Ask Not What Your Mentor Can Do for You…: The Role of Reciprocal Exchange in Maintaining Student–Teacher Mentorships

Mentoring relationships between adolescents and adults are an important source of social capital that facilitates young people's academic and social development. Studies show that close relationships with teachers especially benefit socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents, yet little is known about teacher‐mentors’ perspectives on mentorship. This study draws on in‐depth interviews with teachers in low‐income high schools and ethnographic observations to examine the dynamics that sustain student–teacher mentoring relationships. I engage social exchange frameworks to show that reciprocal exchanges that generated intangible rewards for teachers, such as gratitude and purpose, helped maintain mentorships. I find that teachers’ motivations to invest in students were contingent on the strength of the relationship. Teachers withdrew assistance when they perceived that relationships became nonreciprocal. The context in which teachers interacted with mentees and the form of support they had given also influenced their evaluations of reciprocity. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature on relationships that challenge strict divisions between the function of strong and weak ties. Further, these findings contribute to social capital literature by showing that once accessed, social capital does not lie latent as network ties maintain the same willingness to help. In actuality, resourceful ties must be maintained.     

Social Capital and the Interplay of Families and Schools

Families and schools are two primary sources of social capital in the early life course. This study examines the degree to which these different contexts overlap to shape adolescent development. Multilevel modeling on nationally representative data (n = 11,927) revealed that emotionally distant relationships with parents were associated with declining academic achievement over 2 years of secondary schooling and that various aspects of the social environments of schools were associated with increasing academic achievement during this same period. Additionally, adolescents who had more social capital at home often benefited more from social capital at school.     

Do rich teens get richer? Facebook use and the link between offline and online social capital among Palestinian youth in Israel

Studies have shown that using social networking sites contributes to social capital. This study investigated the association between specific features of Facebook and online social capital. Two contrasting hypothesis were tested. The first posits that the rich get richer, meaning that the creation of social capital online reflects the stock of offline resources already available. In contrast, the compensation hypothesis argues that disadvantaged ethnic minorities are more likely to use social media to compensate for their lack of social capital offline. We tested these two theories among a representative sample of Palestinian teenagers (N?=?567). While we found no gender differences in the use of Facebook’s features, our results highlight the positive correlation between the use of active and passive communication features and perceived social capital online. Moreover, the results support the rich-get-richer model; in that, even among this socially disadvantaged group, the youngsters who already had a store of social capital offline benefitted more from using Facebook.     

The Role of Peer Social Capital in Educational Assimilation of Immigrant Youths*

The academic achievement of immigrant children has been a focus of social research for decades. Yet little attention has been paid to peer social capital and its importance as a school context factor for the academic success of immigrant youths. Using multilevel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Waves 1 and 3), this article draws upon social capital theory and assimilation theory to examine the effects of peer social capital on the academic achievement and attainment of immigrant and native youths. The effects of three measures of peer social capital are studied, controlled for many important variables, for example, sociodemographic background variables, school characteristics, and family social capital. Results indicate that only the average GPA (grade point average) of peers had a consistent and significant effect on children's achievement and attainment, whereas the density and the homogeneity of the peer network did not. Furthermore, all three measures of peer social capital have stronger effects for immigrant youths than for native youths.     

The role of social relationships in the association between adolescents' depressive symptoms and academic achievement

While research has established that depression interferes with academic achievement, less is understood about the processes by which social relationships may buffer the relationship between depression and academic outcomes. In this study we examined the role of positive relationships in the school, family and peer contexts in the association between depressive symptoms and academic achievement among 894 adolescents aged 12–17 years living in Santiago, Chile. Depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of academic achievement; parental monitoring, school belonging, positive mother relationships, and having academically inclined peers moderated this relationship, though some interactions differed by sex and age. Implications for promoting the academic success of adolescents experiencing depressive symptoms are discussed.     

