Identity exploration,identity confusion,and openness as predictors of multicultural ideology

Research has indicated benefits to individuals and society of holding a multicultural versus colorblind ideology. This cross-sectional study tested the association of endorsement of multiculturalism with the individual difference constructs of identity exploration, identity confusion, and openness. Participants were 188 college students who completed a survey. Multiple regression analyses indicated that identity exploration, identity confusion, and openness independently predicted multicultural ideology. Additionally, identity exploration and identity confusion interacted such that identity exploration was associated with multiculturalism when identity confusion was low, but not when identity confusion was high. These findings indicate that general individual differences in personality and identity are predictive of cultural-related attitudes, and have implications for the design of interventions aimed at increasing multiculturalism.     

Registered Reports in Child Development: Introduction to the Special Section

Registered Reports (RRs) are an emerging format for publishing empirical journal articles in which the decision to publish an article is based on sound conceptualization, methods, and planned analyses rather than the specific nature of the results. This article introduces the Special Section on Registered Reports in Child Development by describing what RRs are and why they are necessary, outlining the thought process that guided the Special Section, describing key thematic insights across the eight articles included in the collection, and providing recommendations for developmental researchers interested in publishing via the RR format. This article also serves as a formal announcement that RRs will be a standard publishing option at Child Development, effective immediately.     

Ethnic and Racial Identity During Adolescence and Into Young Adulthood: An Integrated Conceptualization

Although ethnic and racial identity (ERI) are central to the normative development of youth of color, there have been few efforts to bring scholars together to discuss the theoretical complexities of these constructs and provide a synthesis of existing work. The Ethnic and Racial Identity in the 21st Century Study Group was assembled for this purpose. This article provides an overview of the interface of ERI with developmental and contextual issues across development, with an emphasis on adolescence and young adulthood. It proposes a metaconstruct to capture experiences that reflect both individuals’ ethnic background and their racialized experiences in a specific sociohistorical context. Finally, it presents milestones in the development of ERI across developmental periods.     

Ethnic and Racial Identity in Adolescence: Implications for Psychosocial,Academic, and Health Outcomes

The construction of an ethnic or racial identity is considered an important developmental milestone for youth of color. This review summarizes research on links between ethnic and racial identity (ERI) with psychosocial, academic, and health risk outcomes among ethnic minority adolescents. With notable exceptions, aspects of ERI are generally associated with adaptive outcomes. ERI are generally beneficial for African American adolescents' adjustment across all three domains, whereas the evidence is somewhat mixed for Latino and American Indian youth. There is a dearth of research for academic and health risk outcomes among Asian American and Pacific Islander adolescents. The review concludes with suggestions for future research on ERI among minority youth.     

Feeling Good,Happy, and Proud: A Meta‐Analysis of Positive Ethnic–Racial Affect and Adjustment

One point of intersection in ethnic and racial identity research is the conceptual attention paid to how positively youth feel about their ethnicity or race, or positive ethnic–racial affect. This article reports results of a series of meta‐analyses based on 46 studies of this dimension and psychosocial, academic, and health risk outcomes among ethnic and racial minority youth. The overall pattern of results suggests that positive ethnic–racial affect exhibited small to medium associations (r range = |.11| to |.37|) with depressive symptoms, positive social functioning, self‐esteem, well‐being, internalizing, externalizing, academic achievement, academic attitudes, and health risk outcomes. Implications for theory and research about the role of positive ethnic–racial affect among youth growing up in an increasingly diverse society are discussed.     

Teachers’ views on organizational and pedagogical approaches to early bilingual education: A case study of bilingual kindergartens in Germany and Israel

The article focuses on bilingual kindergartens in Germany and Israel offering education in both host (German or Hebrew) and immigrant (Russian) languages. The main questions are how teachers of bilingual kindergartens understand and explain the organizational and pedagogical principles of the kindergartens and how they negotiate home and host country pedagogical experience. The methodological background of the study is Critical Discourse Analysis. The results reveal differences in the organizational and pedagogical principles that can be attributed to the preschool education policies in Germany and Israel, the status of the Russian language, and the specific characteristics of the kindergartens.     

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES AND GROUP WORK IN THE US INCLUSIVE HIGH SCHOOL CO-TAUGHT SCIENCE CLASS

In the US, there is a significant number of learning-disabled high school students included in regular science classrooms. It has been argued that students with learning disabilities can succeed in science if they receive the kind of instruction they need. To facilitate such instruction, the special education teacher is often incorporated into the class along with the learning disabled students. We observed 53 high school science lessons from ten pairs of science and special-education teachers who were responsible for delivering instruction to groups of students, some of whom were learning-disabled. We analyzed narrative notes collected in these lessons reflecting the kinds of classroom activities, organization of work, and teachers’ roles. In addition, we interviewed the teachers individually to gain a better understanding of these inclusive classes. The underlying question of this research was whether inclusive classes with two teachers delivered the type of science education that is better than solo-teaching in addressing the needs of learning-disabled students. Our evidence indicates that even with a special-education teacher present in the class, learning-disabled students usually did not receive a science education that met their needs. We elaborate on the reasons for this problem and make suggestions for improvement.     

Individual differences in preferences for matched-ethnic mentors among high-achieving ethnically diverse adolescents in STEM

This short-term longitudinal study examined (a) adolescents' contact with mentors who share their background in relation to the importance they place on having such mentors, and (b) the associations of these perceptions with self-efficacy, identity, and commitment to a science career. Participants were 265 ethnically diverse adolescents (M age = 15.82) attending a 4-week science education program. Cluster analyses indicated that at Time 1, underrepresented ethnic minorities were more often in the cluster defined by feelings of importance of having a matched-background mentor but not having much contact. Perceptions of contact increased over time for these students and were associated with increased feelings of identity as a science student. The results suggest the need for attending to individual differences in students' preferences for matched-background mentors.     

The Effect of a Community Project on Sense of Community among Social Work Students: An Exploratory Evaluative Study

This article evaluates the effect of a community project that was adopted by the students of a school of social work in Israel. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was used. The pretest was administered during the planning stage of the project and the posttest a year later, during the implementation period. The findings show a significant positive effect of the project on sense of community among the students. This effect was moderated by students’ ethnic affiliation (Arab or Jewish) and professional commitment. The implications for using community projects to develop a sense of community in schools of social work are discussed.     

Normal delivery induced stress alters glutathione peroxidase and TNF-α in elderly primigravidas mononuclear cells

To probe the glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity coupled to ROS and TNF-α levels in younger versus elderly primigravidas. Monocytes were isolated from blood of young and elderly primigravidas after 12 hrs, 24 hrs and 14 days postpartum. Age-matched healthy female donors served as controls. Thereafter, the above monocytes were subjected to evaluation of GPx activity, levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α and reactivity/specificity towards anti-TNF-α antibody. Suppression in GPx activity with simultaneous enhancement of TNF-α levels in monocytes was observed after 12 hrs and 24 hrs of spontaneous labor pain-induced maternal delivery through normal vaginal route. Conversely, an enhancement of GPx activity and decrease in TNF-α levels were observed on day 14 of postpartum, thereby indicating reversal of the impaired neutralizing mechanisms. The antioxidant network combating ROS was stronger in younger primigravidas. Capability of TNF-α and ROS suppression was somewhat lesser in elderly primigravidas even 14 days of postpartum via normal vaginal route. The capability of GPx activity enhancement with simultaneous suppression in ROS and TNF-α, decreases in elderly primigravidas. This may act as one of the important parameters leading to a variety of complications encountered by elderly primigravidas.