Attitudes toward Family Obligations among American Adolescents with Asian, Latin American, and European Backgrounds

This study was designed to examine the attitudes toward family obligations among over 800 American tenth ( M age = 15.7 years) and twelfth ( M age = 17.7 years) grade students from Filipino, Chinese, Mexican, Central and South American, and European backgrounds. Asian and Latin American adolescents possessed stronger values and greater expectations regarding their duty to assist, respect, and support their families than their peers with European backgrounds. These differences tended to be large and were consistent across the youths' generation, gender, family composition, and socioeconomic background. Whereas an emphasis on family obligations tended to be associated with more positive family and peer relationships and academic motivation, adolescents who indicated the strongest endorsement of their obligations tended to receive school grades just as low as or even lower than those with the weakest endorsement. There was no evidence, however, that the ethnic variations in attitudes produced meaningful group differences in the adolescents' development. These findings suggest that even within a society that emphasizes adolescent autonomy and independence, youths from families with collectivistic traditions retain their parents' familistic values and that these values do not have a negative impact upon their development.     

From Learning Beliefs to Achievement Among Chinese Immigrant and European American Preschool Children

Little research exists on how immigrant children develop their beliefs about school learning (BASLs) in their home and host cultures. We examined the BASLs and achievement children of Chinese immigrants’ (CCI) and European American (EA) children. We followed longitudinally 120 middle-class children from age 4 to 5, balanced for gender. Children heard two story beginnings depicting a child eager to attend school and another not. Children completed the stories and were tested for math and literacy achievement. We found seven BASLs. CCIs and EAs showed similar BASLs. Awareness of parental involvement and intellectual benefit consistently explained their achievement, with CCIs showing greater achievement. CCIs’ (but not EAs’) valuation of learning explained their net academic growth. Implications on CCIs’ development are discussed.     

Reciprocal Pathways Between American and Chinese Early Adolescents' Sense of Responsibility and Disclosure to Parents

This research examined the reciprocal pathways between youth's sense of responsibility to parents and disclosure to them during early adolescence in the United States and China. Four times over the seventh and eighth grades, 825 American and Chinese youth (M_age = 12.73 years) reported on their sense of responsibility to parents and disclosure of everyday activities to them. Autoregressive latent trajectory models revealed that the more youth felt responsible to parents, the more they subsequently disclosed to them in both the United States and China. The reverse was also true: The more youth disclosed to parents, the more responsible they felt to them over time. The strength of these reciprocal pathways increased as youth progressed through early adolescence.     

Mexican American and European American College Students' Beliefs About Causes,Cures, and Sources of Help for Anxiety

Mexican American and European American college students rated an empirically derived list of the causes, cures, and sources of help for anxiety. Main effects were obtained for ethnicity on ratings related to cures and one source of help for anxiety. There were also significant differences in ratings of cause and cure beliefs for anxiety between men and women. Level of acculturation, however, was not found to be related to ratings among the Mexican American participants.     

中美青少年公民责任教育之比较

文章从中美青少年公民责任教育价值理念、目标定位、核心内容、管理体制、方式方法等方面对两国青少年公民责任教育进行了比较研究,通过比较研究,提出了当前我国青少年公民责任教育的三条建议:一是以科学发展观重要理论为基础,坚持我国青少年公民责任教育文化传统;二是以美国责任教育基本内涵为参照、丰富我国青少年公民责任教育基础理论;三是以美国责任教育实践模式为对照、优化我国青少年责任教育方式方法。     

Economic stress, parenting, and child adjustment in Mexican American and European American families

To assess the impact of economic hardship on 111 European American and 167 Mexican American families and their 5th-grade (M age=11.4 years) children, a family stress model was evaluated. Structural equation analyses revealed that economic hardship was linked to indexes of economic pressure that were related to depressive symptoms for mothers and fathers of both ethnicities. Depressive symptoms were linked to marital problems and hostile parenting. Paternal hostile parenting was related to child adjustment problems for European Americans, whereas marital problems were linked to child adjustment problems for Mexican Americans. Maternal acculturation was associated with both higher marital problems and lower hostile parenting. The utility of the model for describing the effects of economic hardship in Mexican Americans is noted.     

