Gender Differences in the Educational Expectations of Urban, Low-Income African American Youth: The Role of Parents and the School

Prevalence and correlates of adolescent self-injurious thoughts and behaviors: A population-based study in Burkina Faso

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) are a growing concern among youth in sub-Saharan Africa, but their prevalence and correlates in this region are poorly understood. We therefore examined self-reported SITBs in a population-representative sample of youth in rural Burkina Faso. We used interviews from 1,538 adolescents aged 12 to 20 years living in 10 villages and 1 town in northwestern Burkina Faso. Adolescents were asked about their experiences with suicidal and nonsuicidal SITBs, adverse environmental factors, psychiatric symptoms, and interpersonal-social experiences. SITBs included lifetime prevalence of life is not worth living, passive suicide ideation, active suicide ideation, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). After describing SITB prevalence, we ran logistic and negative binomial regression models to predict SITBs. Weighted lifetime SITB prevalence estimates were: 15.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 13.7-18.0) for NSSI; 15.1% (95% CI: [13.2, 17.0]) for life is not worth living; 5.0% (95% CI [3.9, 6.0]) for passive suicide ideation; and 2.3% (95% CI [1.6, 3.0]) for active suicide ideation. Prevalence of life is not worth living increased with age. All four SITBs were significantly positively associated with mental health symptoms (depression symptoms, probable posttraumatic stress disorder) and interpersonal-social experiences (peer and social connectedness, physical assault, sexual assault and unwanted sexual experiences). Females were significantly more likely to report that their life was not worth living compared to males (aOR = 0.68; 95% CI [0.48, 0.96]). There is a high prevalence of SITBs among youth in rural Burkina Faso, most notably NSSI and life is not worth living, with interpersonal-social factors being the strongest predictors. Our results highlight the need for longitudinal SITB assessment to understand how risk for SITBs operates in resource-constrained settings, and to design interventions to mitigate risk. Given low school enrollment in rural Burkina Faso, it will be important to consider youth suicide prevention and mental health initiatives that are not school-based.

School connectedness as a protective factor against childhood exposure to violence and social deprivation: A longitudinal study of adaptive and maladaptive outcomes

School connectedness, a construct indexing supportive school relationships, has been posited to promote resilience to environmental adversity. Consistent with prominent calls in the field, we examined the protective nature of school connectedness against two dimensions of early adversity that index multiple levels of environmental exposure (violence exposure, social deprivation) when predicting both positive and negative outcomes in longitudinal data from 3,246 youth in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (48% female, 49% African American). Child and adolescent school connectedness were promotive, even when accounting for the detrimental effects of early adversity. Additionally, childhood school connectedness had a protective but reactive association with social deprivation, but not violence exposure, when predicting externalizing symptoms and positive function. Specifically, school connectedness was protective against the negative effects of social deprivation, but the effect diminished as social deprivation became more extreme. These results suggest that social relationships at school may compensate for low levels of social support in the home and neighborhood. Our results highlight the important role that the school environment can play for youth who have been exposed to adversity in other areas of their lives and suggest specific groups that may especially benefit from interventions that boost school connectedness.

Multilevel analysis of women's education in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

Women's education is the base for faster economic growth, longer life expectancy, lower population growth, improved quality of life, and a high rate of investment return in developing countries. Historically, girls were denied opportunities for schooling in most of the regions and societies of Ethiopia. So this study targeted a multilevel analysis of women's education in Ethiopia using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data.

METHODS

Secondary data on women's data sets were obtained from the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey. A population-based cross-sectional study design was used for the survey. The sampling technique used for the survey was the two-stage sampling technique, which is stratified in the first stage and equal probability systematic selection technique in the second stage. The multi-level ordinal logistic regression model was fitted to identify the determinants of women's education in Ethiopia.

RESULTS

Among the random sample of 17137 women, the majority, 65.6 percent were rural residents. Somali regional state (75.3 percent) and the capital city Addis Ababa (8.6 percent) had the highest and lowest percentages of women illiteracy respectively than the remaining administrative units of Ethiopia. The minimum values for the fit statistics and the indicative value of the intra-class correlation (68.3%) of the multilevel model showed its appropriateness to the data. Among the predictors in the final multilevel ordinal logistic regression analysis, women's age at first marriage, residence, and family's wealth index were significant predictors of women's education in Ethiopia. Moreover, the estimates from the random effect result revealed that there is more variation in women's education between the enumeration areas than within the enumeration areas.

