SOCIOLOGICAL
STUDIES
OF CHILDREN
VOLUME
AND
YOUTH
8
SOCIOLOGICAL S TUDIES OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH EDITED BY
DAVID A. K I N N E Y Central Michigan University, Michigan, USA
2001
JAI An Imprint of Elsevier Science Amsterdam
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London - New York - Oxford -
Paris - Shannon - Tokyo
INTRODUCTION David A. Kinney On Valentine's Day I returned home after dinner with a friend and I was greeted by a terrific telephone message from my four-year-old nephew. In his delightful and sincere voice he said: "Hi Uncle, this is John. Happy Valentine's Day! I am sorry I couldn't give you a Valentines, 'cause I gave 'em all to my friends. Bye." I smiled and said to myself "Wow, what a nice nephew thinking of his uncle 700 miles away. He sounds so happy and carefree." Then I thought about how his message suggests that at four years old John is already juggling family and friends; a crucial aspect of human development. And then I wondered how long his happiness and carefree attitude will last in a society where growing up can be a harsh or less harsh experience depending on one's social class, race, age, and gender. This volume of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth includes chapters that examine socialization processes among children and youth as they interact with friends and family in social contexts structured by gender, class, age, and race. It is a pleasure to introduce Volume 8 of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth. In 1999, Spencer Cahill (former Guest Editor) and Susan Oppenheim (former JAI Press Publishing Editor) invited me to become Series Editor. Since publication of the Volume 7 of Sociological Studies of Children, the series has undergone several significant changes. First, JAI Press, Inc. has become an official imprint of Elsevier Science, increasing the potential international attention given to the volume. Second, I created an Editorial Board for the series, comprised of well-known and respected colleagues in the field. Finally, with consultation from members of the Editorial Board, I changed the name of the series to Sociological Studies of Children and Youth. I hope these changes will increase the readership of the series and the numbers of people exposed to sociological research findings and theories regarding children and youth. It is important to note that the field of sociological studies of children and youth continues to build momentum and gain visibility in professional circles based on the increasing numbers of scholars conducting research and publishing in this area. This momentum has been sustained and nurtured by the following ix
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developments during the 1990s: the American Sociological Association Section on Sociology of Children was established (and recently renamed Section on Sociology of Children and Youth), the International Sociological Association started a Sociology of Childhood thematic group, and an international joumal: Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research was launched. Moreover, a number of important research articles and books on children and youth were published such as: Barrie Thorne's (1993) Gender Play, Qvortrup and associates' (1994) Childhood matters, Donna Eder's (1995) School Talk, William Corsaro's (1997) The Sociology of Childhood, Patrica and Peter Adler's (1998) Peer Power, Schneider and Stevenson's (1999) The Ambitious Generation, and Katherine Brown Rosier's (2000) Mothering inner-city children to name a few. In addition, sociological research articles on children and youth regularly appear in academic journals such as: Sociology of Education, Journal of Contemporary
Ethnography, American Journal of Sociology, Social Psychology Quarterly, New Directions for Child Development, and Youth and Society. The current volume focuses on issues of race, gender, and public policy as they relate to children and youth. Contributors range from "young" social scientists to established scholars. A number of the chapters contained in this volume share substantive, theoretical, and methodological concerns, and I pondered numerous chapter configurations. The sequence contained in this volume represents my best attempt to link these chapters based on their conceptual loci. The volume is subdivided into five sections: (1) Children, Race, and Social Institutions; (2) Youth and Gender; (3) Youth, Theory, and Methods; (4) Urban Youth and Identity; and (5) Policy, Politics, and Theory. Section one, Children, Race, and Social Institutions, contains chapters written by Katherine Brown Rosier, Colin Sacks, and Sheryl Tynes. Rosier begins this volume with an insightful chapter on two topics that have received substantial attention by social scientists: (1) how parent participation in education impacts children's achievement, and (2) the role of teachers' expectations in children's performance. Rosier cogently argues that it is high time to merge the aforementioned bodies of literature, and notes that "teachers' expectations for children may be strongly influenced by their perceptions of meanings inherent in parents' behavior." By deftly drawing upon rich ethnographic data, Rosier illustrates the dynamic interplay between teachers' expectations, parents' involvement, and children's school performance. Her case studies of two children growing up in economically distressed neighborhoods highlights how parents' resources and contact with teachers strongly shape teachers' expectations and evaluation of the parents' interest in their child's education. Interestingly, Rosier shows how teachers' perceptions of parental behaviors impact their expectations for children and subsequently shape their behaviors
Introduction
xi
toward children in the classroom. In addition, by drawing extensively on two different cases, Rosier importantly illuminates the diversity of parents' and children's experiences among those growing up in similar economic circumstances. Colin H. Sacks conducted a participant observation and interview study of an urban mother-and-child rehabilitation program. This particular program allows mothers recovering from substance abuse habits to be reunited with one or more of their children. In this setting, Sacks focuses on the children's (and mothers') social relations with members of different racial groups, and how these interactions shape the women's and children's racial identities. Sacks worked as a child counselor in this program for three years prior to a one-year observation period that provides detailed data, primarily in the form of "vignettes" of recurrent interaction patterns, for this chapter. Extensive time spent reading and playing with the children, and helping older children with their homework contributed to the high levels of trust and rapport he developed with the children. After the observational period, Sacks also led parenting groups with the women, and conducted interviews with the mothers and program staff after the observational period to better capture the experiences and interpretations of these adults regarding themes from everyday interactions. This chapter demonstrates how certain adult-child interactions and children's peer relations contribute to positive race relations. Sacks' findings also suggest that for younger children, race was not a salient concept in their daily lives; however older children (e.g. by 7 or 8 years old) were beginning to differentiate and label others according to their perceptions of "race." This finding is consistent with research with larger numbers of children presented in the next chapter by Tynes. Overall, Sacks provides readers with an interesting investigation of interracial interactions and formation of racial identities among children and adults in a specific social setting, and these findings suggest implications for socialization in other contexts. Sheryl R. Tynes examines children's racial self-classifications. Drawing on interviews with 88 children and their caregivers (e.g. mother, father, or grandparent) in an urban area, Tynes explores children's and adults' perceptions of race. Findings reveal that younger children (under the age of 10) have a diverse set of responses to the question, "What race or color do you consider yourself ?" or they do not understand the question (sometimes responding "what does that mean?"). As children age, their responses begin to mirror those of their caregiver's, a pattern similar to Sacks' finding on adults' impact on children's use of labels. Tynes takes up other important issues as well, such as, children not attaching hierarchical value to any one skin color, and adults' diverse responses to the open-ended question about what race they consider themselves to be. In addition, Tynes' data suggest factors that children consider
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most salient in their selection of friends. She reports that children are "relatively unprejudiced" in this social arena, and again her findings are similar to those reported by Sacks. Overall, Tynes argues that young children generally have healthy conceptions of race which have not yet been shaped by the racism so prevalent in American society. In the next section, the chapters by Robert Crosnoe, and by Peggy Giordano, Monica Longmore, and Wendy Manning examine youth's participation in athletics and romantic relationships respectively. First, Robert Crosnoe examines the social worlds of male and female athletes in high school. Specifically, he investigates the differential impact of athletic involvement on academic achievement and drinking behaviors for females and males. In this longitudinal study, Crosnoe wisely controls for previous levels of alcohol use and academic performance, therefore avoiding over-estimating the effects of friendships and athletic participation. He finds that for girls, the primary benefit of involvement in athletics was its connection to friendship groups with strong academic orientations. Athletic boys, like girls, benefitted from being more likely than non-athletes to have academically-oriented friends. However, male athletes' academic performances also suffered from their greater likelihood of associating with socially active friends. With regard to alcohol use, Crosnoe found a strong relationship between friends' social activity and adolescent alcohol use for male athletes, but female athletes were found to be somewhat protected from alcohol use by their greater commitment to school and more positive friendships. Overall, male and female high school athletes have more academically-oriented friends, more socially-active friends, and drink more alcohol than non-athletes. Athletic boys, however, are more susceptible to the negative influences of socially-active friends, they exhibit higher levels of drinking, and they receive lower grades than athletic girls. Crosnoe closes with some insightful comments on future directions for research on gender differences, and the characteristics and consequences of adolescent athletic participation. Peggy C. Giordano, Monica A. Longmore, and Wendy D. Manning focus on the nature and significance of five qualities they consider unique to romantic relationships among adolescents. These researchers compare adolescent friendships to romantic relationships, drawing on qualitative interviews, focus groups, and handwritten notes and messages from adolescents. Using these rich data sources, the authors illustrate the following qualities of romantic relationships: communication awkwardness, heightened emotionality, asymmetry, power, and exclusivity and commitment. In addition, Giordano, Longmore, and Manning cogently argue that these unique qualities of romantic relationships provide the foundation for future research on adolescent dating that would significantly
Introduction
xiii
increase understanding of this salient aspect of the second decade of life. Moreover, the authors make a strong case that our understanding of adolescent problem behaviors (e.g. early sexual behavior, drug use, delinquency, teenage parenthood) will be enhanced by increased research attention to the features of romantic relationships identified in this chapter. The third section of the volume contains two chapters that focus on important substantive topics; however both chapters also highlight key theoretical and methodological issues for the sociological study of children and youth. Drawing on the work of William Corsaro and James Youniss, Manuela du Bois-Reymond, Janita Ravesloot, Yolanda te Poel, and Elke Zeijl argue that children and youth actively create peer groups and cultures to deal with the increasingly diverse and rapidly changing world they encounter. In this chapter, the authors focus on the innovative, productive capacities of peer groups in dealing with parents and teachers. Using focus group interviews as a setting in which to observe adolescents' social interaction, the authors specify the learning experiences of European youth ages 14 to 16 within 30 pre-existing peer groups (21 nativeDutch, 2 Moroccan, 2 culturally mixed non-native groups, and 5 heterogeneous groups of native and non-native youth). Recurrent themes in the data indicate that these youth generally learn to treat their parents with respect and to negotiate with them when necessary to have fun with their friends. On the other hand, youth consistently held disrespectful and calculating attitudes toward teachers. In addition, the authors' findings show how youth from different demographic groups develop peer cultures that provide diverse orientations to learning in school, risk behaviors, and a sense of how to succeed in society. Du Bois-Reymond, Ravesloot, te Poel, and Zeijl conclude with an insightful discussion of the "old and new functions of the peer group," which has implications for future research and theoretical development in this area. Tyrone A. Forman uses data from the 1998 Monitoring the Future Survey, a nationally representative sample of white high school seniors, to address a timely question: what are the social factors that shape white youth's racial attitudes today? Forman examines three factors that earlier researchers have found to influence white youth's racial attitudes (social background, social values, and academic orientation). Moreover, he proposes and implements an alternative way to measure racial attitudes, with indicators of more subtle and covert forms of prejudice that are widely thought to have supplanted earlier overt expressions of whites' negative racial attitudes. Overall, Forman's findings support his central hypotheses. For example, while the social demographic (e.g. males), social value (e.g. politically conservative), and academic orientation (e.g. frequently truant) variables still relate to traditional negative racial attitudes, a more pervasive existence of covert or laissez-faire prejudice is emerging among white youth.
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Forman's broader measures of racial attitudes make a significant methodological contribution to the literature, and his findings provide support for the increasingly important theory of "laissez-faire racism" or "color-blind racism." In the fourth section of this volume, Prudence Carter and Deanna Wilkinson provide insight into the social worlds of youth growing up in urban areas. Carter focuses on how gender identity shapes African American and Latino adolescents' daily peer interactions and school experiences. Carter draws on interview and survey data with low-income teenagers to address how race, class, and gender simultaneously shape the future life chances of youth growing up in economically distressed urban areas. Specifically, she delineates how gender identity differentially conditions the impact of structural features such as tracking, curricular limitations, and low teacher expectations on the school behaviors of young women and men. Carter illustrates how males' gender identity centers on being "hard" and females' create a "soft," but not too soft, identity. In addition, Carter reports that girls also had to appear "hard" at times to deal with their daily struggles. Being "hard" involves fighting, assertive interpersonal comments, and exhibiting a tough demeanor. Moreover, Carter discusses how gender identity differences influence males' and females' perceptions of and experiences with job employers. Overall, Carter shows how the daily behaviors that constitute these different gender identities impact males' and females' schooling and occupational attainment behaviors. Deanna Wilkinson investigates the link between violent events and social identity formation by focusing on young males living in a large city. She uses in-depth interviews with active violent offenders to illustrate how everyday social interaction on the street has important implications for identity development. Her findings are consistent with Carter's report on males' propensity to project a "hard" and "tough" stance in social situations. Wilkinson paints a comprehensive and detailed portrait of the daily peer interactions that virtually require gun violence by young men as they assert a positive identity and protect themselves from physical attacks. She specifies three prominent social identifies; "being 'crazy,' .... holding your own," and "being a 'punk' or a 'herb'" and presents data that shows how males maintain or change these identities through the use of violence. Overall, Wilkinson's chapter vividly illustrates the reciprocal relationship between the lack of opportunities at the macro-level and micro-level social processes where inner-city males find that violence is one of the only available strategies for gaining status in their social worlds. The final section of this volume contains two chapters regarding policy, politics, and theory. Sudhir Venkatesh details how the politics of labeling urban youth differentially involved in problem behavior significantly impacts social policy and service delivery. He draws on observations, informal interviews, and
Introduction
xv
conversations over time to delineate the interactions of local community service providers, youth, residents, and actors in the larger policy-making community. Venkatesh provides a comprehensive case study of how hierarchy in the social service field in one urban community reflects different "tiers" of service providers who focus their respective efforts on working with youth who exhibit varying degrees of "trouble." He illustrates how service providers at different tiers have different agendas and expertise and these differences undermine the cooperation and sharing the community had hoped to achieve in order to help the greatest numbers of youth in need. His findings have implications for addressing the adversity faced by the youth discussed in Wilkinson's chapter. Venkatesh highlights the importance of foundations calling for preliminary research on the various youth groupings in a community, the agencies that service the respective groups, and the opportunities for cooperation based on the extant networks and services to promote effective community-based funding initiatives. This chapter makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the dynamics between providers, policy, and politics that ultimately shape development programs for children and youth. In the last chapter of this volume, Gary Alan Fine, Wendy Espeland, and Dean Rojek cogently argue for a more prominent position of children in communitarian theory. The authors note that while children are symbolically positioned in many current policy debates, they are not given the same level of consideration in the popular theory of communitarianism that is influential in contemporary American politics. Communitarian theory (as explicated by Amitai Etzioni and others) notes that a "good society" needs a mix of individual rights and social responsibility; however, Fine and his associates argue that this theory lacks serous and systematic attention to processes of socialization through which children learn individuality and community. The authors persuasively present a number of justifications for accommodating children into communitarian theory. Fine, Espeland, and Rojek close by proposing five steps, based on recent sociological research on children and families, to modify the theory so that eventually the policy it shapes will allow children to become both autonomous actors and community citizens. In closing, I would like to acknowledge members of the Sociological Studies of Children and Youth Editorial Board for generously giving their time to review papers for this volume. Members of the Board include Patricia A. Adler, Peter Adler, Spencer E. Cahill, William A. Corsaro, Donna Eder, Gary Alan Fine, Sandra L. Hofferth, Jens Qvortrup, and Alford A. Young. I would also like to thank five other colleagues who provided constructive comments and suggestions regarding several papers: Nancy J. Herman, Melissa Landers-Potts, Bernard N. Meltzer, Robert G. Newby, and Katherine Brown Rosier. In
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addition, I am pleased to acknowledge the efforts of the contributing authors. Their chapters enhance our understanding of children and youth from a sociological perspective, and their insightful efforts are greatly appreciated by this first-time editor and proud uncle. Finally, I would like to dedicate this volume to my nephews, David and John, who frequently remind me of the joy and promise of childhood. REFERENCES Adler, P. A., & Adler, P. (1998). Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Corsaro, W. A. (1997). The Sociology of Childhood. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, A Sage Publications Company. Eder, D. (1995). School Talk: Gender and Adolescent Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Qvortrup, Jens., Bardy, M., Sgritta, G., & Wintersberger, H. (Eds) (1994). Childhood Matters: Social Theory, Practice, and Politics. Brookfield, VT: Avebury. Rosier, K. B. (2000). Mothering inner-city children: The Early School Years. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Schneider, B., & Stevenson, D. (1999). The Ambitious Generation: America's Teenagers Motivated but Directionless. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Thorne, B. (1993). Gender Play: Girls and boys in school. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
"WITHOUT THE PARENT YOU LOSE THE CHILD": TEACHERS' EXPECTATIONS AND PARENTS' (NON-)INVOLVEMENT Katherine Brown Rosier
THE INSTITUTIONALIZED STANDARD OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT Over the last two decades, parent participation in children's schooling has been increasingly viewed by educators, researchers, policy-makers, and the lay-public alike as essential for children's academic success. Educational researchers and theorists have produced a voluminous, and overwhelmingly enthusiastic, literature on the positive benefits of parents' involvement. The extensiveness of treatment of this issue is illustrated by Lareau and Shumar's (1996) note that over 2000 citations on "parent participation and school" are available from ERIC for the year 1994 alone. In line with this literature, policies implemented at national, state, and local levels now strongly encourage parent involvement. In fact, the idea that parents can and should be involved in their children's education..has attained the level of an institutionalized standard . . . espoused by a wide variety of social institutions [with] very little opposition to the idea (Lareau, 1989, p. 34).
Parents' active participation in their children's education is encouraged for a variety of reasons, including both improvement of schools and parental Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Volume 8, pages 3-42. Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN: 0-7623-0051-5
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KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
empowerment (for examples, see Fine, 1993; Winters, 1993). More often, the primary objective of parent participation is to increase parents' familiarity with teachers' requirements and therefore enhance their ability to assist children in meetings those requirements. Increases in parents' knowledge and skills are expected to translate into in-home practices that directly contribute to children's achievement. While direct effects such as these are clearly desirable, educators also frequently stress more indirect, symbolic benefits of participation. School personnel widely assume parents' involvement and participation in their children's schooling is indicative of their valuation of education (see, e.g. Lareau, 1987, 1989; Lareau & Shumar, 1996; Toomey, 1989). Furthermore, widespread agreement exists that parents' valuation of education - as reflected in their participation - affects children's own values, and in turn their aspirations and motivation to achieve. Such beliefs are illustrated by Van Galen's finding that the teachers and principals she studied felt they understood both the attitudes of parents with whom they had little contact as well as the impact these attitudes had on children. For example, one teacher reported that parents who don't get involved don't really seem concerned,and that's the attitudeyou see [amongthe children] at school. It's like they don't really have any motivation(Van Galen, 1987, p~ 87; see also Clark, 1983; Epstein & Becket, 1982; MacLeod, 1987; Seeley, 1984; Wahlberg, 1984).l Finally, motivation to achieve has long been associated with children's school success (e.g. see Lipset & Bendix, 1962). Thus a four-step model of the indirect effects of parents' participation is assumed, whereby: (1) parent participation reflects, and symbolizes to children, parents' valuation of education; (2) children's attitudes and values concerning education come to reflect to a great extent those demonstrated by their parents; (3) children's attitudes and values concerning education impact upon their motivation to succeed in school settings; and (4) motivation to achieve directly affects academic outcomes. As I demonstrate in a later section, teachers involved in my own research placed great emphasis on these symbolic, indirect effects when discussing parents' involvement in children's schooling. In the context of near-universal acceptance and enthusiasm for policies aimed at increasing parent involvement, possible negative consequences have received little attention. However, several researchers who question the advisability of such policy emphasis have highlighted this neglect (Fine, 1993; Lareau, 1989; Larean & Shumar, 1996; Toomey, 1989). In particular, Lareau and Shumar (1996) argue that evidence of positive child outcomes associated with parent
Without the Parent You Lose the Child
5
involvement is very weak but much heralded, while negative effects on the affective quality of parent-child relationships - especially in middle-income families - are strongly suggested by qualitative studies but apparently disregarded. Studies also reveal feelings of threat and embarrassment many lower-income parents experience when their attempts to comply with school requests for involvement reveal their own less-than-optimum educational skills (Larean, 1987, 1989; Lareau & Shumar, 1996; Rosier, 2000). In addition to differential educational skills, parents also bring to family-school encounters different economic resources, occupational flexibility, access to private transportation, and access to knowledgeable social networks. Lareau and Shumar argue that parent involvement policies often fail to take these class-based group differences in parental resources into account; all these differences tend to privilege middle-class parents' participation, while compliance with school requests for involvement is "hampered by the conditions and resources connected to [lower-income parents'] social-class positions" (1996, p. 29). These group differences in circumstances and resources likely account for much of the differential participation of middle- versus working- and lowerclass parents. Unfortunately, as Toomey argues, parent involvement policies may actually exacerbate already existing inequalities that put children from lower-income families at a disadvantage: Teachers... invite [parents] to come into the school to take part in activities... The parents most fikely to respond are those who are more confident in dealing with the school, those more confident in their own role in their children's education, those culturally less distant from the teachers, and those who have the time. Parents of this kind are already more likely to be giving support to their children's education at home... As a result of their contacts with the school, these parents are likely to learn more about their child's learning in school and how they can assist it. . . . [and] in this way, their children become doubly advantaged (1989, p. 286). In light of such processes, researchers such are Lareau and Shumar (1996; also see Lareau, 1987, 1989) and Toomey (1989; also see Fine, 1993; Van Galen, 1987) - who are clearly in the minority - suggest that parent participation policies have the potential to be more harmful than beneficial. Publication of such concerns and misgivings has done little to dampen enthusiasm for parent participation. That is not to say, however, that leading advocates are oblivious to such issues. Epstein and her collaborators, for example, have long acknowledged there are problems as well as promise inherent in the wide range of parent-involvement strategies currently being negotiated and instituted in school systems across the country. They recognize, for instance, that teachers often believe certain practices will benefit only "some chilch'en" because "some groups of parents" are less able and less willing to
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comply with requests (Epstein & Becker, 1982, p. 106; see also Epstein & Dauber, 1991), and that some teachers are poor candidates for building parent-teacher "partnerships" because they "blatantly blame families for children's failures" (Epstein, 1993, p. 714). I return to this latter issue of "blaming families" in my concluding remarks. For now, I merely note that despite acknowledging potential problems that may accompany the growing emphasis on parent involvement, advocates strongly believe the possible benefits are far more weighty. And in line with these beliefs, virtually all school systems - as well as teacher training programs - now stress the importance of involving parents in their children's schooling. In the following section, I turn to discussion of another - again relatively new but now extensive - area of research that few new teachers escape at least cursory exposure to before leaving their training institutions (Jussim, Madon & Chatman, 1994): the effects of teachers' expectations.
TEACHER EXPECTATIONS Over three decades ago, Rosenthal and Jacobson's study Pygmalion in the Classroom (1968) introduced what would become the widely-researched issue of effects of teachers' expectations for students' achievement on actual achievement outcomes. Despite considerable controversy that has surrounded this issue, Good asserts that findings from numerous studies have led to "a consensus that teachers' expectations can and sometimes do affect teacherstudent interaction and [thus] student outcomes" (1987, p. 33; see also Jussim et al., 1994). Rosenthal and Jacobson examined the effect of teachers' positive expectations (i.e. teachers were falsely led to believe that certain students would experience large gains in achievement), but the literature is dominated by studies which focus on negative expectations and processes (for an early study of this latter bent, see Rist, 1970, 1973). In fact, this emphasis is apparently quite appropriate, as Brophy (1983) concludes from his review of the teacher-expectations literature that sizable effects are considerably more likely when teachers' expectations for student achievement are low rather than high. Any thoughtful discussion of teacher expectation effects should acknowledge that in most cases there are likely no effects, primarily because teachers' expectations tend to reflect relatively accurate perceptions of children's abilities (e.g. see Doherty & Hier, 1988; Jussim et al., 1994). 2 However, that said, it is also important to recognize that even relatively small effects on the academic achievement of some children are cause for serious concern. Three general forms of expectation effects have been identified and examined: the effects of teachers' perceptual bias; self-fulfilling prophesy effects; and
Without the Parent You Lose the Child
7
sustaining expectations effects. These range respectively from being based in least to most accurate teacher perceptions, and from least to most often demonstrated in the research literature. First, researchers have examined the possible direct effects of teachers' perceptual bias. Farkas et al. describe this as a process whereby "teachers perceive lower levels of performance when evaluating poor, African American, or female students, and give lower grades even when the students' actual performance is no different from that of children with more favored characteristics" (1990, p. 128). Evidence of such clear teacher bias based on students' ascribed characteristics, however, is increasingly difficult to find. It is likely most practicing teachers have received at least some information and training to sensitize them to their possible biases, and this may help prevent such blatant discrimination against students. Even several decades ago such clear bias may have been overstated: recent reconsiderations of earlier studies that found direct effects of teacher bias on student grades have concluded that models were mis-specified - i.e. researchers failed to control for student behavior and interaction patterns between students and teachers (see Alexander, Entwisle & Thompson, 1987; Farkas et al., 1990). 3 The second two explanations for teacher-expectation effects are more complex and consider both the variable accuracy of teacher perceptions and the interaction processes neglected in earlier studies. The self-fulfilling prophesy explanation proposes that, first, teachers' originally develop false perceptions of students' abilities. 4 These perceptions set in motion a feed-back loop whereby low expectations are communicated to students in the form of differential treatment and demands for achievement, students perceive and interpret teachers' differential behaviors, and in response to these perceptions alter their own "self-concepts, achievement motivation, levels of aspiration, classroom conduct, and interactions with the teacher" (Good, 1987, p. 33). In the end, of course, teachers' originally false perceptions are confirmed - thus the self-fulfilling prophesy. Finally, researchers have also examined sustaining expectation effects (Cooper, 1979; Cooper & Good, 1983; Good, 1987; Saracho, 1991). These essentially accurate expectations act to sustain established patterns of student achievement, because teachers take previously developed behavior patterns for granted and "fail to see and capitalize on changes in student potential" (Good, 1987, p. 32). Sustaining expectations effects are clearly less dramatic than self-fulfilling prophesy effects, because they are associated merely with the maintenance - rather than change - of achievement patterns. As suggested above, sustaining expectation effects apparently occur more often than either self-fulfilling prophesy or perceptual bias effects, and of the three,
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sustaining expectation effects are more solidly grounded in accurate initial perceptions. Distinguishing between these three types of effects is important, because studies that fail to uncover direct evidence of teachers' bias or self-fulfilling prophesy effects may well be missing the more subtle sustaining expectations effects. These effects are in all likelihood most common (see Cooper, 1979), and deserve greater consideration and scrutiny despite their lessor drama. As Cooper notes, the acceptance of a sustaining, as opposed to altering, performance role for expectations hardly diminishes the significance of the phenomenon. Even the maintenance of below-average performance through teacher-expectation effects ought to be the focus of societal concern (1979, p. 393).In the following section, I argue that important actors may be missing from all our various conceptualizations of teacher expectation effects. That is, I argue that parents' behavior may be a critical - and rarely considered - variable that can profoundly influence the development of teachers' perceptions of, and resultant expectations for, children.
LINKING PARENT INVOLVEMENT AND TEACHER EXPECTATIONS In his oft-cited review of research on teacher expectations, Good describes processes that "set the stage" for both self-fulfilling prophesy and sustaining expectations effects: [1] Teachers form differential expectations for various students, [2] teachers act on these expectations by treating students differently, and [3] the students perceive this differential treatment and infer implications about what is expected of them. The stage is [thus] set for teacher expectation effects on student achievement (1987, p. 37). • . .
As noted earlier, Good argues that these effects are mediated through effects on children's "self-concepts~ achievement motivation, levels of aspiration, classroom conduct, and interactions with the teacher" (1987, p. 33). In much the same way as parents' behavior is assumed to affect children's beliefs, values, motivation, and resultant behavior, the literature suggests that teachers' definitions of the situation (i.e. their perceptions and expectations) are also: (1) communicated symbolically to children through their differential behavior; (2) children's self-attitudes and expectations for success in educational settings come to reflect to some extent those demonstrated by their teachers;
Without the Parent You Lose the Child
9
(3) these attitudes and expectations concenting their academic ability impact upon children's motivation to succeed in school settings; and finally, (4) motivation to achieve directly affects academic outcomes. It is hardly novel to argue that children perceive symbolic meanings inherent in the behaviors of others and often incorporate these meanings into their self-concepts, with behavioral consequences. This relatively simple theory of socialization lies at the heart of both the "teachers' expectations" literature as well as much that is said about the importance of parents' involvement in children's schooling. What is apparently somewhat novel, however, is to argue that teachers' expectations for children may be strongly influenced by their perceptions of meanings inherent in parents' behavior. That is, teachers may expect children of obviously involved and concerned parents to be highly motivated and to do well, while their expectations may be considerably lower for children whose parents' concern is not apparent. In the remainder of this paper, I draw on data from a longitudinal study of low-income children's transition into the early years of schooling to examine this proposition. METHODOLOGICAL
CONTEXT
OF THE STUDY
For several years (1990-1993) I followed the families of nine black children from low-income, inner-city neighborhoods in a large Midwestern city as the children moved from a Head Start program, to kindergarten, and on into the early elementary grades. As Head Start participants during the 1989-1990 school year, the children and their classmates were part of a year-long ethnographic study of preschool children's peer cultures conducted by William A. Corsaro (see Corsaro, 1993, 1994, 1995), and I assisted him with the project. As the school year drew to a close, we made plans to complete interviews with some of the parents in hopes of increasing our understanding of the children' s complex social worlds. With the assistance of Head Start teachers, I contacted ten children's mothers, and nine agreed to participate in this extension of the original study. In June of 1990, I completed the first set of lengthy, open-ended taped interviews with these mothers. All the mothers are black, all but one had some history of AFDC receipt in the previous five years, and each had a five-year-old child expected to begin kindergarten in the Fall of 1990. The women varied, however, in terms of their age, educational background, household composition, and employment status and occupational history (for a detailed description of the sample, see Rosier & Corsaro, 1993; Rosier, 2000). In addition to obtaining demographic information, questions in the first round of interviews prompted the mothers to talk extensively about their families'
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circumstances and their children's daily lives, and they responded with insight and candor. We were so pleased with the enthusiasm the mothers displayed and the quality of data produced in these initial interviews, I quickly made plans to extend the project even further and follow these families as the children moved into the early elementary grades. Before terminating formal data collection at the end of the 1992-1993 school year, I completed three more rounds of interviews with the mothers - during the children's kindergarten, first grade, and second grade years. I also participated with the families in a variety of school- and church-related activities, and visited and observed in their homes on less formal occasions. Interviews with mothers were wide-ranging and to some extent interviewee directed, but always included mothers' discussion of: (1) their child's typical day; (2) their child's experiences and performance in school; and (3) mothers' contact with their children's teachers. I also completed interviews with the children's kindergarten and first grade teachers, as well as half-day observations in several first grade classrooms (Bill Corsaro accompanied me on all observational visits and participated in approximately half the teacher interviews). Interviews with teachers were also lengthy, open-ended, and covered many topics. I began with questions about the teachers' careers, their teaching philosophies, what they found most and least pleasing about teaching, and how they organized their classrooms. More relevant to this paper, mid-way through the interviews I asked teachers to discuss their views on parental involvement. Then, in the latter part of interviews, teachers were asked to describe their "over-all assessment" of the particular child, including discussion of his or her academic and social strengths and weaknesses. Finally, I asked them to "describe the participation of [the particular child's] mother this year? What are your feelings about the role she's playing in [the child's] education?" At times I deviated from my planned schedule, phrasing questions differently or asking them in a different order, in response to teachers' own spontaneous introductions of topics I planned to pursue at later points. These interviews took place in the teachers' classrooms, either at the close of the school day, or in the case of several kindergarten teachers, during their lunch hours. As was true for the children's mothers, the teachers participated with considerable enthusiasm, and most produced extended responses to questions at all stages of the interview. In nearly every case, we exceeded the one hour I had prepared them to expect. These teachers uniformly displayed sincere concern for and dedication to their students, as well as genuine interest in our research on children's transition into schooling. 5 In the following sections, I first provide numerous examples from these data to demonstrate that teachers do indeed use information (or the lack of information) about parents' involvement in their children's schooling to help
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shape their expectations for children's achievement. I then present abbreviated narratives depicting two children's transitions into schooling to illustrate how differential parent involvement can impact both teachers' perceptions of particular students and their resultant behaviors toward those children.
