Extracurricular Participation and Course Performance in the Middle Grades: A Study of Low-Income,Urban Youth

The transition to middle/junior high school is associated with declines in students’ academic performance, especially among low‐income, urban youth. Developmental psychologists posit such declines are due to a poor fit between the needs of early adolescents—industry, identity, and autonomy—and the environment of their new schools. Extracurricular participation during these years may act as a buffer for youth, providing a setting for development outside the classroom. The current study examines participation within and across activity settings among low‐income, urban youth in New York City over this transition. Using the Adolescent Pathways Project data, this study explores how such participation relates to course performance. We find that a large percentage of youth are minimally or uninvolved in extracurricular activities during these years; that participation varies within youth across time; and that the association between participation and course performance varies by activity setting. Youth who participate frequently in community or athletic settings or have high participation in two or more settings are found to have higher GPAs in the year in which they participate and youth who participate frequently in the religious setting are found to have lower GPAs. High participation in more than two settings may be detrimental.     

Using Geospatial Research Methods to Examine Resource Accessibility and Availability as it Relates to Community Participation of Individuals with Serious Mental Illnesses

Greater community participation among individuals with serious mental illnesses is associated with better psychosocial and health outcomes. Typically, studies examining community participation have utilized self‐report measures and been conducted in limited settings. The introduction of methodological advances to examining community participation of individuals with serious mental illnesses has the potential to advance the science of community mental health research and invigorate the work of community psychologists in this area. This study employed an innovative geospatial approach to examine the relationship between community participation and resource accessibility (i.e., proximity) and availability (i.e., concentration) among 294 individuals utilizing community mental health services throughout the United States. Findings suggest small but significant associations between community participation and the accessibility and availability of resources needed for participation. Furthermore, findings demonstrate the importance of car access for individuals residing in both urban and non‐urban settings. The methods and results presented in this study have implications for community mental health research and services and provide an illustration of ways that geospatial methodologies can be used to investigate environmental factors that impact community inclusion and participation of individuals with serious mental illnesses.     

Democracy Without Participation: A New Politics for a Disengaged Era

Changing patterns of political participation observed by political scientists over the past half-century undermine traditional democratic theory and practice. The vast majority of democratic theory, and deliberative democratic theory in particular, either implicitly or explicitly assumes the need for widespread citizen participation. It requires that all citizens possess the opportunity to participate and also that they take up this opportunity. But empirical evidence gathered over the past half-century strongly suggests that many citizens do not have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the ways that many democratic theorists require, and do not participate in anything like the numbers that they believe is necessary. This paper outlines some of the profound changes that have been experienced by liberal democratic states in the 20th and early 21st Centuries, changes which are still ongoing, and which have resulted in declines in citizens participation and trust, the marginalisation of citizens from democratic life, and the entrenchment of social and economic inequalities which have damaged democracy. The paper challenges the conventional wisdom in rejecting the idea that the future of democracy lies in encouraging more widespread participation. The paper takes seriously the failure of the strategies adopted by many states to increase participation, especially among the poor, and suggests that instead of requiring more of citizens, we should in fact be requiring less of them. Instead of seeking to encourage more citizen participation, we should acknowledge that citizens will probably not participate in the volume, or in the ways, many democratic theorists would like, and that therefore we need an alternative approach: a regime which can continue to produce democratic outcomes, and which satisfies the requirements of political equality, in the absence of widespread participation by citizens.     

Increasing Class Participation in College Classrooms with the Good Behavior Game

Participation in college classrooms remains low, despite evidence that increased participation contributes to better grades. Incorporating active student educational strategies may help combat poor participation. The Good Behavior Game is a tool for improving various behaviors of children and adolescents in schools. However, strategies similar to the Good Behavior Game have not yet been assessed with young adults in college classrooms. We used an alternating treatments design to evaluate effects of a modified version of the Good Behavior Game on participation across three introductory psychology courses at a public university. We collected baseline data on class participation and then compared two variations of the Good Behavior Game—one included delivering a preferred reward to individuals on the winning team and one did not include a reward. Incorporating components of the Good Behavior Game increased class participation with and without a preferred reward, relative to baseline. Students reported preferring the game with a reward relative to the game with no reward and not playing the game. Because class participation has been correlated with better course grades, incorporating features of the Good Behavior Game may be a feasible approach for improving college students’ education.     

