Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Infant Mortality: Cross Section Study Of The United State, With Emphasis On Education, Daniel C. Sheets-Poling

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

On the surface infant mortality is usually thought of as just a unfortunate part of life in what can happen to an individual family, but infant mortality is part of the factors that affect social capital, which can lead back to overall trust in a community. When that trust starts to wither within a community, economic activity will be affected as community members will not behave as they usually do within their given economic boundaries. While social capital is not solely affected by infant mortality, it does show what type of health status an area has. As a community, state, …

Young People's Attitudes Towards Inter-Ethnic And Inter-Religious Socializing, Courtship And Marriage In Indonesia, Lyn Parker, Chang Yau Hoon, Raihani Raihani

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper presents the attitudes of high school students in Indonesia towards inter-ethnic and inter-religious socializing, courtship and marriage. It also explores how different personal characteristics and social conditions such as gender, ethnicity, type of school and community affect these attitudes. The basic findings come from a survey of more than 3,000 students in senior high schools in five provinces of Indonesia: Jakarta, Yogyakarta, West Sumatra, Central Kalimantan and Bali. Survey data were supplemented with data from interviews and focus group discussions with students and from participant observation in and around the same schools. The authors found that most students …

Annotated Bibliography: Interaction With Animals (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

No abstract provided.

Cosmopolitanism As Cultural Capital: Exploring The Intersection Of Globalization, Education, And Stratification, Hiroki Igarashi, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In recent years, sociological research on cosmopolitanism has begun to draw on Pierre Bourdieu to critically examine how cosmopolitanism is implicated in stratification on an increasingly global scale. In this paper, we examine the analytical potential of the Bourdieusian approach by exploring how education systems help to institutionalize cosmopolitanism as cultural capital whose access is rendered structurally unequal. To this end, we first probe how education systems legitimate cosmopolitanism as a desirable disposition at the global level, while simultaneously distributing it unequally among different groups of actors according to their geographical locations and volumes of economic, cultural, and social capital …

First-Year Students' Perspectives On Reasons For And Prevention Of Their Own Alcohol Overdose, Janet Reis

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2014

Two hundred twenty-six first-year students enrolled at a large, public Midwest university and deemed to require an emergency transport for a potential alcohol overdose completed a brief questionnaire on the student's perceptions of why the event occurred, what might have happened to prevent the overdose situation, and personal assessment of experience with alcohol. The explanations for the event revolve around personal decision making (made decision to drink too much, absence of drinking control behaviors) as opposed to peer influence. Similarly, factors selected as preventing an alcohol overdose focused on knowing one's own tolerance, plus having a buddy system to slow …

Examining The Influence Of Race, Class And Gender Inequalities On Perceptions Of The American Dream Since The 2008 Economic Recession, Scarlett D. Marklin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

America has a national ethos embodied in the moniker “land of the free” and defined by a set of ideals in which being free means all men and women have an equal opportunity for prosperity, the pursuit of happiness and success. In essence, simply having access to upward social mobility achieved through one’s own perseverance and hard work, the quintessential American Dream. The first use of the phrase American Dream was by James Truslow Adams to characterize the ideal that every man should live a richer and fuller life than his ancestors based on opportunity according to ability or achievement …

Parenting Behaviors, Adolescent Depressive Symptoms, And Problem Behavior: The Role Of Self-Esteem And School Adjustment Difficulties Among Chinese Adolescents, Cixin Wang, Yan Ruth Xia, Wenzhen Li, Stephan M. Wilson, Kevin Bush, Gary Peterson

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Cross-sectional data from 589 Chinese adolescents were used to investigate whether parenting behaviors are directly or indirectly (through self-esteem and school adjustment difficulties) associated with adolescent depressive symptoms and problem behavior. Structural equation modeling results showed that school adjustment difficulties fully mediated the relations between two parenting behaviors (parental punitiveness and paternal monitoring) and adolescent problem behavior and partially mediated the relation between maternal monitoring and adolescent problem behavior. Adolescent self-esteem partially mediated the relations between maternal punitiveness and adolescent depressive symptoms and fully mediated the relations between parental support and adolescent depressive symptoms. Parental love withdrawal was not significantly …

