Immigrant adolescents behaving as culture brokers: a study of families from the former Soviet Union

In immigrant families, culture brokering (CB) occurs when children mediate the new culture for their family. The authors examined CB in Russian immigrant adolescent-mother dyads (N=226) to determine the types and amounts of CB that Russian adolescents performed, why adolescents assumed the CB role, and how the role affected adolescent and familial functioning. The present results indicated that most adolescents reported CB for their families (89%). Children of families that more recently arrived in the U.S., with mothers who were less American-language acculturated, culture brokered more. Higher levels of CB related to (a) higher adolescent stress and reports of problems at home and with friends and (b) lower feelings of school membership. Parent-reported problems at home did not relate to CB. The authors discussed implications for future research on the role of the child as culture broker.     

Community Violence as It Affects Child Development: Issues of Definition

The state of the art of definition of community violence as it relates to child development was examined in terms of the definitions used in 23 empirical studies. In all cases community violence was defined in terms of what were assumed to be measurements obtained as linear combinations of a priori numerical weighting of responses to questions--asked either of a child or of the parent of a child--about experiencing and/or witnessing and/or hearing about instances of violence. Thus, the definitions can be seen to represent the perspectives of 2 kinds of observers--the child or the child's parent--and 3 levels of closeness to violence--experiencing, witnessing, or hearing about violence. Combining these perspectives and levels, the following 8 different definitions could be seen to be used in the practice of 1 or more of the 23 empirical studies: Child Self-Report (perception) of either (1) experiencing, or (2) witnessing, or (3) experiencing and witnessing, and hearing about violence; or Parent Report (perception) of the Child (4) experiencing, or (5) witnessing, or (6) experiencing and witnessing and hearing about violence, or (7) = (1) + (4), or (8) = (3) + (6). In almost all the examples of research definitions it was assumed implicitly and without test of the assumption that different violent events were interchangeable, and usually it was assumed (again without test) that the magnitudes of different violence events were equal. Usually, an unstated theory of stress appeared to guide the measurement definition, but in one study definitions were developed and tested in terms of a clearly-stated theory of learning. It was concluded that definition of community violence is a measurement problem; that very likely it is multidimensional; that it could be more nearly solved if better attention were given to specifying it in terms of theory that can be put to test and by attending to basic assumptions and principles of measurement.     

Natural experiments and the educational context: The environment and effects of an alternative inner-city public school on adolescents

The 1-year impact of attending a public alternative high school on two cohorts of adolescents who gained entrance to the school through a lottery was studied. Adolescents who had applied to the school but were not selected in the lottery served as a control group. The nature of the alternative high school environment is described, and the outcome of this natural experiment defined in terms of reactions to school, attitude change, and student achievement. In general, the alternative school positively affected student satisfaction with a variety of aspects of school life and induced some positive change in interracial attitudes while not harming student achievement. Race effects were found in the areas of achievement and interracial attitudes. Implications for the study of natural experiments in general and the specific data in particular are drawn.     

Acculturative hassles and immigrant adolescents: a life-domain assessment for Soviet Jewish refugees

In a sample of 146 adolescents, the authors developed and validated a measure of acculturative hassles for Soviet Jewish refugees. They based the measure on an ecological perspective, which focuses on hassles involving person-environment transactions occurring in life domains of school, family, peers, and language. The authors reviewed conceptual and methodological issues in existing instruments and incorporated efforts to address current limitations into instrument development. The measure was correlated with psychological distress, level of acculturation to Russian and U.S. cultures, and outcomes in life domains; it contributed to outcomes over and above effects of nonacculturative hassles. Implications for measurement of acculturative hassles are discussed.     

The interaction of cognitive styles and classroom environment in determining first-graders' behavior

This study investigates the importance of two “person” variables, reflection impulsivity and divergent thinking, and one “situation” variable, the classroom climate of first-grade classrooms, for the classroom adaptation of first-graders. Three types of classrooms differing in classroom climate were selected: open, intermediate, and traditional. Subjects were the children (n = 189) in these classrooms. Classroom adaptation variables included self concept, school attendance, and teacher ratings of classroom behavior, overall academic rank, and personal preference. Both main effect and interactional relationships between “person” and “situation” variables and classroom adaptation were hypothesized. Classroom environment was found to affect degree of classroom disturbance manifested by the children with students in open classrooms exhibiting most and students in the intermediate classrooms exhibiting least. Boys in the open classrooms had higher achievement anxiety and lower teacher preference ratings than boys in traditional or intermediate classrooms. Reflective children obtained higher ratings as self-reliant learners and, for boys, reflection was related to low classroom disturbance and high achievement anxiety. Interactional relationships between classroom environment and reflection-impulsivity were also found for boys. Divergent thinking was not related to classroom adjustment for boys. Girls high in divergent thinking were higher in school involvement and achievement anxiety and more preferred by teachers.     

Toward a framework for defining and resolving ethical issues in the protection of communities involved in primary prevention projects

Ethical issues flow from and are embedded in contexts of practice. Contexts of practice refer to the diverse social settings where interventions occur. Primary prevention activities require new professional roles in these diverse social settings. These new roles engage the professional in new activities, which in turn allow new ethical issues to arise. This article takes an ecological perspective on ethical issues arising from the enactment of new preventive roles intended to affect groups or communities. Within this perspective, the concepts of context and culture take on special conceptual significance. Four ecological assumptions about preventive interventions intended to affect groups or communities are offered as a means of framing ethical issues in such interventions. Finally, several approaches to developing ecological knowledge about the contexts of practice are presented as ways of furthering our ability to conceptualize and cope with ethical issues in preventive interventions intended to affect groups or communities.