Showing papers on "Disadvantaged published in 2010"

Learning from Latinos: contexts, families, and child development in motion.

Abstract: Two generations ago, Latino children and families were often defined as disadvantaged, even "culturally deprived," by psychologists, social scientists, and pediatric researchers. Since then, empirical work from several disciplines has yielded remarkable discoveries regarding the strengths of Latino families and resulting benefits for children. Theoretical advances illuminate how variation in the child's culturally bounded context or developmental niche reproduces differing socialization practices, forms of cognition, and motivated learning within everyday activities. This review sketches advances in 4 areas: detailing variation in children's local contexts and households among Latino subgroups, moving beyond Latino-White comparisons; identifying how parenting goals and practices in less acculturated, more traditional families act to reinforce social cohesion and support for children; identifying, in turn, how pressures on children and adolescents to assimilate to novel behavioral norms offer developmental risks, not only new opportunities; and seeing children's learning and motivation as situated within communities that exercise cognitive demands and social expectations, advancing particular forms of cognitive growth that are embedded within social participation and the motivated desire to become a competent member. This review places the articles that follow within such contemporary lines of work. Together they yield theoretical advances for understanding the growth of all children and adolescents, who necessarily learn and develop within bounded cultural or social-class groups.

Parent Engagement and School Readiness: Effects of the Getting Ready Intervention on Preschool Children’s Social–Emotional Competencies

Abstract: Research Findings: Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschool children, and relationships between families and professionals are an important contributor to school readiness. Furthermore, social-emotional competence is a key component of young children’s school readiness. This study reports the results of a randomized trial of a parent engagement intervention (Getting Ready) designed to facilitate school readiness among disadvantaged preschool children, with a particular focus on social-emotional outcomes. Two hundred and twenty children were involved over the 4-year study period. Statistically significant differences were observed between treatment and control participants in the rate of change over a 2-year period on teacher reports for certain interpersonal competencies (i.e., attachment, initiative, and anxiety/withdrawal). In contrast, no statistically significant differences between groups over a 2-year period were noted for behavioral concerns (anger/aggression, self-control, or behavioral problems) as a function of the Getting Ready intervention. Practice or Policy: The intervention appears to be particularly effective at building social-emotional competencies beyond the effects experienced as a function of participation in Head Start programming alone. Limitations and implications for future research are reviewed.

“Let Them Eat Harmony” Prejudice-Reduction Strategies and Attitudes of Historically Disadvantaged Groups

Abstract: Research on intergroup prejudice has generally adopted a model of social change that is based around the psychological rehabilitation of members of advantaged groups in order to foster intergroup harmony. Recent studies of prejudice-reduction interventions among members of disadvantaged groups, however, have complicated psychologists’ understanding of the consequences of inducing harmonious relations in historically unequal societies. Interventions encouraging disadvantaged-group members to like advantaged-group members may also prompt the disadvantaged to underestimate the injustice suffered by their group and to become less motivated to support action to challenge social inequality. Thus, psychologists’ tendency to equate intergroup harmony with ‘‘good relations’’ and conflict with ‘‘bad relations’’ is limited.

From Policy to Polity: Democracy, Paternalism, and the Incorporation of Disadvantaged Citizens

Abstract: This article investigates how experiences with public policies affect levels of civic and political engagement among the poor. Studies of “policy feedback” investigate policies not just as politica...

Motherhood and criminal desistance in disadvantaged neighborhoods

Abstract: Evidence from several qualitative studies has suggested that the transition to motherhood has strong inhibitory effects on the delinquency and drug use trajectories of poor women. Quantitative studies, however, typically have failed to find significant parenthood or motherhood effects. We argue that the latter research typically has not examined motherhood in disadvantaged settings or applied the appropriate statistical method. Focusing on within-individual change, we test the motherhood hypothesis using data from a 10-year longitudinal study of more than 500 women living in disadvantaged Denver communities. We find that the transition to motherhood is associated significantly with reductions in delinquency, marijuana, and alcohol behaviors. Moreover, we find that the effect of motherhood is larger than that of marriage for all outcomes. These results support the qualitative findings and suggest that the transition to motherhood—and not marriage—is the primary turning point for disadvantaged women to exit delinquent and drug-using trajectories.

