Psychological Empowerment Among Urban Youth: Measurement Model and Associations with Youth Outcomes

Empowerment‐based strategies have become widely used method to address health inequities and promote social change. Few researchers, however, have tested theoretical models of empowerment, including multidimensional, higher‐order models. We test empirically a multidimensional, higher‐order model of psychological empowerment (PE), guided by Zimmerman's conceptual framework including three components of PE: intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral. We also investigate if PE is associated with positive and negative outcomes among youth. The sample included 367 middle school youth aged 11–16 (M = 12.71; SD = 0.91); 60% female, 32% (n = 117) white youth, 46% (n = 170) African‐American youth, and 22% (n = 80) identifying as mixed race, Asian‐American, Latino, Native American, or other ethnic/racial group; schools reported 61–75% free/reduced lunch students. Our results indicated that each of the latent factors for the three PE components demonstrate a good fit with the data. Our results also indicated that these components loaded on to a higher‐order PE factor (X² = 32.68; df: 22; p = .07; RMSEA: 0.04; 95% CI: .00, .06; CFI: 0.99). We found that the second‐order PE factor was negatively associated with aggressive behavior and positively associated with prosocial engagement. Our results suggest that empowerment‐focused programs would benefit from incorporating components addressing how youth think about themselves in relation to their social contexts (intrapersonal), understanding social and material resources needed to achieve specific goals (interactional), and actions taken to influence outcomes (behavioral). Our results also suggest that integrating the three components and promoting PE may help increase likelihood of positive behaviors (e.g., prosocial involvement); we did not find an association between PE and aggressive behavior. Implications and future directions for empowerment research are discussed.     

The Value of Lakota Traditional Healing for Youth Resiliency and Family Functioning

This article reports research findings on the impact of Oglala Lakota Sioux traditional healing on family functioning and youth resiliency where trauma, abuse, or violence are often present. Caregivers of Lakota youth struggling with serious emotional and behavioral problems participated in the study. The study included both quantitative and qualitative samples: 27 families for the quantitative sample and 8 families for the qualitative sample. Results from caregivers revealed that traditional healing and cultural practices, as well as the promotion of cultural identity, had statistically significant positive effects on the perceived familial and individual functioning of Lakota youth and their families. Effect sizes indicate that the results have strong practical significance.     

Families with adolescents: escaping problem lifestyles.

Using the concepts of "restraints" and reciprocal patterns, a specific approach for understanding and working with families of adolescents is offered. The organizing idea is the "restraint" that revolves around a difficulty both parents and youngsters have in making a distinction between what parents want for their youngsters and what the young person might want. This difficulty may come from the parents' ideas and beliefs about parenting and from their own growing-up experience, from the adolescent's "not completely storied" lives, and/or from societal discourse about adolescence. Restraint of ideas can be constructed as reciprocal patterns and located in dominant narratives that families may have about themselves. A restorying process allows families to separate from the problem pattern and focus on the youngsters' willingness to have ideas for themselves.     

FLEXIBILITY IN SPATIAL ATTENTION BEFORE AND AFTER PRACTICE

Abstract— These experiments used spatial probes to measure how spatial attention is allocated across the visual field during search for a target letter in an eight-letter array. There were three main findings. Attentional strength is flexibly adjusted according to the confusability between target and distractors. Distractor locations near the target receive more inhibition than those farther from the target, indicating that the nearby distractors interfere more with target identification. Despite the fact that consistent practice improves search rate it does not diminish the strength of spatial attention in this task.     