ARE TEACHERS' EXPECTATIONS AFFECTED BY PARENTS' INVOLVEMENT? Much attention has been devoted to uncovering just what (academic and non-academic) information enters into teachers' early perceptions and definitions of individual children, and their consequent expectations for those children (see note nOo 4). Below 1 present data from teacher interviews to demonstrate that parents' behavior appears to contribute mightily to this definitional process. In particular, these data demonstrate that teachers' expectations are heightened when parents are obviously and actively involved, and expectations are lowered when parental involvement is not apparent. When asked directly how they would "describe the role of parents in encouraging their children's success in education?" the teachers I interviewed unanimously agreed on the great importance of parents' involvement. The following remarks begin to illustrate how highly such involvement was valued, and they are typical of teachers' initial responses to this question: I would say it's very important, and probably the earlier you can get parents to start to working with their children [the better] [Ms Sampsel, Kindergarten]. Its the pivot point - parent involvement- and that's what this school was based upon [Ms Weston, Kindergarten]. Ahh! [Parent involvementis] the most important thing in the world! [Ms Garfield, 1st grade]. These very brief excerpts illustrate the great value teachers place on parental participation. It could be argued, however, that such statements are hardly surprising. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine teachers meeting such a question with assertions that parents' role is unimportant and makes little difference to children. However, I want to point out that six teachers (i.e. over 40% of the teachers I interviewed in person 6) spontaneously introduced the topic of parent involvement before I initiated this discussion, while answering other questions posed earlier in the interview. In most of these cases (5), parent involvement was mentioned as part of teachers' descriptions of the "most pleasing" and "least pleasing" aspects of their jobs. Four of the teachers bemoaned a lack of parent involvement that was for them among the least pleasing aspects. These included Ms Bancroft] who identified
12
KATHERINE B R O W N ROSIER some of the parents that don't give a hoot. [laugh] You know, its really sad when some of the kids are so fired up, and they want to come to school and, I don't know, the parents just - they won't help 'em at a l l . . . I really try to build up their self-confidence that, you know, they can do things. And so many of them are, I don't know, beaten down. Parents just don't take time with 'em like I feel they should.
O n l y o n e t e a c h e r ( M s N o r t h ) d e s c r i b e d a high l e v e l o f i n v o l v e m e n t a n d c o o p e r a t i o n as s o m e t h i n g t h a t c o n t r i b u t e d greatly to t h e p l e a s u r e s h e d e r i v e d f r o m h e r w o r k . O n e other, a k i n d e r g a r t e n t e a c h e r w h o s e s t u d e n t s w e r e all b l a c k a n d r e s i d e n t s o f a v e r y l o w - i n c o m e s e c t i o n o f t h e city, also i n t r o d u c e d the i s s u e o f p a r e n t a l s u p p o r t m o r e g e n e r a l l y p r i o r to a n y specific q u e s t i o n a b o u t this f r o m me. In this case, t h e t e a c h e r i n t r o d u c e d t h e t o p i c w h i l e d i s c u s s i n g c o n t a c t s h e w o u l d h a v e w i t h h e r s t u d e n t s ' f u t u r e t e a c h e r s . W i t h i n this c o n t e x t , s h e n o t e d t h a t s h e also s t a y e d in t o u c h w i t h h e r f o r m e r s t u d e n t s ' p a r e n t s as well, a n d t h e n w e n t o n to d e s c r i b e the " p a r t n e r s h i p " s h e a t t e m p t e d to f o r g e d w i t h p a r e n t s (see also M s H i l l ' s r e m a r k s b e l o w ) . It is i m p o r t a n t to n o t e t h a t in t h e s e i n s t a n c e s , discussion of parental participation was initiated by the teachers with virtually n o e n c o u r a g e m e n t f r o m me. T h i s s e r v e s to f u r t h e r u n d e r s c o r e t h e s a l i e n c e o f this i s s u e f o r t e a c h e r s . I n a d d i t i o n to e x p r e s s i n g a g e n e r a l h i g h v a l u a t i o n o f a c t i v e p a r e n t i n v o l v e m e n t in c h i l d r e n ' s s c h o o l i n g , t e a c h e r s w e r e at t i m e s v e r y e x p l i c i t a b o u t t h e i r b e l i e f t h a t p a r e n t i n v o l v e m e n t w a s e s p e c i a l l y critical b e c a u s e it affects c h i l d r e n ' s attitudes a n d m o t i v a t i o n . C o n s i d e r t h e f o l l o w i n g : [Parents' role is] extremely important. I think that if the parents don't encourage their children, more than likely the child is not going to put forth a lot of effort. A few children are self-motivated.., but most children, unless the parents stress the importance of education and show the child that they feel that the education is important, I think the kids are not going to do anything much with it [Ms Nelbert, 1st grade]. It would be nice if they [parents] would come to visit ... and spend time and let them know that they're special and that education is an important thing... Even if the parents didn't come to help as such, if they just came to visit once in awhile and to really show the children that school is important and you need to do a good job and you can't - you know, you come to school to learn and not to goof around and disrupt everybody" [Ms Bancroft, Kindergarten]. I feel that parents should b e . . . coming up to see what's goin' on in the classroom rather than just waitin' for report card time to come h o m e . . . I have about four parents that come in and help o u t . . . And I think that is very important. It helps the child with - you know, the children whose parents come, they feel very good when Mom comes in the door [Ms North, 1st grade]. I think its extremely important that parents instill in their children the attitude that school is their work ... The children that I have, whose parents have come in and worked, I feel have a totally different attitude and investment in the class [Ms Parson, 1st grade].
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S o m e teachers went even further, and m a d e it quite clear that their perceptions of particular parents' i n v o l v e m e n t did indeed influence their expectations for individual children. A l t h o u g h no one said "I expect kids whose parents are i n v o l v e d to do better," this sentiment is i n d e e d suggested in the interview excerpts below: I guess because of my strategies ... and with hard work, [my students] achieve. I think they really, really achieve. So - and you know, parental support means so much. I tell my parents at the beginning of the school year, 'I can't do it alone, its a team effort.' And that's what I expect. I have expectations for parents as well as for the children. And it makes a big difference, at the end of the year I can really telt those students whose parents have been supportive and cooperated with me during the year [Ms Hill, Kindergarten]. I feel probably the largest problem facing American education is getting the parents involved with the education of their children ... developing some sort of way to bring the parents more closely into the school to help the child. Many parents do help their children. And you can readily pick those out [Ms Holden, Grade 1J. Many times if there's not a caring parent in the family, you know, they don't do as well. But children who's parents care, they do great in here [Ms Fulton, Kindergarten]. Finally, I present one last excerpt from m y data on teachers' general beliefs about parent i n v o l v e m e n t . Here Ms Garfield, a first grade teacher in an all-black Catholic school, succinctly s u m m a r i z e d the arguments I make in this section: Ahh! [Parent involvement is] the most important thing in the world! Without the parents' participation, you almost lose the child ... because parents have to provide the environment, they have to provide the incentive, for them to learn [Ms Garfield, 1st grade]. With this brief c o m m e n t , Ms Garfield expressed the views I feel were shared b y all the teachers i n v o l v e d in this research. That is: (1) teachers highly value parent i n v o l v e m e n t ; (2) they value this i n v o l v e m e n t in large part because they believe it motivates children; and (3) teachers believe children whose parents are not i n v o l v e d are to some extent "lost" regardless of teachers' efforts. These m a y seem quite reasonable beliefs; they are certainly very m u c h in line with the current popularization and "standardization" of p a r e n t - i n v o l v e m e n t initiatives that have swept the n a t i o n ' s schools in recent years. If we ask, however, w h y it is that teachers lower their expectations for c h i l d r e n ' s performance w h e n they perceive lack of parental participation and concern, the answer reveals m u c h irony in this situation. That is, teachers quite reasonably believe and act u p o n the idea that parents' actions c o n v e y values and expectations to their children, children perceive and incorporate these values and expectations into their o w n developing self-concepts, and c h i l d r e n ' s self-concepts in turn affect their motivation to achieve. Yet teachers i n v o l v e d
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KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
in this research seemed unaware that their own attitudes about these matters e.g. 'this student whose parent doesn't care won't put forth much effort' - may be similarly communicated to children through daily interaction and can be expected to have similar impact. Once again the issue of accuracy of teachers' perceptions becomes critical at this point. Just as teachers' expectations are less problematic if based in accurate perceptions of students, teachers' beliefs concerning the critical nature parents' involvement might not be as problematic if their perceptions of parents were always accurate. Unfortunately, teachers' perceptions of parents' educational values - and of their activities in support of those values - can be quite mistaken for a variety of reasons, and these false definitions of the situation can lay the foundation for a very unfortunate chain of events. It is just such a process that I highlight in the following narratives of two children's transitions into the early years of elementary schooling. These narratives demonstrate how particular teachers use and interpret information (or lack of information) about particular parents' involvement to help shape their expectations for those parents' children. Excerpts from teacher interviews presented above already offer convincing evidence that teachers' expectations are indeed influenced by parents' (apparent) involvement, and to some extent the narratives merely lend additional support to this finding and show in some detail interactive processes that can contribute to the development of expectations. In addition, however, the narrative analyses permit me to take these arguments a bit further. As Doherty and Heir correctly point out, teacher expectations are not "automatically self-fulfilling" [or, I would add, "sustaining"]: to become so, they must be translated into behavior that will communicate the expectations to the student and shape his behavior accordingly" (1988, p. 333). In addition to illustrating how teachers at times incorporate perceptions of parental behaviors into their expectations for children, then, the following narratives also demonstrate how these expectations, once formed, are translated into differential achievement-related communication and behaviors. It is these words and deeds - not the expectations themselves - that have the potential to impact upon students' actual achievement.
J E R E M I A H A N D ZENA: S I M I L A R S T U D E N T S , DIS-SIMILAR EXPECTATIONS Jeremiah Stevens and Zena Worthy were similar in many ways, but their situations differed dramatically in others. Both were students in the Head Start center we studied; Jeremiah attended the morning class and Zena attended in the afternoon. They were therefore not classmates, and since then have not
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attended the same school, nor do they live in the same neighborhood. However, several factors make them well-suited for comparative analysis. First, both attended kindergarten at neighborhood schools within walking distance from their homes. This was true for most children in the city, but since attendance in kindergarten was optional, parents occasionally chose to enroll their children in schools more convenient to work or sitters. Second, both Jeremiah and Zena attended kindergartens which met for only half-days. Again, this was the norm both throughout the school district and within my sample. However, the several children involved in this study who attended full-day kindergartens programs seemed to have an easier time adjusting to the rigors of first grade. Third, beginning in first grade, both Jeremiah and Zena joined the 25% of public school students in the city who were required to participate in mandatory, court-ordered busing designed to achieve desegregation in the city's public schools. Both spent 20-30 minutes in transit to overwhelmingly white communities outside the central city, and both entered classrooms where white children far out-numbered black. Busing introduces different challenges into this important transition period, and especially appears to affect children's peer relations and parents' involvement in schooling (see Calabrese, 1990). In this analysis, I examine parental involvement within this controversial, challenging, and understudied context. Finally, Zena and Jeremiah were very comparable students, experiencing similar levels of academic success in their early school careers. Each entered kindergarten judged slightly superior to their average classmates, but neither was described as a "top" or "excellent" student by their kindergarten or first grade teachers. Instead, Zena's and Jeremiah's teachers described them both as "solid" and "average" students who typically received Bs and Cs on report cards, often "just missing" honor roll status (which requires a B average, with no more than one C in academic subjects). All these similarities make the two cases ideal for comparison and examination of how parents' involvement-related behavior may be interpreted by teachers, how teachers' expectations for children can reflect these interpretations, and how teachers' behavior toward children can then in turn reflect these expectations. Jeremiah's mother Amy, and Zena's mother Marissa, also resembled one another in important ways. Both mothers believed strongly in the importance of education, and - prior to their children's entry into elementary school - both expected they would be excellent students (see Stevenson, Chen & Utal, 1990, and Alexander & Entwisle, 1988, who report that such high expectations among low-income black parents are quite common). As they began to receive feedback from kindergarten and first grade teachers, both mothers were
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KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
dissatisfied, and believed their children should do better. But important differences in the two mothers' behaviors - which I will argue were more reflective of differential resources than differential values - seemed to influence teachers' expectations for their children's achievement, and teachers' behaviors in line with those expectations. Below, I describe each child's transition into public schooling in turn, highlighting their mothers' involvement and their teachers' responses to that involvement. I begin with Jeremiah.
Jeremiah and Amy Stevens: Intense Involvement and High Expectations Jeremiah Stevens was the only child of Amy Stevens, and he lived with his mother, grandmother, and two uncles since his birth, in the same rented duplex where Amy spent most of her own childhood. Jeremiah's father was active in his early life, but died in an accident before Jeremiah' s second birthday. Amy, a high school graduate, briefly attended college but left during her first year to care for her seriously ill mother. Amy was 24 years old when Jeremiah was born, and although she briefly received AFDC after his birth, she soon began the family day care business which provided her income since that time. As Amy's mother's health improved, the elder Miz Stevens also joined this enterprise, and together they cared for well over a dozen children most days throughout the year. Although Jeremiah was always eligible for free lunch and textbook assistance in public school, Amy's income remained relatively stable - though modest throughout our acquaintance. Beyond income stability, Jeremiah also enjoyed a very stable home life in other important respects. His place of residence, relationships with adults, and his own and his mother's daily routines were all sources of continuity in his life. Amy often described her own past as a school child, and her mother's diligent monitoring of her school work and social life. She described Miz Stevens' high expectations for her seven children, and the strict rules she enforced despite working both day and evening jobs throughout most of Amy's childhood. Amy recalled how she and her siblings were allowed little freedom to socialize with other children, and she described her routine as a school child: "You come straight home, you come straight in the house, you do not let nobody in the house, you do not open the door." They were expected to find friendship in church and school activities, and with one another, and they were to make education their top priority. Amy connected her mother's attitude with her own achievement in school: "I kept good grades, my Momma don't believe in bad grades. And too many "Cs" is a bad grade to her, back then." Later, Amy clearly attempted to reproduce this atmosphere of intense control and high expectations. She, too, severely restricted Jeremiah's interaction with
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neighborhood children, and the many "babysittin' kids" provided him with ready-made playmates comparable to the companionship his mother had found among her brothers and sisters. Amy repeatedly told me she would not permit Jeremiah to interact with any in the community, because I just don't trust 'era . . . This neighborhood is just too rough. As Jeremiah got older, he increasingly resisted these restrictions. Amy responded by involving him in structured activities like swimming lessons (paid for by one of Amy's brothers), a summer garden club at the neighborhood school, and a church drill team. She thereby addressed his desire for interaction with other children while insuring adult monitoring and control over these contacts. Amy also diligently supervised Jeremiah's schooling. Although every mother involved in this research monitored her child's educational activities somewhat, none matched the in-depth knowledge of classroom routines and materials, nor the constant monitoring and direction, that Amy displayed. In each of our interviews, Amy responded to my requests for description of Jeremiah's typical day in part by providing remarkable (and at times quite tedious) detail about her routine activities in support of Jeremiah's education. For example, before he entered school, Amy described how she worked with Jeremiah to learn his letters, colors, and numbers: I just put all the letters on there, and then I give him twenty-six colors and he has to go and circle the ABCs in order, with a different color, so I make sure he knows them when he sees them. So we started on that, when he had to circle the letters, with colors. And that's how he learned his colors very well, too. And when we got that down, we went to the numbers . . . . So, as far as the studying goes, we pretty much got it down. Now, even though he knows them, he gets mad sometimes when it comes time that he has to write the same thing every day, over and over again. But I say "You eat three meals a day, too, but you never get tired of eatin"!
Again, Jeremiah resisted his mother's practices, but Amy did not relent, nor did her diligence decline when Jeremiah began school. When he entered kindergarten, she continued to demand a set amount of time spent on educational activities each day, despite the fact that Jeremiah's required homework was often easily completed in a fraction of that time. Amy also believed Jeremiah should have more homework (see Stevenson, Chen & Utal, 1990, who found this was common among black and Hispanic - but not white - parents they studied), and she occasionally demonstrated higher standards and expectations for his work than his teachers. Amy also attempted to be highly involved with Jeremiah's teachers and classrooms. She occasionally visited Jeremiah's classroom during Head Start, but the distance of the center from their home prohibited her from doing so on
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KATHERINE B R O W N ROSIER
a r e g u l a r basis. D u r i n g k i n d e r g a r t e n , h o w e v e r , J e r e m i a h a t t e n d e d a s c h o o l s e v e r a l b l o c k s f r o m t h e i r h o m e , a n d A m y i n t e r a c t e d w i t h his t e a c h e r daily as s h e d e l i v e r e d h i m to s c h o o l a n d r e t r i e v e d h i m e a c h day. S h e w a n t e d to k n o w o f a n y p r o b l e m s , e s p e c i a l l y m i s b e h a v i o r s , as s o o n as t h e y o c c u r r e d , a n d t h e teacher kept her appraised during their brief interactions. Amy's responsibilities at h o m e k e p t h e r f r o m v o l u n t e e r i n g i n t h e c l a s s r o o m e x c e p t o n rare o c c a s i o n s , b u t she d i d at t i m e s s p e n d s h o r t p e r i o d s o b s e r v i n g t h e class. Jeremiah's kindergarten teacher, Ms Sampsel, was a white woman who had t a u g h t for t w e n t y y e a r s in s e v e r a l d i f f e r e n t s c h o o l s y s t e m s , a n d in a v a r i e t y o f e l e m e n t a r y grades. T h e g r e a t m a j o r i t y o f h e r c u r r e n t s t u d e n t s w e r e b l a c k c h i l d r e n f r o m t h e s u r r o u n d i n g l o w - i n c o m e n e i g h b o r h o o d . In o u r i n t e r v i e w , M s S a m p s e l v o i c e d a t h e m e a p p a r e n t in i n t e r v i e w s w i t h m o s t k i n d e r g a r t e n a n d s o m e first g r a d e t e a c h e r s ; t h a t is, she e x p r e s s e d p l e a s u r e in s e e i n g m o s t p a r e n t s o n a r e g u l a r b a s i s as t h e y b r o u g h t t h e i r c h i l d r e n to the n e i g h b o r h o o d s c h o o l e a c h day. M s S a m p s e l c o n f i r m e d m u c h o f w h a t A m y h a d said a b o u t h e r activities in s u p p o r t o f J e r e m i a h ' s e d u c a t i o n . T h e t e a c h e r ' s p r a i s e for A m y ' s h i g h i n v o l v e m e n t , h o w e v e r , w a s m i x e d w i t h c a u t i o u s c o n c e r n t h a t this m o t h e r m i g h t b e o v e r - d o i n g it s o m e w h a t . F o r e x a m p l e , as M s S a m p s e l d i s c u s s e d J e r e m i a h ' s performance, she commented: His attendance is excellent. His Morn is very much into his [laugh] performance, probably to a fault. I - you know, I think that he's becoming very - I think while he's doing a task, on the top of his mind is "I've got to - if I don't get this done right, I'm gonna be in deep trouble." ... I think he knows if he - like if he misses something, maybe Amy won't let him play for a couple days ... She kind of does over-kill on things. So I think he does become very uptight, he doesn't want to fail. Later, M s S a m p s e l a r t i c u l a t e d a "fine l i n e " s h e felt A m y w a l k e d b e t w e e n p r e s s u r e a n d c o n t r o l t h a t w o u l d e n c o u r a g e J e r e m i a h ' s success, a n d p r e s s u r e a n d c o n t r o l t h a t m i g h t i n s t e a d c o n t r i b u t e to d e s t r u c t i v e rebellion: She obviously takes very good care of this little guy. And she's just putting a lot of herself into his upbringing... I don't think Jeremiah's one of these kids who can grow up Topsylike, and they still know everything, and tow the line, and do fine. I think if he would have not gotten into Head Start, if Amy would not work so hard with him, I think that he would be having some struggles. And I don't know how that's gonna work itself out . .. And I think a lot of these black mothers see also what happens to little black boys when they get about fifth grade. They start - well, and I think that she's determined that this is not gonna happen. She's not gonna let it happen.., there's a fine line. And I think even at this point he is rebelling against that, and you can see it in his reaction to her. And sometimes I'll try to balance that a little bit in the classroom, I'll cut him a little slack sometimes. Or say to her "be sure and compliment Jeremiah, he did a good job doing this." Because I think often she does bear down on things, [and] I wouldn't want to see him become so paranoid about that that he really is afraid to take a guess, take a gamble on an answer.
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She concluded, however, that "if she's consistent in it, that's better than somebody who doesn't give a rip." And despite Jeremiah's apparent anxiety, the teacher noted that he "works hard," is "persistent" and "finishes tasks," and "is just right up there with the kids that know what they need to know." Ms Sampsel had a great deal of knowledge about Amy's practices with Jeremiah, and she shared my own concern that perhaps this mother pushed too hard and was too concerned about every facet of his education (see also Lareau & Shumar, 1996; Wexler, 1992 for discussions of teachers' similar concerns). It was fascinating to hear how Ms Sampsel acted on her concerns by attempting to offset what she perceived as excessive pressure at home by cutting Jeremiah "some slack" in the classroom, and making a special effort to encourage Amy to acknowledge his positive accomplishments. At other times, it was clear she chose to down-play Jeremiah's frequent though minor misbehaviors - especially his tendency to become over-excited and rambunctious - in light of fear Amy might over-react. The following Fall, Jeremiah was bused to a distant school located in a working-class white neighborhood. He entered a class of only 14 students where he and two other bused children were the only black students. As he made this transition, Amy recalled her own experiences as a bused student in seventh and eighth grade, when she "didn't have to worry about Momma walkin' up to school and checkin' on me, she couldn't get way out there!" Furthermore, I wouldn't say I was a problem child, but I got away with as much as I could. Without you know, you know what buttons to push, you know what you could do or couldn't do. You do somethin' too bad, they gonna call your parents. I would never cross that line. I ' d never want M o m m a to know what I be doin' in school.
Amy drew on these memories to help her make sense of Jeremiah's situation, and they strengthened her resolve to continue keeping close tabs on Jeremiah despite the physical distance that would now separate her from his school. She was, however, forced to change the routine she'd established to stay informed about Jeremiah's activities at school. She could no longer regularly converse informally with his teacher, nor drop in unexpectedly for brief periods. While she was able to arrange a ride to the Parent/Teacher conference in the Fall, lack of transportation prohibited her from routinely attending other daytime school events, or activities in the evenings. Despite the ways the school's distance limited her participation, Amy kept informed and involved through frequent phone calls and written correspondence with Jeremiah's teacher, Ms North. Written communication was especially common, and notes originating from both Amy and Ms North typically concerned Jeremiah's performance on academic tasks (although his behavior
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KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
was a frequent topic as well). Amy also remained involved through intense supervision of Jeremiah's work. In our interview mid-way through Jeremiah's first grade year, Amy provided amazing detail about every aspect of Jeremiah's schooling - his performance, his behavior, his teacher, his interaction and friendships with classmates, and his homework schedule. Beyond supervising homework and requiring additional work, Amy also attempted to influence the teacher's standards for acceptable work. Early in the school year, Amy used her one opportunity to interact with Ms North in person at the Parent-Teacher conference to stress the high standards she held for her son, and to complain that the teacher at times gave high marks for shoddy performance. She recalled telling Jeremiah: Your teacher accept this sloppy stuff? And you got a smiling face on this? Well, I don't like it. You don't ride your bike today. According to Amy, Ms North responded to these complaints by telling her to "be hard, but don't be that hard, 'cause he's doing very well compared to some of the kids." Ms North also later recalled this conversation and said that while Jeremiah's work might appear "not good to her, judging him by the class he's doing good." This is an important example of A m y ' s activities, because she did more than just support and reinforce school learning; she also tried to shape the teacher's expectations of Jeremiah to more closely match her own. Such attempts to "customize" children's schooling experiences have been found to be more common among middle and upper-middle income parents than among lower income parents like Amy (see Lareau, 1987). Ms North was a black woman in her early 30s who had taught first or second grade in IPS schools for seven years. Earlier, she taught briefly in an all-black, inner-city school in a major Northeastern city. Ms North's response to one of my interview questions set her apart from all other teachers involved in this study: She was the only teacher to mention parents' support in the context of describing the m o s t pleasing things about her work. Furthermore, as part of a lengthy description of classroom routines, she commented: "One good thing about this class, I get to see my parents almost every day, because most parents pick up their kids . . . I get to see almost all of 'em, except for my bused children." Later, she returned to difficulties inherent in busing: The children whose parents come, they feel very good when Mom comes in the door ... [At] this school, we get a lot of parental help. Now, I haven't had any from my bused children, you know, which is understandable. All the parents that come out and help are the neighborhood parents. Like Jeremiah's kindergarten teacher, Ms North saw real disadvantages to busing young children away from neighborhood schools. Amy, however, seemed
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to overcome those disadvantages; while she was rarely able to visit, Ms North was impressed with her consistent involvement. She recognized A m y ' s fight control over Jeremiah's schooling ("she's hard on him when it comes to school"), but unlike Ms Sampsel gave no indication she felt A m y ' s strategies might be excessive. In fact, she argued that "she needs to be [hard on him], especially with the boys, today." When I asked her to elaborate, she continued: She doesn't let 'ira get away with things as far as, when he know he's supposed to do somethin', she makes him do it. No "ands" "ifs" or "buts" about it. . . . she just makes sure he's doin' what he's supposed to do when its supposed to be done... When I was teachin' all black kids I was a lot harder on my class, because I didn't want them goin' out here and endin' up bein' a statistic. Either dead, or in jail, or on drugs. With her, she's gonna make sure he's gettin' a education. You know, he's not gonna be a drop-out, 'cause she's not gonna let 'im. Although Jeremiah's ldndergarten and first grade teachers felt somewhat differently about the appropriateness of A m y ' s intense monitoring and control, both believed her tactics might help Jeremiah avoid negative outcomes all too common for "black boys" from low-income families and neighborhoods. Both also believed that without his mother's constant pushing, Jeremiah would likely have more difficulties. Jeremiah's transition into schooling was, on the whole, quite positive and laid a foundation for future achievement and productive collaboration between home and school. A m y ' s consistent involvement and concern prepared him well for school and helped to offset the potentially unsettling and alienating effects that too often accompany mandatory busing to distant schools (Calabrese, 1990). In addition, A m y ' s involvement also clearly affected Jeremiah's teachers. The kindergarten teacher's perception concerning A m y ' s perhaps over-zealous participation contributed to her development and enactment of strategies she hoped might buffer and shield Jeremiah from parental control she feared might otherwise overwhelm or immobilize him. His first grade teacher saw no need for such tactics, perhaps because her interaction with A m y was much more limited, s These teachers' awareness of A m y ' s devotion to her son, concern for his success, and extremely high valuation of educational achievement seemed also to affect their evaluations of his abilities. In particular, Ms Sampsel interpreted Jeremiah's reluctance to offer answers and his delays in completing his work as nervousness about his mother's potential disapproval and consequent punishments that might ensue should he do poorly. She did not seem to consider the possibility he simply might not have the ability or motivation to do better. Similarly, Ms North stated several times she was convinced Jeremiah could achieve at a level higher than the Cs and Bs he typically earned. She reportedly
22
KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
"told him often, that you can do better than this. And I ' v e written to his mother that I don't think I ' m gettin' his best effort." Again, like Ms Sample, this teacher also did not consider that Jeremiah's (really quite decent) grades might truly reflect his abilities. Both teachers' reported behavior toward and communication with Jeremiah consistently conveyed their beliefs he was capable of high achievement. Part of the explanation for the teachers' beliefs that Jeremiah was a more capable student than he typically demonstrated could certainly lie in their strong beliefs about the important effects parents' educational values have on children's motivation to achieve. Their awareness of Amy's hard work and her intense desire for Jeremiah's success may help to explain these teachers' convictions that this was a child who could be an excellent student, despite his failure to demonstrate such academic aptitude. As the following narrative of Zena's movement into schooling will illustrate, other children who perform very comparably can be evaluated quite differently. At this point, I move on to examine Zena's much more rocky transition into early elementary school.
