Navigating the Transition to Multi‐Ethnic Urban High Schools: Changing Ethnic Congruence and Adolescents' School‐Related Affect

This short‐term longitudinal study investigated 918 students' school‐related affect across the transition to high school. The study focused specifically on the moderating effect of change in student ethnic congruence from middle to high school. Results indicate that students experiencing more ethnic incongruence from middle to high school, in particular African American and male students, reported declining feelings of school belonging over time. Moreover, students experiencing ethnic incongruence also had increasing worries about their academic success. These results suggest that the changing school demographics from middle school to high school may negatively impact students' school‐related affect, especially if they move to high schools which include fewer students who are ethnically similar to themselves.     

Race–gender Differences in Risk and Protective Factors among Youth in Residential Group Homes

Analysis reported here examined youth in residential group home placements in order to better understand how sexual behaviors, drug use, and environmental experiences differ by race and gender subgroups. Data were collected from 336 youth aged 14–21 residing in one of 41 group homes in Maryland. Chi square and logistic regression analyses were done to determine differences on study variables among the race-gender groupings. Results demonstrate not only significant health concerns overall but notable differences were also found between race-gender subgroups. Findings suggest that found race-gender subgroup differences might be informative for tailoring programming for youth of residential group home settings.     

CMHS/CSAT Collaborative Demonstration Program for Homeless Individuals

The Collaborative Demonstration Program for Homeless Individuals is providing an opportunity for several community agencies in the United States to explore innovative intervention and treatment strategies to address the needs of homeless people with co-occurring (mental illness and substance abuse) disorders. This cooperative agreement, funded jointly by the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), is a $3 million project supporting programs in various community agencies to develop, document, and evaluate programs for persons who are homeless with co-occurring disorders to be used as models in other communities. The program models include: Assertive Community Treatment, Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Therapeutic Community, and an integrated treatment model. The first phase of the two-phase project funded 16 programs in the U.S. to develop manuals within their primary treatment modalities for homeless people with co-occurring disorders. For Phase II of the project, six of the 16 model programs were competitively selected to demonstrate program impact through formal program evaluation efforts. The data derived from the various projects will be compiled into a compendium of information for state agencies and community service providers throughout the U.S.     

Power of the First Hour

Abstract

In 2012, the NGO Save the Children launched its No Child Born to Die campaign with the tagline, “Breastfeeding Saves Lives.” The press release explains that in the first hours and days after a baby is born, their mother produces colostrum, a substance known to improve immunity, which must be delivered to infants in the first sixty minutes of life; this is referred to as “the power of the first hour.” Invoking a sense of urgency and a crisis of infant mortality, which breastfeeding is positioned to resolve, the campaign cites staggering medical statistics of infant deaths in the campaign targets of Africa, Asia and Latin America, and also Northern Indigenous and Inuit reserves in Canada. More than misrepresenting racialized women in the developed world as uneducated on infant health, childcare and child rearing and as lacking agency and empowerment, the campaign mobilizes the erroneous conflation of medical science, morality, capitalism and public health – a linkage typically mobilized by the development industry to the detriment of globally marginalized women. In order to understand how this conflation is mobilized to manufacture crisis at the expense of examining the root causes of infant mortality globally, we collect theories of crisis temporalities to develop a “feminist politics of crisis.”     

One is Not Enough: Multiple Exemplars Facilitate Infants' Generalizations of Novel Properties

Across three experiments, we examined 9‐ and 11‐month‐olds' mappings of novel sound properties to novel animal categories. Infants were familiarized with novel animal–novel sound pairings (e.g., Animal A [red]–Sound 1) and then tested on: (1) their acquisition of the original pairing and (2) their generalization of the sound property to a new member of a familiarized category (e.g., Animal A [blue]–Sound 1). When familiarized with a single exemplar of a category, 11‐month‐olds showed no evidence of acquiring or generalizing the animal–sound pairings. In contrast, 11‐month‐olds learnt the original animal–sound mappings and generalized the sound property to a novel member of that category when familiarized with multiple exemplars of a category. Finally, when familiarized with multiple exemplars, 9‐month‐old infants learnt the original animal–sound pairing, but did not extend the novel sound property. The results of these experiments provide evidence for developmental differences in the facilitative role of multiple exemplars in promoting the learning and generalization of information.     

Korean Twins Reared Apart: Genetic and Cultural Influences on Behavior and Health

Monozygotic twins reared in different countries are rare. Data from several available cases have been combined in group findings, masking cultural effects on behavior. The present study compared behavioral and health-related findings for unusual monozygotic female twins raised apart in South Korea and the United States. The 37-year-old twins were exceptional in being reared under dramatically different circumstances with limited telephone and Internet contact. Primary outcome measures included life history events, physical and health-related characteristics, and diverse behavioral traits. Striking similarities and differences were noted. Findings are discussed with reference to genetic and cultural influences on health and behavior.