To better understand STEM interest development during adolescence in an urban community, we examined how "STEM Interested" youth differed from disinterested youth and how interest changed over time from age 11/12 to 12/13. We surveyed youth to measure interest in four components of STEM, used cluster analysis to categorize youth based on…

This article focuses on how consumerism, as a social ideology, and consumption, as an individual activity, are used by adolescents to mark and mask differences in the process of identity construction. Data are drawn from an ethnographic study of urban youth. The act of consuming for the adolescents in this study forms an integral part of their…

What does it mean to be young in El Alto, a Bolivian shantytown? Based on ethnographic research, this article looks at cultural resilience among young people in a vulnerable urban context. It emphasises how young people value informal youth groups as a tool to valorise their own indigenous culture. This is echoed in the world of adults, implying…

Schools provide a context or moral space for youth to develop their identity; however, with the racialized ideology, language and practices that promote Black youth criminality, criminalized schools become a racialized, classed, and gendered moral space that feeds into the school-to-prison pipeline. The criminalization of schools refers to a…

In this article the authors explore the relationship between concepts of identity and the purpose, process, and products of youth media arts organizations. Since the explicit mission of these organizations is to work with adolescents to explore and represent identities, the authors develop our understanding of how organizations conceptualize…

Adolescent girls from an urban-based clinic participated in a longitudinal study about psychosexual development and risk of STD acquisition. The girls were asked about their perceptions of loci of control (parents, internal control) as it relates to STD acquisition. Responses to locus of control correlated over time but variations were not found…

Responses were sought to the following questions: (1) Are there differences between self concepts of disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged students? (2) Do these differences, if any, occur within and/or among different types of communities? A total of 373 students were selected from Maine communities designated "rural depressed,""rural…

Children's voluntary reading positively correlates with school grades, vocabulary growth, reading comprehension, verbal fluency, general information, and attitudes towards reading. Drawing on qualitative interviews collected alongside six waves of longitudinal survey data in an urban setting in eastern USA, We argue that voluntary reading by…

To eight pictures of adolescents in the School Scene Apperception Questionnaire, adolescents note their agreement to statements which were derived from free responses by more than 600 adolescents having some difficulty in school. To establish the reactions of school-adjusted adolescents to the pictures, three semantic differential…

A study examined the impact of outdoor adventure trips on 37 urban adolescents' self-perception. Results from pretest, posttest, and 4-month followup surveys and interviews indicate that participants' self-perceptions of social acceptance and behavioral conduct improved immediately after the trip, and that some behavioral conduct impacts remained…

A study examined changes in self-concept of adolescents enrolled in outdoor adventure education courses offered at a private college-preparatory high school in New York City. Surveys were completed by 94 students, 36 of whom were enrolled in outdoor adventure education courses; 25 of these were males and 11 were females. Results found no…

No significant differences in global self-esteem and self-concept stability were found between 380 self-identified majority and 262 self-defined minority (i.e., Turkish, Moroccan, and Surinamese) youth in the Netherlands. Minority youth did identify more strongly with their ethnic groups, and they evaluated their groups more positively than their…

If a program is to succeed, sufficient attention must be devoted to the personality characteristics, attitudes and interests of the persons for whom the program is being planned. The data from a study of the personality characteristics of 446 poor, black adolescents enrolled in a summer poverty work program were used to demonstrate how the…

The relationship between career maturity and self-concepts of 252 sixth-grade black males was investigated. Results indicated relatively weak-positive relationships between career maturity and self-concepts. Significant career maturity differences were found. However, self-concepts of the three groups were not statistically significantly…

Examined the relation of school strain to self-worth and three indicators of school functioning--scholastic competence, intrinsic motivation, and grade point average--among 102 students in an academic intervention program. Results showed a consistent relation of peer strain to self-worth, with strain increasing during the year. (RJM)