This study examines the role of acculturation, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem in predicting the mental health symptoms and risk behaviors among 1.5 and second generation non-Jewish adolescents born to migrant families compared with native-born Jewish Israeli adolescents in Israel. Participants included n = 65 1.5 migrant adolescents, n = 60 second generation migrant adolescents, and n = 146 age, gender, and socioeconomic matched sample of native-born Jewish Israelis. Participants completed measures of acculturation pattern, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem as well as measures of mental health symptoms and risk behaviors. Results show that migrant adolescents across generations reported worse mental health symptoms compared with native-born Jewish Israelis. However, only the 1.5 generation migrants reported higher engagement in risk behaviors compared with second generation migrants and native-born Jewish Israelis. Our findings further showed that acculturation plays an important role in predicting the mental health status of migrant youth, with those characterized with integrated acculturative pattern reporting lower mental health symptoms compared with assimilated acculturation pattern. Importantly, contextual factors, such as higher perception of discrimination in the receiving culture as well as individual factors such as lower self-esteem and female gender were strongly associated with worse mental health symptoms. The findings manifest the complex relationship between contextual factors and individual level variables in the acculturative process of migrants as well as the importance of examining the effect of migration generation on mental health outcomes.

This study aimed to explore the role of school engagement and the mediation effect of acculturation in predicting 1.5 and second-generation migrant adolescents' mental health and risk behaviors. Participants included 448 seventh to tenth grade Israeli students (mean age 14.50, 53% boys): 128 non-Jewish 1.5 generation migrant adolescents (children of migrants living in Israel), 118 second-generation migrants (children of migrants born and living in Israel), and an age-matched sample of 202 native-born Jewish adolescents. All participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing mental health symptoms, engagement in risk behaviors, social adjustment, and school engagement. Both migrant adolescent groups also completed an acculturation questionnaire. Differences between groups in school engagement, mental health symptoms, and risk behavior were examined, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the hypothesized mediating effect of acculturation. Findings revealed substantially higher levels of mental health symptoms (p < .001) and risk behaviors (p = .001) among 1.5 and second-generation migrant adolescents compared with native-born adolescents, with no significant differences between 1.5 generation and second-generation migrants. Migrants' age and gender were associated with mental health symptoms and risk behaviors-older participants engaged in more risk behaviors (p = .02), and females had elevated mental health symptoms (p = .007). Identification with the host country mediated the relationships between school engagement and mental health symptoms (ps .006 and .008) and risk behaviors (ps .001 and .004) in 1.5 generation and second-generation migrants, respectively. The results are discussed in reference to current theories and research, as well as practical implications for prevention and intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record

In this article, we explore how foreign workers’ presence is redefining the identity borders of Israeli society and the challenges posed to Israeliness by the inclusion of first, 1.5 and second generation foreign workers in the Israeli polity. We explore how these migrants perceive life in Israel, their own and their children‘s identities, prospects for incorporation and permanence and intersections between Israeliness and Jewishness. To inform our analysis, we conducted interviews in winter 2010 with 22 foreign workers who are first generation; about half are parents of children in Israel. Our analysis reveals that foreign workers seek acceptance into the Israeli polity, especially for their children who have been socialized into Israeli life and that their potential inclusion has real implications for the understanding of what it means to be Israeli.

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Governments write us into being by compelling the public to fill in tiny boxes on forms revealing our most private information. These personal details become matters of public record. What if students thought about how writing in public administration shapes us? In the spring of 2015, my Public Administration class joined with New York City Historic Houses Trust and its LatimerNOW project a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the New York City Parks department whose goal is to reimagine the use of historic house museums, Louis Latimer House and Writing On It All (a participatory art not-for-profit exploring space and identity through writing) to learn public administration through participation in a public participatory art project. The immediate goal was for the students to use public administration theory to design, implement, participate and evaluate a one-day project. The hope was to offer a chance to practice on a real project in a safe space so that they could later use the skills once they were employed in public administration (and the stakes were higher). I engaged reflective practice to get them to move from theory to practical application, forcing them to defend and make explicit their administrative choices, thus offering a common vocabulary for critical conversations about the process and the results. In this article, I describe the experience and critically evaluate how reflective practice can add to the teaching and learning of public administration.