Associations between hope and trajectories of critical consciousness among U.S. youth of color.

We examined associations between hope as an internal asset that supports positive youth development, and growth trajectories of three critical consciousness components. Using five waves of data collected over the course of high school (N = 618), we modeled growth trajectories of awareness of inequity (critical reflection), a sense of agency about taking sociopolitical action (critical agency), and behaviors targeting systems of oppression (critical action). Hope was highest among those with high trajectories of critical agency and critical action. Clear associations with hope emerged at the last time point for critical reflection, suggesting that sustained growth in critical reflection is associated with hope. When supporting the critical consciousness development of youth of color, concurrent support for hope may be instrumental.

Investigating the relation between critical consciousness and academic achievement for adolescents of color and White adolescents.

OBJECTIVES: A handful of studies have previously reported on positive associations between critical consciousness and academic achievement for youth of color. The present study contributes to this scholarship by investigating how the association between critical consciousness and academic achievement varies for youth (N = 179) across different content areas in school, as well as whether this association differs for youth from different racial-ethnic groups. METHOD: For three different measures of critical consciousness, we fit single-level ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models to investigate their relationship to students' academic achievement in four different subject areas. We also included moderation models to investigate whether the relation between critical consciousness and academic achievement differed for students of color versus White students. RESULTS: OLS regression analyses revealed that different components of critical consciousness differentially predicted students' academic achievement in different subject areas. Additionally, moderation analyses suggest that these associations between critical consciousness and academic achievement are stronger for students of color than White students. CONCLUSIONS: These findings may encourage more K-12 schools and school systems to adopt culturally relevant and sustaining curriculum (such as ethnic studies coursework) that offer more opportunities for youth from both dominant and marginalized identity groups to learn about issues of power, oppression, and resistance to oppression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

How Parents in Multiethnic-Racial Families Share Cultural Assets with Their Children.

Relatively little psychology research has investigated racial-ethnic socialization processes in multiethnic-racial families despite the fact that more than 1 in 7 children born in the United States today have parents from different ethnic-racial backgrounds. The present study seeks to contribute to the extant research by exploring how parents in multiethnic-racial families seek to help their children access and benefit from two (or more) sets of cultural assets. Accordingly, this study considers key themes about cultural socialization that emerged in qualitative interviews with parents in multiethnic-racial families (n = 37). Key themes emerging from these interviews included the importance of both co-parents: (a) putting in the time and effort to learn about each other's cultures and cultural practices; (b) being reflective about the practices, values, and traditions that were and were not important to them to share with their children; and (c) protecting their children from racial micro-aggressions in a variety of settings by advocating for the recognition, inclusion, and appreciation of their children's multiple ethnic-racial heritages. There is such a paucity of research on cultural socialization approaches in multiethnic-racial families that these perspectives from parents offer both valuable building blocks for future research efforts as well as practical guidance to the growing number of multiethnic-racial families in the United States and elsewhere.

Black and Latinx Adolescents' Developing Commitment to Antiracist Activism Over Four Years of High School: "Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble" Special Section: Dismantling Oppression Series.

This qualitative study considered the development of a commitment to antiracist activism among Black and Latinx adolescents (n = 50) over 4 years of high school. Four waves of interviews with participating adolescents were analysed using a critical consciousness framework to consider participants' descriptions of their developing commitment to antiracist activism and the factors contributing to this development. From these analyses emerged five different trajectories of adolescents' developing commitment to activism that included steady growth over 4 years of high school, more sudden growth in the final years of high school, steady growth in the beginning years of high school followed by subsequent disengagement, and, finally, students whose commitments remained consistently high or low throughout high school.

The development of awareness of racism in adolescents of color over 4 years of high school.

This mixed methods, longitudinal study considered the developing awareness of racism of adolescents of color over 4 years of high school. A series of latent growth models were fit to consider participating adolescents' (n = 643) developing awareness of interpersonal and institutional forms of racism over five waves of surveys. Additionally, four waves of interviews with a subset of adolescents (n = 70) were analyzed through a multistep process consistent with qualitative research methods that seek to balance etic/outsider and emic/insider perspectives Participating adolescents demonstrated significant, linear growth in their awareness of interpersonal and systemic forms of racism between middle and late adolescence. Participating adolescents also most frequently cited examples of racism in the systemic domain of power to demonstrate their understanding of racism, and their invocation of examples of systemic racism grew more frequent as they advanced through high school. The present study revealed that, on average, adolescents' awareness of racism increases significantly between middle and late adolescence, but also that there is considerable heterogeneity in the ways that adolescents of color recognize and understand racism.

The Role of Curiosity in the Sociopolitical Development of Black and Latinx Adolescents.

Sociopolitical development, the process of coming to understand and take action against systems of oppression, is associated with key outcomes for youth. Although rooted in Paulo Freire's work on critical consciousness, sociopolitical development models overlook a motivational attribute-curiosity-that Freire characterized as a catalyst of such development. This longitudinal study investigated the relationship between curiosity and two aspects of sociopolitical development (social analysis, societal involvement) in a sample of Black and Latinx adolescents (N = 659). Longitudinal growth models demonstrated positive growth in all constructs over 4-years of high school. Multivariate growth models revealed a positive correlation at baseline between curiosity and both constructs; growth in curiosity was also positively correlated with growth in social analysis and societal involvement.

The Development of Critical Consciousness and its Relation to Academic Achievement in Adolescents of Color.

