Relations Among Cultural Learning Beliefs, Self-Regulated Learning, and Academic Achievement for Low-Income Chinese American Adolescents.

This mixed-methods study of urban low-income, English-proficient Chinese American, second-generation 15-year-olds (conducted in 2004; N = 32) examined the relation among the virtue model of learning communicated by parents and adolescents' learning beliefs, self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors, and academic achievement. Analysis of in-depth individual interviews revealed that for these adolescents, perceptions of family educational socialization predicted students' endorsement of their culture's virtue-oriented learning beliefs and that adolescents' endorsement of these learning beliefs predicted their academic achievement. Importantly, adolescents' reported that use of SRL strategies mediated the relationship between their endorsement of virtue-oriented learning beliefs and their academic achievement. Findings are discussed in the context of further research linking cultural learning beliefs, SRL, and children's academic achievement.

Preparation for Meaningful Work and Life: Urban High School Youth's Reflections on Work-Based Learning 1 Year Post-Graduation.

The challenges confronted by low-income high school students throughout school and across the transition to higher education and employment are well-documented in the US and many other nations. Adopting a positive youth development perspective (Lerner et al., 2005), this study reports findings from interviews with 18 low-income, racially and ethnically diverse graduates of an urban Catholic high school in the US. The interviews were designed to shed light on the post-high school experiences of urban high school graduates and to understand how students construct meaning about the value of school and work-based learning (WBL) in their preparation for meaningful work and life. The interviews highlight the perceived value of the academic and non-cognitive preparation students experienced through high school and WBL in relation to the challenges they encountered along the pathway to post-high school success and decent work. Overall, the findings suggest the potential of WBL for low-income youth in facilitating access to resources that build academic and psychological/non-cognitive assets, while also illustrating the role of structural and contextual factors in shaping post-high school transitions and access to meaningful work and life opportunities.

What makes students engaged in learning? A time-use study of within- and between-individual predictors of emotional engagement in low-performing high schools.

Adolescents' emotional engagement plays a critical role in promoting their academic performance as well as overall psychological wellbeing. As a part of a 3-year longitudinal study, this study drew upon self-determination theory to examine three psychological predictors of emotional engagement within specific learning contexts. Ninety-four, low socioeconomic status (SES), ninth grade students (49% male; 32 Blacks, 30 Whites, and 32 Latinos) rated the perceived fulfillment of their autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs and their emotional engagement in learning settings at multiple time points over a 1-week period. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that the students' ratings of their psychological-need fulfillment and of their emotional engagement fluctuated over time and across contexts. After accounting for student gender, race/ethnicity, and prior achievement, we found that the fulfillment of each type of psychological need in a particular learning context was related to emotional engagement in that context (i.e., within-student level). The fulfillment of students' need for autonomy also was related to their emotional engagement at the aggregated level (i.e., between-student level). These findings illustrate how the psychological affordances of particular learning settings are associated with emotional engagement within and between students from low SES backgrounds.

Building and using a social network: nurture for low-income Chinese American adolescents' learning.

Little research has examined how low-income Asian American children are supported to achieve well in school. The authors used the notion of social capital to study higher versus lower achieving Chinese adolescents from low-income backgrounds. They found that families of higher-achieving adolescents built and used more effectively three kinds of social networks in lieu of direct parental involvement: (a) designating a helper in and outside the home for the child, (b) identifying peer models for the child to emulate, and (c) involving extended kin to guide the child jointly. These forms of social capital reflect Chinese cultural values applied to the challenges of immigrant adaptation.