Zena, Marissa, and Ms Majors: "To Me, it's a Signal When They Don't Come" Zena and Jeremiah had many common experiences as they negotiated the transition from Head Start into the early grades. However, while Jeremiah's home life was characterized by stability and continuity, Zena's family context was quite different. Zena is the oldest of three children of Marissa Dunbar and Duane Worthy, who were 17 and 18 years old when Zena was born. Neither parent graduated from high school, and both had been sporadically employed in low-paying jobs throughout their adult lives. Marissa and Duane never married or cohabited, but they maintained their relationship through many hard times, and cooperated in raising their children. Marissa and I met for our initial interview at Duane's mother's home, which Mrs. Worthy shared with Duane and two other sons. Marissa cleared away suitcases to make room for us at the table, then explained her living situation: "I don't really stay here. I don't have a place, we don't have a place now. So we're like stayin' anywhere we can." This was the first indication of the severe problems this family faced; I later learned much more about their troubled history. For example, Marissa told of how she and the children became homeless, their movement "from shelter to homes to shelter to homes," and Marissa's eventual success finding a home for the family. Zena had been absent for much of the winter from the Head Start center we studied, and I eventually learned
Without the Parent You Lose the Child
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that Marissa had been unable to keep up the bills where she was living, and had moved with the children to a homeless shelter and transferred Zena to another Head Start center. Zena returned to her original classroom when Marissa left the shelter several months later to stay with her grandmother, but the elderly woman soon lost patience with this arrangement. As Zena's Head Start year came to a close, the family was moving among the homes of several relatives. Although Marissa had kept her housekeeping job throughout most of this period, shortly prior to our first interview she was fired. She then began another stint on welfare; despite considerable work experience, she had been on and off AFDC at least four times since Zena's birth. In November of 1990, Marissa finally succeeded in renting a duplex with the aid of a Section VIII housing grant, after spending several more months in a different shelter. Although Zena's parents' personal relationship was often strained to near-breaking, once Marissa was settled in her new apartment, Duane resumed his co-parenting practices, spending most free time with the family but continuing to live with his mother. Given Marissa and Duane's many difficulties, concerns about their children's schooling at times took a backseat to more pressing problems of poverty and homelessness, unemployment, lack of transportation, and personal traumas that plagued the family. Nonetheless, it was clear that both parents maintained concern for Zena' s education, and they acted on these concerns. This is apparent first in the mere fact that Zena consistently attended Head Start, albeit in two different centers, throughout the 1989-1990 school year. Beyond this, Marissa's and Duane's strategies were much less focussed and specific than Amy's, but they did what they could when they could. For example, during our first interview Marissa said she'd missed opportunities to work with Zena because she had always been working. But, she said, Duane would "teach her things when he can," and "now I don't have a job, [so] we sit down and have her learn things, and she's really anxious to learn. She'll cry if we don't sit down with her and teach her." Marissa also reported visiting the Head Start center several times (Corsaro once met both Marissa and Duane at the center), and she described her interaction with teachers there: We sat down and we talked about what she had learned and what I think she needed to lem:n. And I told them, her colors, she needs to really practice on her colors and on her shapes. And to this day, since she got in school, she knows those colors and she knows those shapes. They tell you to work with her at home when you can. And they will work with her in school, and you put it together and it stays up there.
Marissa thus expressed a notion of parmership with Zena's teachers. At a later point in our first interview, this theme of partnership was again apparent, but
24
KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
Marissa's words were tempered by a pessimism that seemed to emerge from memories of her own educational career (see also Rosier, 2000; Corsaro & Rosier, 1992). W h e n I asked Marissa "what do you think public schools are like as far as offering opportunities for Zena and for your other kids?" her reply suggested both hopeful expectations for Z e n a ' s future as well as enduring bitterness about her own youthful experiences: Public school is just - if it's like when I was growin' up, it's nothin'. Well, I guess - well, I just want to see them stay in school, 'cause I think school is the best thing for 'em. I don't want to see them drop out like I did, 'cause you don't have anything. I want to see them go on, whereas when they get to a certain age, its really hard to keep a child in school. But I would like for them to stay in school, we're gonna help 'em as much as possible. We probably don't know everything,we probably don't know that much, but what we do know we'll teach them so they'll know. And someoneelse will come along like the teachers, and teach them more. And put all that together, it could be a smart kid. Marissa rarely mentioned childhood experiences, but when she did her recollections were primarily negative. Both Marissa and Duane remembered school as unstimulating and unsupportive. And despite their parents' urgings, as teenagers they made their own decisions: My mother, she thought educationwas the best for all of us. I mean, we was up there, with a broken leg or whatever, we was in school. But as we got older - I didn't graduate, and he [Duane] didn't, so that's why I want to see them graduate. But when they get to a certain age, and they think they know it all, and they're out of your control, you can't really do nothin' but tell 'em, you know, sit down and tell 'em that school will help you get through life. Marissa reported that her own mother had "gone through the same thing I have just went through," (homelessness) and had also moved her family between the homes of various relatives. Marissa described a chaotic childhood much like her own children's early years. The dislocations and insecurity of her early life had been exacerbated by Marissa's mother's seeming indifference, and a gruff and punitive parenting style. Later, as a young adult, Marissa became increasingly estranged from her mother, grandmother, and other family members. When she'd needed them most, they'd declined to help, and Marissa recalled such remarks as "well, we got somethin' to do," or "I c a n ' t help you, I ' m busy fillin' my jars with jelly," and she noted that "my mother, she's got every excuse in the world." Marissa understandably had a desperate desire to do better, in terms of both the material and emotional needs of her children. She was convinced that facilitating their success in school was the best way to help them break the family pattern of poverty and insecurity. In stark contrast to Amy, however, Marissa's experiences had provided her with few tools to work with towards
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this goal, and continual stress and changing family circumstances worsened her difficulties. While the two mothers shared similar values and goals, translating these into specific strategies was much more problematic for Marissa. In spite of all this, Zena's experiences in Head Start were remarkably positive and she competently and confidently adjusted to classroom routines. She was somewhat reserved in structured activities, but when called upon proved herself among the brighter children in the classroom. It was, however, in the area of peer relations that Zena excelled. She had a flamboyant, exaggerated style which the other children admired, and she demonstrated much skill in the oppositional, argumentative discourse that was enjoyed by many of these children (see Corsaro, 1993, 1994). Zena's success in both academic and social areas provided her with a sound foundation to build on as she entered kindergarten and the public schools. When Zena began kindergarten, her family had just completed a very uncertain and rocky year. Things were looking up, however, after Marissa found an apartment and took a new job working days. It was only at this point, nearly three months after the school year began, that Zena started kindergarten at a neighborhood school four blocks from her new home. Zena was now quite far behind, and Marissa visited the teacher to learn how she could help her daughter catch up. Ms Hill gave Marissa materials to work with at home, and she and Zena regularly complied with the teacher's suggestions - especially on weekends when there was no homework. Marissa's efforts soon began to pay off: In February she reported that while Zena's first report card "wasn't bad, but it wasn't good neither," her second report "was outstanding, she had improved on just about everything." Continuity between certain features of Zena's Head Start and kindergarten classrooms seemed important in her recovery from her late entry into kindergarten. First, Zena again attended an afternoon session, which allowed her to begin her day at a leisurely pace. The class size was also almost identical, and Zena was one of only 13 students. Finally, all of Zena's classmates were black, and she again had a black teacher. Ms Hill had taught at this school for eight years, and she enjoyed working with the economically disadvantaged children and families in this neighborhood. She demonstrated understanding and concern for her students, but had a no-nonsense style and was a strict disciplinarian (again, similar to Head Start teachers). She responded to the constraints of the half-day schedule by allowing almost no free-play, believing students should utilize every moment preparing for the academic emphasis of first grade. Ms Hill was impressed with Zena's progress during the year, and described her as an. attentive student who was good at listening and following directions.
26
KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
She also believed Zena was "very capable of doing good work," and she commented on Z e n a ' s motivation to succeed: I've never gotten a "I can't do," OK? She will try, and put forth the effort, and to me, that means so much because those children tell me "Yes, I want to do, just show me how." That in itself says so much to m e . . . We may be workingon a paper and it may take her a little bit longer but she doesn't get frustrated or anything,its like "I'm gonna do it until I finish." Finally, when I asked about the involvement of Z e n a ' s parents, Ms Hill said simply: They're concerned, I know her morn is. She has asked me, you know, "how is she doing, what can I do to help her?" She's very supportive also. Ms Hill was uncritical of Marissa's level of involvement, and although her comments were brief, they were meaningful in light of earlier remarks she'd made about "expectations for parents as well as for the children." This was not a teacher who was satisfied with perfunctory participation, and Ms Hill's characterization of Marissa indicated she had met the high expectations Ms Hill held for all her students' parents. During her kindergarten year, then, Zena appeared to have overcome significant family-related problems which resulted in her late entry, and her parents and teacher were pleased with her progress and anticipated a smooth transition and continued achievement in first grade. That Fall, Zena was subject to mandatory busing, and she began first grade at a n e w school miles from her home. Like other children in this study, Zena had some difficulty adjusting to a full-day schedule after two years in half-day programs, and the 30 minute bus ride each morning and afternoon further lengthened her day. Other aspects of the classroom presented new challenges as well, especially that Zena was one of only a handful of black children among the 22 children in the classroom, and for the first time she had a white teacher. Ms Majors had taught for nine years in another school, and was completing her fourth year in her current position. She described the neighborhood where the school was located as a very low-income, "very transient" white neighborhood, and she was one of several teachers who mentioned parents' lack of concern when describing the least pleasing aspects of their work. Ms Majors' concerns went beyond the neglect of children's schooling to include the more general neglect she felt was common among her students' parents: T: ... Its very rewarding, the children are - they're the best part. The worst part is dealing with parents. Urn,l/ K: //Oh, actually, this is my next question. What are some of the things about your work that you find the most rewarding or pleasing, and what do you find the least//pleasing?
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T: //because you want to slap some of them. You just wanna slap 'era. Yon just wanna say "why don't why feed your kid, and why don't you love 'era, and why don't you dress them right, and why don't yon reinforce things?" And you just can't say what you really think. And you also [want to] say, "welt, why did you have this child if you're not gonna take care of him?" You know, and I always think, I could do a better job. That's the worst moments, when I start thinking bitter things like that. And there are children in this room I take better care of my dog than some of these children are taken care of.
-
She went on to describe various ways she felt many of her students were neglected; most "don't have bookbags . . . they d o n ' t have crayons, they d o n ' t have scissors. They d o n ' t have the things that we take for granted - glue and paint, and magazines." Perhaps partially because she felt many students were severely deprived, Ms Majors reportedly placed much emphasis on developing close and caring relationships with the children. Ms Majors' teaching style was decidedly more flexible than the no-nonsense styles of Z e n a ' s kindergarten and Head Start teachers. While students were granted much freedom, they were also expected to interact together in cooperative and kind ways, and Ms Majors hoped they would come to feel that " w e ' r e a family here." None of this fit well with Zena' s past experiences or her personality, and Ms Majors reported that Zena had had many problems throughout the year. For example, Zena was an "outsider" who did not fit in with the other "sweet and innocent" girls. Her "attitude" was a major issue, and the teacher complained that Zena was often "so moody," "unhappy," and "she kind of fusses, pouts and slides her feet a r o u n d . . , its a little belligerence, a little chip on her shoulder." In addition, Ms Majors noted that several children had complained that Zena "said things, like ' y o u ' r e white and I d o n ' t like you.' " While Zena had previously excelled in peer relations, the take-charge, dramatic, and confrontational style that had served her well was now quite problematic and unappreciated by her new classmates and teacher. Ms Majors' affectionate style also apparently made Zena uncomfortable, and she reportedly remained somewhat Stand-offish. In addition, her academic performance clearly declined. Although Ms Majors reported that she remained a "solid" student, behavioral problems had hampered her ability to complete work conscientiously and on time. Earlier conversations with Marissa had prepared me to expect such reports from the teacher. Marissa had not attended the Fall Parent-Teacher conference, but said she "had the conference over the phone with her." During this and other telephone conversations, Ms Majors had complained about Z e n a ' s "attitude." There had also been notes on Z e n a ' s report cards. All the communications Marissa described between herself and the teacher were basically the same - they focussed on Z e n a ' s negative behavior and attitude. For example, Marissa reported that
28
KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER Her teacher called me, and she wrote a note on the back of Zena's report card. Said Zena's a terrific student but behavior in school - she likes to mess with the other k i d s . . , and she say bad things - bad words [quiet laugh] - bad things to the other kids.
Marissa also said the teacher had questioned whether Zena was getting enough sleep. When Marissa and I met for an interview that year, it was apparent she had taken Ms Major's complaints quite seriously, and she took several concrete actions in response. First, she began enforcing an earlier bedtime; all three children were now in bed by 8:00 p.m. Second, to allay problems Zena had forgetting her homework, Marissa designated a spot near the door where Zena was to deposit her completed homework each evening. And finally, Marissa began to talk with Zena about controlling her anger. Marissa related Zena's difficulties getting along with her classmates to problems she had in the workplace. She said that "Zena' s got a bad temper, and I used to be like that." Marissa noted that her own temper had formerly flared when she felt mistreated at work, but she had taught herself to think "I need this job. So, I can't nothin' but take this. And you just keep s m i l i n ' . . . " T h e crux of the matter for Marissa was that "it's all about self-control." When I asked if she had just recently begun to focus on teaching Zena self-control, her reply again suggested the importance she placed on Ms Majors' communications: Yes, ever since her teacher sent me a note, tell me her attitude - that's what did it. 'Cause see, I don't never get up there to the school, so I don't know what's goin' on, so I ' m glad she did write that down, so I know what's goin' on.
Although Marissa was disappointed with Zena's behavior, she thought her daughter was doing excellent in school. "Especially in math," she said, "the only papers she brings home is a happy face with a A." Before the first marking period ended, Mafissa had anxiously waited to see if Zena would make the honor roll, but unfortunately, she did not. Marissa said, however, that "the report card was outstanding, I don't know why she didn't, I can't get out to Zena's school to talk to her teacher, it's so far out." Moments later, she concluded that "If you're gonna make honor-roll, it's more than gettin' As on all your papers, it's got somethin' to do with your personality, how do you act toward other kids." While the concern Marissa communicated to me was clear, the teacher, however, had perceived this mother much differently. As Ms Majors discussed Zena's various behavioral and attitudinal problems, she noted her communication with Marissa: T: . . . As a child, how do you get out of being an angry child? They don't know how. I don't know, I ' v e called her mother a few times about it, and her mother's just "well, that's the way she is at home." And I don't know where to go from there. I ' v e never met the
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mother. She's never been in, for conferences or open house or anything like that. It's a real loss when I don't meet a parent, it really - I always think: "wouldn't they want to meet me, wouldn't they want to see what kind of ogre is teaching their child all day?" That bothers me, when I don't know all the parents. K: Yeah, well, I was gonna ask you about how you felt about the role that Zena's parents were playing in her education... Um, yeah, what kind of contact have you had with Zena's morn over the last year? T: The school system provides a day where the children are released and it gives you all day to have parent conferences and she did not respond to that. I don't know what more I can do than that. And although I realize with our bused children, they do live on the other side of town, and if they don't have transportation, it's hard. But I always think: I'd hitch a ride somehow. I mean, I can't believe they wouldn't want to meet me and just see what I'm like and size me up, good or bad. Well, anyways, to me, it's a signal when they don't even come for that. I know there are reasons sometimes, but we usually get a pretty good turnout on that. I - I really can't sing the benefits of integration whole-heartedly. There's a lot of plusses, but I don't know if it's worth it, losing the neighborhood schools. Because maybe her Morn - maybe it would be a different story if she was still at school no. XX. M s M a j o r s h a d m a d e s i m i l a r r e m a r k s d u r i n g o u r earlier p h o n e c o n v e r s a t i o n to a r r a n g e t h e i n t e r v i e w . A t t h a t time, s h e h a d c o m m e n t e d o n Z e n a ' s attitude, said she f o u n d M a r i s s a u n c o m m u n i c a t i v e , a n d h a d " b a s i c a l l y g i v e n u p o n g e t t i n g h e l p f r o m t h e f a m i l y . " I m p o r t a n t l y , d u r i n g this call s h e also s u g g e s t e d t h a t b o t h Z e n a ' s b e h a v i o r a n d the l a c k o f p a r e n t a l s u p p o r t h a d c o n t r i b u t e d to a d e c i s i o n s h e m a d e c o n c e r n i n g tactics s h e w o u l d u s e w i t h Z e n a . S h e h a d c o n c l u d e d , s h e said, " t h a t it's best not to push Zena into something that she doesn't want to do, b e c a u s e s h e is j u s t n o t g o i n g to d o it." I h a d a p p r o a c h e d o u r i n t e r v i e w , then, h o p i n g to s h a r e s o m e o f m y o w n k n o w l e d g e o f M a r i s s a ' s c o n c e r n a n d activities, a n d this p o i n t in the i n t e r v i e w p r o v i d e d t h a t o p p o r t u n i t y . W h e n M s M a j o r s w o n d e r e d i f t h i n g s w o u l d b e differe n t i f Z e n a w e r e n o t b u s e d , I t o l d h e r M a r i s s a h a d i n d e e d m e t w i t h earlier t e a c h ers, e s p e c i a l l y d u r i n g h e r k i n d e r g a r t e n year. M s M a j o r s t h e n n o t e d t h a t she i n t e r a c t e d w i t h n e i g h b o r h o o d p a r e n t s w h e n s h e w a l k e d h e r s t u d e n t s o u t at the c l o s e o f e a c h day, a n d f r o m this p o i n t in t h e i n t e r v i e w , s h e b e g a n to r e c o n s i d e r h e r earlier a p p r a i s a l s o f b o t h m o t h e r a n d d a u g h t e r . S h e c o m m e n t e d t h a t the i n t e r v i e w was "helping me think of more positive things about Zena, and that's good." Other c o m m e n t s s u g g e s t e d a l t e r a t i o n s in h e r t h i n k i n g a b o u t M a r i s s a . F o r e x a m p l e , s h e said: The mother has responded on the report card. I try to write a comment on everybody's report card, every time. And the mother usually will write back. And that's good. And that's a rari.ty here, most of my parents don't. And when Zena's out, I'll usually get a note, too. And I don't always get that from all of the kids, usually I don't. And I have called her when Zena went on one of her little spells
30
KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER of bein' fussy for days, and she said she would talk to her. So I really guess I can't complain, you know, she said "well, she's like that at home." In a way that makes me feel better that she's not acting up just at school, but she was having some of the same problems. Zena brings a bag every day, bless her heart. So she doesn't lose it, so that's a really good thing she does... So that's another plus about her mother that I hadn't even thought about. Because I know that bags don't come out of the air. The parents are providing them.
Finally, Ms Majors noted that Z e n a ' s grades were sometimes "marked down" for not turning papers in on time. I mentioned Marissa was surprised Zena had not made honor roll the first marking period, and Ms Majors responded: "Oh, wonderful! I ' m glad her mother wanted her to! That's neat" (her clear surprise seemed to suggest she supposed Z e n a ' s mother cared little about such matters). A t this point, Ms Majors said: Zena's a good, solid student, but there are some that are better than her, and those are the ones that are on the honor roll. And it can't be for - I wish it could be for everybody. During the last several minutes of our interview, then, Ms Majors clearly questioned her attitudes towards this mother she had previously "given up on getting help from." She mentioned that school can be an intimidating place for parents, especially if their children have difficulties and they receive only negative reports from school personnel. She seemed surprised at herself, then, when she observed: "the only time I have contacted Z e n a ' s mother has been negative, now that I think of it, and how awful of me." Ms Majors' communications with Marissa had indeed been overwhelmingly negative. For parents like Marissa whose memories of their own schooling are primarily negative as well, withdrawal from contact with teachers is a common reaction to consistent negative reports about their children (see, e.g. Comer & Haynes, 1991; Toomey, 1989). This suggests that Marissa's earlier experiences could contribute to reluctance to involve herself in her daughter's schooling, but she did not interpret her behavior as withdrawal. Rather, she believed the distant location of the school, coupled with her own lack of resources to overcome this obstacle, precluded her physical presence at school. At the same time, her activities at home demonstrated that she remained concerned and involved in Z e n a ' s education. Ms Majors, on the other hand, can hardly be faulted for failing to incorporate information she had no access to into her definition of the situation; she had no way to know, for example, about strategies Marissa enacted at home such as the earlier bedtime, the routine placement of homework, and the conversations aimed at helping Zena control her temper. Other evidence of Marissa's concern that Ms Majors w a s privy to, however, went unnoticed or discounted prior to our interview. By her own admission, Ms Majors placed tremendous importance
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on parents' presence at school as a symbolic indicator of parents' values ("to me it's a signal when they don't even come"), and this symbol apparently over-shadowed contradictory evidence. Ms Majors' perception that Marissa was unconcerned seemed to contribute to both her expectations for Zena's achievement, and her behavior toward Zena in the classroom. There was little indication the teacher was dissatisfied with Zena's academic performance. Rather, although Ms Majors' believed Zena was a "good, solid student," other students were simply "better," and they were "the ones on the honor roll." Zena's grades, however, were such that with only minor improvement in one or two subjects she would indeed receive honor roll recognition. Despite this, Ms Majors had decided "not to push Zena into something that she doesn't want to do," in part because she had "given up on getting help from the family" to deal with Zena's at times obstinate behavior. DISCUSSION Teachers' expectations can be affected by more than the characteristics and behaviors of individual children. In addition, parents' behavior - and in particular, parents' apparent involvement in children's schooling - can also help to shape teachers' expectations. Far too little attention has been paid by both researchers and educators to this connection between parent involvement and teachers' expectations for children. The passive and resigned stance Ms Majors adopted towards Zena's achievement contrasts sharply with the one taken by Jeremiah's first grade teacher. With grades almost identical to Zena's, Jeremiah also routinely "just missed" making honor roll, and Ms North reportedly "told him often, you can do better than this." She also wrote notes to his mother, conveying that "I don't think I ' m gettin' his best effort." The teachers' expectations for the two children were clearly very different, and this narrative analysis strongly suggests that the teachers' perceptions of the children's mothers contributed to their differential expectations for the children. On the one hand, Amy's clear involvement and concern seemed to lead Jeremiah's teachers to assume his achievement would - at some point - come to reflect his family's supposed high valuation of education. On the other hand, Marissa's absence from symbolic school functions and her limited communication with the first grade teacher appeared to contribute mightily to Ms Majors' development of an expectation for mediocrity that reflected, she believed, the ambivalence of Zena's family toward educational pursuits. It is important to stress here that it was the mothers' actions (or inaction), rather than their "values," that appeared to influence the teachers in this regard.
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Teachers involved in my own as well as others' studies (e.g. Lareau, 1987, 1989; Lareau & Shumar, 1996; Van Galen, 1987), however, assume that parents' involvement-related behaviors reflect their values. In so doing, they interpret the absence of information about parents and families as immensely meaningful. Researchers repeatedly note that teachers report negative perceptions of low-income parents they have not met and do not know (e.g. see Epstein & Dauber, 1991; Toomey, 1989; Van Galen, 1987). In such cases, teachers apparently rely on negative stereotypes to fill in missing information or to shape their interpretations of ambiguous information. Explanations for parents' lack of contact with teachers other than a low valuation of education, however, are certainly plausible, and it is to just such alternative explanations that I now turn. As I noted earlier, Marissa and Amy were similar to one another in certain respects, but striking differences were also apparent. As Lareau and Shumar (1996) argue is often the case, I believe the mothers' differential access to resources offer the best explanation for the vast differences in both the patterns of communication they established with their children' s teachers, and the manner in which teachers perceived them. First, looking at the mothers' personal histories, we see that Amy's history both in the family and in school provided her with important experiential "capital" she could draw upon in formulating her own child-rearing strategies. Amy had experienced quite high levels of achievement as a student, and she thus knew herself to be a competent actor in matters of public schooling. Unlike some mothers involved in this research, she was at ease in school environments, and her interaction with teachers and other school personnel (which I observed on several occasions) reflected her feelings of competence and confidence. In addition, Amy often linked her own educational success to the practices of her mother, who exercised tight control over her children's lives and demanded good grades and commitment to education. Amy thus had a clear model for parenting that she felt had proved successful in the past, and she often noted her purposeful attempts to reproduce the parental role she had observed her mother enacting. Marissa's task, on the other hand, was much more difficult and complex. She had been an unsuccessful student, with little interest in school, who had dropped out after her sophomore year. She rarely mentioned her family of origin, but when she did she focussed on the instability of her life as a child, or the ineffectiveness of her mother's tactics. With no model of effective parenting to draw on, Marissa attempted to construct a parental role supportive of her children's educational achievement with little more to go on than her desire to do things differently. She knew she wanted to do all she could to encourage
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her children's success, yet her frustration over her own ineffectiveness was often apparent as she made remarks such as "Zena thinks she know it all already" and "she doesn't listen to me - it takes someone else to do it." It was also clear that differing levels of stability and stress in these mothers' lives impacted their differential ability to consistently and effectively parent. The circumstances of Amy's household remained remarkably stable, and the routines Amy established early on were never threatened by the kinds of changes in employment, residence, financial resources, and relationships that plagued Marissa's family. Both Amy and Jeremiah could contend with and negotiate changes and demands related to Jeremiah's schooling within the context of a consistent and stable home environment. For Marissa and Zena, however, family life was not nearly so reliable. While Marissa did attempt to enforce activities like daily discussions of Zena's day when she returned from school, and requiring homework be completed before Zena could watch television or play with neighborhood friends, Marissa's ever-changing and always demanding schedule and circumstances made these somewhat less-than-routine activities. Finally, although neither woman had access to personal transportation which would have permitted them to travel more easily to their children's distant schools, Amy had supportive relatives and friends who could and did provide her with rides on the most important occasions. It is no exaggeration to say that Marissa had n o o n e she could call on for similar assistance. She was understandably estranged from family members she felt had abandoned her in the past, and although Duane provided her with much emotional and instrumental support, like Marissa he was sporadically employed, worked for very low wages, and did not have a car. Despite their surface similarities (for example, both were unmarried mothers who met the poverty-level criteria for participation in Head Start and who resided in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods), A m y ' s social resources clearly advantaged her participation in Jeremiah's schooling while Marissa's lack of resources hampered her ability to do the same. Although I easily observed these vast differences in the social resources available to the two mothers, Lareau and Shumar argue that such differences are "generally invisible to educators, who, using an individualist model, interpret parents' efforts to attend school functions as an index of their level of concern" (Lareau & Shumar, 1996, p. 26). 9 It should be noted here that nearly all teachers involved in this study did, in fact, show some awareness of the effect of less individualistic factors on parent involvement. In particular, these teachers - including Ms Majors - were very ambivalent about mandatory busing because they felt it limited the routine involvement of parents' of bused children. However, Ms Majors and other teachers I spoke with believed parents could and should find
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KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
a way to participate at least in parent-teacher conferences despite this policy-created obstacle. When they did not, teachers interpreted their absence as lack of concern. In the early pages of this article, I presented two rather standard models: first, a model of indirect effects of parental participation on children's academic outcomes, and second, a similar model of the effects of teachers' expectations. In each of these models, adults' behavior is observed and interpreted by the child, the meanings attributed to the behavior are incorporated into the child's own developing attitudes and values, and this in turn directly affects academic outcomes. Throughout this piece, I have suggested that these presumed processes are not necessarily distinct. Instead, all three actors - parent, teacher, and child - should be considered in any consideration of either the effects of parent involvement, or the effects of teacher expectations, on children's motivation to achieve. That is, (1) Characteristics of parents influence their involvement in their children's schooling. While I would include here both parents' values and their resources, along with Lareau (1987, 1989; Lareau & Shumar, 1996; see also Kerbow & Bernhardt, 1991; Van Galen, 1987) I would argue that much of the variation in parent involvement can be explained by parents' differential access to resources. (2) Parents' (apparent) involvement influences teachers' expectations. Teachers interpret parents' involvement as indicative of parents' valuation of education, and they adjust their expectations for children in line with this interpretation, and in line with beliefs that children incorporate parents' values into their own emerging value system. (3) Teachers' communicate their expectations for individual children through differential behavior. In particular, differential communication concerning satisfaction with present work, and differential encouragement to do better, are apparent in the narratives presented above. (4) Children perceive, interpret, and to some extent incorporate teachers' expectations into their own self-attitudes and behavior. In particular, teachers' expectations can reasonably be assumed to affect children's motivation to succeed. (5) Finally, Children's attitudes and behavior play a role in their academic outcomes, lo Such a conceptualization is a marked improvement over the simplistic, individualistic models presented earlier. However, it is also important that these processes not be divorced from the overall ideological and political contexts within which they occur. Lareau and Shumar (1996) are highly critical of
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teachers' use of an individualist model to shape their perceptions of parents' values, and we should not be similarly guilty of over-individualizing teachers' situations. In fact, consideration of larger social processes renders Ms Majors' and other teachers' stance quite understandable. I want to stress here that although Ms Majors can be interpreted as the villain of this piece, she was not an intentionally discriminating, or even unthinking, person. On the contrary, she appeared intelligent, kind and sympathetic, and concerned for all her students. That she also appeared so clearly influenced by her interpretations of Marissa's behavior should not be viewed as malicious, or as surprising. Instead, Ms Majors' perceptions of Zena and her family were very much in line with - and very reasonable in light o f - both the parent involvement bandwagon that virtually all school systems have climbed aboard and the accompanying enthusiastic literature that is in fact largely targeted at educators. Rather than placing blame on individual teachers, it is more productive as well as more accurate to point the finger at processes that have helped to usher in the new "institutionalized standard" of stressing parental involvement. The push for parental involvement should be viewed within the context of a larger, complex ideological struggle over the causes of persistent inequalities and poverty. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, we have witnessed increasing gaps between the "haves" and the "have-nots," and these trends have been accompanied by growing conservatism and the final dismantling of the "War on Poverty" in favor of policies perhaps more aptly described as the "War on the Poor." New refrains of the old "culture of poverty" tune have encouraged the American public to discount systemic causes of inequalities, including inequality of educational achievement, and focus instead on personal responsibility and accountability for differential outcomes (see Fine, 1993; Mickelson & Ray, 1994; Polakow, 1995; Swadener & Lubeck, 1995). At first blush, this trend might seem to summarily absolve school personnel of responsibility for low levels of achievement among certain groups of students (i.e. minority and lower-income students), but educators know this is not necessarily the case. The stepped-up inclination to blame individuals has tended to include - r a t h e r than absolve - teachers, who along with parents have increasingly been viewed as personally accountable for students' failures. As Lareau and Shumar note, Family-school policies, which often shift responsibility for educational and social problems from the state back to families and individual teachers, have been particularly popular educational reforms (Lareau & Shumar, 1996, p. 35).