CONCLUSION

A multi-level ordinal logistic regression analysis has determined higher-level differences in women's education that could not be addressed by a single-level approach. So, the application of standard models by ignoring this variation ought to embrace spurious results, then for such hierarchical data, multilevel modeling is recommended.

Psychological well-being in midlife following early childhood intervention

The present study is the first to examine the relations between participation in a public early childhood intervention (the Child-Parent Center (CPC) program) and psychological well-being (or, positive functioning) into early mid-life. Data are drawn from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), which has followed a cohort of 1,539 individuals who grew up in urban poverty for over four decades. Approximately two-thirds of the original study cohort participated in the CPC program in early childhood; the rest comprise a demographically matched comparison group. Participants’ psychological functioning at age 35-37 was assessed using the Ryff Scales of Psychological Wellbeing. Results support a positive relationship between CPC preschool participation and long-term psychological wellbeing. Moderated mediation (e.g., whether CPC effects on wellbeing differ across subgroups) and potential mechanisms across multiple social-ecological levels (according to the 5-Hypothesis Model of early intervention) are also empirically investigated. Future directions for child development research, early childhood intervention, and public policy are discussed.

School Discrimination, Discipline Inequities, and Adjustment Among Black Adolescent Girls and Boys: An Intersectionality-Informed Approach: Dismantling Systems of Racism and Oppression during Adolescence

Employing an intersectionality-informed approach, this investigation examines how school discrimination and disciplinary inequities shape Black adolescent boys' and girls' adjustment. One hundred and twenty-six adolescents (M = 11.88 years; SD = 1.02) residing in the Southeastern United States comprised the study sample. Results indicated that school discrimination was associated with greater depressive symptoms, lower academic persistence, and lower school satisfaction (at 1-year follow-up). In a counterintuitive pattern, adolescents' perceptions of disciplinary inequities were associated with greater persistence. This investigation provided partial support for gender variation. Perceptions of school disciplinary inequities were associated with lower educational aspirations for girls, whereas systemic school discrimination was more strongly associated with boys' educational aspirations. Overall, our study suggests that school-specific systemic discrimination and disciplinary practices shape Black adolescents' adjustment.

Maternal Race-Related Stressors and African American Adolescents' Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

Objective

The purpose of the current study was to use the integrative model for the Study of Stress in Black American Families to test whether a set of maternal race-related stressors were related to adolescents' academic and behavioral outcomes through maternal depressive symptoms and involved-vigilant parenting. Gender differences in these relations were tested also.

Background

Research on race-related stressors has predominantly focused on the role of personal racial discrimination experiences on individual outcomes. Yet parents' vicarious and anticipated racial discrimination also may be related to parents' psychological functioning, family processes, and adolescent development.

Method

Path analyses were conducted in Mplus 8.2 using online survey data from a national sample of 317 African American mothers of adolescents to examine direct and indirect relations between maternal personal, vicarious, and anticipated racial discrimination, and adolescents' problem behaviors, grades, and academic persistence.

Results

Maternal personal racial discrimination experiences were positively related to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors directly and indirectly through maternal depressive symptoms and involved-vigilant parenting. Anticipated racial discrimination and vicarious racial discrimination were indirectly related to better adolescent outcomes through positive relations with maternal involved-vigilant parenting.

Conclusion

Maternal personal, vicarious, and anticipated racial discrimination act differently in relation to adolescent competencies in African American families.