Economically Disadvantaged Children’s Transitions Into Elementary School Linking Family Processes, School Contexts, and Educational Policy

Abstract: Working from a core perspective on the developmental implications of economic disadvantage, this study attempted to identify family-based mechanisms of economic effects on early learning and their potential school-based remedies. Multilevel analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort revealed that the accumulation of markers of economic disadvantage reduced math and reading testing gains across the primary grades. Such disparities were partially mediated by corresponding differences in children’s socioemotional problems, parenting stress, and parents’ human capital investments. These patterns appeared to be robust to observed and unobserved confounds. Various teacher qualifications and classroom practices were assessed as moderators of these family mediators, revealing teacher experience in grade level as a fairly consistent buffer against family-based risks for reading.

Silencing the Self Across Cultures: Depression and Gender in the Social World

Abstract: This international volume offers new perspectives on social and psychological aspects of the complex dynamic of depression. The twenty-one contributors from thirteen countries - Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Haiti, India, Israel, Nepal, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, and the United States - represent contexts with very different histories, political and economic structures, and gender role disparities. Authors rely on Silencing the Self theory, which details the negative psychological effects when individuals silence themselves in close relationships and the importance of the social context in precipitating depression. Specific patterns of thought about how to achieve closeness in relationships (self-silencing schema) are known to predict depression. This book breaks new ground by demonstrating that the linkage of depressive symptoms with self-silencing occurs across a range of cultures. We offer a new view of gender differences in depression situated in the formation and consequences of self-silencing, including differing motivational aims, norms of masculinity and femininity, and the broader social context of gender inequality. The book offers evidence regarding why women's depression is more wide-spread than men's and why the treatment of depression lies in understanding that a person's individual psychology is inextricably related to the social world and close relationships. Authors examine not only gender differences in depression but also related aspects of mental and physical illness, including treatments specific to women. Several chapters describe the transformative possibilities of community-driven movements for disadvantaged women that support healing through a recovery of voice, and describe the need for systemic and structural changes to counter violations of human rights as a means of reducing women's risk of depression. Bringing the work of these researchers together in one collection furthers international dialogue about critical social factors that affect the rising rates of depression around the globe.

Impact of women’s home-based enterprise on family dynamics: Evidence from Jordan

Abstract: Within developing and disadvantaged economies, women’s self-employment has been identified as a tool to assist in alleviating poverty and empowering individual women. To explore these arguments, th...

Learning in the Home and at School: How Working Class Children "Succeed against the Odds".

Abstract: This paper presents data collected in individual case studies that aimed to investigate children and their families who succeeded against the usual ‘odds’ of disadvantage. Funded as an extension of EPPE 3–11 by the Cabinet Office for the Equalities Review, the study focused particularly closely upon the performance of disadvantaged children from White and minority ethnic groups. The study found that disadvantaged families often have high aspirations for their children and provide significant educational support through ‘concerted cultivation’. The paper discusses the implications for policy and for practice and argues that much of the popular criticism of state policies related to social exclusion fail to acknowledge the need to engage with the policy in action as well as in theory. It is also argued that these policies offer significant and valuable contexts for supporting efforts on the part of families and individuals to achieve success in education ‘against the odds’.

Teacher Mobility, School Segregation, and Pay-Based Policies to Level the Playing Field. Working Paper 44.

Abstract: Research has consistently shown that teacher quality is distributed very unevenly among schools, to the clear disadvantage of minority students and those from low-income families. Using North Carolina data on the length of time individual teachers remain in their schools, we examine the potential for using salary differentials to overcome this pattern. We conclude that salary differentials are a far less effective tool for retaining teachers with strong preservice qualifications than for retaining other teachers in schools with high proportions of minority students. Consequently large salary differences would be needed to level the playing field when schools are segregated. This conclusion reflects our finding that teachers with stronger qualifications are both more responsive to the racial and socioeconomic mix of a school's students and less responsive to salary than are their less-qualified counterparts when making decisions about remaining in their current school, moving to another school or district, or leaving the teaching profession.

Closing the gap in academic readiness and achievement: the role of early childcare.