Upward Bound Math-Science At Umass Boston, Upward Bound, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Lawrence High School

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

We seek to increase the number of low-income and first-generation college students majoring in mathematics and the sciences at the undergraduate level. We motivate students to achieve at their highest potential by facilitating exploration and discovery in an active learning environment drawing on values embedded in the complementary philosophies of UMass Boston and the Noble and Greenough School.

The Value Of Teamwork, Oderra Jones

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Beacons Academy is a collaboration between UMass Boston Athletics, Codman Academy, Dorchester YMCA and the Walter Denney Youth Center to expose students in our local community to sports they may or may not have played through instructional sessions with our intercollegiate coaches and athletes. The goal is to teach the sport while also promoting the value of education, hard work, and teamwork.

Social Media Days At Umass Boston, Werner Kunz, Heidi Burgess, Andrea Reardon

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Hosted by Professor Werner Kunz, Social Media Days is envisioned to be a meeting place and networking hub for Boston businesses and organizations interested in Social Media. This daylong event combines presentations from high profile speakers with breakout discussions/small group workshops. Attendees can expect high quality and knowledgeable speakers and an increased amount of face to face interaction. Social Media Days strengthens the connection between UMass Boston and the local business community through an engaging day long event.

Pacific Visual Impairment Project, School For Global Inclusion And Social Development, University Of Massachusetts Boston, College Of Education And Human Development, University Of Massachusetts Boston, University Of Guam - Center For Excellence In Developmental Disabilities Education, Research & Service

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The primary goal of the Pacific Vision Impairment Project (VIP) is to increase the pool of fully credentialed, effective personnel educating students who are blind or have a Vision Impairment in remote areas where services either do not exist or need additional support.

Latino Leadership Initiative (Lli), University Of Massachusetts Boston, Harvard Kennedy School Center For Public Leadership

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Purpose: To help develop a cadre of next generation leaders from and for the Latino(a) community. Participants: The LLI annually serves up to 50 of the nation’s most promising undergraduates with demonstrated interest in serving the Latino(a)community. Partner Schools: The partner schools are sending cohorts represented are Miami Dade College, UMass Boston, Texas A&M International University, University of California at Merced, University of Texas-Pan American, Loyola Marymount, City University of New York and the University of Houston. Objectives: To enhance the leadership capacity of students committed to serving the Latino community; To help participants form a strong and durable bond …

Urban.Boston (Urban Research-Based Action Network): Creating Meaningful Connections Between Community & Academia, Mark Warren

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Urban Research-Based Action Network (URBAN) is a national platform that facilitates community-based research, teaching, and learning for action across disciplinary lines, connecting scholars and community activists within and across cities. It was started in 2011 to honor the memory of activist scholar Marylin Gitell, and has received generous support from SAGE Publications. URBAN currently has 5 local nodes: Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Northern California, and Philadelphia; as well as 3 discipline nodes: Education, Sociology, and Urban Planning. More nodes will be established in the future. In the meantime, efforts are focused on connecting academics and community partners …

The Patriarchy’S Role In Gender Inequality In The Caribbean, Erin C. O'Connor

Student Publications

While gender equality in the Caribbean is improving, with women’s growing social, economic, and political participation, literacy rates comparable to those in Europe, and greater female participation in higher education, deeply rooted inequalities are still present and are demonstrated in the types of jobs women are in and the limited number of women in decision-making positions. Sexism, racism, and classism are systemic inequalities being perpetuated in schools, through the types of education offered for individuals and the content in textbooks. Ironically, the patriarchy is coexisting within a system of matrifocal and matrilocal families, with a long tradition of female economic …

