This study follows the literacy experiences of four Latina middle schoolers as they read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and compose home language narratives in their heritage voices. Both their vibrant ethnic cultures and other intersecting rays of identities are analyzed in the vein of their literate identities. Through analysis of their…

Among the many social determinants linked to adolescent alcohol use and depression, racial and ethnic discrimination is a prevalent determinant among Latinx adolescents and adults that is largely overlooked in preventive interventions. This study explored the influence of perceived racial and ethnic discrimination on depressive symptoms and…

Promoting adhesion to attitudes toward gender equity is critical to achieving more equal societies, yet endorsement of gender equality among Latin American adolescents remains lower than global averages. This study investigates the role of school environments, civic knowledge, and authoritarianism in shaping gender equity attitudes among 8th-grade…

A growing body of literature from different disciplines addresses concepts and measurement of citizenship. The present article seeks to contribute to this field by examining the issue of youth citizenship from a comparative international perspective and proposing a simplified conceptual model that can be operationalized. This model includes a…

This study examines the association between personal goal orientations and mathematics achievement within the trichotomous goal framework. Participants comprised approximately 2000 seventh and eighth grade White, Hispanic, and Vietnamese students in a low-income urban school district in California. Regression analysis with classroom fixed effects…

Few studies examine how the macro context shapes ethnic or racial identity development during early adolescence. This analysis draws on interview data from 40 African American, Chinese American, Dominican American, and European American middle school students (6th through 8th grade) to explore how stereotypes inform adolescents' ethnic and racial…

This article examines the high school search activities, choices, and final assignments of academically similar, but ethnically and socioeconomically different, eighth-grade students attending one New York City middle school. Despite being comparable candidates for admission to academically competitive high schools, the middle-class children of…

This article discusses the results of a series of multiple regressions performed to predict how closely 490 eighth grade students' approaches to searching for and selecting high schools matched the New York City Department of Education's recommendations. Results indicate that children of Latin American immigrant mothers were less likely to follow…

This article describes how the author teaches 8th graders to imagine the experiences of people from another time in history and make connections to today. Through a role play, the author teaches the hidden story of Japanese Latin Americans during WWII. The role play engages students in exploration of a little-known piece of history--the…