Abstract: Background: Socially disadvantaged children with academic difficulties at school entry are at increased risk for poor health and psychosocial outcomes. Our objective is to test the possibility that participation in childcare ‐ at the population level ‐ could attenuate the gap in academic readiness and achievement between children with and without a social disadvantage (indexed by low levels of maternal education). Methods: A cohort of infants born in the Canadian province of Quebec in 1997/1998 was selected through birth registries and followed annually until 7 years of age (n = 1,863). Children receiving formal childcare (i.e., center-based or non-relative out-of-home) were distinguished from those receiving informal childcare (i.e., relative or nanny). Measures from 4 standardized tests that assessed cognitive school readiness (Lollipop Test for School Readiness), receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised), mathematics (Number Knowledge Test), and reading performance (Kaufman Assessment Battery for children) were administered at 6 and 7 years. Results: Children of mothers with low levels of education showed a consistent pattern of lower scores on academic readiness and achievement tests at 6 and 7 years than those of highly educated mothers, unless they received formal childcare. Specifically, among children of mothers with low levels of education, those who received formal childcare obtained higher school readiness (d = 0.87), receptive vocabulary (d = 0.36), reading (d = 0.48) and math achievement scores (d = 0.38; although not significant at 5%) in comparison with those who were cared for by their parents. Childcare participation was not associated with cognitive outcomes among children of mothers with higher levels of education. Conclusions: Public investments in early childcare are increasing in many countries with the intention of reducing cognitive inequalities between disadvantaged and advantaged children. Our findings provide further evidence suggesting that formal childcare could represent a preventative means of attenuating effects of disadvantage on children’s early academic trajectory. Keywords: Cognition, prevention, social class, day care.

(Re)engaging marginalized groups through sport: The Homeless World Cup

Abstract: Marginalized groups, such as those experiencing homelessness, are largely excluded from participation in, and the benefits provided by, sport programs and events. This study uses the case of the ‘Street Socceroos’, the Australian Homeless World Cup team, to argue that participation in sport can provide beneficial outcomes for participants, and through a process of (re)engagement, develop social capital. Drawing on interviews and observations with team members before and after the Homeless World Cup, this study found both intrinsic benefits of sport participation, and broader social capital outcomes. Although sport participation alone cannot account for these beneficial outcomes, this study demonstrates the role that sport programs can play in the (re-) engagement of marginalized people within the broader community.

Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City’s New Small Schools are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates

Abstract: Taking advantage of lottery-like features in New York City’s high school admissions process, this study provides rigorous evidence that new small public high schools are narrowing the educational attainment gap and markedly improve graduation prospects, particularly for disadvantaged students.

Those Who Choose and Those Who Don’t: Social Background and College Orientation

Abstract: Empirical research on the decision to attend college is predicated largely on the assumption that students make conscious, utility-maximizing decisions about their educational careers. For many students this may not be the case; in fact, the authors find that a large share of students assume from a young age that they will attend college, exhibiting what might be called a college-going habitus. Consistent with critical arguments about how social class is reproduced, the authors find that white, native-born children of college-educated parents are more likely to take college for granted than their less advantaged peers. Students with a college-going habitus are more likely than others to apply to a four-year college by spring of their senior year in high school. Although social origin accounts for some of the association between habitus and college application, both advantaged and disadvantaged students appear to benefit from a college-going habitus.

Hire Today, Gone Tomorrow: New Teacher Classroom Assignments and Teacher Mobility

Abstract: This article explores whether new teachers are assigned to tough classrooms and whether such classroom assignment is associated with higher teacher mobility. It utilizes the statewide administrative data set on public school teachers in Florida during the period 1997–2003 in conjunction with the 1999–2000 Schools and Staffing Survey and its Teacher Follow-Up Survey (SASS-TFS) data set. The SASS-TFS illustrates the possible misclassification of teachers in certain state administrative databases. Results suggest that new teachers in Florida and elsewhere usually teach in more challenging schools and have more disadvantaged children in their classrooms than teachers with more years of experience. Within-school classroom assignments play an important role in teacher mobility decisions. Specifically, school-specific policies on reducing disciplinary problems and possible strategic deployment of teachers in different classrooms may be effective in increasing school-level teacher retention rates.

