Promoting positive youth development by examining the career and educational aspirations of African American males: implications for designing educational programs

African American males experience poor academic performance, high absenteeism at school, and are at increased risk of being involved in violence than other racial groups. Given that the educational outlook for African American males appears bleak, it is important to assess the aspirations of these adolescent males in order to find the gap between aspirations and educational attainment. In order to promote positive development within this population, it is essential that factors that affect African American males be identified. A survey was administered to male students attending elementary, middle, and high schools in a local school district. A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the career and educational aspirations of African American males. A total of 473 males were surveyed: 45% African American, 22% Caucasian, 13% biracial, and 19% Other (including Asian American, Hispanic, Native American). The results revealed that African American males aspired to attend college at the same rate as other ethnic groups. Also, African American males were more likely to aspire to be professional athletes than males from other ethnic groups. Important factors to consider when designing a program are discussed as well as future research and limitations.     

Positive youth development among African American adolescents: examining single parents as a factor

Over the past few decades researchers have begun to examine the importance of understanding positive youth development and the many contexts in which youth find themselves. The social contexts in which adolescent development occurs are varied and complex, particularly the development among African American youth. African American youth are faced with a number of challenges including living in single-parent homes, high teen pregnancy rates, and poor neighborhoods, yet many of these youth continue to thrive. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between family structure (single-parenting) and adolescent outcomes such as educational aspirations and sexual activity among African American adolescent youth aged 12-17. Approximately 462 African American youth were surveyed. A number of positive results emerged; for instance, there was a negative correlation between family structure and educational aspirations. The number of parents in the home did not interfere with youth wanting to complete high school and go on to college (r?=?-?.218, r2?=?.04, p?相似文献   

Assessing the health behaviors of African American emerging adults

The purpose of this article was to assess the overall health behaviors of African American emerging adults who live in a Midwestern city. Two hundred participants, ages 18-25, completed a 129-item survey. Results indicate that African American emerging adults are engaged in relatively healthy behaviors (i.e., physical activity, low substance use). The results also showed that within the emerging adult developmental period, there are differences in behavior for those who are in the younger (18-20) versus those that are older (21-25) in the developmental period. Limitations, future research, and implications for practice will also be discussed.     

The Israeli Model for Managing The National List of Health Services in an Era of Limited Resources

In order to attain financial stability, equality, and quality of care, Israel placed its basic health insurance system under strict government regulation in the National Health Insurance Act (NHIA) of 1994. The act creates the National List of Health Services (NLHS), which outlines the minimal health services (including drugs and medical devices) that the four pre–exiting Sick Funds must supply to their members free of charge or for a relatively small defined co–payment
This article analyzes the mechanisms that update the NLHS to ensure the quality of health services provided to all citizens with respect to the constant developments in health technologies both for medical procedures and diagnosis, and for drugs.
The article's main conclusion is that Israel offers a unique model for explicit rationing. The process of updating the list of services leads to clear decision making at a national level, one which offers new technologies to all citizens by public funding each year within the limits of an allocated and defined budget. However, the Israeli model is far from perfect, especially as the act does not establish a defined mechanism for allocating an annual budget for updating the list. Therefore, the act cannot assure a health care system with the stability and certainty it requires.     

Dainty little fairies: women,gender and the Savoy Operas

Abstract

Since the 1890s, amateur operatic societies have enabled middle-and lower middle-class women to overcome any stigma associated with public stage performance through their constitution as ‘serious’ leisure organisations. Some women have occupied positions of (situated) prestige, though others were confined to supporting roles. Amateur ‘operatics’ have generated a carnival atmosphere around the activity of performance, where boundaries between members' leisure, social and performing identities became permeable and easily crossed. The Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a staple of the amateur repertoire since their late-Victorian composition, draw on a range of representations of masculinity and femininity that acquired new cultural relevance for the middle classes from the inter-war period. Positive representations of femininity are predominantly youthful. More negative representations of older women have their origins in the grotesque, cross-dressed dame of burlesque. Nevertheless, interview evidence demonstrates that older women in particular, aided by the possibilities of moving between performing and social identities that this leisure activity encourages, have made empowering and selective imaginative appropriations from these gender ideals.     

Spatially strong: Dead Sea Works Ltd. and the building up of the southeast of Israel, 1948–1964

This is the story of the formative years of one of Israel’s big corporations – the Dead Sea Works Ltd. (DSW). It concerns the interrelations between space and labor, told through an account of four transitions: (1) The transfer of the company from England to Israel with its establishment in 1952; (2) The move of its central office from Jerusalem to Be’er Sheva; (3) The dismantling of the original workers’ camp near the factory (in Sodom) and the move of the workers’ dwellings to three different towns; and (4) The transfer of representation from Tel Aviv to Be’er Sheva. The case of the DSW, I argue, is a ‘geohistory’ of labor that exemplifies the construction of the northeastern Negev’s social space, especially the making of scale. This ‘scale-making’ was an ongoing process of scaling up (from the local to the regional) and scaling down (from the global to the state level, and from the center to the periphery). Through this process of scale-making, the workers of the DSW gained a great deal of power and became spatially strong.     

Empty Promises? The Demise of Self-Bonding for Coal Mining Reclamation

Over the past few years, a number of major coal companies have undergone bankruptcy. The financial assurance these coal companies provided for reclamation of mines has become an important issue as federal and state agencies have sought to avoid footing the bill for reclamation of mining sites. In particular, the practice of self-bonding, as opposed to third-party bonding, has come under scrutiny. Recent bankruptcies of coal companies have exposed the risk that companies that go bankrupt, or do not come out of bankruptcy, will not be able to provide funds or assets in the amount that the company self-bonded. In other words, self-bonds amount to empty promises, particularly when the coal industry is distressed. Accordingly, federal agencies have discouraged self-bonding. Some states have abandoned the practice. Environmental groups have called for a universal prohibition on self-bonding. In recent bankruptcy proceedings, coal companies bowed to pressure to replace self-bonds with other collateral. But it is not clear that self-bonding is gone for good—or whether it should be.