Critical consciousness, the process by which individuals come to understand, analyze, and take action against systems of oppression, is associated with several positive youth outcomes. However, little research has considered how the core components of critical consciousness (critical reflection, political agency, critical action) are associated with academic achievement. The present study explored the extent to which the developing critical consciousness of adolescents of color (N = 364) over 4 years of high school predicted academic achievement, as measured by grade point average (GPA) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Results demonstrated that adolescents' critical reflection and critical action intercepts predicted SAT scores whereas critical reflection and critical action slopes predicted GPAs. Political agency was not predictive of either academic outcome.

Fostering adolescent curiosity through a question brainstorming intervention.

INTRODUCTION: High adolescent curiosity is associated with several positive outcomes, yet questioning, a common behavioral manifestation of curiosity, declines once children enter formal schooling. The present quasi-experimental study empirically investigated whether directly teaching students to question helps to foster students' more enduring, dispositional tendency towards curiosity. METHOD: The study explored the impact of a direct-instruction student-brainstorming intervention, the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), on adolescents' curiosity. The study's sample included adolescents (N = 3173) in four public high schools in the United States nested within 43 educators' English/Language Arts classrooms. Teachers (N = 43) were randomly assigned to two groups, one of which received professional development in the QFT in fall 2015 and the other in the winter of 2016. The study utilized student self-report questionnaires and teacher fidelity checks at three time points (fall, winter, and spring) to consider the impact of the QFT on participating adolescents' curiosity. RESULTS: Multilevel modeling results indicated a positive treatment effect of the QFT on adolescents' curiosity, a positive adherence effect on adolescents' curiosity growth, and a positive dosage effect on adolescents' curiosity growth. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that adolescent dispositional curiosity can be significantly increased by directly teaching students to question.

Black and Latinx adolescents' developing beliefs about poverty and associations with their awareness of racism.

Interpersonal and structural forms of racism contribute to a system of economic stratification in the United States in which children of color are disproportionately likely to be born into poverty and to remain poor as adults. However, only a small body of research has focused on Black and Latinx adolescents' developing beliefs about the causes of poverty or the relationship between such beliefs and their awareness of racism. The present study sought to contribute to this scholarship with a longitudinal investigation involving Black and Latinx adolescents (n = 457) attending urban secondary schools in 5 northeastern cities. Specifically, we investigated (a) these adolescents' change over time in their beliefs about the causes of poverty; (b) the relationship between their developing beliefs about the causes of poverty and changes in their awareness of racism; and (c) the role of a progressive schooling experience in influencing the adolescents' beliefs about the causes of poverty. Multivariate latent growth modeling revealed that participants demonstrated significant positive change over time in their conception of poverty as caused by structural factors as well as a significant relationship at each time point between adolescents' beliefs about the causes of poverty and awareness of interpersonal racism. However, we found that attending a secondary school featuring a progressive schooling model did not significantly predict adolescents' change in beliefs about the structural causes of poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The Use of Cangrelor and Heparin for Anticoagulation in a Patient Requiring Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy Surgery with Suspected Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia.

The management of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) in the perioperative period for patients undergoing cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) can be a challenging clinical scenario. Once a diagnosis of HIT has been established, heparin products typically are avoided and alternative therapies for anticoagulation are started. Alternative anticoagulation strategies for CPB are limited and often have various pharmacokinetic profiles that may lead to increased perioperative bleeding. Historically the use of a GPIIb/IIIa inhibitor, such as tirofiban, followed by unfractionated heparin (UFH) is the typical alternative for surgeries requiring DHCA in patients with HIT at the authors' institution. This article presents a case in which cangrelor followed by UFH was used in a 20-year-old patient with suspected HIT and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension undergoing pulmonary thromboendarterectomy surgery requiring CPB and DHCA. Due to the frequency of significant postoperative bleeding encountered when using tirofiban and UFH, it was decided to attempt to block platelet aggregation with significantly shorter-acting cangrelor. The authors hypothesized that cangrelor would reduce the risk of significant bleeding compared with tirofiban because of its favorable pharmacokinetics. Specifically, cangrelor has a short elimination half-life of 3 to 6 minutes, and its elimination is not altered by renal and hepatic impairment. This case report discusses the pathophysiology of HIT, the alternative anticoagulants used for HIT type II in pulmonary thromboendarterectomy, and the potential of cangrelor in conjunction with UFH to be a favorable option for patients in similar clinical scenarios.

Theoretical and Empirical Bases of Character Development in Adolescence: A View of the Issues.

Traditional models of character development have conceptualized character as a set of psychological attributes that motivate or enable individuals to function as competent moral agents. In this special section, we present seven articles, including two commentaries, that seek to make innovative conceptual and methodological contributions to traditional understandings in the extant scholarship of character and character development in youth. In the introduction to this special section, we provide overviews of these contributions, and discuss the implications of these articles both to the current scholarship and to applications aimed at promoting character and positive youth development.

Investigating Adolescents' Critical Consciousness Development through a Character Framework.

Brazilian philosopher-educator Paulo Freire defined critical consciousness as the ability to engage in reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it. A growing body of research has found that critical consciousness is predictive of a number of important academic and civic outcomes in adolescents from oppressed groups. The present mixed methods study considered the critical consciousness development of 335 adolescents (57% female, 92% African American or Latinx) attending urban secondary schools that sought to foster their students' critical consciousness, but featured five different pedagogical approaches. We hypothesized that considering these adolescents' critical consciousness development through a character lens would highlight ways in which different schooling models contribute differentially to their students' development of the intellectual, performance, and civic dimensions of critical consciousness. Longitudinal analyses revealed significant differences in the critical consciousness development of adolescents attending different schooling models along these dimensions. Interviews with adolescents and field work conducted at their schools offered insight into the programming and practices that may have contributed to these differences in students' critical consciousness development.