Religious Engagement,Civic Skills,and Political Participation in Latin America

To what extent has the growth of Evangelicalism in Latin America contributed to political participation across the region? A number of scholars of religion and politics in the United States have suggested that Evangelicalism promotes the development of civic skills necessary for political engagement, while the Catholic Church, due to its hierarchical structure, provides fewer opportunities for skill acquisition. In this paper, we apply this debate to Latin America to test whether civic skills developed in Catholic and Protestant church activities lead to differential participation rates in 18 countries. We utilize the 2014 Pew Religion in Latin America survey to test these effects, and find that Protestant churches do indeed promote skill-developing activities at higher rates, but that Catholics, when involved, are more likely to translate this religious participation into political action. We conclude that political scientists must better understand the organizational role of religion in promoting political engagement worldwide.     

Poverty, stressful life events, and coping strategies

It was hypothesized that individuals of low socioeconomic status are exposed to a greater number of stressful events and therefore have a higher incidence of psychological disorders. However, the way they interpret, evaluate and cope with these stressful situations may either cause them to maintain, intensify or eliminate their overall stress. Past research indicates that the poorest individuals tend most frequently to falsely minimize or avoid stressful situations, which lowers the probability of resolving their problems. The objective of this study is to discover and compare the situations that have produced a high level of stress in subjects of three different socioeconomic groups over the last three months, as well as the strategies they used to cope, and their perceived effectiveness. The sample included 900 subjects of both sexes living in Mexico City. Among them, 346 were extremely poor, 260 were moderately poor and 312 were not poor. The results indicate that socioeconomic status is related to the frequency with which subjects report certain kinds of stressful situations. It was also found that non-poor subjects use problem-focused coping methods more than the other groups, while the poor use more emotionally-focused coping strategies, This article analyzes the strategies used by each group in each type of stressful situation reported.     

Parent Management of Attendance and Adherence in Child and Adolescent Therapy: A Conceptual and Empirical Review

There have been impressive, recent advances in the development of efficacious treatments for child and adolescent behavior problems. However, specific methods for delivering these treatments in a way that amplifies their efficacy have not been well articulated. Although many factors may be involved, attendance and adherence to treatment are arguably the most basic necessities for effective treatment delivery. We provide a conceptual and empirical review of past research on attendance and adherence to child and adolescent therapy, with a special focus on the importance of parents/guardians in managing treatment participation. Our review demonstrates that attendance and adherence are associated with a range of significant methodological, clinical, and financial outcomes. Several pretreatment predictors of attendance and adherence have been identified; however, to date only 12 controlled, clinical trials have evaluated strategies for enhancing attendance and adherence to child therapy. We conclude with an agenda for advancing research on the prediction and enhancement of attendance and adherence to child therapy as a means of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of child treatments.     

美国卫生保健的公正和分配问题

除了卫生保健服务的费用问题以外,美国社会中关于医疗卫生保健的比较严重的问题是服务的公平和分配问题,在美国无论是城市还是农村,在经济上处于弱势地位的人,在医疗上也处于不利地位,另一个由公平性问题影响的社会层面是;大量的美国人没有参加健康保险,他们中的大多数人是生活贫困的究人或接近于贫穷的人。此外,美国卫生保健提供体系在地理分布上是不均衡的,初级保健医生或家庭医生在医生中也没有充分的代表性,医生的矩缺不只限于农村,也扩展至城市的某些区域。     

Virtual cities as a tool for democratization in developing countries

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a specific kind of ICT-related urban initiatives: the role of virtual cities in improving democratic participation in cities of the developing world. The Internet’s global reach is producing an increasing presence of virtual cities in the developing world. And it may be precisely in this type of context where virtual cities can make a difference regarding democratization and participation. The examination of the virtual cities phenomenon in Lima, Peru, is useful to acknowledge some interesting urban trends and to point up some of the difficulties and potentials linked to the use of virtual cities as a democratization tool. She is involved in research on the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the contemporary city since 1997. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. research on ICT related transformations in Latin American metropolises.     

