facing union members’ children.1 UCLA’s research findings show that the union’s Los Angeles membership is residentially concentrated in low-income Latino and African-American communities, near high schools that disproportionately suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers, overcrowding, and insufficient college preparatory courses. In these high schools, less than one half of entering students graduate.

The following report shows the trends in enrollment, the patterns of choice by students of different races and income, enrollment patterns of the various schools, and test scores of students enrolled in different schools in Clark County's Prime 6 program. The report shows relationships that are troubling and offers recommendations for improvement.Also available at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

Scholars have long argued that civic organizations play a vital role in developing members' civic capacity. Yet few empirical studies examine how and the extent to which civic skills transfer across distinct and separate civic contexts. Focusing on Latino immigrant members of a Los Angeles janitors' labor union, this article fills a void by investigating union members' involvement in an independent civic arena--their children's schools. Analyses of random sample survey and semi-structured interview data demonstrate that labor union experience does not simply lead to more civic engagement, as previous research might suggest. Rather, conceptual distinctions must be made between active and inactive union members and between different types of civic engagement. Results show that active union members are not particularly involved in plug-in types of involvement, which are typically defined and dictated by school personnel. Instead, active union members tend to become involved in critical forms of engagement that allow them to voice their interests and exercise leadership. Furthermore, findings suggest that the problem solving, advocacy, and organizing skills acquired through union participation do not uniformly influence members' civic engagement. Experience in a social movement union serves as a catalyst for civic engagement for some, while it enhances the leadership capacity of others. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures, and 4 notes.)

This article explores the potential role of low-wage service sector unions in engaging in equity-minded school reform. The members of many such unions are parents of children attending poorly resourced public schools. In seeking to address the interests of their members, labor unions can draw upon resources, organizing strategies, and political relationships to contribute to grassroots campaigns for educational equity. Data gathered in Los Angeles from labor and civic leaders, as well as janitors belonging to the Service Employees International Union Local 1877, reveal possibilities for low-wage service sector unions to build alliances around educational reform issues and support their members' individual capacities to advocate for their own children in schools. At the same time, low-wage service sector unions face challenges to participating in school reform efforts, including prioritizing education issues among other competing interests and identifying common ground with teachers' unions. (Contains 1 figure and 12 notes.)

This article presents an overview of a strengths-based school discipline initiative that was developed in response to the high suspension and expulsion rates of African American and Latino male students at a racially diverse, urban high school in California. A school task force made up of adult and youth stakeholders devised a series of interventions that included student-led efforts to improve discipline policies and procedures. The initiative builds on the Strengths-Based School Counseling framework explicated by Galassi and Akos (2007), which stimulates and promotes personal accountability, leadership, resiliency, self-management, and social competence in students as opposed to merely reducing student deficits.

This article proposes a developmental model for the political incorporation of the adolescent and young adult children of immigrants. We assert that key politicising agents – including parents, educational institutions, civic associations, and social media – play significant roles in mediating the political incorporation of 1.5- and second-generation youth. These politicising agents help determine if the children of immigrants will exhibit depressed engagement, participate in ways similar to their peers from non-immigrant families, or exercise civic leadership roles. In particular, we highlight the recent role of social movement-affiliated civic associations that have provided this young population with an intensive civics education and formative opportunities for civic action. We also note how intersectional frameworks adopted by broader millennial movements align with the campaigns of, as well as the political socialisation that occurs within, some of these organisations. To advance our argument, we draw on data from California, the state with the largest immigrant population and home to a vibrant social movement sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community colleges in the United States (US) remain relatively accessible to students from immigrant families. However, undocumented immigrant students encounter difficulties in staying continuously enrolled in community colleges because they contend with multiple disadvantages. These students often ‘stop out’, or withdraw with intentions to return. This mixed-methods study explores the non-continuous enrolment of students from immigrant families. Drawing on survey data from a randomly selected sample of community college students in California, logistic regression results indicate that although the children of immigrants exhibit an ‘immigrant advantage’ with respect to staying continuously enrolled in community college, those who remain undocumented stop out at disproportionately high rates. Through a comparative analysis of 80 semi-structured interviews with undocumented immigrants and US citizens, I outline the multidimensional ways in which a precarious legal status interferes with students' postsecondary schooling. Specifically, I suggest that undocumented students' legal status often leads them to stop out due to corresponding financial hardship, sub-standard employment options, the precarious legal status of other undocumented family members who rely on their earnings, and excessive stress. This study offers evidence that the condition of ‘illegality’ functions as a ‘master status’ that has an overpowering effect on students' college pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We build upon research on immigrant political incorporation, intergenerational family relations, and civic organizations in order to investigate the relationship between parents' political engagement and their children's civic and political participation. Drawing on survey data from a representative sample of California's 1.5 and second generation youth population, our analyses demonstrate support for the top-down model of political socialization in which barriers to immigrant parents' political engagement suppress the civic and political participation of their US-raised children. However, this is not the case for our unique sample of youth who participated in activist civic organizations. Our findings from follow-up in-depth interviews with survey respondents indicate that, while most youth do not actively politicize their immigrant parents, those who gained significant political experience through activist organizations often seek to orient their immigrant parents to US politics. In describing the efforts of some youth to educate their foreign-born parents about politics and encourage their participation, we evidence trickle-up effects in the political socialization of immigrant families. We argue that future research on activist civic associations should consider the impact of individual-level organizational membership on family-level patterns of political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]