Growing up Poor: The Family Experiences of Socially Mobile Youth in Low-Income African American Neighborhoods

Jarrett, Robin L.

doi:10.1177/0743554895101007

Cited by 179 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…About half of the MTO parents who were aware of the school choices available to them spoke to us about taking extra steps to find schools that were not only safe but academically promising in these other ways. In addition, as researchers have found for other low-income parents who seek to protect and enrich their children despite risks at school and in the neighborhood (Furstenberg et al 1999;Jarrett 1995), a small number of achievement-oriented MTO parents also supplemented their safety-first school choices with special arrangements.…”

Section: Counterexamples: Seeking Out Academically Promising Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why did the moving to opportunity experiment not get young people into better schools?

Briggs

Ferryman

Popkin

et al. 2008

Housing Policy Debate

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Educational failure is one of the costliest and most visible problems associated with ghetto poverty. We explore whether housing assistance that helps low-income families move to better neighborhoods can also improve access to good schools. Research on the Gautreaux housing desegregation program indicated significant, long-term educational benefits, yet results from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment showed no measurable impacts on school outcomes for the experimental group. We use interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to explore this puzzle.Most MTO families did not relocate to communities with substantially better schools, and those who did often moved again after a few years. Where parents had meaningful school choices, these were typically driven by poor information obtained from insular social networks or by cultural logic centered on avoiding ghetto-type school insecurity and disorder, not garnering academic opportunity. Those factors may not shift if poor families with less educated parents are served by a relocation-only strategy.

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Section: Counterexamples: Seeking Out Academically Promising Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why did the moving to opportunity experiment not get young people into better schools?

Briggs

Ferryman

Popkin

et al. 2008

Housing Policy Debate

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“…For example, middle-class and upper-middle-class mothers grant more autonomy and equality, are less restrictive and punitive, and are more permissive and child-centered than working-class and working poor mothers (cf. HoffGinsberg and Tardiff, 1995;Jarrett, 1995Jarrett, , 1999. These comparisons should not be viewed as pointing to deficits, but should instead be viewed as evidence in the importance of context.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploratory Study of Youth Mentoring in an Urban Context: Adolescents' Perceptions of Relationship Styles

Langhout

Rhodes

Osborne

2004

Journal of Youth and Adolescence

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The goal of this study was to empirically distinguish a range of mentor relationships and to evaluate their differential influence on adolescent outcomes. The study makes use of data that were collected as part of a national evaluation of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. The evaluation included 1138 youth, ranging in age from 10 through 16 (M = 12.25), who were assigned randomly to either a mentoring relationship or a control group and followed for 18 months. A series of analyses, based on the matched youth's accounts of the relationships, suggested 4 distinct types of relationships (i.e., moderate, unconditionally supportive, active, and low-key). The 4 groups tended to distinguish themselves from one another on the basis of perceived support, structure, and activity. Relative to the controls, youth who characterized their mentor relationships as providing moderate levels of both activity and structure and conditional support derived the largest number of benefits from the relationships. These included improvements in social, psychological, and academic outcomes. Implications of the findings for research and intervention are discussed.KEY WORDS: youth mentoring; mentoring relationship styles.Volunteer mentoring programs have been advocated increasingly in such diverse areas as welfare reform, education, violence prevention, school-to-work transition, and national service (Freedman, 1993;Rhodes, 2002). Approximately 2.5 million youth are involved in mentoring programs, including more than 10,000 matches in Big Brothers/Big Sisters nationwide (Rhodes, 2002).

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“…Yet, there is little information regarding the strategies that urban African American youth use to negotiate these risk situations (Kirby, Barth, Leland, & Fetro, 1991). Further, although there is some evidence that African American parents adapt their parenting strategies and rely on social support networks to buffer youth from peer pressure and negative urban contextual factors (see Jarrett, 1995 for examples), additional research is needed to understand the mechanisms via which preadolescents develop the necessary skills to manage risk opportunities and protect themselves from potential harm.…”

Section: Risks Encountered By Urban African American Youth: Obstaclesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban African American Pre-Adolescent Social Problem Solving Skills

Traube

Chasse

McKay

et al. 2007

Social Work in Mental Health

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SUMMARYThe results of two studies focusing on the social problem solving skills of African American preadolescent youth are detailed. In the first study data from a sample of 150 African American children, ages 9 to 11 years, was used to examine the association between type of youth social problem solving approaches applied to hypothetical risk situations and time spent in unsupervised peer situations of sexual possibility. Findings revealed that children with more exposure to sexual possibility situations generated a wider range of social problem solving strategies, but these approaches tended to be unrealistic and ambiguous. Further, there was a positive association between the amount of time spent unsupervised and youth difficulty formulating a definitive response to hypothetical peer pressure situations. Children with less exposure to sexual possibility situations tended to be more aggressive when approaching situations of peer pressure. In the second study, data from a non-overlapping sample of 164 urban, African American adult caregivers and their 9 to 11 year old children was examined in order to explore the associations between child gender, familylevel factors including family communication frequency and intensity, time spent in situations of sexual possibility, and youth social problem solving approaches. Results revealed that children were frequently using constructive problem solving and help seeking behaviors when confronted by Control, 2001Control, , 2000. This may be due to the compounding effects of residing in poor, inner-city neighborhoods with higher rates of infection, significant psychosocial stressors associated with poverty, community violence, scarcity of youthsupportive resources, and limited access to health-focused preventive and treatment resources (Sikkema, Brondino, Anderson et al., 2004;Paikoff, 1995;Rotheram-Borus, Mahler & Rosario, 1995;Wilson, 1987). It is against this backdrop that youth development, particularly the transition to adolescence occurs. Cognitive changes and emotional responses, as well as the onset of puberty and early involvement in sexual activity, all take place within an urban context posing numerous threats to youth health and safety (Bell & Jenkins, 1993;Atkins et al., 1998). Given high prevalence rates of HIV infection, youth who begin sexual activity during early adolescence may be at significantly higher risk for HIV exposure as early sexual involvement has been linked with more frequent sexual encounters, as well as more frequent partners and less contraception use (Moore & Rosenthal, 1993; The Alan Gutacher Institute, 1994;Paikoff, 1995;Goldman & Goldman, 1988;Hutchinson & Cooney, 1998;). NIH Public AccessThus, research is needed to understand factors that contribute to the early initiation of sexual activity in order to inform youth-focused HIV prevention programs. There is a particular need to examine the social context of sexual behavior during early adolescence (Jemmott & Jemmott, 1992;Jemmott, Jemmott & Fong, 1992;Paikoff, 1995;Parfenoff, McCor...

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Growing up Poor: The Family Experiences of Socially Mobile Youth in Low-Income African American Neighborhoods

Cited by 179 publications

References 14 publications

Why did the moving to opportunity experiment not get young people into better schools?

Why did the moving to opportunity experiment not get young people into better schools?

An Exploratory Study of Youth Mentoring in an Urban Context: Adolescents' Perceptions of Relationship Styles

Urban African American Pre-Adolescent Social Problem Solving Skills

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