Analysis of the changing relationship between peer acceptance and academic achievement in adolescents / Análisis de la relación variable entre la aceptación entre iguales y el rendimiento académico de los adolescentes

Peer interactions in the context of group-level relationships have significant consequences on social adjustment across the lifespan of children and adolescents. Indeed, peer relations change systematically with individuals’ development. This study examined the effect of positive peer interactions measured as peer acceptance on academic achievement during the adolescence developmental stage. Participants were 766 students aged 11–16 years old. Adolescents completed a sociometric measure of peer acceptance. Academic achievement data were obtained from students’ report card grades. Regression analyses indicated that peer acceptance predicted academic achievement, and also a moderation effect was found displaying a higher impact of peer acceptance on academic achievement for younger adolescents than for older adolescents. It is suggested that improving peer relationships within the group, especially at early adolescence, can be a target of intervention to improve academic functioning at school.     

Immigration and resiliency: unpacking the experiences of high school students from Cape Verde and Ethiopia

This article explores the complex factors, both individual and social, that contribute to the resiliency and academic achievement of six adolescent African immigrant students from Cape Verde and Ethiopia who were enrolled in a small high school in the United States. The school was designed specifically for recent adolescent immigrant students. Using an in-depth qualitative case study research design, this study provides insight into the educational and social issues confronted by these students and the factors that contributed to their resiliency. The competencies and social capital that students acquired in school and at home were major contributing factors to their resilience and academic achievement. Findings show that these students had a supportive social network of family and friends who had encouraged them to succeed in school and provided mentoring, and material and social resources that helped them to succeed. In addition, teachers encouraged and engaged the students by having high expectations and connecting them to the curriculum in meaningful ways.     

Psychological adaptation among second-generation Moroccan adolescents: associations with sense of community and country of residence

ABSTRACT

Increasing evidence suggests that immigrant youths’ social integration varies widely across national contexts, but the factors explaining this variation at the individual and societal levels are still under debate. Drawing upon developmental and community psychology approaches, the current study aimed to investigate psychological adaptation in terms of life satisfaction, self-esteem, and psychological problems among second-generation Moroccan adolescents and their national peers in the Netherlands and Italy. Furthermore, we examined the role of sense of community (SoC) in these youths’ outcomes. Participants were 90 Moroccan-origin and 208 national adolescents aged between 17 and 20 years, who completed a questionnaire survey. Results indicated that life satisfaction was overall higher in the Netherlands than in Italy. Moreover, Moroccan and Dutch youth reported similar levels of self-esteem and psychological problems, whereas Italian youths fared less well than their Moroccan peers. The positive association between SoC and life satisfaction was stronger for Moroccan adolescents in both countries; SoC was related to higher self-esteem and fewer psychological problems, but only in Italy. The findings suggest that characteristics of the host society are crucial for the psychological adjustment of second-generation Moroccan adolescents, and that programs targeting SoC may boost these youths’ positive adaptation and social integration.     

Academic achievement of Vietnamese American adolescents: A community perspective

This article investigates influences on academic achievement among Vietnamese American high school students. Theorists have offered a variety of explanations for Asian American academic success, and characteristics of individual families have received particular attention in many of these explanations. Here, it is argued that the academic success of Vietnamese American students may be understood as the product of “social capital,” or tightly integrated sets of associations, within Vietnamese American communities. If this is the case, it is further argued, high levels of scholastic performance among Vietnamese American youth should be proportionate to their involvement with an ethnic community. The article uses data from a specific Vietnamese American community to find whether community involvement by adolescents and their families is in fact associated with academic achievement. Participation in an ethnic church, proportion of friends who are Vietnamese, and attendance at after‐school Vietnamese classes are used as indicators of adolescents’ community involvement. Membership in ethnic community organizations is used as an indicator of parental community involvement. Findings support the contention that the involvement of Vietnamese American adolescents and of their parents in the ethnic community are strong predictors of academic achievement and that the structure of individual families promotes scholastic performance primarily by promoting community involvement.     

Society's readiness: How relational approaches to well-being could support young children's educational achievement in high-poverty contexts

This paper explores how relational approaches to well-being could support young children's educational achievement in high-poverty contexts. It draws on findings from a qualitative study involving mothers and early years educators living and/or working in a city characterised as one of the most disadvantaged in England. The findings suggest that children's well-being, rather than being merely an individual characteristic or aspiration, is interdependent with their social and material environments, as are the institutions that support them. The paper concludes by calling for a recalibration of early childhood policies away from assessing individual children's ‘school readiness’ to encouraging society's readiness to support everyone's well-being, and consequently that of young children too.     