Crossing Boundaries To Education: Haitian Transnational Families And The Quest To Raise The Family Up, Tekla Nicholas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 175, 000 Haitian immigrants have settled in South Florida since the 1970s. Their lives are often lived transnationally with persistent connections and obligations to family members in Haiti. Yet, traditional theories of immigrant assimilation focus on the integration of immigrants into host countries, giving little consideration to relationships and activities that extend into migrants' countries of origin. Conversely, studies of transnational families do not explicitly address incorporation into the receiving country. This dissertation, through the experiences of Haitian immigrants in South Florida, reveals a transnational quest “to raise the family up” through migration, remittances, and the pursuit of higher …

Fearless Friday: Elena Perez-Zetune, Elena Perez-Zetune

SURGE

Consistently involved in programs and initiatives addressing social issues related to children, migrant communities, and education, Elena Perez-Zetune ’14 fearlessly allows her assumptions to be challenged, her time given in service, and her energy spent on encouraging younger generations.

Elena has served with several different programs on campus run by the Center for Public Service, such as El Centro, Immersion Projects, Heston Internships, Casa de la Cultura, and the LIU Migrant Education Program. Growing up in Gettysburg, Elena has had the unique opportunity to run and organize some of the same programs she participated in as a …

Bootstrap Blues, Hannah M. Frantz

SURGE

Meet David*. In mid-January, he came to the small town Iowa elementary school where I work. David has attended more schools in the two years since he started school than I have in my lifetime. In fact, the school he just moved from only has four days of attendance listed on his record. David moves so often because he’s homeless. His situation is not what we may stereotypically think of as “homeless”—you wouldn’t see him on the streets or even in soup kitchens. Instead, David stays with his mother, and they couch surf from one home to another from week …

The Social Construction Of Sexuality In Primary School Classrooms, Anna Spengen

Sociology Major Research Papers

Through qualitative interviews with primary school teachers, this research sought to uncover how heterosexual privilege is maintained in talk about sexuality. More specifically, this research sought to identify the strategies used by teachers in talking to their students about sexuality. These strategies took shape in the following: a reliance on scientific explanations, deferring to others, a reliance on faith and religion, and the presumption that children are innocent and asexual. This research determined that these strategies were used to produce, reproduce, and maintain heterosexism and heteronormativity. The implications of this research are that schools are missing an important opportunity to …

A Five-Step Process For Interactive Parent–Adolescent Communication About Hiv Prevention: Advice From Parents Living With Hiv/Aids, Laura L. Edwards, Janet S. Reis

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2014

The authors investigated how parents living with HIV/AIDS communicate about HIV prevention with their 10- to 18-year-old children. Semistructured interviews with 76 mothers and fathers were analyzed for (a) their experiences discussing HIV prevention with adolescents and (b) advice for other parents about how to best broach HIV-related topics. Interactive conversations were regarded as particularly effective. A five-step process for interactive communication emerged as a result of these discussions. Parents emphasized that adolescents should have a “voice” and a “choice” in HIV-related talks. Health care professionals can facilitate adolescent sexual health by encouraging parents to actively involve their children in …

Still Unconstitutional: Our Nation's Experiment With State-Sponsored Sex Segregation In Education, David S. Cohen, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

Since federal regulations authorized single-sex education in 2006, there has been an explosion of single-sex schools and classes. Although the Supreme Court has not ruled, three federal court decisions have addressed the constitutionality of single-sex classes, and the issue will percolate toward Supreme Court review soon. The arguments are that parents should have choices and “diversity” of educational options, that “brain research” shows that boys and girls are so biologically different to need sex-specific educational environments, that educational outcomes are better, and single-sex learning environments allows boys and girls to break through gender stereotypes. This article dissects these arguments within …

Health + Equality + School Engagement: Scenarios Usa Reinvents Sex Education, Rafael Mazin, Andrea Lynch