Rare Vocabulary Production in School-Age Narrators From Low-Income Communities

Purpose This study was designed to assess the utility of a tool for automated analysis of rare vocabulary use in the spoken narratives of a group of school-age children from low-income communities. Method We evaluated personal and fictional narratives from 76 school-age children from low-income communities (M _age = 9;3 [years;months]). We analyzed children's use of rare vocabulary in their narratives, with the goal of evaluating relationships among rare vocabulary use, performance on standardized language tests, language sample measures, sex, and use of African American English. Results Use of rare vocabulary in school-age children is robustly correlated with established language sample measures. Male sex was also significantly associated with more frequent rare vocabulary use. There was no association between rare vocabulary use and use of African American English. Discussion Evaluation of rare vocabulary use in school-age children may be a culturally fair assessment strategy that aligns well with existing language sample measures.

Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Among Pregnant and Post-Partum Women

Background

The incidence of cardiovascular disease among pregnant women is rising in the United States. Data on racial disparities for the major cardiovascular events during pregnancy are limited.

Methods and Results

Pregnant and post‐partum women hospitalized from January 2007 to December 2017 were identified from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. The outcomes of interest included: in‐hospital mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and peripartum cardiomyopathy. Multivariate regression analysis was used to assess the independent association between race and in‐hospital outcomes. Among 46 700 637 pregnancy‐related hospitalizations, 21 663 575 (46.4%) were White, 6 302 089 (13.5%) were Black, and 8 914 065 (19.1%) were Hispanic. The trends of mortality and stroke declined significantly in Black women, but however, were mostly unchanged among White women. The incidence of mortality and cardiovascular morbidity was highest among Black women followed by White women, then Hispanic women. The majority of Blacks (62.3%) were insured by Medicaid while the majority of White patients had private insurance (61.9%). Most of Black women were below‐median income (71.2%) while over half of the White patients were above the median income (52.7%). Compared with White women, Black women had the highest mortality with adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 1.45, 95% CI (1.21–1.73); myocardial infarction with aOR of 1.23, 95% CI (1.06–1.42); stroke with aOR of 1.57, 95% CI (1.41–1.74); pulmonary embolism with aOR of 1.42, 95% CI (1.30–1.56); and peripartum cardiomyopathy with aOR of 1.71, 95 % CI (1.66–1.76).

Conclusions

Significant racial disparities exist in major cardiovascular events among pregnant and post‐partum women. Further efforts are needed to minimize these differences.

How Does Juvenile Offending Relate to Mothers' Aspirations and Expectations for Their Sons?

Mothers of 317 first-time juvenile offenders (M = 15.35 years old) were interviewed over 2.5 years about their expectations and aspirations for their sons' futures. Mothers' expectations were lower than their aspirations, reflecting a discrepancy between what mothers felt was important for their child's future and what they considered likely to happen. As their children continued to engage in delinquent acts, mothers' expectations for their sons' future success diminished. Youth age moderated the association between delinquency and maternal expectations, such that when perceived delinquency was high, expectations were lower for mothers of young sons compared to mothers of older sons. These findings carry implications for practice and intervention, as parent expectations and aspirations are both directly and indirectly associated with youth achievement.

The pathways from parental and neighbourhood socioeconomic status to adolescent educational attainment: An examination of the role of cognitive ability, teacher assessment, and educational expectations

Adolescents with high educational attainment generally have better outcomes across the lifespan than adolescents with lower educational attainment. This study investigated how three measures of socioeconomic status (SES)–maternal education, paternal education, and neighbourhood SES–combined to predict adolescent educational attainment (track level at age 17). We proposed three mechanisms for this pathway: cognitive ability (at age 11), primary school teacher assessment (stating the secondary education level suitable for a child at age 11), and educational expectations (at age 14). Using the data of 2,814 Dutch adolescents from the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) study, logistic regressions tested associations between SES and educational attainment. Structural equation modelling (SEM) tested mediational pathways between SES and educational attainment. In models with three SES measures, having a medium-educated mother was associated with higher educational attainment relative to having a low-educated mother (OR; 95% CI: 1.83; 1.41–2.38), and having a high-educated mother was associated with higher educational attainment relative to having a low-educated mother (OR; 95% CI: 3.44; 2.59–4.55). The odds ratios for paternal education showed a similar pattern. We found no association between neighbourhood SES and adolescent educational attainment, so neighbourhood SES was removed from further analyses. Mediational analyses revealed that cognitive ability (30.0%), teacher assessment (28.5%), and educational expectations (1.2%) explained 59.8% of the total association between parental SES and educational attainment. The results showed that mother education and father education were both important for understanding the strong association between parental SES and adolescent educational attainment. In the Netherlands, the association between parental SES and educational attainment can be largely explained by cognitive ability and teacher assessments.