GENDER, CLASS, AND THE ART AND CRAFT OF SOCIAL CAPITAL

Social capital is generally recognized as the positive outcome of sociability and social connection and, more specifically, as the capacity to realize economic benefits through social connections. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the potential of social capital at the intersection of socioeconomic disadvantage. The first part of the article examines assumptions of class and gender in the theoretical literature on social capital. The second part explores the influence of class and gender contexts on social networks among women living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Victoria, Australia. The analysis reveals the ways in which social network assets are conditional on socioeconomic and gender circumstances.     

Loneliness,the search for meaning,and the psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged Chinese adolescents living in Hong Kong: Implications for life skills development programs

Assuming a relational basis of meaning-making, we examined ways in which the search for meaning and loneliness relate to the psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged adolescents. Using a survey with a sample of 366 economically disadvantaged adolescents and 304 non-economically disadvantaged adolescents recruited from 10 schools in Hong Kong, we observed that the search for meaning had a positive association with self-esteem, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction only among economically disadvantaged adolescents, whereas loneliness had a negative association with those indicators of psychological well-being in the entire sample. We also identified an interaction effect between the search for meaning and loneliness on life satisfaction among economically disadvantaged adolescents. Our results partially supported our hypotheses by showing that loneliness and the search for meaning jointly affected the development of economically disadvantaged adolescents, whereas loneliness was a more significant predictor than the search for meaning. Given such functions of the search for meaning and sense of belongingness in the development of young people amid economic hardship, practitioners and educators should initiate meaning- and relationship-oriented life skills programs in the formal and non-formal learning contexts, as well as facilitate young people's search for meaning in the informal learning context.     

Socioeconomic Context and Emotional‐Behavioral Achievement Links: Concurrent and Prospective Associations Among Low‐ and High‐Income Youth

Temporal associations in the relationship between emotional‐behavioral difficulty and academic achievement were explored in 2 samples followed from 6th through 8th grade. The first sample comprised 280 students entering an economically disadvantaged urban middle school and the second comprised 318 students entering an affluent suburban middle school. Among disadvantaged youth, emotional indices were concurrently associated with poorer achievement while prospective associations between substance use and achievement were evident. For privileged adolescents, only a significant concurrent relationship emerged between social anxiety and achievement, although nonsignificant trends in the data suggest other, albeit weak, associations. The findings are discussed in terms of similarities and differences in these temporal associations across 2 samples representing extremes of the socioeconomic continuum.     

Parental Competence in Italy: A Comparison Between Italian and Immigrant Parents

The migration experience could influence parental competence perception in immigrant parents. Within this framework the current work focuses on immigrant parenthood and whether a family’s migratory path could lead parents to feel less competent in their parental roles. The aim of the present study is to analyze perceptions of parental competence and family routines among immigrant and Italian parents during the middle childhood stages. The results showed that immigrant parents perceive themselves as more competent than Italians. Immigrants also attribute more importance to the dimension of relational and regulatory routines in daily family life than do Italian parents. Professionals can use these findings to better understand how best to enhance practices and strategies appropriate to the complexity of these intercultural contexts.     

Income inequality,cultural capital,and high school students' academic achievement in OECD countries: A moderated mediation analysis

This study examines how social context, in this case, income inequality, shapes the role of cultural capital in educational success. First, we revisit the associations between (objectified) cultural capital and academic achievement, and cultural capital's role in mediating the relationship between family SES and academic achievement. More importantly, we explore how national-level income inequality moderates these two relationships. By analyzing a multilevel dataset of 32 OECD countries, a combination of PISA 2018 data and several national indexes, we find that: (1) cultural capital not only has a positive association with students' academic achievement but also acts as a significant mediator of the relationship between family SES and academic achievement in OECD countries; (2) both cultural capital's association with academic achievement and it's mediating role are stronger in more equal countries than in unequal ones. The findings shed new light on understanding how cultural capital shapes intergenerational education inequality across countries with different levels of inequality.     

