What Are They Thinking? Findings for Educators and Practitioners on Youths’ Experience and Knowledge of the HPV Vaccine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the HPV vaccination for boys and girls starting at age 11, yet adoption rates are low. We use eight focus groups to explore the decision making process, experiences, and social influences, including media and sex education classes, shaping attitudes of male and female college students. We find many students who have misinformation or no knowledge of the vaccination yet are eager to learn more. Due to youths’ range of knowledge about the vaccination and varied preparedness for making their own medical decisions, practitioners are in a challenging position to inform and encourage responsible decision making without appearing coercive.     

The Effect of Birth weight on Child Development Prior to School Entry

The present study examines variation in the effect of birth weight on children’s early cognitive and socioemotional outcomes by family socioeconomic status (SES). It is hypothesized that not only will lower birth weight children display worse cognitive and socioemotional outcomes prior to school entry, as prior research has found, but that effects will be stronger for lower-SES children. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort, the study compares the age 4 outcomes of twins discordant for birth weight (N ~ 1,400). Twin fixed-effects models are run on the full twin sample and separately for low- and high-SES children. Results support the study’s hypotheses, suggesting that socioeconomic risk accentuates the effects of birth weight on early development.     

Sequential Associations Between Caregiver Talk and Child Play in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development

This study examined sequential associations between child play and caregiver talk in 98 caregiver–child dyads (M_{mental age} = 14 months). Fifty dyads included a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Analyses revealed sequential associations between child play and caregiver follow‐in (FI) utterances (utterances related to the child's attentional focus) were stronger in the ASD as compared to the typically developing (TD) group. FI utterances were more likely to elicit functional play than caregiver‐focused utterances, and more so in the ASD group. Across groups, FI directives were more likely to elicit functional play than FI comments. These findings have important implications for research involving caregiver–child play as an early intervention context for children with ASD.     

Do Double Minority Students Face Double Jeopardy? Testing Minority Stress Theory

Data from 2 studies revealed that ethnic and sexual minority clients experienced greater psychological distress on multiple dimensions than did European American or heterosexual clients, respectively, as did ethnic and sexual minority students who were not clients. Among sexual minority students, ethnicity was not an added source of distress. Among ethnic minority students, sexual minority status was associated with heightened psychological distress.     

Characteristics of High‐Risk College Student Drinkers Expressing High and Low Levels of Distress

The aim of this study was to identify variables that reliably differentiated between 2 groups of students who reported binge drinking at the same rate (6 to more than 10 times within the previous 2 weeks) but who exhibited different distress associated with their behavior. Results indicated that students who received an external expression of concern were more likely to be concerned themselves about their alcohol use. The clinical utility of this finding is discussed.     

Digital Youth Divas: Exploring Narrative-Driven Curriculum to Spark Middle School Girls’ Interest in Computational Activities

Women use technology to mediate numerous aspects of their professional and personal lives. Yet, few design and create these technologies given that women, especially women of color, are grossly underrepresented in computer science and engineering courses. Decisions about participation in STEM are frequently made prior to high school, and these decisions are impacted by prior experience, interest, and sense of fit with community. Digital Youth Divas is an out-of-school program that uses narrative stories to launch the creation of digital artifacts and support non-dominant middle school girls’ STEM interests and identities through virtual and real-world community. In this article, we discuss the framework of the Digital Youth Divas environment, including our approach to blending narratives into project-based design challenges through on- and offline mechanisms. Results from our pilot year, including the co-design process with the middle school participants, suggest that our narrative-centered, blended learning program design sparks non-dominant girls’ interests in STEM activities and disciplinary identification, and has the potential to mediate girls’ sense of STEM agency, identities, and interests.     

Women teachers in Liberia: Social and institutional forces accounting for their underrepresentation

This study focuses on cultural and institutional factors that affect women's decision to become primary school teachers in Liberia. It exposes current dynamics that account for the male-dominated primary school teaching force and the barriers that dissuade women from becoming teachers. Based on semistructured interviews with pre-service and practicing teachers, school administrators, faculty at teacher training institutions, and Ministry of Education officials, the research findings indicate that women face several cultural barriers to receiving an education: patrilineal assumptions that daughters are destined to become resources for their husbands’ families (and thus a poor investment), early onset of sexual activity and teenage pregnancy, and social expectations about early family formation. Women who enter teacher training programs receive no recognition for their children and family responsibilities and are given insufficient financial support. When women do become teachers, they face difficult working conditions such as distant schools, poor housing facilities, late payments, and large classes filled with overage students. The probability of rural assignment brings additional dissuading factors: poor quality roads and few transportation options, a dearth of safe housing, and lack of childcare services. The study offers several policy options for increasing female teachers in the workforce.     

A NEW LOOK AT INTELLIGENCE TESTING

The aim of the paper is to explore teachers’ methods of delivering an ethos of tolerance, respect and mutual understanding in one integrated secondary school in Northern Ireland. Drawing on interviews with 18 teachers in the school, it is argued that most teachers make ‘critical choices’ which both reflect and reinforce a ‘culture of avoidance’, whereby politically or religiously contentious issues are avoided rather than explored. Although teachers are well-intentioned in making these choices, it is shown that they have the potential to create the conditions that maintain or even harden psychological boundaries between Catholics and Protestants rather than dilute them.     

Does Maternal Employment Following Childbirth Support or Inhibit Low‐Income Children’s Long‐Term Development?

This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among middle‐class and White children generalized to other groups. Using a representative sample of urban, low‐income, predominantly African American and Hispanic families (n = 444), ordinary least squares regression and propensity score matching models assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and children’s functioning at age 7. Children whose mothers were employed early, particularly in their first 8 months, showed enhanced socioemotional functioning compared to peers whose mothers remained nonemployed. Protective associations emerged for both part‐time and full‐time employment, and were driven by African American children, with neutral effects for Hispanics. Informal home‐based child care also heightened positive links.     

Giving Till it Helps? Alumnae Giving and Children’s College Options

This paper examines whether donations to colleges and universities are partly motivated by the desire of alumni to increase their children’s admissions probabilities. The paper uses data from a single-sex college, so that only alums with a daughter would evince this motive. We find that alums with a teenage daughter, as opposed to a teenage son, are more likely to make donations of at least $5,000. The same relationship is not evident for smaller donations, or when children are older than 18. Further, we find evidence that this difference in the probability of a donation by alums with teenage daughters and teenage sons does not exist when acceptance rates are higher in an earlier period.