Associations between an educational attainment polygenic score with educational attainment in an African American sample

Polygenic propensity for educational attainment has been associated with higher education attendance, academic achievement and criminal offending in predominantly European samples; however, less is known about whether this polygenic propensity is associated with these outcomes among African Americans. Using an educational attainment polygenic score (EA PGS), the present study examined whether this score was associated with post-secondary education, academic achievement and criminal offending in an urban, African American sample. Three cohorts of participants (N = 1050; 43.9% male) were initially recruited for an elementary school-based universal prevention trial in a Mid-Atlantic city and followed into young adulthood. Standardized tests of reading and math achievement were administered in first grade. At age 20, participants reported on their level of education attained, and records of incarceration were obtained from Maryland's Criminal Justice Information System. In young adulthood, DNA was collected and extracted from blood or buccal swabs and genotyped. An EA PGS was created using results from a large-scale genome-wide association study on educational attainment. A higher EA PGS was associated with a greater log odds of post-secondary education. The EA PGS was not associated with reading achievement, although a significant relationship was found with math achievement in the third cohort. These findings contribute to the dearth of molecular genetics work conducted in African American samples and highlight that polygenic propensity for educational attainment is associated with higher education attendance.

A Longitudinal Study of Academic Identification Among African American Males and Females

Disidentification hypothesis researchers have proposed that African American students start school academically identified; however, over time, African American boys tend to disidentify while girls tend to remain identified. This is the first report to follow up a disidentification study of a group of children first examined during elementary school. The current study aimed to determine whether gender differences in discounting, devaluing, and full-blown disidentification had developed among these 94 African Americans by midadolescence. Multiple regression analyses revealed no gender differences in either discounting or full-blown disidentification; however, the evidence indicated that girls valued academics more than boys.

The Long-Term Economic Benefits of Natural Mentoring Relationships for Youth

Natural mentors have been shown to help improve psychological and educational outcomes of youth, and may serve an important role for youth experiencing risk in the home. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we investigated the associations between natural mentors during youth and income during early adulthood, including how these relations were moderated by the absence of a father figure and race. We also estimated the lifetime economic benefits to having a natural mentor. The presence of a natural mentor alone did not have a significant impact on annual earnings during adulthood. However, youth without a father but who had a male mentor earned significantly more, on average, than those without a male mentor. These effects were more pronounced in a subsample of African American youth. The net present value of total lifetime benefits to having a male natural mentor was approximately $190,000 for all fatherless youth and $458,000 for African American fatherless youth. These results suggest that natural mentors play a crucial role in economic outcomes for youth, which may vary by sociodemographic factors.

Understanding the Association Between School Climate and Future Orientation

Promoting students' future orientation is inherently a goal of the educational system. Recently, it has received more explicit attention given the increased focus on career readiness. This study aimed to examine the association between school climate and adolescents' report of future orientation using data from youth (N = 27,698; 49.4 % female) across 58 high schools. Three-level hierarchical linear models indicated that perceptions of available emotional and service supports, rules and consequences, and parent engagement were positively related to adolescents' future orientation. Additionally, the school-level average future orientation was significantly related to individuals' future orientation, indicating a potential influence of contextual effects on this construct. Taken together, these findings suggest that interventions targeting school climate may hold promise for promoting future orientation.

Academic Growth Trajectories and Family Relationships among African American Youth

This study explored trajectories of African American youths' academic functioning and assessed whether changes in parent-adolescent relationships were associated with changes in youths' academic functioning. The data were drawn from a three-year longitudinal study of gender socialization and development in two-parent African American families and included 197 families. Findings revealed gender differences in achievement trajectories and indicated that boys not only had lower levels of academic achievement compared to girls, but also experienced steeper declines in school self-esteem during adolescence. Changes in parent-adolescent relationship quality were linked to changes in academic functioning: Increases in conflict were related to decreases in GPA, school bonding, and school self-esteem and increases in warmth were related to increases in school bonding and school self-esteem.