RELIGIOUS PARTICIPATION, ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION, AND ADAPTATION OF VIETNAMESE ADOLESCENTS IN AN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY

This article addresses the role of religion in immigrant adaptation through the case of Vietnamese adolescents. Our results show that religious participation consistently makes a significant contribution to ethnic identification, which, in turn, facilitates positive adaptation of immigrant adolescents to American society by increasing the probability that adolescents will do well in school, set their sights on future education, and avoid some of the dangers that confront contemporary young people. These results suggest that an immigrant congregation does not function simply as a means of maintaining a psychologically comforting sense of ethnicity while group members drop ethnic traits in their day-to-day lives. Nor does identification with an ethnic group appear to limit life chances by binding group members to ethnic traits. On the contrary, the ethnic religious participation examined here, to a large extent, facilitates adjustment to the host society precisely because it promotes the cultivation of a distinctive ethnicity, that, in turn, helps young people to reach higher levels of academic achievement and to avoid dangerous and destructive forms of behavior.     

The Effect of Immigrant Communities on Foreign‐Born Student Achievement1

This paper explores the effect of the human capital characteristics of co‐ethnic immigrant communities on foreign‐born students’ math achievement. We use data on New York City public school foreign‐born students from 39 countries merged with census data on the characteristics of the immigrant household heads in the city from each nation of origin and estimate regressions of student achievement on co‐ethnic immigrant community characteristics, controlling for student and school attributes. We find that the income and size of the co‐ethnic immigrant community has no effect on immigrant student achievement, while the percent of college graduates may have a small positive effect. In addition, children in highly English proficient immigrant communities test slightly lower than children from less proficient communities. The results suggest that there may be some protective factors associated with immigrant community members’ education levels and use of native languages.     

Adolescents’ experiences of school belonging: a qualitative meta-synthesis

School belonging is associated with positive social and academic outcomes. This meta-synthesis aimed to explore adolescents’ accounts of the experience of school belonging, and to promote their understanding of this experience in order to inform policy and practice. A meta-ethnographic methodology was used; this involved a process of reciprocal translation and subsequent synthesis of eight qualitative studies. The synthesis generated four main concepts: (1) school belonging and intersubjectivity; (2) school belonging and knowledge, understanding and acceptance of individual identity; (3) school belonging and experiences of in-group membership and (4) school belonging and safety/security. The synthesis of translation generated the higher-order concept of school belonging as ‘feeling safe to be yourself in and through relationships with others in the school setting’. This concept considers the experience of school belonging for adolescents as a foundational prerequisite of academic engagement and achievement. The implications of these findings for education, social care and mental health practitioners and policymakers are discussed.     

Psychosocial Correlates and Consequences of Adolescents’ Self‐Generated Academic Goals and Appraisals

The current study examined whether characteristics of adolescents (i.e., externalizing problems) and their environments (i.e., social support, adverse childhood experiences) relate to academic goal setting, appraisals, and outcomes. Adolescents (n = 99; 87% Black/African American) 13–16 years old completed baseline interviews, and 80% also completed follow‐up interviews. Adolescents with more externalizing problems set fewer academic goals, and youth with social networks characterized by greater support (and less strain) appraised their academic goals as more supported and achievable. Adolescents’ appraisals of their academic goals, but not how many academic goals they had, predicted grades at follow‐up. Increasing social support (and reducing social strain) may foster adolescents’ positive appraisals of their academic goals, which may promote academic achievement.     

The (Non)Accumulation of Capital: Explicating the Relationship of Structure and Agency in the Lives of Poor Black Men

The concepts of habitus and capital are crucial in the research tradition of social and cultural reproduction. This article applies both terms to an analysis of aspects of the life histories of low-income African American men. In exploring how their past experiences relate to their present-day statuses as nonmobile individuals, this article also revisits and redefines the utility of habitus and capital as conceptual devices for the study of social inequality. It expands the empirical terrain covered by the concept of capital to include that which allows low-income individuals to manage their existence in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities while also hindering their mobility in the broader social world. One implication of this approach is an improved cultural analysis of low-income individuals. The improvement lies in that their behavior can be better understood as reflections of their readings of social reality, which are based upon the material and ideational resources that they have accumulated throughout their lives, and not simply as manifestations of flawed value-systems or normative orientations.