Mexican American Student Resistance: From Spontaneity to Organization

Having challenged student resistance scholarship for glorifying forms of resistance that tend to be self-destructive to students, the field has shifted to supporting and advancing more transformational forms of resistance, such as organizing campaigns for social justice issues. While this is a welcome advance, the conception of transformative employed by researchers tends to be limited to reformist agendas. Situating student resistance in a historical context through a re-reading of Marx and Lenin offers a deeper framework for understanding and organizing student resistance. Making these points, I draw on the Mexican American historical and contemporary context for illustrations.     

Religious Identity Development of Adolescents in Christian Secondary Schools: Effects of School and Religious Backgrounds of Adolescents and Their Parents

This study examines religious identity development of pupils at Dutch schools for secondary education (mean age 16.4). With the help of a theoretical conceptualization of “religious identity development” empirical research is carried out. Main question is whether differences in terms of religious commitment and exploration between pupils of the four participating schools can be explained by religious denominations of pupils and the importance the pupils' parents attach to worldview. It is concluded that school in general has no significant main effect on religious commitments and explorations of pupils. Religious backgrounds of pupils should be taken into account. Because pupils themselves do indicate that school has influence on the way they look at life, further research is needed in which specific school aspects (like the way pupils evaluate religious education) should also be taken into account.     

幼儿园可以天天向家长开放吗——一项对上海市幼儿园园长及家长的调查

就幼儿园家长开放日活动改革问题对上海市部分幼儿园园长及家长进行调查发现,大多数园长反对把幼儿园家长开放日活动改革为"天天向家长开放,欢迎家长随时来访",认为这既没有必要也没有可能.大部分家长则赞成改革家长开放日活动.幼儿园不应该把家庭排除在外,家长不是幼儿园教育的障碍.要加强园长的培训工作,帮助其理解"天天向家长开放,欢迎家长随时来访"这一政策的价值,充分发挥园长的各种作用,促进幼儿园家长开放日活动的改革.     

从欧洲华文文学到海外华文文学

随着中国大陆的改革开放,欧洲各国华人数目在大量增加,华侨社会的结构也起了根本性的变化,知识分子占了很大的比例,其中有爱好文学、以写作为专职的,因此欧洲的华文文学,便自然而然地诞生了。"欧洲华文作家协会"于1991年3月在巴黎成立,如今的欧洲华文文学,已进入成熟、稳定阶段,前景一片光明。"世界华文作家协会"成立于1992年,今天的整个世界之上,可以说有华人的地方就有华文文学。分布在海外各地的华文作家,有两个共同点:其一是都有完整的中华文化背景。再就是因为长居国外,多少受到一些住在国文化特色的熏陶。他们具有一种揉和了中国儒家思想和西方基督教文明的特质,他们更习惯以这两种特质的混合观点来看人生,看世界。海外华文文学代表了两个非常重要的意义。其一是对内,也就是对我们中华文化本身的。其二是对外,也就是对全个世界,对人类文化整体的。     

The Intersection of Race and Gender Among Black American Adolescents

This study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the intersection of race and gender among Black American adolescents, aged 11–19. The quantitative component (n = 344) used survey data to examine gender differences in peer-perpetrated and adult-perpetrated racial discrimination experiences, and no gender differences were evident. Qualitative data (n = 42) probed how males and females interpret discrimination experiences given the intersection of race and gender. Although the majority of participants believed that Black males and females have similar experiences, some believed that Black males face more racial discrimination. However, analyses revealed social disadvantages for Black females given that they report inappropriate comments and unwelcome hair touching and limited opportunities for interracial dating compared with Black males.     

How European American and Taiwanese Mothers Talk to Their Children About Learning

Little cross‐cultural research exists on parental socialization of children's learning beliefs. The current study compared 218 conversations between European American and Taiwanese mothers and children (6–10 years) about good and poor learning. The findings support well‐documented cultural differences in learning beliefs. European Americans mentioned mental activities and positive affect more, whereas Taiwanese mentioned learning virtues and negative affect more. Mothers, especially European American, reciprocated their children's talk about mental activities, learning virtues, and negative affect. Children, especially Taiwanese, reciprocated their mother's talk about positive affect. Mothers invoked more mental activities and positive affect when discussing good learning, but more learning virtues and negative affect when discussing poor learning. These findings reveal a source of cultural differences in beliefs and potential enculturation.     