Framing black boys: parent, teacher, and student narratives of the academic lives of black boys

The discourse on Black boys tends to suggest that Black boys are in complete peril. We begin with evidence that Black boys are excelling in certain contexts (i.e., in certain states, in certain schools, and in certain courses). We then discuss the ways in which the narratives used by parents, teachers, and Black boys themselves may serve to further reinforce views that Black boys are beyond hope. Research on Black parents suggests that they tend to view their sons as vulnerable and have lower expectations for sons than for daughters. Studies of teachers show that they tend to view Black boys as unteachable, as social problems, and as scary. Research on Black boys shows that they are sometimes complicit in supporting these narratives by engaging in negative or ste reotypical behavior. We also include recent research that includes counter-narratives of Black boys. We end with suggestions for future research.

Examining the Academic Achievement of Black Adolescents

The achievement gap between White and Black youth is well documented. This continuing gap becomes of particular concern in middle school because of the general decline in engagement and achievement noted in all students during this transition. Cultural explanations are typically provided for the racial achievement gap, but additional reasons should be explored to gain a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon. One such reason is the influence of parents and peers. While these influences on academic achievement, engagement, and achievement values of youth have been examined in middle school White populations, less attention has focused on Black populations. The current study explored these constructs in a sample of 181 Black adolescents to identify protective factors that may counteract decreases in achievement in this population. Results indicated that achievement values significantly predicted engagement, and engagement significantly predicted achievement. Additionally, both peer and parental influence affected these processes. Implications for future research and intervention strategies are discussed.

Sexism in schools

Sexism is gender-based prejudice or discrimination. As with other forms of prejudice and discrimination, it functions to maintain status and power differences between groups in society. One manifestation of sexism involves prejudice and discrimination against girls and women who seek to achieve in prestigious fields traditionally associated with males. Another manifestation of sexism, however, occurs when pressures are placed on boys and men to conform to traditional conceptions of masculinity. Over the last two decades, an increasing number of developmental and educational psychologists have become concerned about sexism directed toward children and adolescents in school contexts. Our chapter reviews the research on this topic. After providing an overview of different processes related to sexism, we examine how it is manifested in school contexts. Sexism is seen through gender-stereotyped biases against girls and boys in academic and athletic achievement. Also, it occurs through sexual harassment in social interactions. We also address factors related to children's awareness of sexism and coping responses to sexism. Finally, we consider possible ways to reduce sexism and foster effective coping in schools.

Gender, bullying victimization, and education

School bullying has detrimental consequences for its victims, including undermining students' educational outcomes. Furthermore, gender has been shown to play a significant role in determining the type of bullying victimization experienced and educational outcomes. This research examines whether an interaction between gender and bullying victimization exists as well as its impact on educational outcomes (i.e., academic self-efficacy and educational achievement). Multivariate regression analyses, drawing on the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, reveal that the interaction between gender and bullying victimization is linked to disparate educational outcomes. The findings and their implications are discussed regarding understanding the relationship between gender, bullying victimization, and education.

African American Undergraduate Students’ Wisdom and Ego-Identity Development

The present study provides valuable insight into African American youths’ ego-identity and wisdom development. The study examines the relationship between wisdom dimensions (cognitive, affective, and reflective) and ego-identity statuses (achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion), and age and gender differences among 198 African American college students (age 18-25 years). The study also examines how self-esteem and resilience are related to wisdom and ego-identity. The results show that (a) age contributes to reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom, (b) there is no association between identity achievement and wisdom, (c) moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion are negatively associated with wisdom, (d) gender does not predict wisdom, but does affect foreclosure and diffusion, (e) reflective and affective wisdom are related to resilience and self-esteem, and (f) both resilience and self-esteem are related to identity achievement. This study provides insight into the importance of fostering reflective and affective abilities for holistic development among young African Americans.