Teachers are not blind to societal discontent over declining overall educational achievements and persistent or increasing gaps between educational outcomes
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KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
for mainstream versus non-mainstream students, nor are they oblivious to the movement for teacher accountability. A n d it is within this context that they receive and interpret information on the critical role of parents' involvement in children's education. W e must at least consider the self-protective nature of teachers' apparently wide-spread beliefs about parents' involvement: If parents who are not involved do not particularly value education, and if parent involvement is critical for children's education, then in the absence of parent involvement, teachers can hardly be blamed for their students' failures. In addition, there is a more positive (self-serving rather than self-protective) side to this same coin. Van Galen notes that the belief that poor and under-educated parents do not care about education served the educators she studied "by allowing them to take exclusive credit for whatever learning the students did experience." "Even while these children achieved at levels far below those the staff expected of wealthier children," their accomplishments "boosted the self esteem of the staff" by providing evidence of what they could accomplish "in spite of the poor homes" (1987, p. 87). How much either teachers or parents can accomplish in terms of ensuring low-income and minority children's achievement within the resource-strapped schools that typically serve them is certainly questionable. As Kerbow and Bemhardt point out in their conclusion to an analysis that revealed disproportionately high levels of parent involvement among low-income minority parents whose children attended inner-city schools, no matter how active the parents may be, a very complex and strong set of factors continue to work against the students. These are parents with very few resources, schools with impoverished families and limited funding. Both confront severe problems that are intimately linked to the communities and environments in which they are located. That they persevere in the face of these problems shows compelling concern for their children. But this effort cannot negate the reality that there is a substantial discrepancy between the resources held by urban schools and their minority parents and those held by affluent suburban schools and their white parents (1991, p. 25). However, when teachers blame parents and parents - as is also often the case - blame teachers, the blame-game remains on an individual level, and scrutiny of systemic causes for lack of educational achievement is effectively avoided.
CONCLUSION As Jussim et al. conclude their review of teacher expectations and student achievement, they note without further elaboration that parents can convey to teachers a commitment to their child's education by attending teacher conferences, school activities, and so on. In addition, some teachers may feel more accountable
37
Without the Parent You Lose the Child
to parents whom they see regularly than to those they rarely see. This is important because accountabilityfacilitatesmoreaccuratejudgementsof all kinds and may be especiallylikelyto help when parentsbelieveteachershold inaccuratelylow expectationsfor their children (1994, p. 329). In line with this reasoning, it is likely wise to recommend that parents increase their involvement even if only to manipulate teachers' expectations and feelings of accountability. I do so here, but with considerable ambivalence. In addition and more importantly, it is critical that teachers be informed of findings reported here and elsewhere concerning first, the influence of family resources on parents' involvement-related behavior, and second, the potential impact of parent involvement on teachers' expectations. As I am confident was true for Ms Majors, the great majority of teachers are caring and concerned, and readily welcome information that will help them to better serve their students and encourage high achievement. Teachers need access to information that will help them think more critically about the implications of both the recent push for parent involvement and their own beliefs concerning this development. My findings and those of others (e.g. Kerbow & Bernhardt, 1991; Lareau, 1987, 1989; Lareau & Shumar, 1996; Toomey, 1989; Van Galen, 1987) underscore the need for further research that examines how teachers' perceptions of parents' attitudes and values affect the development of teacher expectations and their consequent interaction with students. Ethnographic studies specifically designed to uncover and clarify the interactive processes through which the apparent relationships between parent involvement, teacher expectations, and teacher-student interaction may be constituted would be especially valuable. In addition, larger scale, quantitative studies could also be immensely helpful. While I leave it to others to imagine and design such large-scale quantitative research, I close by suggesting that a particularly meaningful potential dependent variable measure is already widely used and readily available for such studies. Many report card systems employed at various grade levels include the option of supplementing course grades with numerical comments. For example, teachers can assign a number interpretable as "the student is working up to his/her potential" or "is capable of doing better." This seems a clear indicator of teacher expectations, which - when examined in conjunction with teachers' reports of parent involvement - m i g h t prove especially enlightening and valuable for ascertaining the prevalence and significance of this phenomenon. H
NOTES 1. Such beliefs on the part of school personnel clearly reflect the Wisconsin Status Attainment Model, developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and its emphasis on
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KATHERINE BROWN ROSIER
the importance of attitudes and aspirations (e.g. see Hailer & Portes, 1975; Sewell, Haller & Ohlendorf, 1970; Woelfel &Haller, 1971). 2. Jussim et al. (1994) estimate that 70-80% of the correlation between teacher expectations and student achievement is explained by accuracy, while expectation effects account for the remaining 20-30% of the correlation. 3. On the other hand, failure to find evidence of teacher bias may be due to neglect of self-fulfilling prophesy feedback loops as Farkas et al. (1990) also note. 4. False expectations may be based on a variety of different student characteristics such as gender, race, social class, attractiveness, and diagnostic or special education labels - and stereotypes associated with those characteristics. Duseck and Joseph (1983) completed a meta-analysis of the relative impact of these variables on teacher expectations and found that social class and diagnostic labels have more powerful influence, while ethnicity and physical attractiveness play a minor - but apparent - role in the development of expectations. The impact of gender was judged to be insignificant. In addition to these student characteristics, Good (1987) includes social variables such as popularity with peers and classroom behavior, as well as past-performance indicators such as test scores, grades, performance on assignments, or tract placement as potentially important influences on the development of teacher expectations. Importantly, expectations may also have their basis in a mismatch between the teacher's and student's interactional styles - which may, of course, be related to their different genders, ethnicities, or social class (see, e.g. Rowser, 1994; see also Epstein & Dauber, 1991). 5. Although interviews with mothers and teachers were similar in many respects, it is important to note that while I have extensive information about the mothers, their families, and many aspects of their lives both past and present, my familiarity with teachers is quite limited. In contrast with the mothers, I had no extended relationships with teachers, and came to know them only briefly and only in their role of educators of young children. I clearly have much more contextual information within which to place and interpret the mothers' words, beliefs, and practices. This fact certainly impacts upon my analysis, as I routinely discuss mothers and children in terms of the various contexts of their lives but cannot treat teachers in a similarly holistic manner. While the teacher interviews successfully prompted them to reveal much about their personal beliefs, histories, and practices as teachers, my knowledge of them as family members, members of communities, or former students, for example, is extremely limited. 6. I interviewed a total of 14 teachers in person in their classrooms. Because one kindergarten teacher taught three of the target children and another had two of the children in her class, only five interviews with kindergarten teachers were necessary in the Spring of 1991 for eight of the children. These same children's eight first grade teachers were interviewed in person in the Spring of 1992. One child, Sheila, was a year behind the others because her mother did not enroll her in kindergarten until the Fall of 1991. Her kindergarten teacher was interviewed in person in the Spring of 1992, but I was unable to meet with her first-grade teacher because I did not have permission to conduct research in the schools the following year. I therefore interviewed this teacher by telephone in the Spring of 1993. 7. The others were Ms Parson, Ms Nelbert, and Ms Majors. 8. It could be argued that busing itself, though viewed quite negatively by Amy and by Jeremiah's teachers, provided Jeremiah some freedom from his mother's intense scrutiny that may have contributed positively to his development.
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9. Like my own research, Lareau's important and influential work is qualitative in nature, and thus always somewhat vulnerable to questions concerning generalization of results. However, quantitative research also lends support to these arguments. Using a nationally representative eighth-grade cohort sample from the NELS:88 data set, Kerbow and Bernhardt completed a rare quantitative analysis of the relative importance of social resources (including income, work schedules, number of parents in the home, and number of siblings) and "parental expectations for the child's future education." They concluded that "the direct effect of resources clearly outweighs the values or motivational aspects of parental involvement" ,(1991, p. 7). 10. My characterization of these processes obviously ignores numerous other factors that influence teacher expectations, parent involvement, and child outcomes. For example, teacher expectations are certainly heavily influenced by characteristics of the child (including past performance; behavior; and ascribed characteristics such as race, class, gender, and physical attractiveness - see note (4). The model also does not consider the importance of teacher characteristics; research has demonstrated that certain types of teachers are more prone to expectation effects, and certain types of teachers are more prone to stereotypical definitions of parents and families (Beady & Hansell, 1981; Brophy, 1985; Cooper, 1979; Epstein, 1993; Good, 1987; Jussim et al., 1994; Weinstein et al., 1987). Finally, because I neglect important features of the social context within which parents, teachers, and children are imbedded, this conceptualization is overly simplistic and incomplete.. We know, for example, that characteristics of schools have considerable influence on both parent involvement and teachers' requests for such involvement (Becker & Epstein, 1982; Epstein & Dauber, 1991; Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler & Brissie, 1987; Kerbow & Bernhardt, 1991), on teachers' expectations for children and on their behavior toward children (e.g. see Anyon, 1980; Beady & Hansell, 1981; Wexler, 1992), and on children's developing attitudes and behaviors (Calabrese, 1990; Wexler, 1992). Full consideration of the impact of school characteristics on these processes is beyond the scope of this article, but I acknowledge here the importance of such considerations. 11. I have in mind here examination of parent involvement prior to the first report. After the first report card is distributed, this measure of teacher expectations could just as likely inspire parent involvement as reflect it.
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Brophy, J. (1983). Research on the Self-Fulfilling Prophesy and Teacher Expectations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 631-661. Brophy, J. (1985). Teacher-Student Interaction. In: J. Duseck (Ed.), Teacher Expectancies (pp. 303-328). Lawrence Erlbanm. Calabrese, R. L. (1990). The Public School: A Source of Alienation for Minority Parents. Journal of Negro Education, 59(2), 148-154. Clark, R. (1983). Family Life and School Achievement: Why Poor Black Children Succeed or Fail. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Comer, J. P., & Haynes, N. M. (1991). Parent Involvement in Schools: An Ecological Approach. The Elementary School Journal, 91(3), 271-277. Cooper, H. M. (1979). Pygmalion Grows Up: A Model for Teacher Expectation Communication and Performance Influence. Review of Educational Research, 49(3), 389-410. Cooper, H., & Good, T. (1983). Pygmalion Grows Up: Studies in the Expectation Communication Process. New York: Longman. Corsaro, W. A. (1993). Interpretive Reproduction in Children's Role Play. Childhood, 1, 64-74. Corsaro, W. A. (1994). Discussion, Debate, and Friendship Processes: Peer Discourse in U.S. and Italian Nursery Schools. Sociology of Education, 67, 1-25. Corsaro, W. A. (1995). Transitions in Early Childhood: The Promise of Comparative, Longitudinal Ethnography. In: A. Colby, R. Jessor & R. Shweder (Eds), Essays on Ethnography and Human Development (pp. 419-457). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Corsaro, W. A., & Rosier, K. B. (1992). Documenting Productive-Reproductive Processes in Children's Lives: Transition Narratives of a Black Family Living in Poverty. In: W. A. Corsaro & P. Miller (Eds), Interpretive Approaches to Children's Socialization (pp. 67-91). New Directions for Child Development, 58. Doherty, J., & Hier, B. (1988). Teacher Expectations and Specific Judgements: A Small-Scale Study of the Effects of Certain Non-Cognitive Variables on Teachers' Academic Predictions. Educational Review, 40(3), 333-348. Duseck, J., & Joseph, G. (1983). The Bases of Teacher Expectancies: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 327-346. Epstein, J. (1993). A Response (to M. Fine [Ap]parent Involvement: Reflections on Parents, Power, and Urban Public Schools). Teachers College Record, 94(4), 710-717. Epstein, J., & Becket, H. (1982). Teachers' Reported Practices of Parent Involvement: Problems and Possibilities. Elementary School Journal, 83, 103-113. Epstein, J., & Dauber, S. L. (1991). School Programs and Teacher Practices of Parent Involvement in Inner-City Elementary and Middle Schools. The Elementary School Journal, 9•(3), 289-305. Farkas, G., Grobe, R. P., Sheehan, D., & Shuan, Y. (1990). Cultural Resources and School Success: Gender, Ethnicity, and Poverty Groups within an Urban School District. American Sociological Review, 55, 127-142. Fine, M. (1993). [Ap]parent Involvement: Reflections on Parents, Power, and Urban Public Schools. Teachers College Record, 94(4), 682-710. Good, T. L. (1987). Two Decades of Research on Teacher Expectations: Findings and Future Directions. Journal of Teacher Education, 38(4), 32-47. Haller, A. O., & Portes, A. (1975). Status Attainment Processes. Sociology of Education, 46, 51-91. Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Bassler, O. C., & Brissie, J. S. (1987). Parent Involvement: Contributions of Teacher Efficacy, School Socioeconomic Status, and Other School Characteristics. American Educational Research Journal, 24(3), 417-435.
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Jnssim, L., Madon, S., & Chatman, C. (1994). Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, Biases, and Accuracy. In: L. Heath (Ed.), Applications of Heuristics and Biases to Social Issues (pp. 303-334). New York: Plenum Press. Kerbow, D., & Bernhardt, A. (1991). Limits of Parental and School Intervention: The Context of Minority Involvement. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Cincinnati Ohio. Lareau, A. (1987). Social Class Differences in Family-School Relationships: The Importance of Cultural Capital. Sociology of Education, 60, 73-85. Lareau, A. (1989). Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education. London: Falmer Press. Larean, A., & Shumar, W. (1996). The Problem of Individualism in Family-School Policies. Sociology of Education, 69 ("extra issue"), 24-39. Lipset, S. M., & Bendix, R. (1962, 1987). Psychological Factors in Social Mobility: Intelligence and Motivation. In: C. S. Heller (Ed.), Structured Social Inequali~ (pp. 282-292). New York: MacMillan. MacLeod, J. (1987). Ain't No Makin' It: Leveled Aspirations in a Low-Income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Mickelson, R. A., & Ray, C. A. (1994). Fear of Failing From Grace: The Middle Class, Downward Mobility, and School Desegregation. Research in Sociology of Education and Socialization, 10, 207-238. Polakow, V. (1995). Epilogue. Naming and Blaming: Beyond a Pedagogy of the Poor. In: B. B. Swadener & S. Lubeck (Eds), Children and Families "'at Promise": Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk (pp. 263-270). Atbany NY: SUNY Press. Rist, R. C. (1970). Student Social Class and Teacher Expectations: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Ghetto Education. Harvard Educational Review, 40, 411--451. Rist, R. C. (1973). The Urban School: A Factory for Failure. Cambridge MA: The M.I.T. Press. Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the Classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Rosier, K. B. (2000). Mothering Inner-city Children: The Early School Years. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Rosier, K. B., & Corsaro, W. A. (1993). Competent Parents, Complex Lives: Managing Parenthood in Poverty. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 22(2), 171-204. Rowser, J. F. (1994). Teacher Expectations: The Forgotten Variable in the Retention of African American Students. College Student Journal, 28, 82-87. Saracho, O. N. (1991). Teacher Expectations of Students' Performance: A Review of the Research. Early Child Development and Care, 76, 27-41. Seeley, D. (1984). Educational Partnership and the Dilemmas of School Reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 65, 383-393. Sewell, W. H., Hailer, A. O., & Ohlendorf, G. W. (1970). The Educational and Early Occupational Attainment Process: Replications and Revisions. American Sociological Review, 35, 1014-1027. Stevenson, H., Chen, C., & Uttal, D. (1990). Beliefs and Achievement: A Study of Black, White, and Hispanic Children. Child Development, 61, 508-523. Swadener, B. B., & Lubeck, S. (1995). Children and Families "'at Promise": Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk. Albany NY: SUNY Press. Toomey, D. (1989). How Some-School Relations Policies Can Increase Educational Inequality: A Three-Year Follow-up. Australian Journal of Education, 33(3), 284-298.
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Van Galen, J. (1987). Maintaining Control: The Structuring of Parent Involvement. In: G. W. Noblit & W. T. Pink (Eds), Schooling in Social Context: Qualitative Studies (pp. 78-92). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Wahlberg, H. J. (1984). Families as Partners in Educational Productivity. Phi Delta Kappan, 65, 397-400. Weinstein, R. S., Marshall, H. H., Sharp, L., & Botkin, M. (1987). Pygmalion and the Student: Age and Classroom Differences in Children's Awareness of Teacher Expectations. Child Development, 58, 1079-1093. Wexler, P. (1992). Becoming Somebody: Toward a Social Psychology of School. London: Falmer Press. Winters, W. G. (1993). African American Mothers and Urban Schools: The Power of Participation. New York: Lexington Books. Woelfel, J., & Haller, A. O. (1971). Significant Others, the Self-Reflexive Act, and the Attitude Formation Process. American Sociological Review, 36, 74-87.
INTERRACIAL RELATION SHIPS AND RACIAL IDENTITY PROCESSES IN AN URBAN MOTHER-AND-CHILD REHABILITATION PROGRAM Colin H. Sacks
A woman sits on the living room floor, gently cradling a young girl's right foot in her left hand. The young girl leans back in a bean bag chair and smiles blissfully. The woman carefully applies the young girl's favorite color of nail polish, a bright pink, to the big toe of her right foot and fans it with her fingers, the applicator brush waving in the air. Across the small room, about five feet away, another woman watches closely as a second young girl practices her arithmetic. "Five plus two - it's OK to use your fingers - equals seven! Very good! Now write your seven in the box there," she says. The first woman applies polish to the little girl's second toe, the one next to her big toe, and the little girl giggles and wiggles her toes. "Be careful, 'Nia!" says the woman. "You don't want me to mess up!" "Sorry, Megan!" says 'Nia, smiling warmly at the woman and straining not to be ticklish. 'Nia's small feet and Megan's smooth hands are a study in affection and familiarity, and also a study in contrast, because 'Nia's feet are dark in color, while Megan's hands are pale, though both will soon be adorned with bright pink nail polish.
Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Volume 8, pages 43-68 Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN: 0-7623-0051-5 43
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COLIN H. SACKS INTRODUCTION
Antonia, a 7-year-old African American girl, is the daughter of Barbara, the woman across the room. Sara, the (almost) 6-year-old European-American girl practicing her math with Barbara is the daughter of Megan, the woman applying nail polish to Antonia's toes. All four are residents of Project Hope, a residential treatment facility for mothers with substance abuse problems and their children. Project Hope is one of several substance abuse treatment programs for mothers and children that began to emerge in the 1990s. Such programs are designed to allow mothers to recover from substance abuse habits, while at the same time reuniting with one or more of their children. At Project Hope, some of the clients were referred by friends or relatives. Others were mandated by Child Protective Services to seek treatment or lose their children. A third group comes from area prisons, part of a new program which allows non-violent offenders to complete part of their sentence while reuniting with their children. Approximately 80% of the program's clients are African-American, while the rest are mostly European-American or Latino. The adult clients spend their days attending therapeutic groups led by one or more Adult Counselors. Groups include Anger Management, Substance Abuse Recovery, and Parenting. The children, ranging in age from infancy to twelve years, attend a "Child Enrichment" program designed to further their social, emotional and intellectual growth. The older children also attend head start, preschool, or elementary school, during the day. Megan, the European-American woman applying nail polish to Antonia's toes, was in prison for fraud before coming to Project Hope. Barbara, the African-American woman helping Sara with her arithmetic, was in prison for felony drunken driving and hit and run before coming to Project Hope. Both women had histories of substance abuse, and both had come from what each described as "racist" backgrounds. Megan said, "When I was living in (a mostly white suburb in a large West Coast metropolitan area), I w a s . . . I didn't choose to hang out with black people. My brother, who I looked up to, had a swastika tattooed on his stomach." Barbara, who grew up in a mostly black part of a medium sized West Coast city, said, "I was taught that white folks won't accept you. For the most part, race wasn't talked about in my house, but I knew not to trust white people." Both women carried their prejudices with them to Project Hope. Given these backgrounds, how did Barbara and Megan wind up as suitemates, willingly and lovingly attending to the needs of each others' daughters? And what was the nature of their relationship? Was it a partnership based on necessity? Or a true friendship?
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Study Overview This chapter is an examination of the lives of the women and children of Project Hope~ with an emphasis on two interrelated questions: (1) How do the children's (and women's) interactions with members of different racial groups manifest themselves within the context of Project Hope? (2) How do the children's (and women's) racial identities develop within the context of Project Hope? Because these questions are so open ended, and because there is little or no research available on mother and children rehabilitation programs, a naturalistic observation method was employed in this study (Sommer, 1977; Corsaro, 1997), supplemented by semi-structured interviews with several of the participants. I had worked for three years as a Child Counselor at Project Hope prior to the one-year observation period which forms the basis for this chapter. In my capacity as Child Counselor, I formulated treatment plans for each of the children, implemented these plans, and also led Parenting Groups for the women, in which parenting issues were discussed. Much of my time was spent playing with the children, reading to the children, and helping the older children with their homework. I also led an evening "Big Kid Group," which will be described later. When making detailed observations, I employed what Corsaro (1997) calls the "reactive method" of observation/interaction, sitting on the floor or in a small chair, and allowing the children to involve me in their games and conversations at their pace. Of course, because the children knew me well, it was impossible not to sometimes become a part of their conversations and interactions. By taking dally notes and entering these notes periodically on a computer, I was able to generate an extensive store of "vignettes," or situations relevant to the questions examined in this chapter. These vignettes, like the one that begins the chapter, will be used to provide a feel for the day-to-day lives of the women and children at Project Hope. In addition they will serve as "lead-ins" to segments of the interviews which will make up much of the chapter. Most interviews were conducted after the observation period, and several interview questions were designed to refer directly to questions raised by the incidents captured in the vignettes. I interviewed the following participants: "Megan", a European-American client of Project Hope "Barbara", an African-American client of Project Hope "Aimee", a European-American Child Counselor at Project Hope "Tiffany", an African American Child Counselor at Project Hope.
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During the one-year course of this study, the number of Child Counselors at Project Hope varied from four to six. Most were African American, with the rest being either Latino or European American. Female Child Counselors outnumbered male Child Counselors by an average ratio of two to one. The number of Adult Counselors also varied from four to six. All were African American women, with the exception of one Native American woman and one Latina woman, during the course of the study. The number of adult clients varied from 16 to 22 during the course of the study. The number of children (including infants) varied from 20 to 28. The average length of stay was one year, with a range of three months to three years. As mentioned previously, approximately 80% of the clients were African American, while 20% were European American or Latina. Clients were varied in other aspects of their demographic backgrounds, with most coming from urban areas, and some coming from smaller towns. The treatment center itself was located in an urban neighborhood of a large West Coast City. All vignettes presented in this chapter are reconstructed based on my observations and on the recollections of the four interviewees. All names have been changed to protect the participants in this study.
Review of Relevant Research Two areas of research are briefly reviewed: research on racial identity formation, and research on race relations.
Racial Identity Development Several studies suggest that children can identify their own racial group as early as three years of age (Durrett & Davy, 1970; Hraba & Grant, 1970). Further, some studies have found same-race friendships to be more common than crossrace friendships, although many cross-race friendships are found in preschool and elementary school children (Shaw, 1974). Hirschfeld (1996) suggests that young children learn to identify groups by verbal labels, and possibly by associated affect, at a relatively early age, but it is not until middle childhood that affiliation preferences reflect these distinctions. If young children have been exposed to other children of diverse racial backgrounds for much of their lives, or if children of different racial backgrounds share similar status, social class, and educational levels, then the likelihood of cross-race friendships is increased (Clore, Bray, Itkin & Murphy, 1978; Singleton & Asher, 1977). Presumably, children with more cross-race friendships at an earlier age would be less likely to construe their own racial identities in terms of what they are not, or whom they must avoid.
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Some conceptualizations of racial identity development may be more suited for describing adult development than child development. For example, Cross (1971, 1991) proposes a five-stage model of racial identity development in black Americans. In the first stage, the individual has absorbed many of the beliefs of the dominant culture, including the notion that black is somehow less desirable. In the second stage, a precipitating event or events forces the individual to acknowledge and confront the presence of racism in our culture. In the third stage, there may be an immersion in black culture, coupled with a rejection of the dominant culture. In the fourth stage, there is a greater acceptance of diversity, coupled with black pride. In the fifth stage, acceptance of own and other cultures translates to a commitment to further black pride, and to fight racism. Helms (1990) has proposed a similar set of stages through which, she argues, white Americans proceed. In the first stage, the white individual is relatively naive about the presence of racism in our culture. In the second stage, awareness of racism may lead to guilt or shame about being white. In the third stage, the white individual can decide to associate primarily with members of her own culture, to avoid the guilt and shame of the second stage. Conversely, she might "try too hard" to affiliate with blacks, and to identify with the black cause, the result often leading to awkwardness and/or perpetuation of some of the very stereotypes she is trying to "unlearn." In later stages, the white individual achieves acceptance of her own white identity, while at the same time striving to avoid stereotyping and other negative behaviors toward minority individuals. Race Relations Does mere association with persons of different races lessen prejudice? In a review of studies examining the effects of school desegregation on racial attitudes, Stephan (1986) found little evidence that racial attitudes have been substantially affected by forced integration. Others (e.g. Cook, 1984) have found some reduction in stereotyping and prejudice. More fruitful is an examination of the conditions under which cross-race interaction produce positive race relations and reductions in stereotyping and prejudice. Sherif's famous (1966) studies of boys at an Oklahoma summer camp have demonstrated the importance of working together to achieve super-ordinate goals for reducing out-group prejudice. Subsequent studies have demonstrated similar results with adults (e.g. Blake & Mouton, 1979). Educators have applied the findings of these studies directly in the classroom. Aronson and his colleagues divided elementary school children into culturally diverse groups and had them work on problems which could only be solved if group members worked collaboratively. The so called "jigsaw" technique yielded uniformly positive results, with children in jigsaw classrooms reporting more positive race
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relations, higher self-esteem, better school performance, and a greater liking for school than children in more traditional classrooms (Aronson & Bridgeman, 1979; Aronson & Gonzalez, 1988). Wilder (1984) suggests that for contact between members of different groups to reduce prejudice, several conditions must be met. These include the following: (1) the groups must be relatively equal in social, economic or task-related status; (2) the situation in which they interact must involve cooperation and interdependence; (3) the contact situation must allow casual one-on-one interaction; (4) contact must occur in a setting where existing sub-cultural norms favor equality and association between members of diverse groups; (5) the settings in which members of various groups associate must allow for dis-confirmation of existing stereotypes; (6) the persons involved must perceive members of other groups as representative of their groups, so prejudice-dis-confirming interactions can not be discounted. Although the relevant research reviewed above served to focus the observations gathered during the course of this chapter, an attempt was made to gather all information which could be seen as pertinent to race relations and the development of racial identity.
A GLIMPSE OF PROJECT HOPE Young Children Address Race; Child Counselors Respond Two 4-year-old children are fighting over a tricycle. "It was my turn next," says one. "Devin said I could ride it next," says the other. A scuffle ensues. "Nigger," says one little boy, who is part Latino and part white, to the other little boy, who is part black and part white. Later, the mother of the child who used the offending word says, "I never taught him to talk like that. I don't know why he'd be prejudiced. Some of the other people around the house might have used words like that, but I told him never to say stuff like that." Some staffers are alarmed, thinking that parents might divide themselves along racial lines about the incident. Two days later, the same little boy is in a struggle over a tricycle, this time with a white child. Again, a scuffle ensues. "Nigger," says the little boy to the white child.
Although racial slurs were rarely used by the children at Project Hope, I was not surprised by this incident, nor was I surprised to hear the young Latino boy use the word "nigger" to express anger at a white child. The four-year-old children with whom I worked seemed to have little understanding of adult concepts like "race" or "ethnicity." This little boy had evidently heard adults use that term in a negative way, and so he used to express anger toward children with whom he was arguing. I remember noticing a collective sigh of relief among the staff when they learned that he had used the same word to describe a white boy.
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Tiffany, a black female Child Counselor, agreed. "Children learn what they live. They're like little sponges. It's not until they're older that they associate words like 'nigger' with images. When I ' m with the kids, it's generally not about race as far as who is in their 'club' on a given day. It's about their personalities. 1 was glad that people didn't make too big a deal of this incident." Like Tiffany, I think that these children's patterns of speech - what they say and how they say it - are modeled after the people around them. A fouryear-old child who uses the racist terminology so casually when he is angry has seen adults around him do the same. I also think that this little incident provides some basic insight into the early development of racial attitudes. It strongly suggests that this little boy grew up in a racist environment, and that if he stays in that environment for long, he will grow up modeling his caregivers' racist attitudes. His mother's comment ("I never taught him to talk like that") appears to suggest a lack of understanding of the importance of modeling in raising children. The next scenario suggests that even at 51/2 years of age, the notion of "race" can be confusing to children. Sharronda, a 5q2-year-old black girl, and I are tightly bonded. Sharronda's father had been murdered, beaten to death with a baseball bat in an argument over drugs at a local park. One day, Sharronda and I are sitting quietly on the floor of Child Enrichment, while I read "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" (a children's book by Don and Audrey Wood) to her out loud. This is her favorite book, and the book is such a powerful symbol of our relationship that she is visibly upset when I read it to another child. When the story is over, we get up to go join the other children and adults in the next room. Suddenly, Sharronda, asks, simply, "Are you white?" I pause, looked briefly at my own arm, and say, "Yes, I guess I am." The little girl looks slightly perplexed, says, "Oh," and then goes out to join the other children and adults. The incident was never mentioned again, and my relationship with Sharronda continued as it had before.
Like the previous incident, Sharronda's innocent question illustrates that children's sense of race is still developing and differentiating prior to the grade school years. That Sharronda would ask whether I was white after working with me for several months did surprise me. It appeared to suggest that she had not previously considered my race or ethnicity, and that something came up, perhaps in conversation with her mother or other adults, that led her to be interested in whether I was, indeed, white. Because I did not know what she had heard about white or black people, my strategy was to take her question in stride. We had a good relationship, and we had never discussed race in all the time I'd worked with her. Aimee, a white female Child Counselor at Project Hope, said, "My guess would be that the little girl heard others talking about 'white people' and didn't know what they meant. When she first heard white, she probably thought of
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something like a white piece of paper. I doubt she knew what they were talking about when she heard someone talking about a 'white man.' " In another incident, Anthony, an 8-year-old black boy, asked me why I was so hairy while his own skin was so smooth and dark. My response was to take out a world-globe and say something like, "My great-great-great-great grandparents came from up here (I pointed to England), where it's really cold. My hair protects me from the cold. I bet yours came from here (pointing to Africa) where it tends to be warmer. Darker skin protects people from the sun." In fact, I knew that Anthony's father lived in Africa at that time, so that explanation was satisfying to him. I also knew that Anthony was old enough to understand concepts like "black" and "white;" my intention was to satisfy his curiosity about black and white people in as objective a fashion as possible. Tiffany, Aimee and I also noted that we rarely or never saw children basing their play partner choices on race or ethnicity, though Tiffany noted a preference for same-sex groupings starting at approximately age five. "I want my children to be culturally competent," Tiffany summarized. " I ' d like them to be aware of different cultures, and respectful of different cultures. But I don't want to force it on them." Overall, our actions reflect what I would call a "common sense approach" to helping children from various backgrounds achieve a positive racial identity, while avoiding overt discussion of race unless it is brought up by the children. It is important to note that each of us had considerable experience working with young children, each of us had substantial training relevant to Early Childhood Education, and that the three of us had openly discussed our desire to foster positive relations among children from different backgrounds. Although this would seem to be an obvious goal among individuals working with young children, some Child Counselors at Project Hope were observed engaging in (what we considered to be) inappropriate behaviors, including one Latino male counselor who mocked the names of some of the black children.
