Objective: To identify subgroups of urban youth based on their self- and teacher-reported mental health symptoms, and to explore characteristics of these subgroups. Methods: Cross-sectional data from 426 eighth-grade students (M[subscript age] = 13.22 years; 70.1% Black/ African American; 58.7% female) across 20 Baltimore City public schools were…

Despite increasing interest in improving academic outcomes for students by enhancing mindfulness, there is a paucity of evidence that greater mindfulness is associated with success in school. We measured mindfulness with the short-form Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in over 2,000 urban students in Grades 5-8. The MAAS had good internal…

Introduction: Youth in disadvantaged urban areas are frequently exposed to chronic stress and trauma, including housing instability, neighborhood violence, and other poverty-related adversities. These exposures increase risk for emotional, behavioral, and academic problems and ultimately, school dropout. Schools are a promising setting in which to…

Abstract Masculinity ideology is argued to be associated with academic outcomes. However, relatively few studies have examined these associations. This study examines the associations between masculinity ideology and academic skepticism, self-presentation of low achievement, academic engagement, academic initiative, and self-regulation, above and…

Purpose: This paper highlights the fluidity with which youth make decisions about engaging with digital technologies including online social media. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities that literacy curriculum that centers digital technologies can have for students from immigrant communities through tracing the…

Mobile serious educational games (SEGs) show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement. Researchers have quantified this engagement according to flow theory. This study investigated whether a mobile SEG promotes flow experience and scientific practices with eighth-grade urban students. Students playing the game (n = 59) were…

Background: Youth of color from low-income urban communities are crucial participants in research, as their involvement can shape effective, culturally responsive interventions and policy to promote youth health and well-being. These young people, however, are an often-neglected research population, due in part to perceived challenges associated…

In the 21st century, adolescent girls use the power of the pen (and digital literacies) for the purpose of self-expression, personal enrichment, and academic requirements. This study examines in-depth the types of writing/literacies that girls participate in school and out-of-school. The results of this study indicate that, despite the extensive…

The present study examined the extent to which parent involvement in education was directly and indirectly (via school engagement) related to academic outcomes in an effort to more fully understand the school experiences of urban adolescents. Participants (80% racial/ethnic minority; n = 108) were in grades 6, 7 or 8. In the Fall and subsequent…

Academic cheating within the middle grades has become a prevalent schooling dilemma for teachers and administrators. Among the various contextual and cognitive factors that promote academic cheating is home-school dissonance, which has been shown to predict the phenomenon among high school students. The current study extends this line of research…

This research explored the career beliefs of inner-city adolescents (N = 97). Results identified six types of beliefs: success is related to effort, job satisfaction, work interest and liking, flexibility/adaptability, achievement and persistence, and toleration of uncertainty. A majority of these young people believed that their success was not…

Considerable evidence shows the detriments of neighborhood social disorganization for urban youth. Researchers have focused less on potential neighborhood strengths or on the interplay of neighborhood perceptions and objective neighborhood characteristics. The authors examined the presence and perception of positive and negative neighborhood…

Background: Insufficient physical activity among urban youth increases risk of chronic disease.Purpose:This study assessed reported physical activity to determine when disparities in participation emerge and what ecologically guided factors are linked with high activity. Methods:We administered a cross-sectional survey to a diverse sample of 321…

This study explored relations between culturally relevant stressors (i.e., urban hassles, perceived discrimination) and subjective well-being (SWB; i.e., positive/ negative affect, life satisfaction) to examine whether ethnic identity and/or coping strategies would serve as moderators of the relations between stress and SWB for 157 urban, ethnic…

Considerable research has documented associations between adverse life events and internalizing symptoms in adolescents, but much of this research has focused on the number of events experienced, with less attention to the ecological context or timing of events. This study examined life events in three ecological domains relevant to adolescents…