Motivational Pathways to STEM Career Choices: Using Expectancy-Value Perspective to Understand Individual and Gender Differences in STEM Fields

The United States has made a significant effort and investment in STEM education, yet the size and the composition of the STEM workforce continues to fail to meet demand. It is thus important to understand the barriers and factors that influence individual educational and career choices. In this article, we conduct a literature review of the current knowledge surrounding individual and gender differences in STEM educational and career choices, using expectancy-value theory as a guiding framework. The overarching goal of this paper is to provide both a well-defined theoretical framework and complementary empirical evidence for linking specific sociocultural, contextual, biological, and psychological factors to individual and gender differences in STEM interests and choices. Knowledge gained through this review will eventually guide future research and interventions designed to enhance individual motivation and capacity to pursue STEM careers, particularly for females who are interested in STEM but may be constrained by misinformation or stereotypes.

Effect modification by parental education on the associations of birth order and gender with learning achievement in adolescents

BACKGROUND

A child's gender and ordinal position within a family have varied implications on his or her personality and cognitive development. However, little is known about whether or not parental educational level may moderate the effects of birth order and gender.

METHODS

Basic Competence Test (BCT) scores of 290,588 young adolescents aged 15-16 years in Taiwan were analysed. Parental educational level was calculated as the highest educational attainment of the subjects' parents. The multiple linear regression model was used to assess the modification effects of parental educational levels on the associations of interest.

RESULTS

After controlling for covariates, we noted a clear inverse relationship between birth order and BCT scores in Mandarin, Mathematics and Science. Additionally, boys had significantly lower mean scores in Mandarin, but had significantly higher mean scores in both Mathematics and Science. We also found the significant interactive effects of birth order, gender and parental educational attainment on BCT scores, in which the birth order and gender effects were more evident in higher-educated families than in lower-educated ones.

CONCLUSIONS

This large cohort study confirmed that both birth order and gender may pose independent influences on BCT scores; moreover, such influences are significantly modified by parental educational attainment.

Discrimination concerns and expectations as explanations for gendered socialization in African American families

Discrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11- to 14-year-olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future, whereas mothers of daughters had more gender discrimination concerns. Racial discrimination concerns, but not gender discrimination concerns, were related to lower maternal academic and behavioral expectations. Maternal expectations were related to mothers' responsiveness, rule enforcement, monitoring, and parent-adolescent conflict. The relations between gender and parenting practices were partially explained through mothers' racial discrimination concerns and expectations. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextual factors on African American family processes.

The long-term effects of early parent involvement and parent expectation in the USA

Building on social-cognitive theory and the expectancy-value theory, this study indicated that early parent expectations for children’s post-secondary educational attainment have a stronger effect on 8th-grade achievement than home-based parental involvement. With a nationally representative sample of kindergarten students and their parents in the United States of America, Structural Equation Modeling was employed in order to discern longitudinal effects on achievement via mediators. For instance, expectations held by parents in kindergarten exert much of their positive effect on adolescent academic achievement via expectations held in 8th grade. Student expectations (which are influenced by parental expectations) also significantly predict 8th grade achievement. Parent involvement in homework and grade checking in 8th grade has a slight negative effect on achievement. Home literacy in kindergarten predicts achievement in 8th grade indirectly via kindergarten achievement. These results indicate that parents can have a positive impact on academic achievement through early home literacy and maintaining a strong hope that their children will succeed in college. Because early parent expectations have long lasting effects on children, parent involvement interventions for young children need to be developed that also target elevating parental expectations. This study further clarifies the effects of the family environment on educational outcomes.

Preliminary examination of a cartoon-based hostile attributional bias measure for urban African American boys

The current study illustrates how researchers developed and validated a cartoon-based adaptation of a written hostile attributional bias measure for a sample of urban, low-income, African American boys. A series of studies were conducted to develop cartoon illustrations to accompany a standard written hostile attributional bias vignette measure (Study 1), to determine initial psychometric properties (Study 2) and acceptability (Study 3), and to conduct a test-retest reliability trial of the adapted measure in a separate sample (Study 4). These studies utilize a participatory action research approach to measurement design and adaptation, and suggest that collaborations between researchers and key school stakeholders can lead to measures that are psychometrically strong, developmentally appropriate, and culturally sensitive. In addition, the cartoon-based hostile attributional bias measure appears to have promise as an assessment and/or outcome measure for aggression and bullying prevention programs conducted with urban African American boys.

