Using a sociopolitical perspective to understand the alignment of community values and school policies, we conducted focus groups in three geographically close but economically varied neighborhood in one Midwest urban area. The article presents findings related to constituent values, social capital, and school policies, including charter school…

This report adds to the growing body of research as it examines economic mobility across 96 U.S. metropolitan areas and the role of place in Americans' prospects of moving up or down the economic ladder. It also offers insight on why and how location matters. Although a host of factors, such as state and local policies and labor market conditions,…

In a representative sample of the Italian population (N=2,002), surveyed in January 2008, we studied the direct and interactive effects exerted on fear of crime by direct and indirect victimization, on the one hand, and perceived level of disorder of participants' community, on the other hand. Indirect victimization fostered fear of crime among…

Puerto Rican author Luis Rafael Sanchez's "La guagua aerea" explores the duality, hybridity, and fluidity of US-Puerto Rican identity through the frequent travel of migrants between New York City (the traditional destination city for Puerto Rican migrants) and the island. In recent years, however, the "flying bus" has adopted a…

In a sample of urban youth (N = 1,070), we examined the links between primary caregiver affect (i.e., warmth and hostility) and two measures of sexual behavior in adolescence--early sexual initiation and sex with multiple partners. We also examined the extent to which neighborhood disadvantage moderated associations between caregiver affect and…

Many studies have highlighted the phenomenon of rural decline in parts of the developed world, summarised as a loss in agricultural employment leading to a decline in the number and size of rural settlements. This study of small towns in part of Australia's inland rural "heartland" employs the concepts of interactional rural community of…

Although physical activity is often believed to be influenced by both environmental and individual factors, little is known about their interaction. This study explores interactions of perceived safety and social neighborhood factors with psychosocial cognitions for leisure-time walking. Cross-sectional data were obtained from residents (age 25-75…

Transformative learning, and its processes as proposed by Mezirow, has been the subject of much debate. This study contributes to the literature about these debates by examining transformative experiences within a foreign service-learning context. Canadian post-secondary students lived and worked to build a school in solidarity with a community in…

Objective: Examine whether neighborhood characteristics of racial composition, income, and rurality were related to distribution of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)-accepting stores in Leon County, Florida. Design: Cross-sectional; neighborhood and food store data collected in 2008. Setting and Participants: Forty-eight census…

The author uses geospatial analysis to examine the "educational opportunity spaces" of two adjacent urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Organizing insights are gathered from Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological perspectives on human development, which posit that students are significantly impacted by multiple environmental…

The purpose of this inquiry is to consider how the U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods (PNs) program can improve persistently low-achieving urban schools by making their "neighborhoods whole again" through community capacity building for education reform. As the "first federal initiative to put education at the…

Drawing from a nationally representative sample of parents with elementary school-aged children, this study used Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to examine profiles of parent involvement in school as well as home-community settings. Four profiles of school involvement and five profiles of home-community involvement were yielded from the LCA approach.…

Evidence suggests that the consequences of chronic exposure to stressors extend beyond psychological effects, and that adolescents living in socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods may experience an accumulation of exposure to stressors that wears down the physical systems in the body, resulting in hyper-activation of the stress response.…

Central values promoted in a national curricula are often uncontested (Arnot, Hopman, & Molander, 2007; Colnerud, 2004; Popkewitz, 2009). Therefore, a critical understanding of these values is crucial, as is an understanding of how students are affected by interpretations of certain values as fundamental. The aim of this study is to cast light…

Teachers in U.S. schools report high rates of victimization, yet previous studies focus on select types of victimization and student perpetrators, which may underestimate the extent of the problem. This national study was based on work conducted by the American Psychological Association Classroom Violence Directed Against Teachers Task Force and…