A study in Wake County, North Carolina, designed to determine how racist structural barriers influence role perceptions of Black decision makers, identified the following discriminators of role perceptions: 1) officials' perceptions of themselves as decision makers or decision influencers; 2) age; 3) racial composition of organization; 4)…

Identifies the socioeconomic, demographic, and attitudinal correlates of neighborhood differences in the rate of child abuse and neglect, by comparing families in a high risk and a low risk neighborhood matched for socioeconomic level. (CM)

An exploration of the controversial nature of economics. Public school curricula give it minimal emphasis, and the press avoids discussing economics issues from an intellectual viewpoint. Despite community objections, schools need effective methods and materials for teaching fundamental economics. (AV)

Analysis of aggregate- and individual-level data for a national sample of white women suggest that adolescent nonmarital sexual activity and contraceptive use are shaped by the local opportunity structure and normative environment. Social disintegration, socioeconomic status, and availability of employment opportunities for women emerged as…

Analysis of the grade point averages (GPA) of more than 5,000 undergraduates shows that graduates of different high schools have significantly different GPAs, partially reflecting neighborhood poverty and education level. Teacher experience had a small effect but teacher/student ratio and teacher education level had no effect on GPA. (SK)

Investigates hypothesis used to explain the relationship between family structure and adolescent drug use, using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS). Reports that adolescents who resided in single-parent or stepparent families had heightened drug use. Higher adolescent drug use was found in communities with a large…

This study examined whether child, parental, and socioenvironmental factors predict disruptive school behavior two years later. Data from a sample of 10-to 12-year-old youths, including 289 African American, 183 Hispanic/Latino, and 335 non-Hispanic white youths from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were analyzed. Findings indicate that…

Neighborhood conditions are related to children's externalizing behavior, although few processes that help explain this association have been identified. With data from 189 primarily low-income Anglo and Mexican American families, we tested a stress process model that included 3 potential mediators of this relationship. The results showed that…

This article presents a broad conceptual framework that suggests ways in which community demands, resources, and strategies influence relationships between work demands, resources, and family well-being. Within-domain and boundary-spanning community demands and resources are proposed to combine with work demands and resources in relation to…

Adults condemn violence but teach children to fight back. The message that aggression is legitimate causes grave harm to untold numbers of children and youth in our violent culture. Children are literally losing their lives trying to gain "respect" and preserve their "dignity." The author draws on extensive direct professional work with violent…

Using a sample of 20,000 adolescents (Add Health data), this study examined the influences of community poverty and race/ethnicity on adolescent obesity. Multilevel analyses revealed strong evidence for the unique influences of community poverty and race/ethnicity on adolescent obesity net of family characteristics. The prevalence of obesity is…

This study examined the reading performance on the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery--Revised (WLPB-R), in Spanish and English, of 183 Spanish-speaking students in kindergarten through grade 2 in 3 schools with 4 instructional programs for English learners: structured English immersion, transitional bilingual, developmental bilingual, and dual…

Educational researchers should expand their methodology to include the student's voice and to consider the impact of the student's environment when defining being "at-risk of failure" or "at-risk of dropping out of school." Current definitions of who is at-risk place the onus of at-riskness entirely within the student.…

The League of Schools Reaching Out is a national project to show how family/community/school partnerships can contribute significantly to school restructuring. It aims to increase the academic and social success of all children, especially those society labels as at risk. The league is attempting to expand the notion that the internal methods,…

An earlier phase of a research project proposed a theoretical model linking the key concepts of community commitment, media use, knowledge about community, community evaluation, and community pride as well as a series of social locator variables. The present phase of the study concerned itself with the central part of the model, ignoring the…