Proofreading errors in good and poor readers

Seven-year-old children classified as good and poor readers carried out a proofreading task on two passages varying in level of difficulty. Misspellings were introduced by transposing two adjacent letters in the work "the," other three-letter words, and longer words. While both groups of readers were able to identify the correct spelling of the misspelled words on a spelling test, poor readers made significantly more proofreading errors. Word length had a significant effect on performance, indicating that sensitivity to word configuration is important for successful proofreading. The pattern of proofreading errors did not reflect underlying differences which might relate to strategies used by the two groups in normal reading. The results are compared with those from other proofreading and letter detection experiments in order to highlight methodological implications when such tasks are used to verify hypotheses concerned with normal reading strategies.     

A Different Approach in Developing a Sexual Self-Concept Scale for Adolescents in Accra,Ghana

Adolescents residing in urban poor Accra face sexual and reproductive health challenges. Interventions to address them have not been entirely effective; thus, researching adolescents’ sexual self-concept (SSC) could strengthen our understanding of precursors to their sexual activity. For this study, a culturally appropriate scale is developed to measure the SSC of adolescents in urban poor Accra. Focus group discussions and content analysis generated items in the scale. Factor analyses techniques were used to develop sub-scales measuring different SSC dimensions. Three sub-scales, ‘sexual enthusiasm’, ‘sexual intrepidness’ and ‘sexual readiness’ were reliable SSC measures. Validity assessments found that sexually ready and enthusiastic youth were more likely to have engaged in coital, pre-coital and risky sexual behaviors. Also, as their sexual intrepidness and enthusiasm increased, adolescents had significantly worse mental health. These scales may provide an important step in understanding adolescent sexual behavior in the urban poor context and thus need further investigation.     

Insomniacs' reported use of CBT components and relationship to long-term clinical outcome.

Although there is considerable evidence for the efficacy of non-pharmacological treatment of insomnia, many of the larger trials have delivered CBT in multicomponent format. This makes it impossible to identify critical ingredients responsible for improvement. Furthermore, compliance with home implementation is difficult to ascertain in psychological therapies, and even more so when trying to differentiate across a range of elements. In the present report, 90 patients who had completed 12 month follow-up after participation in a clinical effectiveness study of CBT in general medical practice, responded to a questionnaire asking them about their use of the ten components of the programme. Reports of home use were then entered as predictors of clinical response to treatment. Results indicated that reported home use of stimulus control/sleep restriction was the best predictor of clinical improvement in sleep latency and nighttime wakefulness. Cognitive restructuring also contributed significantly to reduction in wakefulness. In spite of being the most highly endorsed component (by 79% of respondents) use of relaxation did not predict improvement on any variable. Similarly, sleep hygiene was unrelated to sleep pattern change and use of imagery training was modestly predictive of poor response in terms of sleep latency. There are methodological limitations to this type of post hoc analysis, nevertheless, these results being derived from a large patient outcome series raise important issues both for research and clinical practice.     

心理贫困：概念、表现及其干预

长期物质贫困产生特殊的心理后果——心理贫困。心理贫困指的是不利于贫困阶层摆脱贫困的心理与行为模式,主要表现为 “志向失灵”与“行为失灵”,即抱负与志向缺位,理念和意识扭曲,能力与行为方式错位,还易于做出不利于脱贫的决策行为;长此以往,就陷入“贫穷—特定心理与行为模式—继续贫穷”的恶性循环。对此,研究者们先后开发了有条件现金转移项目、减少认知资源损耗项目、“转移和坚持”心理干预策略、社会阶层流动信念干预策略、公平感提升策略等干预方案。该领域研究及其相关成果对“精准”扶贫,促进社会公平、增加人类福祉具有重要意义。未来研究应在整合的干预方案和本土化的干预方案等方面予以加强。     