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of Quality/Calidad/Qualité highlights the experience of Scenarios USA, an innovative nonprofit program that has integrated a gender and rights perspective—and a critical-thinking approach—into sex education curricula, while fostering new pedagogies and greater awareness among teachers. Scenarios USA approaches sexual health not as a stand-alone issue but as intertwined with young people’s overall lives and agency. As such, the organization’s “sex ed” work is part of a broader strategy of fostering self-expression, leadership, and advocacy among youth, especially among those living in marginalized communities. The approach has made Scenarios a vanguard in the field of sexuality education. Scenarios’ experience …

Balika Fact Sheet: Highlight On Schooling, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

School attendance is universal in the Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA) study area, but the persistence of early and child marriage leads to high dropout rates among girls. Compulsory primary education is free in Bangladesh, and policies to improve access to schooling are generally credited with universal schooling at young ages. Only 1 percent of 12–15-year-olds have never attended school compared to 9 percent among 15–18-year-olds in the study area. The recent expansion of educational opportunity presents new challenges. Bangladesh is unusual by global comparison in the high proportion of girls who are married …

Evaluation Of Health And Education Impacts Of A Girls’ Safe Spaces Program In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Annabel Erulkar, Girmay Medhin

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Approximately one in eight of the world’s population is a girl or young woman aged 10–24 and attention is increasingly focusing on the central role of adolescent girls in achieving global health and development goals. Areas of focus by the development field include girls’ education, health, child marriage, and the experience of violence. This study analyzes the educational and health impacts of a program for slum-dwelling girls, including child domestic workers and rural-urban migrants. Established in 2006, Biruh Tesfa (Bright Future) aimed to increase social networks and support for the most marginalized girls in the poorest urban areas of Ethiopia. …

Supporting Girls In Their Transition To Secondary Education: An Exploratory Study Of The Family, School And Community Environments Of Adolescent Girls In Gujarat, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy, A.J. Francis Zavier, Rajib Acharya, Neeta Shah

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Despite government commitment to universal secondary education in India, few adolescents transition to and successfully complete secondary education. In India, limited efforts have been directed at parents to promote positive attitudes toward education and school completion. Recognizing the need for identifying effective intervention strategies to engage parents and communities to promote secondary education for girls, the Population Council and partners are pilot-testing an intervention to support adolescent girls’ transition to and retention in secondary education. Located in the state of Gujarat, the intervention focuses on girls in the last year of primary school and first year of secondary school and …

Diverging Destinies Redux, Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

My recent “where to live” conversation with a newly hired colleague yielded an unsurprising list of “possibles”: selected blocks of Mount Airy and Germantown, plus the Main Line towns of Bryn Mawr, Ardmore, Haverford, Villanova, Gladwyne, and so forth. Despite my colleague’s professed open mind about potential neighborhoods, Jenkintown — my own somewhat obscure and distinctly unfashionable (but much more affordable) suburb — drew a blank stare, as did a dozen other solidly middleclass areas I mentioned. By my calculation, there are over 400 zip codes within a thirty-mile radius of Rittenhouse Square, which is in the center of downtown …

Population And Health Dynamics In Nairobi's Informal Settlements: Report Of The Nairobi Cross-Sectional Slums Survey (Ncss 2012), African Population And Health Research Center (Aphrc)

Reproductive Health

This report documents the living conditions and health risks of slum-dwellers across Nairobi’s informal settlements a decade after the Nairobi Cross-sectional Slums Survey (NCSS) of 2000. It aims to not only highlight the needs of slum-dwellers but also inform policymakers on the changes that have occurred in the living conditions of Nairobi’s urban poor since 2000, considering development interventions by the Government of Kenya and its development partners. The NCSS 2012 results highlight marked improvements in environmental, health, and educational indicators among slum dwellers. However, these improvements were not uniform, with subgroups of younger women and women without formal education …