Active ageing--another way to oppress marginalized and disadvantaged elders?: Aboriginal Elders as a case study.

Abstract: This article questions whether the concept of active ageing unintentionally devalues the life experiences of disadvantaged groups of older people. It is argued that talking up the expectation that older people will continue to be physically active may further marginalize significant groups of elders, including those from diverse non-dominant cultural groups. The article draws on a study of Australian Aboriginal Elders to illustrate this point, with suggestions about culturally appropriate ageing policies. The article concludes that alternative conceptions of ageing, such as 'ageing well' or 'authentic ageing', may better capture the cultural diversity of ageing and promote social inclusion.

Working memory training for children with attention problems or hyperactivity: A school-based pilot study.

Abstract: We piloted a computer program to train working memory for children with attention problems or hyperactivity who attended an urban public school serving economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Training was conducted daily for 5 weeks during school hours. Teachers rated children’s behaviors before and after the intervention, and standardized assessments of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory were also conducted. No attrition occurred due to an inability or unwillingness on the part of children to complete the training. Overall, children’s behavior and working memory improved following training, compared to baseline. Our findings suggest that school-based working memory training may be a viable means for treating children with attention problems or hyperactivity that warrants further investigation. This approach may also overcome barriers to care delivery for economically disadvantaged children who are known to be at higher risk for poor school outcomes.

Key Dimensions of Effective Leadership for Change: A Focus on Township and Rural Schools in South Africa

Abstract: The article identifies key dimensions of effective leadership for change in historically disadvantaged, township and rural schools in South Africa. It is based on original case study research in 13 schools in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Although the sample included mainly township and rural primary and secondary schools it also included a smaller sample of historically advantaged formerly White, Indian and ‘Coloured’ schools. All schools were selected on the basis of high academic achievement and success in implementing change. Effective leadership styles were found to be contingent on context. Rather than providing a fixed set of characteristics the dimensions provide a framework against which the nature of effective leadership in the sample schools is analysed and compared. It is argued that although many aspects of effective leadership are similar to those reported in the wider international literature, they assume a specific form and emphasis related to contexts of disadvantage in South Africa.

Are universities responding to the needs of students from refugee backgrounds

Abstract: Although many Australian universities have been proactive in responding to students' diverse needs through orientation and support programs, very little is known about programs needed for the successful transition of students from refugee backgrounds into tertiary study. Facilitating the early engagement of students with their studies and campus life is linked to greater student satisfaction, improved retention rates and better educational outcomes. One of the challenges that academics face is the paucity of research on the learning styles and academic needs of African and Middle Eastern students from refugee backgrounds. This paper reports on a needs analysis undertaken with a group of students from refugee backgrounds in Victoria and Western Australia, using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Participants reported that current support systems and programs are inadequate or non-existent and that many feel disadvantaged compared to Australian-born and international students. The article concludes with recommendations on how universities can better respond to the needs of students from refugee backgrounds.

Neighborhood Disadvantage, Residential Stability, and Perceptions of Instrumental Support Among New Mothers:

Abstract: Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing survey (N = 4,211), this study examines neighborhood disadvantage and perceptions of instrumental support among mothers with young children. The authors find that (a) living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with less instrumental support, particularly financial assistance, from family and friends; (b) residential stability is associated with stronger personal safety nets irrespective of neighborhood quality; and (c) mothers who move to a more disadvantaged neighborhood experience a small but significant decline in perceived instrumental support compared with those who do not move. In interpreting these results, the authors suggest instrumental support may be either a cause or consequence of living in an advantaged neighborhood, but in either case, neighborhood and social network disadvantages go hand in hand.

Assessing the Effects of High School Exit Examinations

Abstract: High school exit exams are affecting a growing majority of high school students. Although exit testing polices were enacted with the goal of improving student achievement as well as postsecondary outcomes, they also have the potential for negative effects. To better understand the effects of exit testing policies, in this article the authors systematically review 46 unique studies that pertain to four domains of expected influence: student achievement, graduation, postsecondary outcomes, and school response. The evidence reviewed indicates that exit tests have produced few of the expected benefits and have been associated with costs for the most disadvantaged students. This review suggests policy modifications that may attenuate some of the negative effects.