Relations Between Perceived Competence, Importance Ratings, and Self-Worth Among African American School- Age Children

The purpose of this research was to investigate how domain-specific importance ratings affect relations between perceived competence and self-worth among African American school-age children. Importance ratings have been found to affect the strength of the relationship between perceived competence and self-worth and have implications for motivation. Children were assessed on five perceived competence domains, on the importance of those domains, and on global self-worth. Five profiles reflecting relations between perceived competence and self-worth by importance ratings were assessed. Gender differences specific to scholastic competence/self-worth relations were also examined. It was hypothesized that at comparable levels of perceived competence, children ascribing more importance would evidence stronger relationships between perceived competence and self-worth. This was evident in some cases. Importance ratings were found to be pivotal in understanding relationships between perceived competence and self-worth. Gender differences in scholastic competence/self-worth relations were evidenced with certain profiles. Results were interpreted within a cultural context, and the implications for intervention were addressed.

An examination of the tripartite model of depressive and anxiety symptoms in African American youth: stressors and coping strategies as common and specific correlates

The purpose of the current study was to examine the tripartite model of depression and anxiety in a community-based sample of 278 African American adolescents (M age = 12.89) from low-income communities and to identify stressors and coping strategies that were associated with the specific features of each disorder. Participants reported on depression, anxiety, stressors, and coping strategies. As predicted, the three-factor structure of the tripartite model was a valid representation of anxiety and depression in African American youth. Further, stressors and coping strategies showed specific associations to features of depression and anxiety. The findings provide evidence of factors that may help to distinguish between internalizing symptoms in African American youth.

Child Maltreatment and Offending Behavior: Gender-Specific Effects and Pathways

Although expected, distinct gender-specific trajectories from early victimization to later offending have not been well explored. Consequently, this study assessed the association between child maltreatment (ages 0-11) and offending behavior within gender-specific models. Prospectively collected data, including official measures of maltreatment and offending, derived from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a panel study of 1,539 low-income minority participants, Multivariate probit analyses revealed that maltreatment significantly predicted delinquency for males but not females yet forged a significant relation to adult crime for both genders. Exploratory confirmatory and comparative analyses suggested that mechanisms linking maltreatment to adult crime primarily differed across gender. For males, childhood-era externalizing behavior and school commitment along with adolescent-era socioemotional skills, delinquency, and educational attainment fully explained the maltreatment-crime nexus. For females, childhood-era parent factors along with adolescent indicators of externalizing behavior, cognitive performance, mobility and educational attainment partially mediated the maltreatment-crime relation. Implications of results were explored.

Child, family, and community characteristics associated with school readiness in Jordan

The present study investigated demographic differences in school readiness within Jordan, a particularly interesting context because of wide-spread national reform currently sweeping the education system in Jordan. Teacher reports and researcher direct assessments of the school readiness of a national sample of 4,681 Jordanian first grade children were used to describe the levels of school readiness of children with respect to seven demographic characteristics. Higher levels of school readiness were associated with male gender, higher family income, higher paternal education, higher maternal education, smaller family size, fewer siblings, and urban residence. Taken together, the findings highlight the importance of Jordanian education reform, one aim of which is to improve the school readiness of all children by implementing public kindergartens, especially in poor, rural areas.

A longitudinal study of the simultaneous influence of mothers' and teachers' educational expectations on low-income youth's academic achievement

This short-term longitudinal study investigated the simultaneous influences of adults' (mothers and teachers) educational expectations and youth's achievement (standardized test scores and teachers' ratings of academic performance) across a 3-year time span on youth's performance in school (GPA). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 426 low-income urban youth, ages 6 through 16 at T1. Results from cross-lagged and autoregressive path analyses indicated stability in adults' expectations and youth's standardized test scores; cross-lagged influences of teachers', but not mothers', expectations across time; and effects of youth's achievement outcomes on adults' expectations at T2, but not vice versa. Overall, the pattern of findings demonstrate that adults' educational expectations are dynamic and responsive to how youth are faring in school and to changes in academic performance across time.