Barbara Confronts Me Over a Negative Black Stereotype Antonia, the daughter of Barbara, is sitting in "Evening Big Kid Group," the therapeutic and educational group for children ages 3 through 12 that I lead for an hour-and-a-half every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening at Project Hope. On this night there are seven children in the group, quietly coloring. After about a half-an-hour of coloring and quiet conversation, I declare, "Who wants to play musical chairs?" All hands simultaneously shoot up, and the children are dispatched to set up the chairs, a routine with which they are they are quite familiar. I take out my guitar and play an upbeat melody while the children circle the chairs. After a few of the younger children have been eliminated (they come back to the table where puzzles are waiting for them), there are three children left, Antonia and two others.
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The next time the music stops, Antonia is caught far away from the remaining two chairs, but she gives a smaller child a rather strong "hip check" and knocks that child to the floor, sitting victoriously in one of the two remaining chairs. I say, "No hip checks, 'Nia. Danielle is smaller than you are. Come over and sit with us. You'll have a chance to win next time." Antonia, who had been calm and confident, suddenly scowls, threatens to leave the room, and says, "I hate you and this stinky old game." She sits at the table and throws a puzzle on the floor. Two days later, I ask Barbara, Autonia's mother, to look over and sign Antonia's "Treatment Plan", a one-page document which all Counselors complete every three months for each child. The treatment plan chronicles each child's cognitive, emotional and behavioral development, as well as goals for the next three months. Barbara notices that I have written, "Allow Antonia to discover more appropriate ways to express her anger" under "Emotional Development/ Goals." Barbara suddenly says, "What is this about anger? That's not OK with me! Antonia is not angry! I'm so tired of people saying black people are angry every time they act a certain way. They have a fight to be angry, but that's just not OK with me." I try to tell Barbara about what happened in Child Enrichment, and that it had happened severn times before, but Barbara does not want to hear about it. She signs the document and storms out of the room. This was an e x t r e m e l y important incident, because it o p e n e d up c o n v e r s a t i o n b e t w e e n Barbara and m y s e l f about racial issues. Initially, I felt kind o f stuck, because I w a n t e d to ask her about h o w she w o u l d label A n t o n i a ' s behavior, but I d i d n ' t want to put Barbara on the defensive. Later, Barbara told m e that she had b e e n processing her o w n anger and racial issues in her groups and with her primary counselor, and that this incident served to "bring up those issues." She said, "I w a s n ' t O K with the w a y black p e o p l e w e r e treated. I n e v e r really got to deal with m y o w n anger before c o m i n g (to Project Hope), and what y o u said just brought all that up for m e . " A f t e r this incident, Barbara and I, w h o had b e e n m u t u a l l y respectful but a bit distant toward each other, w e r e m o r e able to openly discuss racial issues together.
A Brief Description of "Big Kid Group" A n t o n i a ' s "hip c h e c k " o f a y o u n g e r child occurred in " B i g Kid Group," a group I led for 3- through 12-year-old children each Tuesday, W e d n e s d a y , and T h u r s d a y e v e n i n g at Project H o p e during the course o f the study. M y intent was to p r o v i d e an e x p e r i e n c e for the children w h i c h was both educational and therapeutic, while also e n c o u r a g i n g positive interaction a m o n g the children, regardless o f race. B i g Kid G r o u p served as a sort o f " h u b " for the children o f Project Hope, so a b r i e f description is in order. I generally began by reading a story or two to the children, w h o w o u l d gather around m e on the carpet. F o l l o w i n g this, w e w o u l d spend about half an h o u r
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in quiet conversation while coloring at the tables. Older children were told they could work on their homework "if they wanted to," but they were not required to do so. I also usually asked the older children to make up arithmetic problems for me, so I could "practice my math." This usually led to them asking me to make up some problems for them, which was, of course, my intent. Following this, we would usually work on a puzzle together. I generally gave each child parts of the puzzle (15 pieces each for four children with a 60-piece puzzle) and encouraged them to "ask politely" if someone else had a piece they needed. This exercise was extremely effective at teaching boundaries and cooperation. I was also aware that it was a "literal" application of the "jigsaw" method of inducing cooperation (Aronson & Bridgeman, 1979) among diverse children. Next, I would usually sing "the blues," while playing my guitar, and encourage the children to make up verses. I would begin "When my children don't listen well, it gives me ! and the children would enthusiastically fill in "the blues !" They then made up their own verses, two notable ones being, "When my mom gives me a whuppin'," and "When the police came to my m o m ' s house and there was a 'bong' on the table and she got busted." "The Blues" proved to be an effective projective and therapeutic game. Finally, we concluded either with more coloring, musical chairs, or "dancestop," a musical game in which children dance to guitar music and must freeze when the music stops. The guitar music included familiar children's songs, blues, and Irish music, each of which the children could readily identify. In general, the intent was to provide a safe environment in which the children could express their feelings (they were taught to identify and label such emotions as happy, sad, mad, and frustrated), bond with each other in a structured setting, and receive help with their homework, as needed. A New Child Comes to Project Hope; A Black Woman and a White Woman Develop and are Forced to Confront Racial Issues It is Evening Big Kid Group again and there is a new face in the room: It is the face of Sara, a blonde haired white girl of just under 5 years. When "coloring time commences," Sara sits next to Antonia, to whom she appears to be drawn, and closely watches Antonia's every move. When Antonia begins drawing mountains (modeled from me - I always drew mountains), Sara does the same. When "dance-stop" commences, Sara tries to imitate Antonia's style of dancing. Because Antonia and Sara are very close in age (51h and 41/2, respectively, when they first met), there is an unspoken bond between them. Over the next several days, they are often found playing together, their dramatic play often revolving around their experiences in their respective families. Within a few weeks, they often find themselves doing art work for each other (creating art and giving it to other participants in Big Kid Group is a longstanding tradition, passed on from one generation of children to the next).
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After several months, it is known to all that Sara and Antonia are "best friends." They are virtually inseparable in Big Kid Group and during their free time. Some nights, they come to Big Kid Group late, choosing instead to play in one of their bedrooms. Along with another new girl, a 41/2-year-oldblack girl named Darilnica, they have learned several songs by the "Spice Girls," a singing group popular among young children, and often spontaneously sing several Spice Girls songs in their entirety, by memory, complete with the appropriate choreography. The friendship that developed between Antonia and Sara gradually forced their mothers, Barbara and Megan, to acknowledge each other. Both Barbara and Megan had more extensive parenting skills than many of the women at Project Hope, often reading with their children or playing with them in their rooms. Because their daughters were inseparable, the two women often found themselves together, reading to both children, or one "watching" the girls while the other completed paperwork. But Barbara and Megan were also a black woman and a white woman, respectively, with histories of mistrust toward each other's race. At first, the relationship between Megan and Barbara was distant but mutually respectful (not unlike my early relationship with Barbara). Both women later expressed having had reservations about their daughters' blossoming friendship, but they also said that they did not want to interfere with what was happening. In time, Barbara and Megan began speaking more openly with each other. They swapped stories of what got them in trouble, how they felt about not always being present for their children (both had served time in prison), and the difficulties of reuniting with their children. Then, one night, Antonia came home from Evening Big Kid Group, and said to her mother, "Is Colin white?" When Barbara responded in the affirmative, Antonia said, "I want to be white like Colin." At first Barbara felt confused, she later told me, and she immediately went to one of the Adult Counselors to tell them what had happened. She told me that she had also felt sad at the time of this incident. "I felt sad for Antonia," she said, "and I also remembered the feeling of trying to be accepted myself." I realized she had three strong white role models, her counselor, her best friend, and Megan, but I wanted to do something. "I talked to several counselors about what to do, and they suggested I start taking Antonia to the library to get books about positive black role models. We see black people in music and in sports and I think that leads a lot of black children to think that's the only way we can succeed. We got books about Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks. I wanted to see her have higher self esteem about her blackness, without it having to be anything negative about white people." It was a funny time for both the girls, Barbara recalled. Sara always wanted to have her blonde hair done in the tight braided style of the little black girls,
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w h i l e A n t o n i a w a n t e d long, straight h a i r w i t h a s i n g l e p o n y tail, like S a r a ' s . "I w a n t e d t h e girls to l o v e e a c h o t h e r a n d also a c c e p t t h e i r o w n hair, a n d w h o t h e y w e r e , " B a r b a r a said. A s k e d i f it w a s difficult to find h e r s e l f f o r m i n g a f r i e n d s h i p w i t h a w h i t e w o m a n , B a r b a r a said, " A t first, it w a s difficult. S o m e o f t h e b l a c k c l i e n t s m a d e m e feel u n c o m f o r t a b l e . T h e y ' d say t h i n g s like, ' W h y are y o u g i v i n g so m u c h a t t e n t i o n to M e g a n ? ' a n d I k n e w t h a t really m e a n t ' W h y are y o u g i v i n g so m u c h a t t e n t i o n to t h e w h i t e g i r l ? ' " G r a d u a l l y , B a r b a r a said, p e o p l e j u s t h a d to a c c e p t t h a t A n t o n i a a n d S a r a w e r e b e s t friends, a n d t h a t t h e i r p a r e n t s , B a r b a r a a n d M e g a n , w e r e q u i c k l y b e c o m i n g g o o d f r i e n d s as well.
A New Staff Member With a Different Racial Message; Barbara Comments I am driving the van and Barbara is "supporting" one evening as 7 children, ages 4 through 9, return home from getting ice cream. Five of the children, including Antonia, are black, one is latino, and one, Sara, is white. At a stoplight, a bearded white male, in his thirties or forties, crosses in the crosswalk. Anthony, an 8-year-old black boy who has worked extensively with me, says, "Silly white man." The other children say nothing, but Barbara says, "That's not OK, Anthony! Where did you get that?" Anthony responds that Kareem said that the other day, when a white man waved at them on an outing. Kareem, a black man in his early fifties, was hired by the Director of Project Hope to provide a black male role model for the black boys of Project Hope. He takes Project Hope's black boys out on outings, and teaches them about African culture. Prior to the hiring of Kareem, there were two male Child Counselors, myself and Louie, a Latino male. Anthony continues, "The white man oppressed the black man. The white man even stole the peace sign from the black man." At that point, Barbara says, "The white man may have oppressed the black man, but he didn't steal the peace sign from the black man. It's not OK to talk like that, Anthony." I say, "Anthony, the peace sign came from back in the 'sixties,' when Barbara and I were both teenagers. There was a war going on that many people didn't like, called the Viet Nam War. Black people and white people stood side by side to protest that war, and they often made the peace sign." Anthony says, "Well, Kareem told me that white people stole the peace sign from the black man." Barbara says, "Anthony, don't be talking that stuff around here. That's just not right." Later, I a s k e d K a r e e m i f h e d i d i n d e e d say w h a t A n t h o n y alleged. " N o , h e m i s q u o t e d m e , " K a r e e m replied. "I a c t u a l l y said, ' S t u p i d w h i t e m a n . ' " K a r e e m e x p l a i n e d t h a t h e d i d n ' t like to b e " t y p e d , " a n d that h e h a d issues w i t h the " f a m i l iarity" o f t h e m a n w h o h a d w a v e d at h i m .
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Soon after the above incident, another Child Enrichment Worker, a black female, reported to her colleagues that another black male child had said, "Kareem is teaching us about the differences between white and black people," and that she wasn't comfortable with that message. The Assistant Director of the program, A Native American female named Nan, was asked to join the discussion with the Child Enrichment team, so the team could air its concerns. The Assistant Director said only that the two boys might not be telling the truth, and that it could not be concluded that Kareem was actually teaching them these things. The matter was dropped, but all of the Child Counselors (myself included) were extremely frustrated. Kareem had been hired without the knowledge of any of the other Child Counselors. Apparently, he had been a friend of the Program Director prior to being hired. The other Child Enrichment Workers had not been comfortable with his hiring, but they had not wanted to challenge the Program Director. Kareem did not participate in Child Enrichment team meetings, and came to Project Hope only to take the children on outings. He was later dismissed for inappropriate behavior unrelated to the above incident. When later asked about the incident, Barbara said, "At first I was embarrassed. I thought, 'That poor child - hearing that kind of stuff.' But it also brought up early high school stuff for me." Barbara said that after being taught not to trust white people, she had been bussed to a mostly white school where some white children called black children "niggers" and fights sometimes ensued. But she had also had some white friends with whom, she said, she sometimes did drugs. Seeing this kind of ambivalence and confusion unnecessarily introduced to the children of Project Hope brought up her own early confusion. "I'd heard other children (at Project Hope) starting to come up with this racist stuff, and that wasn't OK with me any more. Before I was bussed to that other school, I had made some white friends. But then I had to deal with racism, and that's when I sometimes got in fights. It was really confusing to me. And then I saw these children being forced into the same situation - it just wasn't right. But I was comfortable with the way we handled the situation with Anthony." she concluded. Barbara and Megan Give Each Other a "Hard Time"; Barbara and Megan Comment Barbara and Megan are on the bus together, heading to an appointment. Three tough looking black teenagers board the bus and head up the aisle, sporting the typical urban teenage garb of baggy pants and a serious look. Megan leans over to Barbara and says, "Barbara, your people really get on my nerves! Look at those kids trying to be thugs!" Both women smile and watch as the youths strut by. Later, Barbara and Megan watch as several white children on a field trip walk by, one young child burdened by the heavy load the adults
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COLIN H. SACKS have given him to carry. Barbara leads over to Megan and says, "Your people will make a slave out of anybody!" This time, both women laugh openly.
Both women said that their attitudes toward people from different cultures had changed in a positive way while they were at Project Hope. And both acknowledged that the effect would probably not have been as dramatic had their daughters not become best friends. By the time the above incident occurred, the two women, and their daughters, had chosen to be suite-mates. "As far as race, my attitude has changed totally in a good way," Barbara said. "Living with people of other nationalities has taught me that, in many ways, w e ' r e all the same. I ' v e learned that a white girl can be just as much of a friend to me as a black girl. I also think it's been good for Antonia, because I ' v e been able to help her be accepting of white people, and yet love herself as a black girl. And that's something I didn't get a chance to do. "It took a long time for Megan and me to be able to joke around like that. I had to let her know it was OK." Megan agreed but was somewhat more contentious: " I ' m glad I got to be friends with Barbara, and that my daughter got to be friends with Antonia. But there were a lot of things I didn't like here, like the way certain staff members yell at the clients. Wanda (a black female adult counselor) is so 'ghetto.' She yells at the clients, like we're stupid or something. And she does it in front of our children! How can we teach our children to be one way, when the adults around here are acting an entirely different way?"
Elementary School Children Try to Win an Argument; Later, They Discuss Martin Luther King Day and a Loose Tooth It is nap time, and several grade school children, home for Christmas vacation, are waking up. There are six children in the room, four black girls, one black boy, and one girl of Native American-MexicanAmerican-whiteancestry. I am sitting quietly nearby, tuning my guitar in preparation for a wake-up song. "Did I snore when I was asleep?" asks Markell, the 11-year-oldgirl of mixed ancestry. "No, I didn't hear yon snore," I say. "My morn snores-likethis: SNORE SNORE!" says Briana, a 6-year-oldlight skinnedblack girl. "Some kids snore when their noses are stuffed up," I say. "Darilnica sure snored!" says Antonia, referring to a little girl who had left the program two months ago. "Yeah, I rememberDarilnicasnoring," says Briana, who entered the program about a month ago. "You weren't even here when Darilnica was!" says Tyrone, a 7-year-oldblack boy.
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"Yes I was!" insists Briana. "What did she look like?" challenges Antonia. Briana struggles for words. "Did she have dark skin?" pursues Antonia. "Yeah, it was dark. Darker than mine. About like yours," guesses Briana. "No it wasn't! Darilnica was darker than me! You never met her!" announces Antonia, victorious. "You're dark brown, Antonia," says Tyrone, gently. "See, I did too know Darilnica! I knew her at school!" says Briana, sensing hope. "No, she was darker than you, and darker than Antonia, too," says Tyrone, closing the discussion. What struck me about this conversation was the casualness with which the children discussed skin color, Antonia and Briana's intent being to win a youthful argument. There was an awareness, and an acceptance of blackness, with no value judgment, that I found encouraging. But I found myself wondering if there was another underlying question about the extent of Antonia's blackness. Darilnica is actually only slightly darker than Antonia, so perhaps the children were starting to internalize the concern that some black adults have, about their degree of "darkness." What initially made me want to write this conversation down was how comfortable the kids were discussing it, especially in front of Markell and myself. I also found it interesting that a spontaneous discussion of skin color would emerge from what was initially an amusing conversation about snoring. The above conversation appears to demonstrate a fairly well differentiated concept of color by the early elementary school years, though it sheds no light on the extent to which skin color is tied in with the meaning attributed to it in the broader adult social context. To me, it suggests two opposing forces: on the one hand, the children were comfortable enough with skin color to discuss it openly. On the other, they were beginning to internalize their parents' concern with degree of "darkness." The next interaction provides some insight into first-graders' attempts to understand what they have learned in school about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, as well as their priorities at that age. Vivian (age 7): "Martin Luther King's Birthday is next week. We learned about him in school." Me: "What did you learn about Martin Luther King7" Briana (age 6): "He was for freedom for everyone." Me: "What's freedom?" Vivian: "It's - you can buy clothes and stuff."
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COLIN H. SACKS Me: "Clothes?" Vivian: "Yeah. And that everyone can get along." Antonia (age 6): "Yeah. He was for the white people and the black people getting along." Vivian: "My teacher was telling us how the white people had nice busses and the black people had nasty old busses." Me: "Did you learn about Rosa Parks?" Antonia: "Yes. She wouldn't ride at the back of the bus." Vivian: "My tooth is loose. It's about to come out." Antonia: "I already lost that one. Is it going to come out?" Me: "Did you learn what a boycott is?" Antonia: "Yeah. The black people wouldn't ride the busses no more." Vivian: "Look, I can turn it almost all the way around!" Antonia: "It's going to come out tonight!" Me: "So Martin Luther King was for equality for all people? Regardless of color?" Antonia: "Yeah, I guess so.
W h a t interested me about this conversation was the children's attempt to integrate what t h e y ' d learned in school into their young cognitive structures. V i v i a n ' s statement that "you can buy clothes and stuff' reflects an incomplete understanding of what the teacher was trying to impart, presumably that minority citizens would have equal access to educational and economic opportunities. Antonia statement that "He was for the black people and white people getting along" did reflect a basic understanding of Martin Luther K i n g ' s message. In later conversation, I explained how a boycott worked, and discovered that they had not really fully understood that concept from their schooling. I included this conversation because it captures something of first-graders' attempts to understand what they learned at school, and also because it captures the flow of young children's conversation, providing a bit of insight about their priorities (Martin Luther King is interesting, but he can not compete with a loose tooth).
Some Older Elementary School Children Confront Race Outside Project Hope The vignettes in this chapter present a generally positive picture of race relations and racial identity formation for the children of Project Hope, at least while the children from the program are around the clients and staff of Project Hope. However, several incidents which happened primarily outside the facility remind us that, like Barbara i n her early high school days, older school aged
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children are still attempting to process conflicting messages while trying to form a sense of racial identity. In one incident, Shauna, a black girl of nine years came home from school one day saying she had had a fight in school. She described the events that led up to the fight and then said proudly that she was "tired of that white girl messing" with her. Although Shauna got along well with white children and adults at Project Hope, there was a sense of "us versus them" in her statement, Aimee reported. Shauna was encouraged to avoid fights at school, and the event wasn't discussed further. In another incident, several children were in a local park when a boy from Project Hope got into a fight with a local boy. The boys, both about 6-yearsold, were separated, but the children from Project Hope were clearly agitated. As the Project Hope children were leaving the park, the local boy who had been in the fight asked an older (10-year-old) girl from Project Hope, "Is he your daddy?" referring to me, her white counselor. "No, my daddy is a black man; He ain't no white man," she responded. In a third incident, five children were walking home with me to Project Hope after a visit to a local park. They passed a house where a party was taking place and the children all waved as they recognized a little girl from Project Hope who was visiting her relatives. Suddenly a drunken woman on the front porch launched into a racial tirade against a 4-year-old white girl who had been talking innocently with her four black friends. The children were all shocked and scared, and when they were a safe distance away from the woman's porch, Ronisha, a 9-year-old black gift, spoke eloquently: "Some black people don't like white people because white people used to have black people as slaves. I don't hate white people but I know that some people do." These incidents suggest that a sense of black identity is fairly well developed in black children in the middle elementary school years, and they also underscore the ambivalence many black children must feel as they process conflicting messages about white people. It is interesting to note that the "white girl" statement and the "daddy is a black man" statement both occurred while the speakers were in heightened states of arousal. It is also important to restate that division into racial groups was rarely seen among the children at Project Hope, even among the older children, and even when stressful events or fights occurred.
CONCLUSION In general, the findings of this chapter suggest generally positive race relations among children from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds at Project Hope.
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My observations, and the observations of my colleagues, confirmed that children from diverse ethnic backgrounds played and learned together, and that race or ethnicity did not appear to be a factor in determining who became friends with whom. However, some of the incidents presented in this chapter remind us that Project Hope's children live in a broader culture that encourages distinctions between individuals from different backgrounds, and that race can still divide older children. Several factors may contribute to the positive race relations among the children at Project Hope: (1) the younger children's natural "colorblindness"; (2) that children from various backgrounds play together, and work together toward "higher order" goals; (3) that adult clients from different backgrounds are seen, by their children, working together toward a common goal, that goal being a clean and sober lifestyle; (4) that most of the Child Counselors make a conscious effort to validate the experiences of all children, regardless of racial or ethnic background; (5) that Child Counselors model cooperation between individuals of differing races and genders. Tiffany summarized, "I think it's important, once the kids start understanding what race is, that they see white and black counselors working together. This will affect them positively once they start to develop a conception of what race is all about in society. And I definitely don't agree with the notion that children should work primarily with adults of their own race." Aimee observed, "The kids played with each other based on age and interests. Race didn't seem to have any relevance to them, for the most part. I didn't see the counselors favoring kids of any particular race either." She concluded, "Working here really reminded me how all the prejudice you see is taught by the outside world." In my own work with the children, I tried to treat race as matter-of-factly as I could, and I did several things that were specifically intended to foster and maintain positive relationships between children of various races. My use of puzzles was derived directly from the work of Sherif (1966) and Aronson and his colleagues (e.g. Aronson & Gonzalez, 1988). My use of blues and Irish music represented a conscious effort to validate musical forms usually associated with "black" and "white" culture. Finally, as mentioned, Tiffany and I made a conscious effort to model positive relations between individuals who would at some point be categorized as "black" and "white." Future research should systematically examine the processes through which each of these social factors shape racial identity formation and race relations within the context of drug treatment programs like Project Hope. Research suggesting the importance of early exposure to diverse racial groups, and especially diverse others of similar status (Clore, Bray, Itkin & Murphy, 1978; Singleton & Asher, 1977), would lead us to believe that children from Project
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Hope would continue to have friendships with others from diverse backgrounds once they leave the program, especially if their parents provide an environment where this is encouraged. The findings for adults were a bit more contentious. Barbara's high school experiences appear to provide anecdotal support for Stephan's (1986) contention that forced bussing was ineffective at improving race relations. After already having had white friends, Barbara found herself being called "nigger" and having to fight with white students when she was bussed to a mostly white school. At Project Hope, in-group out-group prejudice appears to exist in a milder form, as witnessed by Barbara's assertion that some of the black women were at first a little troubled by her emerging friendship with Megan. However, that friendship gradually did come to be accepted, and Barbara was still well-liked and respected (as was Megan) by her black peers. In general, the women were often observed socializing with others of different races or ethnicities, and rarely did overt conflicts arise between adult clients where race appeared to be a factor. Still, Barbara's comments would suggest that the closest friendships were more ,often between same-race adult clients. It is clear that the program does satisfy several of the requirements suggested by Wilder (1984) for fostering positive relations between members of different ethnic groups. The women were, for the most part, equal in social and economic status, and they were certainly equal within the constraints imposed by the program. Some degree of cooperation and interdependence were necessary to make the program run effectively. There was ample opportunity for one-onone interaction. The rules of proper conduct, both for staff and clients, explicitly stated that members of all cultures would be honored, and racial slurs were strictly prohibited. Staff members were expected to model appropriate behavior in this area, with the culture ultimately corrdng to reflect this norm. Because some groups revolved around deep emotional issues (especially prior to the onset of the formal observation period, as Barbara mentioned), including guilt over abandoning children, the emotional effects of sexual abuse, and the emotional problems associated with drug abuse, adult clients had ample opportunity to get to know each other at a deep level, allowing for dis-confirmation of existing stereotypes. It is not known whether Project Hope's clients view members of other ethnic groups as representative of their groups. To the extent that mothers of different races interact well, their children would be expected to model this positive interaction and interact well with children who are outwardly different from themselves. Again, however, further research is necessary to test the hypothesis that such factors actually affect race relations within the context of a mother-and-children drug rehabilitation program.
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Concerning the development of children's racial identities, the findings of this chapter are interesting but sometimes difficult to interpret. With the exception of the 4-year-old white/Latino boy who misunderstood the adult meaning of the word "nigger," no children as young as three or four were heard to spontaneously mention race or ethnicity, so no light is shed on the contention (Durrett & Davy, 1970; Hraba & Grant, 1970) that children can identify their own racial group early as 3 years of age. However, the incident with this young boy suggests extreme caution in interpreting the spontaneous utterances of young children. Even when they do verbally express a basic understanding of race or ethnicity, further observation (or questioning, if necessary) is warranted to see what the words used mean to the child using them. As Corsaro (1986, p. 85) points out, referring to young children's dramatic play in which adult roles are adopted, "children did not merely imitate adult models, rather they reproduced typical family routines or scripts and often embellished them in line with the central features of peer culture." Though there is the risk of "over-interpreting" the results of the observations in this chapter, it can be stated that race was not relevant in the hundreds of hours of spontaneous dramatic play engaged in by the younger (preschool) children over a period of several months. Racial issues were simply not yet relevant to the peer culture of the younger children. With the older (school-aged) children, the story is somewhat different. The spontaneous conversation about snoring among children ages six through eight suggests a fairly well-differentiated understanding of color, or at least, in black children, of differences in color among black people. However, the fact that five- and six-year-olds would on several occasions ask me if I was "white" suggests that their notion for "white" (and by extension, "black") is still developing during the kindergarten and earliest elementary school years. These findings seem to suggest that young children learn to identify groups by verbal labels (Hirschfeld, 1996) before they can accurately apply those labels, and before they base their play partner choices on such labels. Eight-year-old Anthony's lucid discussion of the white man's oppression of the black man in the van suggests that by third grade, children's ideas regarding race are fairly well differentiated (as does 9-year-old Ronisha's eloquent discussion of black prejudice toward whites, following the drunken woman's racial tirade against the 4-year-old white girl). However, the affect associated with different races is apparently still being investigated by children in the middle elementary school years. Anthony probably brought up Kareem's comments in the hope that Barbara and I could help him resolve the cognitive dissonance he was feeling. I was his counselor and a white man, and yet he was learning from his new friend, Kareem, that the white man was bad.
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The two events in which two older girls spoke defiantly of white people suggest that black identity can partially involve negative affect toward whites during the elementary school years, but it important to restate that both children involved in those incidents got along well with white children and adults at Project Hope. Recent research (Florian & Mikulincer, 1998) suggests that stressful situations may serve as a trigger for in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice during late middle childhood. Perhaps the arousal induced by participating in, or witnessing, a fight led to such in-group-out-group discrimination in these two children. It is also possible that the girl who said "my daddy . . . ain't no white man" was not being defiant toward white people at all. Perhaps she was attempting to insult the young boy who had asked the question, seeing his question as a stupid one. However, she was a relatively light-skinned black girl, and interracial couples are fairly common in this city. Further, the children I worked with were often asked by the friends of lighter-skinned black children whether I was their father when I'd pick them up from school, or after-school programs. These factors, coupled with her apparent negative affect toward me in that moment, led to my interpretation. It is impossible to know her motivation with certainty. Overall, it appears that racial identity development among the children at Project Hope developed in a way that is consistent with the existing literature, with awareness of race manifesting itself in the early elementary years. An attempt was made by some of Project Hope's staff, and some of the mothers, to foster positive racial identity without negative feelings toward other ethnicities. When issues arose (e.g. Antonia's statement that she wanted to be "white like Colin"; Anthony learning that the white man was bad) appropriate measures were taken by clients and staff in collaboration. In the case of the incident with Antonia and me, Barbara was encouraged to visit the library to get books on black rote models for her daughter, while at the same time being allowed to discuss her own racial issues with her counselor and in groups. The result for her daughter, Barbara said, was a more positive sense of her own blackness with no decrease in her positive feelings for her white best friend, her "Auntie" (as Megan came to be known), or me, her Counselor. The apparent effectiveness of Tiffany, Aimee and myself in working with ethnically diverse clients appears to provide support to the hypothesis put forth by Sue and Zane (1987) that "distal" factors are far less important as predictors of therapeutic effectiveness that are "proximal" factors. Distal factors include race, gender, and an "academic" understanding of the culture from which a client comes. Proximal factors are those factors which induce in a client a sense of "credibility" and of "giving." "Credibility refers to the client's
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perception of the therapist as an effective and trustworthy helper. Giving is the client's perception that something was received from the therapeutic encounter." (Sue & Zane, 1987, p. 40). Although Sue and Zane focus on therapeutic work with adult clients, the same principles appear to apply to effective Child Counselors at Project Hope. It was evident from even casual observation that Tiffany and Aimee (and, I hope, myself) induced a strong sense of trust in the children with whom we worked. Further, we provided what Sue and Zane (1987, p. 42) call "gifts," including anxiety reduction, depression relief, cognitive clarity, and skills acquisition. Such "gifts" are said to be especially important in establishing credibility with minority clients. Less effective Child Counselors, while not necessarily less knowledgeable about the cultures of the children with which they worked (especially in the case of Kareem), were nonetheless unable to establish themselves as effective and trustworthy helpers. Many of the children were visibly agitated in their presence, and several simply refused to interact with them. The findings of this chapter may suggest that an effort should be made by administrators of such programs to hire staff for working with children that reflect the cultural diversity of the children. It is worth noting that Tiffany, Aimee and I all came from multicultural backgrounds, and therefore had experience associating with individuals from other cultures. Tiffany, who is black, had both black and white friends throughout her own childhood, as did I, a white male. Aimee, who is also white, came from an environment with a heavy Native American population, and had several non-white friends. We all agreed that fostering positive interaction between children of different cultures was a part of our agendas for our work with children at Project Hope. Though the findings of this study point to the importance of hiring ethnically diverse Counselors to work with ethnically diverse young children, it is not for the reasons some might assume (same-race role-models). Rather, it allows children to see adults of different races working together. As Tiffany pointed out (and consistent with Sue & Zane, 1987), there was absolutely no evidence to suggest that black Child Counselors were more effective with black children, nor white counselors with white children. Concerning the adults and racial identity, it certainly appears that Barbara, and perhaps Megan, progressed through several of the stages suggested by Cross (1991) and Helms (1990). Barbara's comments about her early upbringing suggest that she had internalized the notion that whites would not accept blacks (stage 1), and that whites were not to be trusted. Her experiences in high school forced her to further confront the presence of racism in our society (stage 2). Her later avoidance of white people, in spite of having had some white friends in her early high school years, can be seen as evidence of stage 3 behavior.
