Maury Nation

Risk factors for serious alcohol and drug use: the role of psychosocial variables in predicting the frequency of substance use among adolescents

Reviews of the psychosocial risk factors of adolescent alcohol and drug use suggest that the highest risks can be summarized as: 1) psychological functioning, 2) family environment, 3) peer relationships, and 4) stressful life events. The purpose of this study is to describe the relationships among the most common risk factors among a clinical sample (n = 214) and to determine the collective importance of these risk factors on problems with substance use. Collectively, these risk factors were most effective in explaining alcohol use and binge drinking and marijuana use, which were the most frequent types of substance use in this sample. Antisocial peers and delinquent behavior were the strongest predictors of substance use. Implications are that treatment programs target different psychosocial factors depending on the substance being used, and put extra effort on understanding and altering the relationship between an adolescents choice of peers and their own attitudes toward delinquency and drug use.

The Longitudinal Effects of Residential Mobility on the Academic Achievement of Urban Elementary and Middle School Students

Residential stability matters to a young person’s educational development, and the present housing crisis has disrupted the residential stability of many families. This study uses latent growth-curve modeling to examine how changing residences affects math and reading achievement from third through eighth grade among a sample of urban elementary and middle-school students. Results show that residential moves in the early elementary years have a negative effect on math and reading achievement in third grade and a negative effect on the trajectory of reading scores thereafter. Further, there is a negative contemporaneous effect of mobility on math scores in third through eighth grade but no such contemporaneous effect on reading scores. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Levels of Community Engagement in Youth Violence Prevention: The Role of Power in Sustaining Successful University-Community Partnerships

Previous research indicates that communities can be engaged at various levels in research to reduce youth violence. In this paper, we argue that the method of power sharing among partners is a central factor distinguishing different levels of engagement. Using cases from the Nashville Urban Partnership Academic Center of Excellence, we identify community initiation and community collaboration as distinct approaches to community engaged violence prevention research. The power relationships among partners are analyzed to highlight differences in the types of engagement and to discuss implications for establishing and sustaining community partnerships. Also, the implications of levels of engagement for promoting the use of evidence-based practices are discussed.

Race, Place, and Neighboring: Social Ties Among Neighbors in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Contexts

This study examined the relations between community type, race, and the types of neighboring behaviors in which residents engage, with a random sample of 1,367 participants from urban, suburban, and rural areas of a southeastern state. Analyses controlled for several variables that are believed to influence neighboring. The multivariate analyses indicated a main effect for the type of community. However, the effect was contingent on the type of neighboring and disappeared once the covariates were included in the model. Similarly, main effects of race were found with African Americans engaging in more surveillance and Caucasians engaging in more social neighboring. The implications of these findings framing additional research on race and community type are discussed.

The Adolescents, Life Context, and School Project: Youth Voice and Civic Participation

The Adolescents, Life Context, & School project was developed in a suburban, residential area of Padova, Italy, and involved three classes of 12-year-old children. Across three months, children observed, documented, and talked about their own life contexts in order to voice problems to decision makers. Both teachers and council members played key roles in supporting the project and the childrens work. Limited quantitative results showed an increase in reported neighborhood civic responsibility compared to a control group of students. Qualitative evaluation results demonstrated strong interest. The involvement by teachers, local government, and students in the project led to real actions and improvements in the neighborhood and school and to the creation of an official youth affairs council. The program provides a model for service-learning and organized student civic engagement.

The Role Played by the Family in Shaping Early and Middle Adolescent Civic Responsibility

Adopting a multi-informant methodology, the current study examines the relative influence of multiple parental characteristics (civic responsibility, encouragement of civic action, parent-youth closeness) on adolescents’ civic responsibility (local and global). The participants were 384 early and middle adolescents (47.9% male), randomly selected from an Italian city (mean age = 13.6; SD = 1.63), and one parent for each adolescent. The results show a positive association between the parents’ local civic responsibility and the adolescents’ responsibility toward the local community, and between the parents’ global civic responsibility and the adolescents’ responsibility toward societal issues. Moreover, parental encouragement of civic action and parent-youth closeness were positively associated with the adolescents’ civic responsibility. Finally, an interaction between the parents’ local civic responsibility and parent-child closeness was found in which parents’ civic responsibility had stronger influence on youth civic responsibility when the parent-child relationship was characterized by medium or high levels of closeness.

Contextualizing the "Behavior Gap": Student Prosocial Behavior and Racial Composition in Urban Middle Schools.

Encouraging student prosocial behavior (PSB) is a challenge for urban middle schools. The issue of student behavior is a racialized one, as Black students generally evince more negative behavioral outcomes than their White peers. This racial “behavior gap” may be conditional on the school environment. This study examines how one element of the school environment—racial composition—affects PSB, drawing on a sample that includes approximately 2,000 Black students and 1,400 White students in 11 urban middle schools in the Southeastern United States. Results of multilevel regression models show that the effect of racial composition on PSB is different for students of different races. As the proportion of Black students in a grade cohort increases, the gap in PSB between Black and White students shrinks and becomes insignificant. The closing of the gap is driven mostly by the declining PSB of White students, while Black students’ PSB stays constant. Implications for school practice are discussed.

Practices for Improving Secondary School Climate: A Systematic Review of the Research Literature.

School climate has received increased attention in education policy and, in response, educators are seeking strategies to improve the climates of their middle and high schools. However, there has been no comprehensive synthesis of the empirical evidence for what works in school climate improvement. This article constitutes a systematic review of programs and practices with empirical support for improving school climate. It defines school climate and provides a methodology for identifying and evaluating relevant studies. The review identified 66 studies with varying strength of evidence and nine common elements that cut across reviewed programs and practices. The review concludes with a critical appraisal of what we know about school climate improvement and what we still need to know.

Students' perceptions of safety at school after Sandy Hook.

Abstract High profile school shootings have served as pivotal events for developing policies to promote student safety. Although previous studies indicate that exposure to violence is associated with feeling unsafe at school and poorer academic and psychosocial outcomes, research on the relationship between widely publicized acts of school violence and students’ perceptions of safety is scant. This study examines this relationship utilizing data from 66,511 high school students from a single state by comparing survey responses from students who completed surveys before and after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Although several models indicated a statistically significant relationship between Sandy Hook and perceptions of safety, the sizes of the effects were not meaningful. Implications for policy and research are discussed.

Community engagement: Universities’ roles in building communities and strengthening democracy

Abstract Many universities are making concerted efforts to engage their communities as part of their effort to strengthen democratic principles and processes. These initiatives have included faculty and students assuming both traditional and novel roles to promote community engagement, with varying degrees of success. This article examines university engagement strategies through the lenses of community psychology and community development to identify challenges and opportunities in teaching, research, and service to promote democratic ideals. Specific examples of university practices that engage the community and vary in the advancement of democratic principles are outlined, with suggestions for ways that universities can enhance their ability to promote democratic participation.