心理贫困：概念、表现及其干预

长期物质贫困产生特殊的心理后果——心理贫困。心理贫困指的是不利于贫困阶层摆脱贫困的心理与行为模式,主要表现为 “志向失灵”与“行为失灵”,即抱负与志向缺位,理念和意识扭曲,能力与行为方式错位,还易于做出不利于脱贫的决策行为;长此以往,就陷入“贫穷—特定心理与行为模式—继续贫穷”的恶性循环。对此,研究者们先后开发了有条件现金转移项目、减少认知资源损耗项目、“转移和坚持”心理干预策略、社会阶层流动信念干预策略、公平感提升策略等干预方案。该领域研究及其相关成果对“精准”扶贫,促进社会公平、增加人类福祉具有重要意义。未来研究应在整合的干预方案和本土化的干预方案等方面予以加强。     

A Longitudinal Social Relations Analysis of Participation in Small Groups

Contrary to previous work in which task‐related judgments are hypothesized to predict participation in small groups, the current study assumes that participation is both an outcome of and an influence on judgments of task‐related ability. In this study, the association between task‐relevant judgments and participation was examined at two points in discussion. Results from a path analysis indicated that substantive participation during the first minute of discussion was positively related to task‐relevant judgments measured at the first‐minute time. In turn, those judgments were positively associated with subsequent substantive participation. Finally, substantive participation predicted judgments taken at discussion’s end. Nonsubstantive participation and judgments were not directly associated with each other. Discussion addresses theoretical and methodological issues raised by the findings.     

The Implication of Popper’s Anti-inductive Theory for the Development of Indigenous Psychologies

Echoing Kumar’s advocacy that psychologists should not ignore Popper, this article received the methodological strategies for attaining the epistemological goal of universal psychology or global psychology as suggested by previous indigenous psychologists and argued that it is impossible for them to attain this goal by the inductive method. The significant implications of Popper’s anti-inductive theory for solving this dilemma are emphasized for future progress of indigenous psychologies.     

The Scope of Political Participation

This article explores the differences in the factors that promote and inhibit political participation, both in the home countries and in Canada, of a group of Latin American immigrants. The reported findings emerge from interviews with 100 Latin American immigrants living in Toronto. Results suggest that while in their countries of origin the repression installed by military regimes was the main inhibitor of political participation in Canada, length of residence, negative previous political experiences, language skills, and discrimination hinder the political engagement of this group of immigrants.     

The Discursive Frames of Political Psychology

The aim of this article is to apply elements of contemporary social theory to the major theoretical, methodological, and ideological divisions across political psychology and to consider both the origins and the impact of a range of theories and models. In so doing, we clarify some of the complexity surrounding the discursive and cultural origins of political psychology. On the basis of this analysis, we aim to overcome the redundant binaries and dualisms—both conceptual and geo‐spatial—that have characterized the field up to now. These binary pairs relate to matters of epistemology, ideology, and methodology, and we show how each pair has been the basis of claims made regarding continental differences. As we shall see, such black‐and‐white thinking limits our capacity to understand the nature and potential of political psychology. Instead we wish to encourage a greater degree of universalism and globalism that is appropriate to political psychology as it evolves into a broader global discipline. We argue that political psychology as a field must attempt to deal with the consequences of an increasingly borderless world in which political identities are becoming more fluid, increasingly hybridized, and open to transformation.     

Reading in Arabic Orthography: The Effect of Vowels and Context on Reading Accuracy of Poor and Skilled Native Arabic Readers in Reading Paragraphs, Sentences, and Isolated Words

This study investigated the effect of vowels and context on the reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers in reading paragraphs, sentences, and words. Central to this study is the belief that reading theory today should consider additional variables, especially when explaining the reading process in Arabic orthography among poor and normal/skilled readers. This orthography has not been studied. Reading theory today is the sum of conclusions from studies conducted in Latin orthography. The subjects were 77 native Arabic speakers, 34 of them poor readers and 44 normal/skilled readers. The subjects had to read in Arabic 15 paragraphs, 60 sentences, and 210 words. There were three reading conditions: fully vowelized, partially vowelized, and unvowelized texts. The results showed that vowels and contexts were important variables to facilitate word recognition in poor and normal/skilled readers in Arabic orthography.