Disadvantaged

About: Disadvantaged is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 17050 publications have been published within this topic receiving 337157 citations. The topic is also known as: disadvantaged person.

Multiple Risk Factors for Frequent and Problem Gambling: Individual, Social, and Ecological

Abstract: We analyzed data for a national U.S. telephone survey. Most likely to have gambled in the past year were those whose friends and families looked favorably on gambling, Catholics, young adults, and those who live close to a lottery outlet. Most likely to have gambled frequently in the past year were those whose friends look favorably on gambling and those who live close to a lottery outlet. Most likely to be problem gamblers were Blacks, those who smoke or who are alcohol dependent, and those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The decision to gamble is influenced by social milieu and values, while risk for problem gambling is influenced by proneness to problem behaviors and by disadvantaged status. Availability of gambling influences all gambling involvement.

Rethinking Parent Involvement: African American Mothers Construct their Roles in the Mathematics Education of their Children

Abstract: This article presents initial findings from a study that examined how African American mothers from a low-income neighborhood conceptualized their roles in their children's mathematics learning. Based on interviews and observations focusing on ten mothers' involvement in their children's education, we offer a framework that expands typical characterizations of parent involvement. This framework privileges practices that are both traditionally visible and invisible to the school and highlights how parents act as "intellectual resources" in their children's education (Civil, Guevara, & Allexsaht-Snider, 2002). Our findings offer evidence that traditional understandings of parent involvement may overlook ways that low-income parents deliberately involve themselves in their children's education. Our findings also identify challenges that these parents face in relation to their children's mathematics education. Some of these challenges were due in part to stereotypes held by practitioners about the families they serve in low-income urban schools. Key Words: parent involvement, parental beliefs, mathematics reform, elementary school mathematics, home-school relationships, race/ethnicity/SES Introduction In recent years, educational reform efforts seeking to reach children in lowincome communities have resulted in a surge of calls for "parental involvement" in education (Mattingly, Prislin, McKenzie, Rodriquez, & Kayzar, 2002; No Child Left Behind Act, 2001; Peressini, 1998). While there is disagreement among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners over what comprises parental involvement (Lewis & Forman, 2002; Mattingly et al.), these calls are grounded in notions that parental involvement may improve student achievement, produce lower drop-out rates, foster positive attitudes toward learning and school, increase parent-child communication, promote positive student behaviors, enhance the educational experiences of "disadvantaged" students, increase home and community support for schools, and be a basic "right" of all parents in the process of public education. (Peressini, 1998, p. 557) Despite current research on parent involvement that challenges the assumption that parents are problems to be overcome (e.g., Barton, Drake, Perez, St. Louis, & George, 2004; Civil, 2001; Civil, Guevara, & Allexsaht-Snider, 2002; Fine, 1993; Henry, 1996; Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, & Hernandez, 2004; Vincent, 1996), the idea that parents, particularly those from lowincome communities, are deficits to their children remains in circulation in schools (e.g., see Epstein & Dauber, 1991; Lawson, 2003, on teachers' perceptions of low-income parents). In the area of mathematics education, there are few attempts to systematically involve parents in their children's mathematics learning (Epstein & Dauber, 1991; Peressini, 1998, 1996). Further, particularly in the mathematics education literature, parents are "portrayed as stumbling blocks for reform" as "their beliefs about learning and mathematics [are thought to] actually reinforce their children's failure in mathematics" (Peressini, 1998, p. 567; see also Lehrer & Shumow, 1997). In this literature, parents are depicted as either (a) not understanding mathematics themselves, (b) not understanding their children's mathematics and thus characterizing their children's work as "wrong," (c) not interested in their children's (math) learning, or (d) resistant to change. Critics of deficit views of parents, on the other hand, call on schools to view parents as "intellectual resources" for their children (Civil et al., 2002, p. 1756). Civil and her colleagues highlight mathematical practices embedded in the daily activities of low-income, Latino parents and assist teachers and schools in integrating them into the mathematics curriculum. Building on this perspective, our research explores the ways parents can and do act as resources for their children's education. …

Beyond the Schoolyard: The Role of Parenting Logics, Financial Resources, and Social Institutions in the Social Class Gap in Structured Activity Participation

Abstract: We investigate cultural and structural sources of class differences in youth activity participation with interview, survey, and archival data. We find working- and middle-class parents overlap in parenting logics about participation, though differ in one respect: middle-class parents are concerned with customizing children's involvement in activities, while working-class parents are concerned with achieving safety and social mobility for children through participation. Second, because of financial constraints, working-class families rely on social institutions for participation opportunities, but few are available. Schools act as an equalizing institution by offering low-cost activities, allowing working-class children to resemble middle-class youth in school activities, but they remain disadvantaged in out-of-school activities. School influences are complex, however, as they also contribute to class differences by offering different activities to working- and middle-class youth. Findings raise questions about the extent to which differences in participation reflect class culture rather than the objective realities parents face.

A Review of the Transition to College Literature in Sociology.

Abstract: Background/Context This review focuses on the transition to college literature in sociology published since 1983 with an emphasis on revealing the contribution that sociology has made to our understanding of under-represented U.S. populations and their transition into and completion of postsecondary education. Purpose The review is organized around four main themes: 1) college preparation, 2) college access, 3) financing college, and 4) college completion and/or retention. Five dimensions that cut across these themes are emphasized: 1) disadvantaged or underrepresented students, 2) parents, families, and social networks of these students, 3) institutions, 4) federal, regional, state, local, or other policies, and 5) systemwide or interactive factors. Research Design This is an analytic essay of prior analyses. These prior analyses include but are not limited to a range of methods, such as qualitative case study and secondary analysis of national, regional, and institutional data. Findings/Results This review finds that while most sociological research has focused on college preparation, with disadvantaged students at the center of this work, very little research has studied college financing. Conclusions/Recommendations Sociological studies relevant to the transition to college continue to strive toward that end, but the field still remains underdeveloped with regard to an emphasis on how the wider societal system of stratification and opportunity interact with individuals, social groups, and educational institutions in a dynamic interplay that affects opportunities for quality educational advancement. In some respects, the prominence of the status attainment framework has limited progress in the field of sociology. Although multilevel modeling affords the opportunity to consider not just the individual, but the individual embedded in particular educational contexts and other contexts, the role of institutional and systemwide factors requires further development among sociologists of education.