Youth Cognitive Empowerment: Development and Evaluation of an Instrument

Psychological empowerment (PE) is a multicomponent construct that involves the mechanisms through which people and groups gain control over their lives and environments. Psychological empowerment has previously been operationalized using measures of sociopolitical control among young people, with findings indicating links between PE and other positive developmental outcomes. Sociopolitical control, however, is only an indicator for the emotional component of PE. Research has largely neglected the cognitive component of PE, particularly in studies of younger people. In fact, few studies to date have presented and empirically tested measurement instruments for the cognitive component of PE among youth. In this study, we adapted a measure, which previously had been validated and used among adults, for use among young people and tested it in a sample of high school students (53% female, 75% Hispanic) in an urban school in the northeastern U.S. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the hypothesized three‐factor structure of cognitive empowerment, and the measure was examined for association with the construct of social justice orientation. Results indicate an adequate fit for the second‐order factor, and an expected relationship with the related construct.     

The Bible, the Empire and the Other

Book reviewed in this article:
R. S. Sugirtharajah, The Bible in the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters     

Life Stress and Major Depression

ABSTRACT— People have long believed that adversity and stress contribute to emotional problems in general and to depression in particular. A considerable body of research has supported this intuition, documenting a consistent association between major stressful life events and the onset of clinical depression. However, most individuals under stress do not become depressed, sometimes depression develops without prior stress, and distinguishing psychological distress from major depression can be diagnostically challenging. In varying forms and degrees, life stress may play multiple roles in relation to major depression. In this article, we outline the opportunities and obstacles associated with conceptualizing depression from a life-stress perspective and discuss the implications for future research.     

Surveys and Data Sources on Gay Men’s Lifestyles and Socio-Sexual Behavior: Some Key Concerns and Issues

This paper explores and reflects upon the body of relevant social science data sources containing insights into gay male socio-sexual lifestyles. Considerable deficiencies seem to feature in this regard with respect to coverage, consistency, content and usability. The various reasons for collecting data on gay male lifestyles are considered and thought given as to some particular strengths and weaknesses. Examples of datasets and surveys are used in this light to potentially inform future developments and a critical perspective on their usage.

Minority Youth, Crime, Conflict, and Belonging in Australia

In recent decades, the size and diversity of the minority population of contemporary western societies has increased significantly. To the critics of immigration, minority youth have been increasingly linked to crime, criminal gangs, anti-social behaviour, and riots. In this article, we draw on fieldwork conducted in Sydney, Australia’s largest and most ethnically diverse city, to probe aspects of the criminality, anti-social behaviour, national identity, and belonging of ethnic minority youth in Australia. We conclude that the evidence on minority youth criminality is weak and that the panic about immigrant youth crime and immigrant youth gangs is disproportionate to the reality, drawing on and in turn creating racist stereotypes, particularly with youth of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’. A review of the events leading up to the Sydney Cronulla Beach riots of December 2005 suggests that the underlying cause of the riots were many years of international, national, and local anti-Arab, anti-Muslim media discourse, and political opportunism, embedded in changing but persistent racist attitudes and practises. Our argument is that such inter-ethnic conflict between minority and majority youth in Sydney is the exception, not the rule. Finally, we draw on a hitherto unpublished survey of youth in Sydney to explore issues of national identity and belonging among young people of diverse ethnic and religious background. We conclude that minority youth in Sydney do not live ‘parallel lives’ but contradictory, inter-connected cosmopolitan lives. They are connected to family and local place, have inter-ethnic friendships but are often disconnected to the nation and the flag.     

The development and validation of the pictorial motivation scale in physical activity

The purpose of the present research was to report the validation of the pictorial motivation scale in English. This scale is designed for adolescents and adults with an intellectual disability who are unable to independently read a questionnaire. The scale has a picture and phrase depicting 16 items related to participation in sport and physical activity; four for each of the following subscales, intrinsic motivation, self-determined extrinsic motivation, non self-determined extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. Phase 1 of the research describes the formal translation of the scale from French to English. Results from three studies conducted with Special Olympians (Phase 2) and adolescents in a special school (Phases 3 and 4) provided support for the internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and factorial and construct validity of the scale. Overall, the scale would appear to be sufficiently reliable and valid to warrant its continued use and further development.

A Critical Test of Self‐Enhancement,Exposure, and Self‐Categorization Explanations for First‐ and Third‐Person Perceptions

The third‐person perception is the tendency for people to believe that others are more influenced by media content than themselves (W. P. Davison, 1983 ). The current study provides a critical test of self‐enhancement, exposure, and self‐categorization explanations for first‐ (i.e., self more influenced than others) and third‐person perceptions. Male and female participants (N = 323) judged the extent to which pornography elicited“aroused and excited” (i.e., male normative) versus“repulsed and offended” (i.e., female normative) reactions in themselves relative to average men and women. Men perceived an average woman to be more repulsed and offended by pornography than themselves, and women perceived an average man to be more aroused and excited than themselves (i.e., large third‐person perceptions). Further, men perceived themselves to be more aroused and excited by pornography than an average woman (independent of the degree to which pornography was judged as antisocial), and women perceived themselves to be more repulsed and offended than an average man (i.e., large first‐person perceptions). There were relatively small effects for same sex comparisons independent of norm. The pattern and magnitude of first‐ and third‐person perceptions are consistent with self‐categorization theory, irreconcilable with the exposure hypothesis, and difficult to reconcile with the self‐enhancement explanation.