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However, as her friendship with Megan developed, she became able to accept whites as potential friends, without forsaking her blackness. It is important that she also encouraged her daughter to do the same. Megan grew up in an environment without much exposure to black people, and it is probable that she internalized white privilege. It is not clear that she proceeded through a stage of "guilt," but her interaction with Barbara certainly forced her to rethink her relationship with black people. It is interesting that both daughters, in trying to imitate the hairstyles of the other, may have reflected what for Helms (1990) is one possible manifestation of the third stage: a fascination with the opposite culture from which one comes. Megan did not, however, evidence any outward behaviors which might suggest over-identification with black culture. Her comment about an aggressive black Adult Counselor being "ghetto" also suggests some degree of resistance on her part. Although it is impossible to draw any conclusions about relationships between parenting skills and race relations or racial identity formation, it is worth noting that most (although not all) of the mothers at Project Hope had very poor parenting skills when they entered the program. Several, due to their addictions, had never parented their children before. Some were overtly threatening in their behavior toward their children, telling them to "shut up" when the child tried to speak, and expressing a desire to be more punitive than the rules of Project Hope allowed (mothers could not employ physical force of any kind toward their children at Project Hope). Many would tell the older children to "do their homework" but would not offer to help them with their homework. But the most common problem among the mothers at Project Hope was that they simply did not listen to their children. Clearly, the parenting seen at Project Hope was often non-nurturing and punitive (Huston, 1993). In fact, many of the behaviors observed among parents arriving at Project Hope were consistent with patterns of behavior exhibited by abusive parents, in which a child's behavior is interpreted as a threat, and high power tactics are used to control the child (Bugental, Blue & Cruzcosa, 1989; BugentaI, 1992). Further discussion of such parenting issues are beyond the scope of this chapter and will be addressed elsewhere (Sacks, 2001). However, poor parenting skills can indirectly affect children's sense of racial identity and racial attitudes. The incident in which the 4-year-old boy's mother was dumbfounded by her child's use of the term "nigger" is a good example of a lack of awareness of the importance of modeling (Bandura & Walters, 1963). She later confided that he had grown up in a household in which most of the adults were prejudiced against black people, and openly expressed their prejudice, yet proudly explained that she did not encourage such talk, and indeed punished such talk when it came from children. I observed that most of the
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women at Project Hope expressed a lack of awareness of the importance of their own and other adults' actions in front of their children. In fact, I tried to emphasize, in my groups with adult clients, the importance of modeling, relative to external rewards or punishment, in determining children's behavior. Megan and Barbara were better parents than most when they came to Project Hope, and they were also among those best able to practice what we discussed in our Parenting Groups. Taken together, the findings of this chapter suggest that racial identity formation and race relations can be generally positive in the context of racially integrated urban mother-and-child drug treatment program. Further, the findings suggest an awareness, among some staff and clients, of the importance of fostering positive racial identities, and positive race relations, in both children and adults. The findings also appear to underscore the importance of hiring qualified staff to work with both adult and child clients, and of closely monitoring the behavior of staff directly involved with clients. Of course, caution is advised in the interpretation of the findings of this chapter. For example, it may be the case that behind closed doors, women divided themselves along racial lines more than I was able to observe "on the floor." Further, it could be that the results would be quite different in a different environment, for example in a program where the racial make-up was more in line with the broader culture. At Project Hope, approximately 80% of clients and staff were black. Findings might be substantially different in a program where 80% of the clients and staff were white, with blacks as a minority. There is also the possibility that "observer bias" may have clouded my observations. Although I tried to be as objective as possible, and to supplement my own observations with interview data from black and white counselors and clients, my hopes for the adult and child clients may have affected my perceptions. Further, the responses of those I interviewed may have been similarly influenced by their own hopes, and their knowledge of my hopes, for the adult and child clients of the program. Still, I believe that the current findings provide a useful first step in examining race relations and racial identity development in the context of a mother-and-child drug rehabilitation program.
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Bandura, A., & Walters, R. (1963). Social Learning and Personality Development. New York: Holt. Blake, R. R., & Mouton, J. S. (1979). Inter-group problem-solving in organizations. In: W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds), The Social Psychology oflntergroup Relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. Bugental, D. B. (1992). Affective and cognitive processes within threat-oriented family systems. In: I. E. Sigel, A. McGillicuddy-DeLisi & J. Goodnow (Eds), Parental Belief Systems: The Psychological Consequences for Children (pp. 219-248). Hiltsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Bugental, D. B., Blue, J. B., & Cruzcosa, M. (1989). Perceived control over caregiving outcomes: Implications for child abuse. Developmental Psychology, 25, 532-539. Clore, G. L., Bray, R. M., Itkin, S. M., & Murphy, P. (1978). Interracial attitudes and behavior at a summer camp. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 107-116. Cook, S. W. (1984). Cooperative interaction in multiethnic contexts. In: N. Miller & M. Brewer (Eds), Groups in Contact: The Psychology of Desegregation (pp. 155-185). New York: Academic Press. Corsaro, W. A. (1997). The Sociology of Childhood. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Corsaro, W. A. (1986). Discourse processes within peer culture: From a constructivist to an interpretive approach to childhood socialization. In: P. A. Adler & P. Adler (Eds), Sociological Studies of Child Development. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Cross, W. E., Jr. (1971). The negro to black conversion experience: Toward a psychology of black liberation. Black World, 20, 13-27. Cross, W. E., Jr. (1991). Shades of Black: Diversity in African-American Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Durrett, N. E., & Davy, A. I. (1970). Racial awareness in young Mexican-American, Negro, and Anglo children. Young Children, 26, 16-24. Florian, V., & Mikulincer, M. (1998). Terror management in childhood: Does death conceptualization moderate the effects of mortality salience on acceptance of different others? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1104-1112. Hraba, J , & Grant, G. (1970). Black is beautiful: A reexamination of racial preference and identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 398-402. Helms, J. E. (Ed.) (1990). Black and White Racial Identity: Theory, Research and Practice. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Hirschfeld, L. A. (1996). Race in the making: Cognition, Culture and the Child's Construction of Human Kinds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Huston, A. (1993). Children in poverty: A national crisis. The Child, Youth, and Family Services Quarterly, 16, 1-3. Sacks, C. H. (2001). Ethnographic study of a mother and children's drug treatment program. Manuscript in preparation. Shaw, M. E. (1974). Changes in sociometric choices following forced integration of an elementary school. Journal cf Social Issues, 29, 143-157. Sherif, M. (7966). In a Common Predicament: Social Psychology of Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation. Boston: Houghton Miffin. Singleton, L. C., & Asher, S. R. (1977). Peer preferences and social interaction among third grade children in an integrated school district. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 330-336. Sommer, R. (1977). Toward a psychology of natural behavior. APA Monitor, Jan. Stephan, W. G. (1986). The effects of school desegregation: An evaluation 30 years after Brown. In: R. Kidd, L. Saxe & M. Saks (Eds), Advances in Applied Social Psychology. New York: Erlbaum.
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Sue, S., & Zane, N. (1987). The role of culture and cultural techniques in psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 42, 37--45. Wilder, D. A. (1984). Intergroup contact: The typical member and the exception to the rule. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 20, 177-194.
THE COLORS OF THE RAINBOW: CHILDREN'S RACIAL SELF-CLASSIFICATION Sheryl R. Tynes Interviewer: What race or color do you consider yourself? Child (age 6, Anglo): "Pink." Child (age 8, Hispanic): "What does that mean? A kind of beige-ish color." Child (age 10, Hispanic): "Basic white, I guess."
INTRODUCTION When adults think about race or color, they typically invoke principles involving physical features or characteristics, ancestry, national origin, language, and minority status (Bates et al., 1994). It is important to note however, that both social and physical scientists have systematically questioned the accuracy and usefulness of the concept of race (Montagu, 1974; Tatum, 1997), and prior to the 1700s, "race" denoted social class or genealogical identity. Nevertheless, the idea of "race" as primarily biological has influenced many social arrangements. Williams and Morland (t976: 4) note that "Certainly in the past, and continuing into the present, categorization by race has been a crucial factor in patterns of marriage, friendship, neighborhood of residence, social relations, religious affiliation, schooling, employment, political power, and recreational pursuits . . . American children, then, absorb their attitudes toward and ideas
Sociologieal Studies of Children and Youth, Volume 8, pages 69-85. Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN: 0-7623-0051-5
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about race [from parents, playmates, teachers, and the media] in what might be termed a racist society." Historically, there have been powerful political and economic incentives behind the efforts to define "race." Bonilla-Silva (1996) has provided a cogent summary of crucial trends in racial classifications over time. He notes that the " . . . classification of a people in racial terms has been a highly political act associated with practices such as conquest and colonization, enslavement, peonage, indentured servitude, and, more recently, colonial and neocolonial labor immigration. Categories such as 'Indians' and 'Negroes' were invented . . . in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to justify the conquest and exploitation of various peoples. The invention of such categories entails a dialectical process of construction; that is, the creation of a category of 'other' involves the creation of a category of 'same.' If 'Indians' are depicted as 'savages,' Europeans are characterized as 'civilized'; if 'Blacks' are defined as natural candidates for slavery, 'Whites' are defined as free subjects" (BonillaSilva, 1996, 471). Clearly, "race" is a social construct, and the meanings and hierarchies attached to such classification systems are part of that social construction. The social desirability and economic incentives associated with certain "races" are also historically variable and essential in understanding these meanings and hierarchies. Nagel (1996) points out that between 1950 and 1990 the number of Native Americans in the U.S. quadrupled - from fewer than one-half million to nearly 2 million. This dramatic "growth" of the American Indian population was the result of an increasing willingness of U.S. citizens to self-identify as Native Americans. Indeed, with a certain percentage of American Indian ancestry, individuals were eligible for federal money. As physical anthropologist C. Loring Brace has eloquently argued, racial categories are real simply because people believe they are. As he succinctly puts i t " 'Race' at best is just another four letter word, empty of any biological significance" (Brace, 1993, 136). Despite the conviction of many people that "race" represents a neat and tidy system of grouping, the fuzziness of racial classifications can be seen in the tacit link between race and skin color. Since skin color is one of the most common measures of someone's race, the mismatch between reality and a more honest appraisal of skin color becomes relevant. The terminology we employ does not match reality. Williams and Morland (1976, 34) summarize this position in the following terms: "Euro-Americans are called white people; AfroAmericans are called black; Orientals are called yellow; and Indian-Americans are called red. A moment's reflection will indicate that these designations are inaccurate: the skin color of Euro-Americans is not white but some shade of pinkish-tan; the skin color of Afro-Americans is not black but some shade of brown. Orientals do not have yellow skins, nor do Indian-Americans have red
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skins. Thus, the 'color-coding' of racial groups is quite inaccurate if the color names employed are supposed to be at all descriptive of skin color." The color-coding of people from different racial backgrounds emphasizes differences, while at the same time influencing how we feel about groups of people. For example, humans' ability to distinguish visually between lightness and darkness is coupled with the fact that much research has shown that cross-culturally, white/light symbolizes goodness and black/dark symbolizes evil (Williams & Morland, 1976). Disney movies provide a wide range of exam~ ples of such symbolism (e.g. most recently in The Lion King and Mulan). Such is the paradigm into which young children are born and socialized. However, early in children's lives, their commentary and perspective highlights their acute powers of observation. In this paper, I argue that children's racial self-classification and their views of their friends reflect a much more complex social reality than adult conceptions may acknowledge. This research emphasizes that in certain spheres, children have less racist conceptions of the world than do adults. In general, social psychologists have argued that adults develop cognitive categories to simplify or categorize, but in so doing they lose a sense of the individual's qualities in the process. This work argues that life experiences can be a negative factor in social development, and that children's racial self-classification and racial attitudes are more socially holistic than adults' perspectives, By not categorizing people on the basis of their skin color, children allow other's actions to speak louder than their physical appearances.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE It is important to delineate some of the various aspects of past research with regard to children and race, in order to highlight the particular focus in this paper. In Williams' and Morland's classic work, entitled Race, Color, and the Young Child, they note that the research on children and race can be classified under seven categories: "racial attitude, racial acceptance, racial preference, racial self-preference, perceived racial similarity, racial classification, and racial self-classification" (1976, 96). The research presented here focuses on children's racial self-classification and their knowledge of the concepts of race or color. I also provide data and some discussion regarding children's choice of friends, and the role of "race" in these choices. Researchers have long been interested in children's perceptions of race and ethnicity. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Kenneth and Mamie Clark focused on the development of prejudice and self-identity (Clark & Clark, 1939, 1940, 1947). They developed the Clark Doll Test (CDT) for African American
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children to measure the effects of societal devaluation. They found that about two-thirds of the African American children preferred the white doll and about one-third identified with the white doll. The white doll preference and self-identification generally decreased with age, although the majority of children preferred the white doll at every age. This research stimulated much concern over black children's negative or ambivalent attitudes toward their race and was highly influential in the historic 1954 United States Supreme Court decision Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education to desegregate U.S. schools (Davey, 1983, 79). The Civil Rights movements of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, involved minority groups and led to more minority adults being active in education, politics, and the mass media. Some argue that minority children growing up in these contexts were more likely to be proud of their racial heritage in contrast to young people growing up in earlier decades (Davey, 1983). Davey (1983, 173) studied 7 to 10 year olds and found that by age 10, "both minority and majority group children have a strong sense of group identity. On the other hand, the pattern of ethnic group preferences showed that the minority children clearly perceived the advantages of being white." How do children learn to classify themselves racially, and how do they learn the social value accorded to different racial categories? To address this important question Holmes (1995) conducted a participant observation with kindergartners over the period of six years. This research involved having children draw pictures of themselves and discussing the construct of their own drawings. Holmes (1995, 55-56) found that the children "took great pains in representing themselves accurately in their a r t w o r k . . . When Bob was coloring in a person from his worksheet, he remarked to his tablemate Jack, 'I'm not going to color mine [the face]. I'm leaving mine white 'cause I'm white.' Jack replied, 'You're not white. I'm not white. Look [pointing to his arm], you're pinkish tan.' " Research conducted by developmental psychologists indicates that children first become aware of their skin color, and only later begin to comprehend that this identity places them into a particular racial or ethnic group (Spencer, 1985, 1988). Additional developmental research on children's perceptions of race shows that race is not an important aspect of children's choices of friends early in their lives, although it does impact their later selection of potential partners as they age (Holmes, 1995). Some work on children, friendships, and prejudice focuses on the demographic balance in schools as a central factor. Much of this research has demonstrated that desegregation has not facilitated the breaking down of racial barriers (Gerard, 1983; Katz & Taylor, 1988; Schofield, 1979; Stephan, 1978). However, most of these studies have been conducted with older children in middle schools. Several scholars have found that racial and gender
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divisions emerge during the late elementary school years (e.g. Hallinan & Teixeira, 1987; Holmes, 1995; Maccoby, 1990; Schofield, 1984). In sum, significant research has been done with regard to children's perceptions of race, their racial self-classifications, and their friendships. Yet even in Williams and Morland's work where their "intent was to let the children 'speak for themselves' with a minimum of comment and theoretical speculation" (1976, 237), these two social scientists injected adult biases into their study. After studying the children's general racial classification abilities, they asked children, "Are you white, or are you black (or whatever racial term was current at the time of the study)?" (1976, 211). The forced-choice methodology of earlier work precluded children from speaking for themselves in an authentic fashion. The purpose of the current study then, is to overcome the shortcomings of earlier research by allowing children to voice their conceptions of "race" without being influenced by adult categories.
METHODS This research is part of an ongoing project which centers on the idea that children's voices are vital to our understanding of processes of socialization. Since the mid-1990s, we have conducted 88 interviews with children (ages 5-12) and their primary caregivers (i.e. mother, father, or grandparent). We have conducted all of these interviews in San Antonio, Texas (a richly diverse city), officially composed of 52.1% Hispanic, 37.9% White, 6.6% Black, 1.6% Asian, and 1.8% "Other." We conducted half of the interviews in an urban housing project and the other half were conducted in other parts of the city. It is important to note that there is less racial or ethnic variation in the housing projects than exists in the surrounding areas. Most of the residents of these housing projects are Hispanic. (While this is the most commonly-used terminology, it is important to note that some readers may prefer "Latino" or other more specific references. The use of any one term is not meant to dishonor people's heritage.) As a series of in-depth interviews, our work is intended to provide a detailed view of children's perceptions of a wide variety of issues surrounding family, neighborhood, friends, and schools. Unexpectedly, the standard sociological/ demographic questions about race and color elicited some interesting results, and the rainbow pattern only became clear to us over time. Thus, this study was not initially designed primarily to focus on children's perceptions of race, but the questions about race and characteristics valued in friends reveal some powerful messages about children's racial self-classification. These interviews were approximately one hour in duration and involved nearly 60 open-ended questions. All interviews were tape-recorded and
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transcribed verbatim. However, a few tapes had to be supplemented with written field notes, given the lack of privacy in the housing projects. For this paper, the primary open-ended question for adults in this research was "What race or ethnicity do you consider yourself?" For children, the question was "What race or color do you consider yourself?" It was presumed that children would not know the meaning of "ethnicity," thus the slight difference in wording for the adults versus children. If children asked "What does that mean?" (or some variation of this), the interviewer repeated the question. There were a few instances where the children talked about a foot race or their favorite color, and when this occurred the interviewers restated the question. If further questions arose, we asked "Have you ever heard of those terms?"
FINDINGS For the younger children in our study, it is clear that race is a foreign idea. It is interesting that 14 of the 44 children interviewed asked variations of "What does that mean?" As seen in Table 1, children under the age of 10 (and some older children), have a wonderfully diverse set of responses to their racial self-classifications. Colors such as "darkish peach," "red," "pink," "light tan," "blue," and "light brown" reflect a finely-tuned view of race or color. Thus if we were to collapse into categories the responses of all children and all caregivers, children's responses would need 16 distinct categories, and adult caregivers would need seven (which itself is a longer list of categories than those usually offered on close-ended questions). We have noted in hard brackets when the "race" of the child did not "visibly match" the interviewers' perceptions. This is not meant as a correction to the children's responses, but rather to clarify this "inconsistency." Finally, as seen in Table 1, only one adult expressed a bit of confusion about the "race or ethnicity" question by saying "Don't understand. Hispanic I think." On the other hand, 18 of the children in this study (or 41%), expressed unfamiliarity with the terms "race or color." As a way to highlight the relationships among caregiver responses, children's responses, and development of racial awareness (using children's age), we analyzed adults' responses by children's responses, controlling for child's age, and Table 2 displays these results. Although the relatively small number of responses makes strong generalizations impossible, it does appear as though caregivers' responses are sometimes mirrored in the children's responses. Thus, when adults use terms such as "Mexican" or "White" their children are more likely to use such terms also, especially as the children age. However, children's responses reflect a greater variety of color categories than those used by adults.
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Table 1. Adult Responses to a "What race or ethnicity do you consider yourself?" and Children's Responses to "What race or color do you consider yourself?" (Verbatim). Caregiver's Race/Ethnicity
Child's Race/Color
Child's Age
White. But I was born in Mexico. My parents were of Spanish descent, but when I write I usually write Anglo.
What does that mean?
6
White
Light brown
6
Caucasian-Jewish
What does that mean? I don't know what that means.
6
Mexican
Red
6
Anglo
What do you mean by that? Darkish gray
6
White
I don't know
6
Caucasian
No answer
6
Hispanic
Black [He looks Hispanic]
6
Anglo
Pink
6
I guess Caucasian
I don't want to answer this one.
7
White
What does that mean? I don't know what that means.
7
White
Tan
7
White/Other
You mean like on the skin? White
7
Caucasian
White
7
Mexican American
What does race mean?
7
Anglo
What does that mean? Don't know - no ma'am.
7
Anglo, but Jewish
Medium white, mostly
7
Hispanic
Black [He looks Hispanic]
7
Hispanic
Red
7
Hispanic
I don't get it.
7
White
Tan?
7
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Table 1.
Continued.
Caregiver's Race/Ethnicity
Child's Race/Color
Child's Age
White or other
You mean like on the skin? White.
7
Hispanic
What does that mean? A kind of beige-ish color.
8
Anglo
I don't know what that means. White
8
Hispanic I think
Red
8
Caucasian
I don't get that. I've never heard white.
8
Hispanic
Red
8
Hispanic
White [She looks Hispanic.]
8
Caucasian
Darkish peach
8
Hispanic
A little tannish
9
American Hispanic
Light tan
9
Anglo
white
9
Hispanic
Hispanic
9
Spanish
Brown
9
Anglo Saxon
White
10
Hispanic
Basic white, I guess
10
Hispanic
What do you mean?
10
Anglo
White
11
Anglo
White
11
Mexican
Mexican
11
Hispanic
What's that? The color I am?
11
Anglo
Blue
11
White
White
12
White
White
12
Colors of the Rainbow: Children's Racial Self-Classification Table 2.
Developmental
Shifts in Children's
R e l a t i v e to A d u l t R e s p o n s e s
Responses
77 to R a c e
Question
(Verbatim).
Adult Response
Child Age
Child's Response
Hispanic
5-7
Red; Black; I don't get it.; Black; White. White; Hispanic; Red; My favorite color? No, I don't understand.; Light tan; What does that mean? Kind of a beige-ish color.; A little tannish. What's that? The color I am? Hispanic; What do you mean?; Basic white, I guess.; What do you mean?; Brown/Mexican
8-9
10-12
Mexican or Mexican American
5-7
Red; What does race mean?; I don't know what that means.
8-9 10-12
Mexican
Spanish
8-9
Brown
Anglo, Anglo Saxon, or Anglo but Jewish
5-7
Pink; What does that mean? Don't know. No ma'am.; Medium white, mostly.; What do you mean by that? Darkish gray.; What does that mean?; What does that mean? I don't know what it means[ White Blue; White; White; White
8-9 10-12 Caucasian or Caucasian-Jewish
5-7
8~9 10-12 White, or White, but I was born in Mexico. My parents were of Spanish descent, but when I write I usually write Anglo, or White, for lack of a better term.
What does that mean?; [Child took a long look at his skin and said, "White"]; What do you mean? I don't know what that means.; I don't want to answer this one. Darkish peach; I don't get that.
5-7
I don't know; Light brown; Well, what does that mean? I don't even know what that means.; Tan; You mean like on the skin? White.
8-9 10-12
White; White
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It is important to clarify here that I am not arguing that children do not notice skin color. Children do notice color, but no more than other physical characteristics. One kindergarten girl was describing a friend's m o m m y visiting her classroom. In describing the mother, she said, "You know, she has a lip that goes up like this." She rolled the inside of her upper lip back to show me. However, children notice many such physical attributes, not only those related to race. This same girl was describing another smaller child and she said that this girl "Looked like a bunny." Later, when I saw this little girl, I noticed that she had a beautiful smile, with two very large front teeth. I would argue that this sort of comment from young children does not compare with the teasing and taunting of older children about buck teeth or other such cruelties, but is better conceptualized as an observation or connection while learning about their world. Thus while children as young as three show "racial awareness" in the sense that they respond to differences in skin color, hair texture, facial structure, eye shape, or blood type, etc., they do not fully "know" racial concepts or racial classification in the same way that adults do (Tatum, 1997, 32; Williams & Morland, 1976, 95). In other words, although children are keen observers, they do not attach hierarchical value to one skin color versus others. Even for the adults in our study, it is clear that race and color are problematic categories when utilized as questions in social science research. With seven different responses to our question about race or ethnicity, the caregivers' answers reflect a great deal of room for misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Similar to the dilemmas that the U.S. Bureau of the Census is trying to resolve, it is clearly difficult to code some of the adult responses to our open-ended question. Consider the following: • "White. But I was born in Mexico. My parents were of Spanish descent, but when I write I usually write Anglo," • "Anglo, but Jewish," • "I guess Caucasian," • "White or other," • "White, for lack of a better term," • "Hispanic 1 think" While some may argue that survey research which provides closed-ended categories for respondents would eliminate such problems, I would argue that forcing choices is even more egregious in terms of capturing the essence of people's understanding of their "race." Professional golfer Tiger Woods commented on one aspect of this continuing dilemma, as his father is African
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American and his mother is Thai. Woods noted that attempting to classify himself as either one or the other, would be tantamount to denying the other parent and their lineage. The second set of questions centered around children's friendships and why some friends were their favorites. Overall, I found that children in my sample did not express prejudice toward others from different backgrounds. This finding supports some earlier work (e.g. Cook, 1985; Holmes, 1995; Johnson & Johnson, 1981; Slavin, 1983), but runs contrary to results from other research (e.g. Aboud, 1988; Clark, 1966; Cook, 1984; Katz & Taylor, 1988; Schofield, 1986). There is however, a certain "friendship-spillover" that occurs for children in their neighborhoods, schools, and churches. By this, I mean that the quality of children's friendships in each of these arenas greatly affects how children perceive the arena itself. Thus, if children have good friends who go to church or synagogue, then they enjoy those arenas. That said, the major criteria that children use in choosing their friends revolve around niceness (or absence of meanness), instrumental acts of sharing (e.g. food, toys, playtime), and empathy (e.g. expressions of concern when children are hurt). Several children noted being nice as a central feature of friendship. One girl, when asked to "Tell me about the kid at school who is your favorite and why?" responded that "Because she's my best friend. We play together, we share things, not food." Another girl explained her favorite friend, "Because we kind of go together but we're not really alike. And we're just, like, not best, best friends but we're best friends and we like doing stuff together. We always eat together and we talk about stuff." A boy notes that his best friend, "whenever I do something like make a funny face, he always laughs." Another girl noted that her best friend is "nice. She laughs a lot and she's my best f r i e n d . . . " One child revealed that another boy was his favorite friend because "He helps me with my math." A 9-year old girl noted that another girt was her best friend "Because when I need a pencil she just lends me it." A 7-year old boy noted that, "It's a girl. 'Cause she brings me boy stuff to school and she lets me keep it. Like Power Rangers and X-Men." Another girl reminds us that it is important to tell people they are your friend, by noting that her friend is her friend, "Because we're friends and then she tells me 'You're my friend.'" Another boy noted that "I don't think I have a favorite kid at school, but can I say like a favorite group? (three boy's names) because they're my best friends, they help me out a lot and we have a lot of things in common." Sometimes, the simple absence of hostility can make all the difference in young children's lives. One girl, when asked why her friend was her favorite, noted poignantly that the reason was "She doesn't pick on me." Conversely, respondents' perceptions of the "worst kids" often centered around being bossy or hitting. One child noted that a boy at school was the
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worst kid to get along with because, "Sometimes he doesn't listen to your opinion, and he's very loud and rude." Another child noted that the worst kid was "not that nice. He's kinda bossy." Another child noted that her least favorite friend was "a girl from my church, because she's always so bossy." One child noted that the worst kid to get along with at school was "(Boy's name) because he's real mean and really loud. Today he screamed at Miss Murray." Finally, one child noted that one boy was hard to get along with, "because he gets really m a d . . , like with a usual friend if you, like, kid around with him, you know, and, like, tease him, but you're friends so you know it doesn't mean anything, you're just kidding around. But if you do that to him, he gets really mad and it's hard to say you're sorry cause he keeps being mean." Shared interests are also an important criterion for children's friendships. One boy noted that another boy is "nice and interesting." Interviewer: Why is he interesting? Child: Cause he does lots of experiments. He takes plants and he takes the cells of them and he mixes them with stuff. Interviewer: What other kinds of experiments do you like to do? Child: We make a little mixture of soap and water, but we don't drink it. Another boy noted that his favorite kid at school is "Probably (boy's name) because we both have a lot in common and we like making up things and playing, like, raptors or aliens and stuff like that. Like make believing." Shared play is a central feature of young children's lives, even the act of simply being together. One girl noted that her friend was her favorite because "she usually plays with me in the playground." Another noted, "because she plays with me a lot and she never fights with me." A boy noted that, "I like (boy's name) because he always talks to me and that's why we're friends. And he always plays with me. And mostly I ' m on his team when we play soccer." Indeed the best predictor of whether children liked their neighborhoods was the number of other children and close friends nearby, available for after-school play. When we asked one child if they wanted to live in their neighborhood when they grew up, she said, "Yes, so I could meet my friends again." Similarly, when children move away from friends, it is difficult for them. We ask children a question, "If we gave you a magic wand, and you could make three wishes, what would they be?" As part of her list, one child (whose parents moved frequently) said, "Number 2 would be that all my friends that I ever had would move down here. 'cause I really miss my friends." The same "friendship-spillover" dynamic operates in schools, with one child noting that the best thing about school yesterday was that "I had fun with my friends." Another
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younger girl noted that her favorite friend is her favorite "Because we swing on the monkey bars." Like adults, the longevity or history of children with their friends is important. If children have friends that they have known for a longer time, that really matters to them. One boy noted that his best friend at school was his favorite " 'cause he's been here all the years that I have and we always like the same sport. Like when there's soccer and there's not basketball, we always play soccer together. And when there's football and not any other sport, we always play football together." Finally, in an interesting display of both friendship and the beginnings of racial separation, a 9-year old girl from the housing projects was talking about students being teased at her school (another of our research questions). She noted that her friend - they "always call her Casper cause she's White." The interviewer asked, "So is she the only White girl in your class?" The girl responded, "No. This other boy's White and sometimes they laugh about his last name because his last name is ]a word], and this other girl too, because her last name is [a word]." For all 44 of the children asked about teasing, this was the only instance of racially-based teasing. As studied here, race or color are not an issue when children discuss their friendships. Even in the teasing incident noted above, the child noted that this girl was her friend, despite the girl's being the target of others' teasing. One 7-year old boy was discussing his friend, and his comments reflect how children process ideas regarding race, religion, and ethnicity. Speaking of a young African American boy in a racially diverse first-grade class, he asked "Do you know Jonathan? Well, he looks American, but he's Jewish." When I asked how he knew that Jonathan was Jewish, he said that when Jewish people say "sh" it sounds like "ch." As William Gray III observes, little black children do play with little white children; it's the adults who have been harder to convince (1999). A final representation of the wisdom of children on race relations is revealed in another aspect of our study. One of the questions we ask children centers around two pictures of people's homes, and we ask them to tell us a story about the people who live in those homes. One of the homes is in the inner city; it is small, aging, and in need of repairs. The other home is a suburban home, it is two-story, has stately columns, and a large front porch and lawn. The followup question is "If there were children your age living in each of these houses, which child would you rather play with and why?" One younger boy responded "Both. 'cause I don't judge people by the way their houses look. I judge them by the way they act and if they're nice to other people."
