This article draws from the experiences and narratives of teenage activists throughout the Americas in order to add a needed dimension, that of peer political socialization, to the larger political and civic socialization literature. The authors argue that although the existing literature emphasizes the roles and responsibilities of adults in…

This article extends our conceptual understanding of social capital and school achievement through a comparative race and ethnic approach. Using the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) 1988-1990 panel, this article develops a more comprehensive understanding of school achievement by exploring circumstances, which the authors call…

Media is now central to how youth form their identities. Media also shapes the cultural background of much of young people's action and decision making and the institutional framework of social interaction. This article explores this mediated "lifeworld" of young people by examining rates of current media use and the infiltration of media into…

According to the reputation enhancement theory, social bonds influence adolescents' delinquent activity indirectly through the reputations they select. Findings from the current study of a school-based sample of female adolescents indicate that bonds to parents affect reputation enhancement beliefs, which, in turn, predict delinquent activity.…

Discusses the impact of the troubles in Northern Ireland on the psychological and social well-being and school lives of youth. Although some have suffered great trauma, recent research highlights the resilience of young people exposed to the stress of political conflict. For the majority of youth growing up in Northern Ireland, the future may be…

Reviews major theories of the adolescent crime rate peak; presents the integrated theory (which attempts to explain why most people in modern, industrialized societies increase their levels of offending during adolescence); and discusses the extent to which individual, group, and temporal factors influence the applicability of the theory.…

Drawing on status attainment models, the authors examine the effects of family, peer, and school factors on expectations to graduate from a university for a sample of high school students in Bogota, Colombia, and La Paz, Bolivia. The expansion of higher education in these countries has followed different strategies. In Bolivia, the policy has been…

Analyzes the structural and thematic elements of three stories written by a sixth-grade Navajo girl to challenge the notion that a linear pattern of growth is followed by all children as they learn to write stories. The results question the assumption that certain kinds of narratives and their American Indian authors are less able or less…