Longitudinal Relations Among Parenting Styles,Prosocial Behaviors,and Academic Outcomes in U.S. Mexican Adolescents

This article examined parenting styles and prosocial behaviors as longitudinal predictors of academic outcomes in U.S. Mexican youth. Adolescents (N = 462; Wave 1 M_age = 10.4 years; 48.1% girls), parents, and teachers completed parenting, prosocial behavior, and academic outcome measures at 5th, 10th, and 12th grades. Authoritative parents were more likely to have youth who exhibited high levels of prosocial behaviors than those who were moderately demanding and less involved. Fathers and mothers who were less involved and mothers who were moderately demanding were less likely than authoritative parents to have youth who exhibited high levels of prosocial behaviors. Prosocial behaviors were positively associated with academic outcomes. Discussion focuses on parenting, prosocial behaviors, and academic attitudes in understanding youth academic performance.     

Relationships Among Self-Concealment,Mindfulness and Negative Psychological Outcomes in Asian American and European American College Students

Research on Asian Americans and their psychological adjustment is limited. Consisting of two cross-sectional studies, the present investigation examined the relationships among self-concealment, mindfulness, emotional distress in stressful interpersonal situations, and general psychological ill-health in Asian American college students, and in comparison with European American counterparts. In the Asian Americans, self-concealment was found to be positively related to general psychological ill-health and negatively related to mindfulness. In both ethnic groups, mindfulness was found to be negatively related to general psychological ill-health. Findings suggest that, as seen with European American counterparts, both self-concealment and mindfulness may be important concepts in understanding the psychological adjustments of Asian American college students.     

Relations Among Cultural Learning Beliefs,Self‐Regulated Learning,and Academic Achievement for Low‐Income Chinese American Adolescents

This mixed‐methods study of urban low‐income, English‐proficient Chinese American, second‐generation 15‐year‐olds (conducted in 2004; N = 32) examined the relation among the virtue model of learning communicated by parents and adolescents’ learning beliefs, self‐regulated learning (SRL) behaviors, and academic achievement. Analysis of in‐depth individual interviews revealed that for these adolescents, perceptions of family educational socialization predicted students’ endorsement of their culture's virtue‐oriented learning beliefs and that adolescents’ endorsement of these learning beliefs predicted their academic achievement. Importantly, adolescents’ reported that use of SRL strategies mediated the relationship between their endorsement of virtue‐oriented learning beliefs and their academic achievement. Findings are discussed in the context of further research linking cultural learning beliefs, SRL, and children's academic achievement.     

Cross‐Ethnic Friendships and Intergroup Attitudes Among Asian American Adolescents

This study examined cross‐ethnic friendship choices and intergroup attitudes in a sample of 762 sixth‐grade Asian American students (M_age = 11.5 years) attending 1 of 19 middle schools that varied in ethnic composition. Multiple measures of friendship (quantity and quality) and intergroup attitudes (affective, cognitive, behavioral) toward White, Latino, and Black grademates were assessed. The results showed that Asian American students overnominated White students and undernominated Latino and Black students as their friends when school availability of each ethnic group was accounted for. Cross‐ethnic friendships were related to better intergroup attitudes, especially the behavioral dimension of attitudes. Cross‐ethnic friendships were least likely to change attitudes toward Blacks. Implications for future research, educational practice, and attitude intervention programs were discussed.     

A Longitudinal Examination of Racial Identity and Racial Discrimination Among African American Adolescents

This study tested the longitudinal association between perceptions of racial discrimination and racial identity among a sample of 219 African American adolescents, aged 14 to 18. Structural equation modeling was used to test relations between perceptions of racial discrimination and racial identity dimensions, namely, racial centrality, private regard, and public regard at 3 time points. The results indicated that perceived racial discrimination at Time 1 was negatively linked to public regard at Time 2. Nested analyses using age were conducted, and perceptions of racial discrimination at Time 2 were negatively linked to private regard at Time 3 among older adolescents. The findings imply that perceived racial discrimination is linked to negative views that the broader society has of African Americans.