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SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION In this paper I have illustrated that children have healthy conceptions of race and suspend judgment when it comes to evaluating other people. If we conceptualize race and racism as merely parts of a larger racialized social system (Bonilla-Silva, 1996), then young children's perspectives on these topics become highly instructive. Young children appear to be genuinely unaware of their own "race" and this strongly suggests that they have not yet been affected by the larger racist social forces that run rampant in American society. It is not surprising that the racially-integrated groups of elementary schools disintegrate by the sixth or seventh grade (Lewin, 2000; Tatum, 1997). In terms of future research, given that children's socialization experiences are the primary factors affecting their subjective feelings about themselves and others it is important to continue qualitative and ethnographic work with children to allow them to define and interpret their social worlds. Researchers must examine social interactions and contexts in which children are exposed to alternative messages about race. For example, Tatum (1997) challenges parents and others to overturn negative messages about people of color, expose themselves and their children to positive images of marginalized groups, and acknowledge and examine their own prejudices and rigid categorizations of others. In addition, various scholars who study such issues note the importance of empowering children to think about what can be done to rectify social injustices. William Corsaro (1997) notes that children historically have been important social actors. He cites the case of Newsies (boys who delivered newspapers) at file turn of the century who organized as a group to oppose employers, by forming a powerful union. Although this example does not relate to resisting racism, it does illustrate the power of children's collective action in the face of economic oppression. The social policy implications of this study certainly connect with research that has consistently shown teachers' beliefs and practices make a major difference in how racial and ethnic diversity are dealt with in schools. Given this pattern, teachers need the support of parents and administrators to utilize stateof-the-art-knowledge in teaching about racial diversity. In terms of curriculum, regardless of the ages of children, the use of interracial cooperative groups produces positive effects on interracial attitudes and race relations (Holmes, 1995; Singh, 1991). Weissbourd (1996, 94) argues that "School policies and practices as well as teachers also need to constantly affirm the importance of inclusion. Emphasizing inclusion means, minimally, actively insisting that exclusion is unacceptable, openly discussing stereotypes and prejudice, and constantly surfacing commonalities among students."
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In addition, future research should focus more on the role of the media in the development of children's awareness of race, color and ethnicity. Estimates are that by the age of 18, children/youth in the U.S. have watched more television than they have spent in the classroom (Hearold, 1986). Television can have both negative and positive outcomes for children's perceptions of race. On the negative side, the absence of minorities, or their portrayal as participating only in crime or low-paying occupations lead children to believe this is true for all members of the group (Devine, 1989). On the positive side, famous sports stars (e.g. Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan), can encourage children of all colors to admire, respect, and emulate people of color. Furthermore, parents, teachers, and media should be sensitive to the problems surrounding the association of certain colors with certain qualities, such as the association of the color black with bad or evil (Spencer, 1988). Similarly, the materials available to children should reflect their nuanced view of skin color. Crayola and other crayon manufacturers have recently developed an assortment of crayons that reflect a wide range of °'people colors" (e.g. buff, peach, sand, copper, wheat, sable, cinnamon, spice, auburn, mocha, redwood, mahogany, chestnut) that reflect the subtle differences in skin tone for a variety of different cultural groups (Holmes, 1995). Finally, with respect to future research, longitudinal studies delineating how children develop their awareness of "race" are crucial, since this paper suggests that children are not born with racial classification systems. We need to investigate the social processes through which children are inculcated into our racialized social system. This would enhance our understanding of changes in the course of their early lives. Similarly, because the concept of "race" and its social classification are constantly changing, historical shifts will be important to trace as well. If we conceptualize racial self-classification as only one aspect of this larger racialized system, it is only through longitudinal research that we will be able to ascertain shifts that are due to the life course, or larger social change impacting particular cohorts of individuals. It appears that the challenge for adults is to take the lead of the children in seeing the rainbow of diversity where it exists, and considering and valuing each new person and experience carefully, one at a time. Indeed, adults have much to learn from children.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank Mary Inman, Shalyn Johnson, and Gary Sailor for their input on this paper, as well as the children and their caregivers interviewed.
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REFERENCES Aboud, F. (1988). Children and Prejudice. New York: Basil Blackwell. Bates, N., De la Puente, M., DeMaio, T. J., & Martin, E. A. (1994). Research on Race and Ethnicity: Results From Questionnaire Design Tests. Proceedings of the Bureau of the Census. Annual Research Conference (pp. 107-136). Rosslyn, Virginia. Bonilla-Silva, E. (1996). Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation. American Sociological Review, 62, 465-480. Brace, L. (1993). A Four-letter Word Called 'Race.' In: L. T. Reynolds & L. Lieberman (Eds), Race and Other Misadventures: Essays in the Honor of Ashley Montagu in his Ninetieth Year (pp. 106-141). Dix Hills, NY: General Hall. Clark, K. (1966). Prejudice and Your Child. (2nd ed.). Boston: Beacon. Clark, K., & Clark, M. K. (1947). Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children. In: T. Newcomb & E. Hartley (Eds), Readings in Social Psychology (pp. 169-178). New York: Holt. Clark, K., & Clark, M. K. (1940). Skin Colour as a Factor in Racial Identification in Negro Preschool Children. Journal of Social Psychology, 11, 159-169. Clark, K. (1939). The Development of the Consciousness of Self and the Emergence of Racial Identity in Negro Preschool Children. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 591-599. Cook, S. (1985). Helping and Being Helped in Cooperating Interracial Groups: Effects on Respect and Liking for Group Members. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Evanston, IL. Cook, S. (1984). Cooperative Interaction in Multiethnic Contexts. In: N. Miller & M. Brewer (Eds), Groups in Contact (pp. 156-186). New York: Academic Press. Corsaro, W. A. (1997). The Sociology of Childhood. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Davey, A. (1983). Learning to Be Prejudiced: Growing up in Multi-Ethnic Britain. London: Edward Arnold. Devine, P. (1989). Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18. Gerard, H. (1983). School Desegregation: The Social Science Role. American Psychologist, 38, 869-877. Gray, W. (1999). Lecture given at Trinity University, January 18. Hallinan, M., & Teixeira, R. (1987). Students' Interracial Friendships: Individual Characteristics, Structural Effects, and Racial Differences. American Journal of Education, 95, 563-583. Hearold, S. (1986). A Synthesis of the Effects of Television on Social Behavior. In: G. Comstock (Ed.), Public Communication and Behavior, Vol. 1 (pp. 65-133). New York: Academic Press. Holmes, R. M. (1995). How Young Children Perceive Race. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Johnson D., & Johnson R. (1981). Effects of Cooperative and Individualistic Learning Experiences on Inter-ethnic Interaction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 73, 44 A, 449. Katz, P., & Taylor D. (1988). Eliminating Racism. New York: Plenum. Lewin, T. (2000): Growing Up, Growing Apart. New York Times, June 24. (http://www 10.nytimes.com/library/national/race/0625001ewin.kids.html). Maccoby, E. (1990). Gender and Relationships: A Developmental Account. American Psychologist, 45, 513-520. Montagu, A. (1974). Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
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Nagel, J. (1996). American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. Schofield, J. W. (1986). Black-white Contact in Desegregated Schools. In: M. Hewstone & R. Brown (Eds), Contact and Conflict in Intergroup Encounters (pp. 79-92). New York: Basil Blackwell. Schofield, J. W. (1984). Complementary and Conflicting Identities. In: S. Asher & J. Gottman (Eds), The Development of Children's Friendships (pp. 53-90). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Schofield, J. W. (1979). The Impact of Positively Structured Contact on Intergroup Behavior: Does It Last Under Adverse Conditions? Social Psychology Quarterly, 42, 280-284. Singh, B. (1991). Teaching Methods for Reducing Prejudice and Enhancing Academic Achievement for All Children. Educational Studies, 17, 157-191. Slavin, R. (1983). Cooperative Learning. New York: Longman. Spencer, M. (1988). Self-Concept Development. In: D. Slaughter (Ed.), Black Children and Poverty: A Developmental Perspective (pp. 59-72). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Spencer, M. (1985). Cultural Cognition and Social Cognition as Identity Factors in Black Children's Personal Growth. In: M. Spencer, G. Brookins & W. Allen (Eds), Beginnings: The Social and Affective Development of Black Children (pp. 215-230). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Stephan, W. (1978). School Desegregation: An Examination of Predictions Made in Brown v. Board of Education. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 217-238. Tatum, B. D. (1997). Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: and Other Conversations About Race. New York, N.Y.: Basic Books. Weissbourd, R. (1996). The Vulnerable Child: What Really Hurts America's Children and What We Can Do About It. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. Williams, J. E., & Morland, J. K. (1976). Race, Color, and the Young Child. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
THE SOCIAL WORLD OF MALE AND FEMALE ATHLETES IN HIGH SCHOOL Robert Crosnoe
INTRODUCTION Traditionally, high school athletic programs have been the province of boys, but recent history has witnessed an explosion of participation by girls in this arena (Miller et al., 1994). The implications of this surge in athletic participation are paradoxical. Athletic participation is associated with both academic achievement and problem behavior, even when we take gender into account (Eccles & Barber, 1999). The explanation for these seemingly contradictory outcomes may lie in the friendships of athletes. Friendship groups in athletic programs might emphasize multiple forms of achievement; academic, in the form of better school performance, and social, as expressed in "partying". These messages, often seen as incompatible, might lead athletes into higher levels of both pro-social and anti-social behavior. Given the developmental differences of boys and girls, these processes are likely to differ by gender. This longitudinal study addresses the link between high school athletics and friendship groups. Do they influence the academic and social development of adolescent boys and girls? On a general level, this linkage illustrates an interaction between social structure and social psychological processes. According to the perspective of social structure and personality, such interactions profoundly influence the course of human development (House, 1995). During the adolescent stage of life, both the school (and activities within school) and
Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Volume 8, pages 89-110. Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN: 0-7623-0051-5
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friendship groups serve as important developmental contexts (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). These contexts are connected in ways that matter: friendship groups are frequently nested within school activities and programs, and friendship associations support or oppose school goals. In this manner, school activities and friendship groups influence development independently and interactively. This interaction might explain why the behavior of high school athletes is simultaneously exemplary and problematic. The relation of gender to athletics, friendship groups, and behavior calls for more attention to processes among boys and among girls. Before turning to the data, we should consider what we know about athletics and friendship associations. I begin with the relevance of athletic programs as developmental contexts, then turn to friendship influences, and conclude with gendered pathways among male and female athletes.
ATHLETICS, FRIENDSHIPS, AND ADOLESCENT BEHAVIOR Athletic Programs as Contexts of Development Athletic programs refer to the range of sports teams affiliated with the high school. These programs are elements of school organization in that they bring together groups of students within the school for extended periods of time (Larson, 1994). Athletics have long been an important arena of achievement in high school (Coleman, 1961). Traditionally, boys have been more involved in athletics, but girls have been increasing their activity in this area over the past several decades. A majority of boys engage in some high school athletic endeavor, and the rate of female engagement in athletics is rapidly approaching this threshold (Miller et al., 1994). This growing gender balance in high school athletics is attributable to changing gender norms and to legislation, such as Title IX, which mandates equal funding for male and female athletic programs (Lapchick, 1995; Miller et al., 1994; Borman & Kurdek, 1987). Athletes enjoy greater visibility than other students, and they generally report higher levels of self-esteem (Kinney, 1999; Eder & Kinney, 1995). Achievement in sports can be an avenue to higher social status in the student body, especially for boys (Eder & Kinney, 1995). In fact, boys are often most concerned with the achievement and status aspects of athletics, while girls focus more on the interpersonal side of athletics, such as the camaraderie with other girls (Borman & Kurdek, 1987). Participation in high school athletics can have a salutary impact on the adjustment of both boys and girls, such as greater school engagement, better academic achievement, and higher college attendance
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(Gerber, 1996; McNeal, 1995; Holland & Andre, 1987). Otto and Alwin (1977) note that peers serve as the mediator in the link between athletics and achievement. Indeed, Eccles and Barber (1999) found that the students identified as "jocks" reported higher grades than members of other peer groups. Thirty years ago, Rehberg (1969) found exposure to academic values and association with pro-social friends to be the key social explanations for the beneficial impact of athletic participation. In other words, athletic participation draws students into the normative order of school, which emphasizes conventional means of achievement and, therefore, raises the costs of problem behavior. Athletic participation relates to friendship association in two ways. Athletic programs bring together students with similar interests and provide them with a common goal, thereby increasing the likelihood of friendship formation. Friends also pull youth into shared activities (Larson, 1994). In either case, friendship associations largely occur within a school setting. This line of reasoning mirrors social bond theory, which asserts that bonding to conventional institutions, such as the school, protects against negative outcomes. Extracurricular activities like sports are central to this theory. Athletic participation generally requires a substantial time commitment to a school-based activity, which strengthens bonds to school and school personnel and reduces unsupervised time with friends (Hirschi, 1969). Yet, social bond theory explicitly addresses deviant behavior. While research on the link between athletic participation and improved academic outcomes is fairly consistent, evidence linking athletic participation to deviance is mixed. Landers and Landers (1975) reported that athletes had lower rates of delinquency than other groups, while Miller et al. (1994) found that athletic participation protected girls, though not boys, from early sexual activity. Aaron et al. (1995), however, found that athletic participation predicted greater alcohol use. Drinking might be considered a high status activity in high school, and athletes typically inhabit a lofty position in the school status hierarchy (Kinney, 1999; Stinchcombe, 1964). Eccles and Barber (1999) reported a relation between athletic participation and greater alcohol use and found that the "jock" peer crowd was characterized by higher rates of alcohol use. As a result, they advocate undertaking dual examinations of the positive and negative outcomes of athletics. Research supports Larson's (1994) contention that high school sports serve as contexts of development. However, past findings might over-estimate the impact of athletic involvement by failing to control for the more privileged average background of athletes (Spreitzer, 1994). Nevertheless, participation in high school athletic programs does seem to be developmentally significant in positive and negative ways, and this significance might be gender-specific.
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Friendships as Contexts of Development The potential connection between athletic programs and friendship groups is important because the latter serve as powerful socializing forces in adolescence. More attention has been paid to the negative outcomes of this influence. For example, association with deviant friends is one of the most consistent predictors of adolescent engagement in deviant activity (Adams & Evans, 1996). This relation holds for a variety of problem behaviors, such as delinquency (Matsueda & Anderson, 1998), substance use (Aseltine, 1995), and sexual activity (Katchadourian, 1990). Yet, adolescent friends can and do serve as sources of positive influence, pushing youth toward higher academic achievement and constraining problem behavior (Steinberg et al., 1996; Berndt & Keefe, 1995). The influence of friends tends to be exaggerated. First, studies often rely on adolescent perceptions of their friends' behavior rather than collecting information from the friends themselves. This practice biases friendship measures since adolescents tend to over-estimate the extent to which their friends are similar to them (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1987). Second, research often fails to account for the role of selection in producing similarity among friends (Matsueda & Anderson, 1998). Adolescents seek out similar others as friends, increasing the homogeneity of friends. More recent longitudinal studies that correct for the problems associated with selection and perception still report that friends influence each other, though this power is much weaker than previously thought and secondary to selection effects (Matsueda & Anderson, 1998; Aseltine, 1995). Adolescent boys and girls have different experiences with and orientations to friendship. The friendships of girls tend to be more exclusive and involve more emotional intimacy. Boys have more open friendships groups, which tend to be organized around shared activities (Giordano et al., 1986; Bern& & Hoyle, 1985). Furthermore, boys tend to be more susceptible to the negative influences of friends (Crosnoe et al., forthcoming). Therefore, anti-social friendship groups might pose more risk for boys than girls. One possible explanation for this could be that girls are more sensitive to input from teachers and authority figures (Fagot, 1994), which implies that they are less likely to follow their friends into problem behavior for fear of damaging other important relationships and jeopardizing their school status.
Dual Achievement in High School Athletics The central premise of this study is that high school athletic programs serve as contexts of both positive and negative development. In general, athletic
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programs strengthen student ties to school, which promote positive outcomes, such as academic achievement, and protect against negative outcomes, such as alcohol use. Yet, the friendship groups associated with athletic programs may alter the expected developmental outcomes of participation by emphasizing both academic success (doing well in school) and social activity (partying). The positive messages of athletic friendship groups probably reinforce the academic benefits of athletic participation, while the negative messages of these friendships counter-balance, or even outweigh, the protective power of athletics that is hypothesized by social bond theory. Thus, these mixed messages promote a type of "dual achievement" among high school athletes, academic success coupled with alcohol use. Adolescent boys and girls tend to follow different developmental trajectories (Maccoby, 1988). Compared to girls, boys are more likely to participate in athletics, are more focused on the achievement and status aspects of sports, and are less likely to derive protection from athletic involvement. Also, they seem to be more vulnerable to the influences of friends, more deviant, and less successful in academics than girls (Crosnoe et al., forthcoming; Bank, 1997; Elliott et al., 1985). Therefore, the set of relations discussed above is likely to differ by gender in important ways, and these potential differences call for gender-specific analyses. Such analyses should also control for socio-economic status, employ friendship measures based on the actual reports of friends, and control for the role of selection in producing similarity among friends.
DESIGN OF THE STUDY Sample
This research draws on information from 3237 adolescents, who participated in a larger longitudinal study of adolescent development. In the larger study, students in nine diverse high schools in California and Wisconsin completed six questionnaires (one per semester) in three consecutive school years (1987-1990). Youth included in the present study were enrolled in the schools during the 1987-1988 and 1988-1989 school years and also provided the names of at least one close friend who filled out a student questionnaire. The matching of reports from students and their friends was crucial to understanding the friendship processes in this study. Those adolescents included in the study sample were generally white (64.0% white, 16.5% Asian American, 12.6% Hispanic American, 7.0% African American), female (55.5%), and mid-adolescent (mean age = 15.1 years). Most
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came from intact families (67.0%) and had parents with at least some college education (mean level of parental schooling = 14.2 years). Comparison of the study sample to the attrition sample reveals some important differences. Those included in the study sample were more likely to be female and white than those excluded from the study sample (for lacking friendship information), though the two groups did not differ on any other demographic characteristic. The study sample was significantly higher on academic achievement and school orientation and significantly lower on alcohol use. Thus, the selection criteria for this study probably biased the sample towards greater adjustment. While the benefits of using the actual reports of friends warrants this selection procedure, this bias should be remembered in the interpretation of results.
Measurement Athletic Participation In year 1, students reviewed a list of school activities and noted the ones in which they had been involved during that school year. Athletes in this study included students who had been members of the baseball, basketball, football, soccer, swim, or other teams or an individual sport in year 1 (1 vs. 0 for no involvement). Academic Achievement In both years, students assessed their grades, indicating that they were "mostly As and Bs" all the way down to "mostly below Ds". Responses were recoded to create a standard four-point grade point average scale for each year. Alcohol Use The composite indicator for alcohol use, in years 1 and 2, is based on the mean response to two items: in the past school year, how often the adolescent had bought alcohol or liquor and how often he or she had gotten drunk (o~ = 0.86). Scores range from "never" (1) to "often" (4). Behavior of Friends Two measures tap the behavioral characteristics of the adolescent's friends, their academic achievement and social activity. Both are based upon reports from the adolescent's close friends. Each student in the study sample listed at least one close friend for whom data were also available. Again, variables based on the actual reports of friends are more accurate than those based on the respondent's perceptions of his or her friends' behavior and attitudes, as adolescents
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tend to over-estimate the degree to which their friends are similar to them (Wilcox & Udry, 1986). Academic achievement of friends refers to the mean level of academic achievement (as explained above) for the respondent's one to five friends. Social activity of friends refers to the mean level of time per week spent "partying" by each of the named friends. Scores range from 1 (no hours per week) to 6 (20 hours). School Orientation In year 1, adolescents indicated their agreement with six statements, which assessed their level of engagement in and commitment to learning. Examples include: "Success in life does not have much to do with the things studied in school" and "The best way to get through most days at school is to goof off with friends". Responses to all items range from "strongly agree" (1) to "strongly disagree" (4). After the reverse-coding of one item, higher scores on all items indicate greater orientation (Cronbach's a = 0.69). Sociodemographic Controls All analyses include controls for various demographic characteristics, each measured in year 1: parent education (a proxy for socioeconomic status), family structure (intact vs. non-intact), age, ethnicity (white vs. non-white), and geographic location (Wisconsin vs. California). Procedure
Structural equation modeling enables the estimation of direct and indirect paths in the same model, a control for measurement error, and a comparison of coefficients across groups (i.e. boys and girls). Figure 1 presents the structural model, with observed variables, for academic achievement (the alcohol model is identical except for the year 1 and 2 measures of the outcome). This model was estimated by maximum likelihood in Amos 4.0. In this model, athletic participation, initial achievement, and sociodemographic controls predict three endogenous variables in year 1: the academic achievement and social activity of friends and the school orientation of the adolescent. All variables in the model predict year 2 academic achievement. All exogenous variables (those variables whose causes lie outside of the model) predict academic achievement in year 2 directly and indirectly, through the academic achievement and social activity of friends and the school orientation of the adolescent. I permit all exogenous variables to correlate, along with the error terms of the two friendship measures. Sample size differs across analyses due to listwise deletion.
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Age Parent Education
Et~nicity Family Stnmture
A/ 122 o ods
Region year 1 Acad. Achieve. year 1 Athletic Part.
Year I Social Activity of Friends
I
~
~
Orientation
Note: All exogenous variables, and the error terms for the two friendship variables, allowed to correlate. Estimated with Amos 4.0.
Fig. 1. Depiction of the Relations among Observed Variables in the Basic Structural Model for Year 2 Adolescent Academic Achievement.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for the sample, by gender and athletic status. Adolescent girls were significantly higher than boys in academic achievement, school orientation, and the academic achievement of friends. Thus, adolescent girls, regardless of athletic status, seem to be more integrated into school. Girls drank less alcohol than boys, but this difference only reaches statistical significance for year 2. Interestingly, girls had friends who were higher in social activity than the friends of boys, though this difference does not achieve significance. Slightly more than half of the friends named by athletes were also athletes, while only 13% of the friends of non-athletes were involved in some athletic program at school. Regardless of gender, athletes were significantly higher in academic achievement in both years (see Table 1). Athletes also had friends who performed significantly better in school. Though athletes reported a slightly stronger orientation to school than non-athletes, the difference is not statistically meaningful. These differences could result from the more advantaged backgrounds of athletes, who were significantly more likely to be white, to live with both parents, and to be higher in socio-economic status (as measured by parental education). At the same time, athletes were also significantly higher in their rate of alcohol use in both years, and their friends were significantly higher in social activity.
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Table 1.
Comparison of Adolescent Characteristics and Behaviors By Gender and Athletic Involvement. Gender Boys
Athletic Involvement Girls
Athletes
Non-Athletes
Demographic Mean Age (st. dev.) Mean Parent Education Athletic Participation Female White Black Asian Hispanic Intact Family
15.00 (0.93) 14.11 (2.85) 43.6% 63.5% 8.3% 15.4% 12.8% 66.2%
15.04 (0.92) 14.72 (2.45)
*
2.87 (0.54)
2.86 (0.54)
2.54 (0.76) 2.92 (0.51)
*
2.57 (0.75) 3.01 (0.51)
2.64 (0.73) 3.06 (0.48)
* *
2.46 (0.78) 2.87 (0.53)
1.68 (0.92) 2.93 (0.76)
*
1.63 (1.00) 3.04 (0.72)
1.71 (0.89) 3.09 (0.70)
* *
1.60 (0.89) 2.87 (0.77)
1.86 (1.04) 2,91 (0.76)
* *
1.71 (.92) 3.01 (0,72)
1.97 (0.89) 3,08 (0.70)
* *
1.68 (0.96) 2,85 (0.77)
1798 (55.5%)
1657 (51.2%)
15.14 (0.95) 14.39 (2.61) 60.7% 64.7% 5.2% 17.8% 12.3% 67.9%
* * *
2.82 (0.54)
*
47.3% 69.7% 6.1% 15.0% 9.2% 71.1%
* * * * * *
15.09 (0.96) 13.69 (2.96) 64.2% 58.1% 7.8% 18,0% 16.1% 62.5%
Individual Characteristic School Orientation Friends' Behaviors Mean Social Activity Mean Academic Achieve. Year 1 Adolescent Behavior Mean Alcohol Use Mean Academic Achieve. Year 2 Adolescent Behavior Mean Alcohol Use Mean Academic Achieve. N (%)
1439 (44.5%)
2.83 (0.55)
1580 (48.8%)
* ANOVA reveals that means, frequencies significantly different across grouping at p < 0.05.
Gender comparisons within the athletic and non-athletic groups mirror these findings (results not shown). Male athletes differed from male non-athletes in the same ways as discussed above. The same was true for females, with one exception: female athletes were significantly higher in school orientation than female non-athletes. Also, female friends were slightly more likely than male friends to match on athletic status. These comparisons of descriptive statistics support the general premise of this study: that high school athletes, both male and female, engage in divergent forms of behavior, and that the seemingly contradictory nature of their friendship environments might explain this phenomenon. Such findings call for more sophisticated analyses of the potential relations of athletics, friendships, and behavior among adolescent boys and girls.
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RESULTS FOR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT The examination of academic achievement (and later of alcohol use) proceeded in three separate, but similar, steps. In the interest of clarity, I will explain these steps more fully here. First, I estimate the full structural model depicted in Fig. 1 for both boys and girls. In these analyses, the focus is on the indirect paths between athletic participation and achievement through the social activity and achievement of friends and the school orientation of the adolescent. For example, athletics may be related to greater school orientation, which in turn may be related to greater achievement. Stacked modeling techniques (Arbuckle & Woethke, 1999) allow me to determine whether the strengths of these paths differ by adolescent gender. The basic model is estimated for boys and gifts with all parameters freely estimated, and then again with selected parameters (e.g. school orientation - academic achievement) constrained to be equal for boys and girls. If this constraint significantly reduces model fit, as measured by the change in X 2 relative to the degrees of freedom, then I can conclude that this parameter differs significantly by adolescent gender. Second, I focus solely on boys. Instead of including athletic participation as an independent variable in the model, I estimate the model for athletes and non-athletes and compare the results using the stacked modeling techniques described above. Thus, rather than examining whether athletic participation influences friendship associations, I examine whether the effects of friendship associations on adolescent behavior are stronger or weaker for athletes, compared to boys who did not participate in sports. Third, I focus solely on girls, making the same comparisons of athletes to non-athletes as for boys. Comparing All Boys to All Girls For adolescent boys, the results of the frst set of structural analyses match the descriptive statistics (Table 2). Athletic participation predicts friendships with academically successful students (unstandardized b coefficient = 0.11, p<0.001), which predicts year 2 adolescent academic achievement (0.14, p < 0.001). It also predicts friendships with socially-active students (0.11, p < 0.001), which reduces subsequent academic achievement (-0.07, p < 0.01). Contrary to expectations, involvement in sports programs does not account for a stronger school orientation, though this factor predicts subsequent achievement in school (0.08, p < 0.05). Initial achievement is the strongest predictor of school orientation, friendship characteristics (indicating strong selection), and later achievement (indicating behavioral stability).
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Gender and Athletics T a b l e 2.
Structural Models of A c a d e m i c A c h i e v e m e n t b y Gender. Boys
b
St. Error
P-Value [3 Difference
Girls
b
St. Error
[3
0.21"** 0.08*
0.03 0.04
0.28 0.07
--0.25"** 0.16"*
0.04 0.05
-0.23 0.10
0.3I*** 0.12"**
0.02 0.03
0.43 0.12
0.66*** 0.16"** -0.00 0.16"**
0.03 0.03 0.02 0.04
0.65 0.12 -0.00 0.12
Predicting School Orientation
Year 1 Achieve. Athletic Part.
0.20"** 0.03 -0.07 0.05
0.28 -0.06
-0.11"* 0.11"*
0.04 0.07
-0.11 0.07
0.27*** 0.03 0.11"* 0.04
0.37 -0.11
**
Predicting Friends' Social Activity
Year 1 Achieve. Athletic Part.
**
Predicting Friends" Acad. Achieve.
Year 1 Achieve. Athletic Part. Predicting Year 2 Acad. Achieve.
Year 1 Achieve. School Orient. Friends' Social Friends' Achieve. N
0.66*** 0.08* -0.07** 0.14"** 622
0.03 0.03 0.02 0.04
0.68 0.06 -0.08 0.11
+ *
901
Note: Controlling for ethnicity (white), parent education, age, and family structure (intact). *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05, + p < 0.10. R2 for boys = 0.08 (school orient.), 0.12 (friends' social), 0.29 (friends' achieve.), 0.62 (year 2 achieve.) R2 for girls = 0.11, 0.11, 0.31, 0.58.
