Discrimination and Adjustment for Mexican American Adolescents: A Prospective Examination of the Benefits of Culturally Related Values

Mexican American adolescents face disparities in mental health and academic achievement, perhaps in part because of discrimination experiences. However, culturally related values, fostered by ethnic pride and socialization, may serve to mitigate the negative impact of discrimination. Guided by the Stress Process Model, the current study examined risk and protective processes using a 2‐wave multi‐informant study with 750 Mexican American families. Specifically, we examined 2 possible mechanisms by which Mexican American values may support positive outcomes in the context of discrimination: as a protective factor (moderator) or risk reducer (mediator). Analyses supported the role of Mexican American values as a risk reducer. This study underscores the importance of examining multiple mechanisms of protective processes in understanding Mexican American adolescent resilience.     

Foster care transition services for youth with disabilities: findings from a survey of county service providers

This study explores the transition services available for youth with disabilities in foster care and the collaboration among foster care transition programs with other types of providers. Findings from this survey of independent living coordinators working for child welfare agencies indicate that while youth with disabilities are being served through transition programs and these programs collaborate with other government agencies, there are few services targeted directly toward their needs, little collaboration with community-based agencies, and a need for more information sharing.     

Beliefs About Others’ Perceptions—Gender Typicality: Scale Development and Relationships to Gender Nonconformity,Sexual Orientation,and Well-Being

The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of “other-perceived” gender typicality and test its relationship with gender nonconformity, sexual orientation, and psychological distress. Data on these variables were collected from 632 participants (142 heterosexual men, 77 gay men, 50 bisexual men, 174 heterosexual women, 85 lesbian women, and 104 bisexual women). We designed a Beliefs About Others’ Perceptions—Gender Typicality (BOP-GT) scale on which participants reported how masculine or feminine they thought other people perceived their gendered behavior, interests, appearance, and activities. Factor analysis identified five factors: appearance, emotional response, sporting interests, occupational interests, and interpersonal style. Recalled childhood gender nonconformity (CGN) was significantly associated with each BOP-GT subscale. Heterosexual men rated that other people perceived them to be more masculine scoring on the BOP-GT compared to heterosexual women. Gay men and lesbian women showed cross-sexed patterns on the BOP-GT total scale, appearance, emotional response, and sporting interests scores. Bisexual men and women were generally no different from the other male and female groups, respectively. Bisexual women had greater distress scores, and the BOP-GT emotional response subscale was associated with somewhat greater distress scores. The BOP-GT measure may have use in future research on understanding gendered self-concepts.     

What does youth-led participatory budgeting reveal about youth priorities? Ideas,votes, and decisions

Youth involvement in community decision-making is considered a core principle of both youth advocacy and progressive governance. Yet, in many communities formal roles for youth remain limited. This paper presents data from a youth-led participatory budgeting process in Boston, Massachusetts (US). The City of Boston has institutionalized a formal process through which numerous youth can contribute ideas and vote on capital projects to receive city funding. A smaller group of youth are engaged in even greater depth. They are trained and work to facilitate submission of ideas, turn ideas into proposals, and encourage youth voting. We use data to identify concerns expressed by youth, their ideas for solutions, and the movement from ideas to funded projects. Implications for further development of participatory budgeting as a mechanism for youth civic engagement are discussed.     

The suburban paradox of conviviality and racism in postcolonial Britain

Taking my cue from work on relations of interethnic conviviality in super-diverse cities across the globe, this paper examines the ways in which conviviality co-exists with racism as found in a suburban British town. My argument is that ethnographic attention to the proximity of interethnic relations of conviviality to racism is necessary to guard against overly celebratory accounts of conviviality that downplay everyday manifestations of racism. By situating my study of conviviality in a suburban town, my account begins to unpack the characteristics of convivial relations formed in suburban neighbourhoods as opposed to super-diverse cities often studied by ethnographers in this area of inquiry. I examine manifestations of interethnic relations between British Asian Muslims and white British residents of this town. In contrast to the mainstream images that depict British Asian Muslims as a potential threat to neighbourhood stability and national security, some white and British Asian Muslim residents formed neighbourly relationships of trust, care and mutual recognition with each other across ethnic, racial, religious, gender, class and generational differences. Yet, my analysis of these convivial relations reveals some paradoxical ways in which individuals’ experiences of interethnic relations co-exist with their xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic attitudes.     

Rethinking Parental Coping with Child Health: A Proposed Theoretical Model

Much of the stress and coping literature is shaped by Hill’s ABC-X model, however, parents who are learning to cope with various aspects of their child’s health may experience stressors that can be better explained by expanding the ABC-X model to incorporate specific needs of the family. To aid this expansion, the authors examine the specific context of children with chronic illnesses via a systematic review and propose a new theoretical model: the Model of Parental Coping with Child Health. The proposed model explores the integration of the biopsychosocial-spiritual model and ecological systems theory utilizing the scaffolding of the ABC-X model for the organization. Future research, implications, and recommendations are also discussed.     

The links between women’s employment and children at home: Variations in low- and middle-income countries by world region

As fertility declines in low- and middle-income countries, the time women devote to childbearing and rearing may also be reduced. This shift has been described as one of the positive consequences of the demographic transition, as it opens opportunities for women to pursue educational and employment opportunities that were previously constrained by the demands of bearing and raising children. We estimate the numbers of children residing at home (with their mother) for women in 58 countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. We then examine the association between women’s employment and having children at home. Finally, we assess trends over recent decades in the relationship between employment and childbearing, and differences in this relationship by mother’s occupation. We find a negative association between women’s employment and having children at home; this association varies substantially by world region, age of child, and mother’s occupation.     

Migradollars and mortality: The effects of migration on infant survival in Mexico

We apply multilevel methods to data from Mexico to examine how village migration patterns affect infant survival outcomes in origins. We argue that migration is a cumulative process with varying health effects at different stages of its progression, and test several related hypotheses. Findings suggest higher rates of infant mortality in communities experiencing intense U.S. migration. However, two factors diminish the disruptive effects of migration: migradollars, or migrant remittances to villages, and the institutionalization of migration over time. Mortality risks are low when remittances are high and decrease as migration becomes increasingly salient to livelihoods of communities. Together, the findings indicate eventual benefits to all infants, irrespective of household migration experience, as a result of the development of social and economic processes related to U.S. migration.