The Role of Mothers’ and Adolescents’ Perceptions of Ethnic-racial Socialization in Shaping Ethnic-racial Identity Among Early Adolescent Boys and Girls

The current study examined relationships between adolescents’ and mothers’ reports of ethnic-racial socialization and adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity. The sample included 170 sixth graders (49% boys, 51% girls) and their mothers, all of whom identified as Black, Puerto Rican, Dominican, or Chinese. Two dimensions of ethnic-racial socialization (cultural socialization and preparation for bias) were evaluated alongside three dimensions of ethnic-racial identity (exploration, affirmation and belonging, and behavioral engagement). Mothers’ reports of their cultural socialization predicted adolescents’ reports, but only adolescents’ reports predicted adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity processes. Mothers’ reports of preparation for bias predicted boys’ but not girls’ reports of preparation for bias. Again, only adolescents’ reports of preparation for bias predicted their ethnic-racial identity. Thus, several gender differences in relationships emerged, with mothers’ and adolescents’ perceptions of cultural socialization, in particular, playing a more important role in girls’ than in boys’ identity processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research.

Discussing conflict in contemporary China

The research suggests there is a gap in the peace studies and conflict resolution literature, with little representation or understanding of Chinese perspectives. In a project to address this gap, the researchers conducted interviews individually with 30 participants identified as ‘ emerging leaders’, who came from diverse universities and parts of the Peoples’ Republic of China. This paper reports on the language used by young emerging leaders to talk about conflict, the main concepts that were discussed and what meanings may be communicated in the context of contemporary China. The research method was developed in collaboration with Chinese academics, was elicitive and dialogic, used context-grounded vignettes of conflict scenarios and aimed to build a foundation for deepening dialogue and engagement. The findings are important theoretically for a more inclusive peace and conflict studies literature and have practical implications for the way in which relationships with China may best be approached.     

Lost Horizons: Rereading and Reclaiming Victorian Women Writers

"The girls of today cannot see themselves in Miss Yonge and that is their chief demand from literature" -Edith Sichel, Monthly Review, May 1901 The depths to which the reputation of popular conservative Victorian novelist, Charlotte Yonge, had sunk by the end of the nineteenth century are reflected in Oscar Wilde's reaction to being told a condemned man was reading one of Yonge's novels: "My heart was turned by the eyes of the doomed man, but if he reads The Heir of Redclyffe it's perhaps as well to let the law take its course" (Ellman 202).     

The Untimely Stevie Smith

Abstract

This essay considers the role of the untimely in the work of Stevie Smith. It explores motifs of belatedness in her reception history, suggesting how her own authorial persona and public presentation encodes this response. It examines the notion of the last-minute in her work, focusing on motifs such as disruption, elongation and delay. It suggests how her revision practice responded to the idea of being ‘too late’, with the moment of publication providing her with further prompts to revise her work. It focuses on final words and endings in her poetry and frames her interest in Christianity through ideas of temporality and form.     

Mainstreaming disaster mitigation: Challenges to organisational learning in NGOs

This paper discusses the implications for organisational learning of recent research on NGO activity in natural disaster mitigation and preparedness. It identifies several institutional and other barriers to NGO learning. However, personal networks in NGOs are often strong, and determined and well-placed individuals can push significant innovations through. Greater emphasis on this human factor may be the key to mainstreaming disaster mitigation and other new or marginal approaches to development.     

REGULATORY POLICY DESIGN: COOPERATIVE VERSUS DETERRENT MANDATES

Abstract: Two forms of regulatory policy design—"cooperative" and "deterrent" designs—are considered in the context of intergovernmental regulation of floodplains. Both types of design entail efforts by higher-level governments to induce local-level regulatory efforts. However, the approaches differ in terms of their underlying philosophies and in the extent to which they address local regulatory commitment and capacity. The contrast between the United States and New South Wales policies, and changes over time in the New South Wales policy, illustrate key points about the two types of policy design. The broader significance of this discussion concerns lessons for intergovernmental regulatory policy design.     

Factors moderating physical and psychological symptoms of battered women

Physical and psychological symptoms of battered women were investigated based on the theory that their ongoing victimization would produce stress-related symptoms. It was hypothesized that moderating variables (e.g., frequency and severity of abuse, predictability and controllability of abuse, social support networks) would influence the effects of abuse. Battered women (N = 234) were interviewed according to a structured format which allowed for behavioral indices of the data and categorization of the women's responses. Results indicated that frequency of abuse was a strong predictor of the number and severity of symptoms. Those women who could predict abuse experienced more symptoms. Severity of physical and psychological symptoms was predicted by a model including women with more injuries requiring medical attention, women adhering to traditional sex role values, and the presence of one type of emotional abuse. Battered women perceived their physical and emotional health as deteriorating during the relationship and during the abuse, but as getting healthier after the abuse ended. Future research needs to replicate these findings with a representative group of battered women who are still in the battering relationship.