The development of a measure of enculturation for Native American youth

Enculturation is the process by which individuals learn about and identify with their ethnic minority culture. It is distinguished from acculturation which refers to the process by which an ethnic minority individual is assimilated into the majority culture. Three studies with Native American youths are reported that describe the development of a measure of enculturation for Native American youths. Development of a measure of enculturation provides a foundation upon which to build a body of literature that focuses on strengths in a youth's life rather than on deficits. Results of the first study (n=120), a confirmatory factor analysis, indicated that cultural affinity, Native American identity, and family involvement in traditional activities adequately represent the construct of enculturation. The study also provides some convergent validity for this interpretation. The second study examines factor invariance for enculturation among youths with data from over 2 years (n=69). The factor structure was similar across time. The third study replicates the factor structure and validity analyses with a new sample (n=42). Usefulness of the measure for assessing protective factors and stressing ethnicity over simple assessment of race categories is discussed. We would like to thank the Tribe that participated in this study and especially the youth and their parents who agreed to participate. We would also like to thank the Tribal staff youth workers who helped us on many aspects of the study. This research was supported by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Grant No. 1 H86 SPO1835-01A1 to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa/Chippewa Indians. Benjamin Walter and Kathleen Washienko were research assistants on the project during data collection at Time 1. Sandra Dyer was the Director for the project upon which this study is based at the time of data collection.     

A comparison of binary and rating techniques in the signal detection analysis of recognition memory

Forty-eight subjects were run on a recognition memory task employing low, medium, or high meaningfulness (m) CVC items and utilizing either a binary (yes—no) or rating response technique. Significant differences were obtained between levels of m with higher m items resulting in larger d' values. The interaction term was also significant reflecting a large difference between the binary-rating techniques with high meaningfulness items. The results indicate that the binary and rating techniques do not reveal identical findings in the analysis of recognition memory data and that the frequent use of the rating technique by researchers in the analysis of memory data may not be appropriate.     

A device for inverting the visual field of animals

A device for inverting the visual field of small animals is described. Binocular lenses are mounted in a lightweight, aluminum frame which, in turn, is secured to a surgically attached, dental acrylic skull cap. The construction of the device, and its usefulness when simultaneous electrophysiological recordings are desired, is described by illustrating the details of fabricating such a device for a cat.     

Behavioral Changes Associated with the Menstrual Cycle: An Experimental Investigation1

Fourteen female subjects were tested during the menstrual (days 1–4), follicular (days 6–12), luteal (days 17–21), and premenstrual (days 23–27) phases of their menstrual cycles. Of the tests used (arm-hand steadiness, galvanic skin response to an auditory stimulus, reaction time - simple and choice, time estimation, and digit-symbol substitution), only arm-hand steadiness showed statistically significant fluctuations over the course of the cycle. Daily self-ratings of various symptoms and moods showed no significant changes when the appropriate statistical techniques were used; parametric techniques suggested fluctuations in reports of pain, bloatedness, hunger, hours of sleep, and pressure of immediate academic work.     

The theory of test validity and correlated errors of measurement

In the theory of test validity it is assumed that error scores on two distinct tests, a predictor and a criterion, are uncorrelated. The expected-value concept of true score in the calssical test-theory model as formulated by Lord and Novick, Guttman, and others, implies mathematically, without further assumptions, that true scores and error scores are uncorrelated. This concept does not imply, however, that error scores on two arbitrary tests are uncorrelated, and an additional axiom of “experimental independence” is needed in order to obtain familiar results in the theory of test validity. The formulas derived in the present paper do not depend on this assumption and can be applied to all test scores. These more general formulas reveal some unexpected and anomalous properties of test validty and have implications for the interpretation of validity coefficients in practice. Under some conditions there is no attenuation produced by error of measurement, and the correlation between observed scores sometimes can exceed the correlation between true scores, so that the usual correction for attenuation may be inappropriate and misleading. Observed scores on two tests can be positively correlated even when true scores are negatively correlated, and the validity coefficient can exceed the index of reliability. In some cases of practical interest, the validity coefficient will decrease with increase in test length. These anomalies sometimes occur even when the correlation between error scores is quite small, and their magnitude is inversely related to test reliability. The elimination of correlated errors in practice will not enhance a test's predictive value, but will restore the properties of the validity coefficient that are familiar in the classical theory.