An empirical test of five prominent explanations for the black–white academic performance gap

The viability of five prominent explanations for the black–white performance gap (“academic engagement,” “cultural capital,” “social capital,” “school quality” and “biased treatment”) is examined using NELS data and a LISREL model that adjusts for clustering of students within schools. Empirical models have typically assessed these factors individually—a practice that probably fosters overestimation of their explanatory power. School quality and biased treatment emerge as the primary explanations for black–white high school test performance differentials. Access to better-quality schools and receipt of more stimulating interpersonal “signals” from gatekeepers ensue from racial (and socioeconomic) privilege. Enhanced test performance in turn ensues from these resources. In essence, the explanations for the racial gap that place more emphasis on what black and white students “bring to” high school (i.e., specific levels of engagement, cultural and social capital), seem less consequential to performance differentials than “what happens to” them when they get there (i.e., quality of education provided, and race-contingent treatment received).     

Children's memory of events: effects of stress,age, time delay and location of interview

To examine the ability of children aged between 4 and 12 years to recall a stressful event (venipuncture) compared with a non-stressful event (demonstration of venipuncture), recall was tested after 6–8 weeks. Half also had recall tested after 2–7 days. Testing took place where the stressful event occurred (n=122) or at a neutral location (n=127). Children who experienced the stressful event were less likely to give inaccurate responses in free recall or to acquiesce to suggestive misleading questions. Apart from incorrect responses in free recall, correct responses increased and incorrect responses decreased with increasing age. Recall after 2–7 days was superior to recall after 6–8 weeks. Those who had an early and a late interview had better recall at the late interview than those who had a late interview only. The location of interview showed no effects on recall. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhanced Religiosity Following Illness? Assessing Evidence of Religious Consolation Among Black and White Americans

This study assesses variation among Black and White Americans in the impact of ill-health on public and subjective religiosity. It is the first longitudinal assessment of race-based variation in “religious consolation.” The under-explored consolation thesis anticipates ill-health influencing religiosity rather than the reverse, with religiosity functioning as a coping resource marshaled by the ill. Effects across races of physical ill-health indicators (chronic illnesses and impaired functioning) on religiosity outcomes are the main focus; but across-race variation in psychological distress-induced “consolation” is also assessed. Findings yield only limited evidence of consolation in each race, and restricted variation across races: Change in impaired functioning slightly enhances Whites’ subjective religiosity; but that effect does not significantly eclipse the impact among Blacks. There is no evidence of physical illness-induced consolation among Blacks; and the proposition that Blacks are more inclined toward consolation than Whites is affirmed only for psychological distress. There are no signs in either race that consolation is intensified by aging or higher religiosity, and no significant across-race differentials in effects of these illness-age and illness-religiosity interactions on subsequent religiosity. The multi-population model utilizes Americans’ Changing Lives data.