F o r adolescent girls, athletic participation promoted later academic achievem e n t in two ways, through friends who were higher in a c h i e v e m e n t (0.12, p < 0.001) and through a stronger school orientation (0.08, p < 0.05). Both factors promoted later academic a c h i e v e m e n t (0.16, p < 0.001 for both). Like boys, girls' athletic participation also predicts h a v i n g friends higher in social activity (0.16, p < 0.001), but, unlike boys, such friendships do not affect the academic a c h i e v e m e n t of girls. Again, initial a c h i e v e m e n t is the best predictor of all intervening variables and of later achievement. C o m p a r i n g the strength of parameters reveals important differences b e t w e e n boys and girls. First, the negative relation b e t w e e n initial academic achievem e n t and socially-active friends is significantly stronger for girls. In other words, girls who did well in school, more so than boys, avoided friends who liked to party. Thus, initial status appears m o r e protective for girls. Second, the positive relation b e t w e e n athletic participation and school orientation is significantly stronger for girls, indicating that, even controlling for initial achievement, athletic i n v o l v e m e n t integrated girls into school. Third, the positive relation
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between school orientation and later achievement is stronger for girls. Thus, not only did athletic involvement have greater effects on school orientation among girls than boys, but girls also drew more benefits from school orientation than boys. Fourth, the negative relation between having friends high in social activity and later academic achievement is significantly stronger among boys, indicating that boys were more vulnerable to being members of sociallyactive friendship groups. Among both boys and girls, athletic participation is related to having more socially-active friends, but this only seems to be a problem, in terms of grades, for boys. These findings indicate that athletic participation is more promotive of positive behavior for girls. Such participation is related to more positive outcomes (more achievement-oriented friends, greater school orientation, higher achievement) for girls in this sample. In addition, the apparent negative consequences of athletic participation (e.g. association with socially-active friends) were less troublesome for girls.
Comparing Boy Athletes to Boy Non-Athletes As explained previously, the following structural analyses (Appendix A) shift the focus from how athletic programs affect adolescent behavior through friendship associations and school orientation towards how the effects of friendships and orientation on adolescent behavior differ by athletic status. In other words, I shift from mediation to moderation. Among athletes, initial academic achievement predicts being more oriented to school and having more academically-oriented friends. Interestingly, initial achievement is not related to association with socially-active friends. On the other hand, doing well in school is both promotive and protective for non-athletic boys. Among non-athletes, initial academic achievement predicts being more oriented to school and associating with more academically-oriented and less socially-active friends. The differences in the relation between initial academic achievement and friends' academic achievement and between initial academic achievement and friends' social activity are statistically significant. For athletic boys, having more academic friends predicts greater achievement in year 2, while having more socially-active friends predicts lower academic achievement in year 2. Neither the friendships characteristics nor school orientation predicts later achievement among non-athletes. For these boys, initial academic achievement washes out all other effects. Despite these apparent differences, comparisons reveal that athletes and non-athletes do not differ significantly on the relations of friendship characteristics and school orientation to later achievement.
Gender and Athletics
l01
Comparing Girl Athletes to Girl Non-Athletes
For both athletes and non-athletes, initial achievement predicts association with more academically-involved friends, association with less socially-active friends, greater school orientation, and higher levels of later academic achievement (Appendix B). Only one link, initial achievement to later achievement, differs significantly in strength. The stability of achievement is stronger for athletes. Among athletes, only the academic achievement of friends predicts achievement in year 2. This same relation holds for non-athletes, and the strength of this relation does not differ significantly across groups. Only among nonathletes, school orientation predicts greater achievement a year later. This difference between the two groups does achieve statistical significance. Female athletes were initially much higher on academic achievement, and so their greater school orientation had less to add to their later achievement levels. Summa~. of Results on Academic Achievement
The results of the three sets of analyses reveal that athletic participation is generally promotive of academic achievement, but that this relation is complex and differs by gender. For girls, the greatest benefit of athletic involvement was its relation to academically-oriented friendship groups. Academically-oriented friends were a positive influence for both athletes and non-athletes, but the former were more likely to have such friends. Athletes also placed more value on education than non-athletes, but, interestingly, greater orientation to school only promoted academic achievement among non-athletes. The one negative aspect of athletic involvement is that athletic programs seem to be associated with more socially-active friendship groups. Yet, adolescent girls, whether involved in athletics or not, were resistant to the negative consequences of such friendship associations. Athletic involvement is more problematic for boys. Such involvement was developmentally positive in that it promoted association with academically-oriented friends, which, in turn, promoted later achievement. This relation is less true of non-athletes. Yet, involvement also was developmentally negative, in that it promoted association with socially-active friends, which, in turn, deflated later academic achievement. Again, this relation is less true of non-athletes. Male athletes also did not derive as much benefit from initial academic success as nonathletes, even though they outperformed non-athletes academically. Furthermore, unlike female athletes, their greater association with socially-active friends was troublesome. Thus, these analyses reveal two different, and contradictory, paths for males, though the positive path does seem to be the stronger of the two.
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RESULTS
FOR ALCOHOL
USE
Comparing All Boys to All Girls Table 3 presents the results from structural equation analyses for alcohol use. These results differ from those of academic achievement, mostly because of the predictive power of initial alcohol use. The differences between academics and alcohol are more striking for boys. While athletic involvement influenced achievement in two ways (through friends' achievement and social activity), analyses of alcohol use reveal no such paths. Athletic involvement predicts association with academically-oriented friends (0.13, p < 0.01), but the negative relation between such friendships and later use is not significant. Involvement is not predictive of school orientation, and, unlike the achievement model, it is also not predictive of the social activity of friends. Initial alcohol use is a strong predictor of having academically-oriented friends ( - 0 . 1 2 , p < 0.001) and the strongest predictor Table 3.
Structural Models of Alcohol Use by Gender. P-Value
Boys b
St. Error
Girls
13 Difference
b
St. Error
13
-0.19" ** 0.11"
0.02 0.03
-0.30 0.11
0.41"** 0.07
0.02 0.05
-0.24 0.04
Predicting School Orientation Year 1 Alc. Use
Athletic Part.
-0.20*** 0.02 -0.04 0.04
-0.34 -0.03
***
Predicting Friends' Social Activity Year 1 Alc. Use
Athletic Part.
0.36** 0.04
0.03 0.06
0.44 0.02
-0.12"** 0.02 0.13"* 0.04
-0.21 0.11
-0.14" ** 0.02 0.19"** 0.03
-0.24 0.18
0.68*** -0.19'* 0.19"** 0.02
0.61 -0.10 0.15 0.01
0.70*** -0.09*** 0.09*** -0.04
0.64 -0.05 0.08 -0.02
Predicting Friends' Acad. Achieve. Year 1 Alc. Use
Athletic Part.
Predicting Year 2 Alc. Use Year 1 Alc. Use
School Orient. Friends' Social Friends' Achieve. N
694
0.04 0.04 0.04 0.06
*
0.03 0.04 0.03 0.05
1017
Note: Controlling for ethnicity (white), parent education, age, and family structure (intact). *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05, + p < 0.10. R 2 for boys = 0.12 (school orient.), 0.21 (friends' social), 0.26 (friends' achieve.), 0.53 (year 2 alc. use.) R 2 for girls = 0.12, 0.21, 0.23, 0.54.
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103
of having socially-active friends (0.36, p < 0.00l), school orientation (-0.20, p < 0.001), and later alcohol use (0.68, p < 0.001). For girls, athletic involvement predicts a stronger school orientation (0.11, p < 0.05), which, in turn, predicts lower alcohol use in year 2 (-0.09, p < 0.05). This indirect path is similar to that found for girls' academic achievement. Athletic involvement also predicts association with academically-oriented friends (0.19, p < 0.001), but unlike in academic achievement, such associations do not predict later alcohol use. Unlike the academic model, athletic involvement does not predict socially-active friendships, The absence of this relation is probably due to the strong effects of initial alcohol use. The social activity of friends, which did not predict later academic achievement, does predict greater alcohol use (0.09, p < 0.001). The positive relation between athletic involvement and school orientation is significantly greater for girls than for boys. This finding mirrors those from analyses of academic achievement. Athletic involvement draws girls, more than boys, into the school social system. The relation between friends' social activity and adolescent alcohol use is significantly stronger for boys than girls, a finding also seen in the achievement analyses. Boys appear to be more vulnerable to the negative influences of friends. Overall, athletics seem more protective for girls. Their involvement was related to more positive friendships and greater commitment to school, both of which protected them against alcohol use. Athletic involvement did little for boys. Initial alcohol use was the driving force in their lives, indicating a strong role of selection for boys. Comparing Boy Athletes to Boy Non-Athletes Next, I focus on boys and the moderating role of athletics on the relations of friendships and school orientation to adolescent alcohol use. Initial alcohol use strongly influences the friendship associations, school orientation, and later alcohol use of male athletes and non-athletes (see Appendix A). Two relations, however, differ in strength by athletic status. Initial use is more negatively related to having academically-oriented friends among non-athletes. Initial use is also positively related to having socially-active friends in both groups, but more so among non-athletes (at a marginal level of significance). Thus, alcohol use appears to be more problematic, in terms of friendship associations, for boys not involved in high school athletic programs. In both groups, the social activity of friends, but not their academic achievement, predicts later alcohol use. Among non-athletes only, school orientation predicts lower alcohol use a year later, and this difference reaches statistical
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ROBERT CROSNOE
significance. Overall, athletes did not derive much benefit from their academic status.
Comparing Girl Athletes to Girl Non-Athletes Focusing on girls, alcohol use predicts less academically-oriented friendships, more socially-active friendships, a less positive school orientation, and greater alcohol use a year later (see Appendix B). The only significant difference between the two groups comes in the stability of alcohol use over time. Non-athletes showed greater stability in alcohol use, unlike academic achievement, in which athletes showed greater stability. For both, having academicallyoriented friends and greater school orientation did not reduce later alcohol use, but socially-active friendships increased later use for athletic girls. The two groups do not differ significantly on any relation. Thus, female athletes and non-athletes showed much greater similarity than their male counterparts.
Summary of Results on Alcohol Use The three sets of analyses of alcohol use reveal few distinctions between athletes and non-athletes. Athletic involvement shows little protective power for boys. Involvement only predicts having academically-oriented friends, which does not reduce alcohol use among athletes or non-athletes. Even more so than for academic achievement, initial status seems to be driving all other factors in the model. Initial use differentiated athletes less than non-athletes, playing a greater role in problematic friendships associations in the latter group. Athletic involvement seems more protective for girls. Such involvement is related to having more academically-oriented friends and being more oriented to school. Athletic girls were not more likely to have socially-active friends, though they did appear to be somewhat more vulnerable to the influences of such friends than non-athletes.
CONCLUSION Do high school athletics programs serve as contexts of both positive and negative influence on youth development? Do the social worlds of high school athletes serve as sources of risk and protection? Does the interplay among athletics, friendships, and adolescent behavior differ by gender? These were the key questions of this research. Regardless of gender, athletes do better in school and also drink more alcohol. High school athletes, both male and female, associate with more academicallyoriented friends, and these associations boost their own school performance.
Gender and Athletics
105
At the same time, male and female athletes also associate with more sociallyactive friends. These associations undermine the academic performance of male athletes, though the positive influence of their academic friends outweighs the negative influence of "their social friends. Compared to boys, female athletes seem more capable of resisting the influences of socially-active friends. Therefore, in terms of academic achievement, athletics seem to promote positive behavior, especially for girls. Athletes, male and female, engage in higher levels of alcohol use, but their higher levels of this problem behavior are more difficult to explain than their superior school performance. For boys, the two friendship characteristics and one individual characteristic do not explain the higher alcohol use among athletes. For girls, athletic participation is associated with more positive factors that protect against alcohol use, though athletic girls might be more vulnerable to negative friendships than non-athletes. These findings indicate that other factors might be at work, or, more probably, that the initially higher levels of alcohol use reported by athletes, male and female, provide the dominant explanation for their higher levels of use a year later. If this is the case, then the time-frame of this study is inadequate to explain the differential patterns of alcohol use exhibited by athletes and non-athletes of both genders. Like Eccles and Barber (1999), this study reports that athletes seem to pursue two forms of achievement. The first, doing well in school, fits the conventional notion of achievement. The second, alcohol use, may also be a form of achievement in that it often occurs during social and leisure situations and that it may be a high status behavior during adolescence. This phenomenon holds for both adolescent boys and girls and seems to be at least partially explainable by the contradictory messages found in the friendship associations of athletes. In this sense, high school athletic programs can be viewed as sources of both risk and protection. This paradoxical nature of athletics is more clearly observable among boys. Male athletes are bundles of contradictions. They perform well in school, but they derive fewer benefits from their performance. Their academic performance does not protect them from associating with socially-active friends, as is the case for male non-athletes and female athletes. Other positive factors, like school orientation, seem to be less beneficial for male athletes. While doing well in school, they also engage in the highest level of alcohol use of the four groups studied. Some evidence also suggests that athletic involvement does less to buffer males from the negative influences of friends. Male athletic involvement was treated here as a monolithic category, so that boys who participated in high status team sports like football were grouped with those in less visible sports like tennis and swimming. Much of the negative attention paid to male sports
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ROBERT CROSNOE
focuses on the former, but the developmental significance of athletics for boys might differ by type of program. In general, however, athletic involvement seems to be more problematic for boys than girls. These gender differences in the meaning and consequences of athletic participation deserve further attention. First, we might ask whether the finding of the more problematic nature of athletics for boys, compared to girls, extend to other domains. For example, participation may give boys more of a boost in status. The consequences of such elevations would depend upon the nature of the status hierarchies in individual schools. In some schools, such a rise might integrate athletes into more problematic friendship circles. Furthermore, one ethnography of junior high students shows that athletic programs socialize boys into more aggressive behavior (Eder et al., 1995). Thus, high school athletics could foster more violence among adolescent boys, though this would be unlikely to occur among girls. Second, we might ask whether the protection girls derive from sports, compared to boys, generalizes, ff girls focus more on the interpersonal aspects of sports, then they might be able to cultivate more emotional support from teammates than boys. Such support could bolster their ability to cope with the ups and downs of high school life. In almost all analyses, whether a student did well in school or drank alcohol typically was superior to their athletic participation in explaining their friendship associations and later behavior. These findings demonstrate the powerful stability of behavior over time and the strong role of selection in friendship associations. Including measures for initial behavior is a crude method of controlling for selection effects. The optimal way to account for selection is to have panel data on athletics, friendships, and behavior covering at least three time points. Such data, which were unavailable for this project, would provide a better examination of the relations studied here. Still, the available control for selection at least provides some protection against over-estimating the effects of athletics on friendship associations and the effects of friendship associations on individual behavior. Future studies in this area might examine other types of substance use. In this study sample, athletes had higher levels of alcohol use, but they also had lower levels of other types of drug use. These preliminary comparisons support the contention of this study that the higher alcohol use of athletes is a function of their greater social activity. Alcohol use is often a fixture in the social activities of adolescents and may be a status marker, while other forms of drug use (e.g. marijuana) may seem more dangerous to high school students. If so, athletes might feel that illegal drug use, more so than drinking, is more likely to jeopardize their school standing or future success. Future examinations might explore how the level of risk and protection of athletics differs across different forms of deviant behavior.
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Gender and Athletics
Another area of future research on this topic evolves from the evidence that the patterns of academic and social achievement of both athletes and nonathletes and of boys and girls become more similar across time. This increasing similarity suggests that different gender-athletic groups follow different trajectories of behavior, starting at different levels but also changing at different paces. Latent growth analysis, which requires three or more time points, might capture the potential differences in trajectories. Finally, status and achievement tend to cross domains in high school (Herman, 1997). Students who participate in sports are also likely to be involved in other extracurricular activities and to be in the college-preparatory track. Such cross-domain involvement, and success, represents a lifestyle that could play an important role in youth development. Using cluster analysis, one could identify such lifestyle groups in the school and explore both the structural determinants and the behavioral outcomes of such lifestyles. Future projects will advance our knowledge of the role of athletics in development and our understanding of how boys and girls experience similar contexts in different ways. The present research is a good starting point for uncovering the duality of high school athletics in the lives of boys and girls; academic achievement matched with alcohol use, the mixed messages of friends. Eccles and Barber (1999) claim that alcohol use is less damaging to athletes because it occurs in a context of generally pro-social behavior. Perhaps this is the case, or perhaps athletes, both male and female, simply strive to be the best, to be number one, whether thits entails something as laudatory as getting good grades or something as problematic as drinking.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank Sanford M. Dornbusch and Glen H. Elder, Jr. for their assistance, as well as the William T. Grant Foundation and the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development for funding.
REFERENCES Aaron, D. J., Dearwater, S., Anderson, R., Otsen, T., Kriska, A., & LaPorte, R. (1995). Physical Activity and the Initiation of High-Risk Health Behaviors in Adolescents. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 27, 1639-1645. Adams, M., & Evans, D. (1996). Teacher Disapproval, Delinquent Peers, and Self-Reported Delinquency: A Longitudinal Test of Labeling Theory. Urban Review, 28, 199-211. Arbuckle, J., & Wothke, W. (t999). Amos 4.0 user's guide. Chicago: SmallWaters. Aseltine, R. (1995). A Reconsideration of Parental and Peer influences on Adolescent Deviance. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 3, 103-121.
Bank, B. (1997). Some Paradoxes of Gender Equity in Schooling. In: B. Bank & P. Hall (Eds), Gender, Equity, and Schooling (pp. 3-30). New York: Garland. Berndt, T., & Keefe, K. (•995). Friends' Influence on Adolescents' Adjustment to School. Child Development, 66, 1312-1329. Borman, K., & Kurdek, L. (1987). Gender Differences Associated with Playing High School Varsity Soccer. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 379-400. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1980). Ecology of Childhood. School Psychology Review, 9, 294-297. Coleman, J. (1961). The adolescent society. New York: Free Press of Glencoe. Crosnoe, R., Erickson, K. G., & Dornbnsch, S. M. (forthcoming). Protective Functions of Family Relationships and School Factors on the Deviant Behavior of Adolescent Boys and Girls: Reducing the Impact of Risky Friendships. Youth and Society. Eccles, J., & Barber, B. (1999). Student Council, Volunteering, Basketball, or Marching Band: What Kind of Extracurricular Involvement Matters? Journal of Adolescent Research, 14, 10-43. Eder, D., Evans, C., & Parker, S. (1995). School talk: Gender and adolescent culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers. Eder, D., & Kinney, D. (1995). The Effect of Middle School Extracurricular Activities on Adolescents' Popularity and Peer Status. Youth and Society, 26, 298-324, Elliot, D., Huizinga, D., & Ageton, S. (1985). Explaining delinquency and substance use. Beverly Hills: Sage. Fagot, B. (1994). Peer Relations and the Development of Competence in Boys and Girls. New Directions in Child Development, 65, 53-65. Gerber, S. (1996). Extracurricular Activities and Academic Achievement. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 30, 42-50. Giordano, P., Cernkovich, S., & Pugh, M. (1986). Friendships and Delinquency. American Journal of Sociology, 91, 1170-1201. Gottfredson, M., & Hirschi, T. (1987). The Methodological Adequacy of Longitudinal Research on Crime. Criminology, 25, 581-614. Herman, M. (1997). Crowds, clubs, and tracks: How overlapping membership and consistent group values affect the links between domains of adolescent achievement. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press. Holland, A., & Andre, T. (1987). Participation in Extracurricular Activities in Secondary School: What is Known, What Needs to be Known? Review of Educational Research 57, 437-446. House, J. (1981). Social structure and personality. In: M. Rosenberg & R. H. Turner (Eds), Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives (pp. 525-561). New York: Basic Books. Katchadoufian, H. (1990). Sexuality. In: S. Feldman & G. Elliott (Eds), At the Threshold (pp. 330-352). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kinney, D. (1999). From Headbangers to Hippies: Delineating Adolescents' Active Attempts to Form an Alternative Peer Culture. In: J. A. McLellan & M. J. V. Pugh (Eds), The Role of Peer Groups in Adolescent Social Identity: Exploring the Importance of Stability and Change. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 84, 21-35. Landers, D., & Landers, D. (1978). Socialization Via Interscholastic Athletics, Its Effect on Delinquency. Sociology of Education, 51, 299-301. Lapchick, R. (1995). Gender and sport. In: R. Lapchick (Ed.), Sport and Society: Equal Opportunity or Business as Usual (pp. 80-82). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Larson, R. (1994). Youth organizations, hobbies, and sports as developmental contexts. In: R. Silberstein & E. Todt (Eds), Adolescence in Context (pp. 56--65). New York: SpringerVerlag.
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Maccoby, E. (1988). Gender as a Social Category. Developmental Psychology, 24, 755-756. Matsueda, R., & Anderson, K. (1998). The Dynamics of Delinquent Peers and Delinquent Behavior. Criminology, 36, 269-398. McNeat, R. (1995). Extracurricular Activities and High School Dropouts. Sociology of Education, 68, 62-81. Miller, K., Sabo, D., Farrell, M., Barnes, G., & Melnick, M. (1994). Athletic Participation and Sexual Behavior in Adolescents: The Different Worlds of Boys and Girls. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 39, 108-123. Otto, L., & Alwin D. (1977). Athletics, Aspirations, and Attainments. Sociology of Education, 50, 102-113. Rehberg, R. (1969). Behavioral and Attitudinal Consequences of High School Interscholastic Sports: A Speculative Consideration. Adolescence, 4, 69-88. Spreitzer, E. (1994). Does Participation in Interscholastic Athletics Affect Adult Development? Youth and Society, 25, 368-387. Steinberg, L., Brown, B., & Dornbusch, S. (1996). Beyond the classroom: Why school reform has failed and what parents need to do. New York: Simon & Schuster. Stinchcombe, A. (1964). Rebellion in a high school. Chicago: Quadrangle Books. Wilcox, S., & Udry, J.R. (1986). Autism and Accuracy in Adolescent Perceptions of Friends' Sexual Attitudes and Behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 16, 361-374.
APPENDIX A Coefficients of Key Parameters for Male Athletes and Non-Athletes.
Athletes b
St. Error
P-Value Difference
Non-Athletes b
St. Error
Academic Achieve. Achl - School Orient. Achl - Friends' Soc. Achl - Friends' Ach. Achl - Ach2 Orient. - Ach2 Friends' Soc. - Ach2 Friends' Ach. - Ach2 N
0.20*** 0.01 0.22*** 0.66*** 0.08+ -0.07* 0.15"* 421
0.04 0.05 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.05
--0.20*** 0.032** -0.09*** 0.70*** -0.11 0.17"** 0.00 469
0.03 0.04 0.02 0.04 0.07 0.05 0.07
*** *
0.20*** -0.32*** 0.35*** 0.68*** 0.07 -0.07 0.13+ 201
0.05 0.07 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.06 0.07
-0.20*** 0.43*** -0.19"** 0.65*** -0.34*** 0.21"** 0.04 225
0.04 0.06 0.04 0.07 0.10 0.07 0.10
Alcohol Use Alcl - School Orient. Alcl - Friends' Soc. Alcl - Friends' Ach. Alcl - Alc2 Orient. - Alc2 Friends' S o c . - Alc2 Friends' Ach. - Alc2 N
+ * *
Note: Controlling for ethnicity (white), parent education, age, and family structure (intact). *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05, + p <0.10.
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ROBERT
CROSNOE
APPENDIX B Coefficients
of Key
Parameters
for Female
Athletes b
St. Error
Athletes
P-Value Difference
and Non-Athletes.
Non-Athletes b
St. Error
Academic Achieve. A c h l - School Orient. A c h l - F r i e n d s ' Soc. A c h l - Friends' A c h . Achl - Ach2 Orient. - A c h 2 F r i e n d s ' Soc. - A c h 2 Friends' Ach. - A c h 2 N
0.20*** -0.27*** 0.31"** 0.73*** 0.06 -0.03 0.11" 456
0.04 0.06 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.05
-0.17"** 0.43*** -0.14"** 0.62*** -0.10 0.14"* -0.06 509
0.03 0.04 0.02 0.05 0.06 0.05 0.07
* **
0.22*** -0.25*** 0.31"** 0.60*** 0.24*** 0.02 0.19"** 445
0.04 0.05 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.05
-0.20*** 0.38*** -0.14"** 0.76*** -0.08 0.06* -0.03 508
0.03 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.04 0.06
Alcohol Use A l c l - School Orient. A l c l - Friends' Soc. A l c l - Friends' Ach. Alcl - Alc2 Orient - A l c 2 F r i e n d s ' Soc. - A l c 2 Friends' Ach. - A l c 2 N
*
Note: Controlling for ethnicity (white), parent education, age, and family structure (intact). *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05, + p < 0.10.
ON THE NATURE AND DEVELOPMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ADOLESCENT ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS Peggy C. Giordano, Monica A. Longmore and Wendy D. Manning
INTRODUCTION Research on adolescent romantic relations has been described as "remarkably primitive" (Brown, 1994, 94) and "surprisingly sparse" (Brown, Feiring & Furman, 1999, 1). This gap is ironic in that a heightened interest in and involvement with the opposite sex has long been considered a hallmark of the adolescent period (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1994; Sullivan, 1953). Studies of family, peers and friends have proliferated, while research on opposite-sex relations has until recently tended to be restricted to sexual and reproductive issues. One consequence of this emphasis is that it has tended to perpetuate the notion that the real developmental "action" occurs within the context of these other aforementioned social domains. Close same-sex friendships are believed to be an especially critical arena in which young people: •.. increase one another's self-esteem; provide information, emotional support, and advice; and help and support one another. Friends also contribute to an evolving sense of identity, of having a place in the world. Through self-disclosure, and by allowing oneself to become
Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Volume 8, pages 111-139. Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN: 0-7623-0051-5
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P.C. GIORDANO, M. A. LONGMORE AND W. D. MANNING
vulnerable before a co-equal, adolescent friends share with one another their most personal thoughts and feelings, become sensitive to the needs and desires of others, and in the process, acquire a deep understanding of the other and the self... (Savin-Williams & Berndt, 1990, 278-279). While a substantial body of research serves to corroborate this view of adolescent friendship, much less is known about the nature, meaning, or impact of heterosexual relations. However, this relative neglect likely reflects certain basic conceptions about these relations, for example, the notion that they are more fleeting and superficial than adolescent friendships. In order to address some of the empirical gaps in this area, we are currently conducting a longitudinal study of adolescent dating and sexuality based on two waves of in-home interviews with a stratified, random sample of 1500 adolescents, as well as their parents or guardians. The sample is evenly divided by gender, and oversamples African-American and Hispanic youth. The protocol is highly structured, but we will also conduct in-depth interviews with a subset of these youths (n = 200). In the process of developing our conceptual and measurement emphases for this project, we conducted a series of qualitative studies that included analyses of written materials, focus group discussions, and individual interviews. As we began to address the most basic question, "What are early romantic relations like?" an obvious companion question became "Compared to what?" Almost from the inception of the project, we intuitively compared these relationships to adolescent friendships. This undoubtedly occurred because we were more familiar with the literature on friendship and peer relations, and with the ways in which adolescents talk about their friendships. Thus, we were struck early on by differences in both the form and content of their discourse around issues of dating and romance. In this paper, we explicitly compare the two types of relations, romantic partners and friends, highlighting what appear to be unique qualities of romantic relations. These unique features derive from the basic element of contrast that characterizes heterosexual interactions. If research were to draw primarily from concepts and measures in the friendship literature (assessing, for example, frequency of contact or level of self-disclosure within each relationship domain), this would likely produce a less than comprehensive portrait - one in which friends emerge as the more intimate, and by inference, more influential of the two types of relations. In contrast, a focus on distinct properties provides hints about romantic relationships' unique role in development. In addition, these constructs can provide a measurement framework for assessing how the experiences associated with gender, race, class or age influence such relationships' meaning(s) and impact. Finally, we develop some provisional ideas about how variations in romantic
Significance of Adolescent Romantic Relationships
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relationships may be systematically linked to important developmental outcomes. We focus primarily on sexual behavior because of the direct link to the dating context, but it is possible that romantic partners and particular types of relations also influence, for example, exposure to alcohol, drugs or other problem behaviors, the experience of psychological distress, or vulnerability to relationship violence.
BACKGROUND Most studies of adolescent dating have ignored the qualitative features of these relationships. The existing literature has examined historical shifts in dating patterns (Csikszentmihaly & Larson, 1984; Feinstein & Ardon, 1973; Hansen, Christopher & Nangle, 1992; McCabe, 1984), focused on factors involved in the selection of particular partners (Gordon, 1981; Roscoe, Diana & Brooks, 1987; Sprecher, 1989), or documented various functions served by dating (Hanson, Morrison & Ginsburg, 1989; McCabe, 1984). Many of these studies have relied on college or other convenience samples; thus, the knowledge base with respect to gender, socioeconomic status, and racial/ethnic differences in adolescent dating experiences is especially limited. Demographers and family sociologists have focused considerable attention on the relationship between dating and adolescent sexuality and reproductive behavior. The bulk of this work is outcome-oriented and the relationship context has been largely ignored. Prior research on adolescent sexuality and fertility has focused on individual (Whitbeck, Hoyt & Huck, 1994), peer (Brazzell & Acock, 1988; East, Felice & Morgan, 1993; Giordano, 1995; Miller et at., 1997), family (East et al., 1993; Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; Whitbeck, Conger & Kao, 1993), and community (Billy, Brewster & Grady, 1994; Brewster, 1994; Lauritsen, 1994; South & Lloyd, 1992) factors that influence fertility-related outcomes, but to date little is known about the link between adolescent romantic experiences and fertility-related behaviors. The influence of dating partners in decisions about sexual activity, contraceptive practices, and pregnancy outcomes is also limited. Although recent research has expanded its range by focusing on adolescent males and their fertility-related behaviors (e.g. Ku, Sonenstein & Pleck, 1993; Marsiglio, 1993; Marsiglio & Menaghan, 1990; Sonenstein, Pleck & Ku, 1991), work on adolescent sexuality and fertility remains quite narrow because it excludes or only minimally addresses the dating context in which these dyadic behaviors occur. Studies do indicate, however, that dating is associated with earlier age at first intercourse for both males and females (Dorius, Heaton & Steffen, 1993; Miller et al., 1997; Thornton, 1990). Researchers have examined the impact of
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frequency (Miller et al., 1997), timing (Dorius et al., 1993; Thornton, 1990) and duration of dating (Hanson et al., 1989; Thornton, 1990) on fertility-related outcomes. However, this line of research has oversimplified the notion of dating by excluding measurement of the meaning or the qualities of dating behaviors. The few studies that have examined dating qualities have found, for example, that girls who felt "closer" to their boyfriends were less likely to perceive abortion as the resolution to a pregnancy (Brazzell & Acock, 1988), and those who perceived future stability, affection, or partner support or love were more effective in their contraceptive practices (e.g. Adler & Hendrick, 1991; Inazu, 1987; Milan & Kilmann, 1987; Whitley Jr., 1990). While some of the above studies indicate how closeness with a partner can be "beneficial," such as its association with contraceptive use (e.g. Inazu, 1987), an even larger body of work casts dating in a more negative light. Early on Hirschi (1969) conceptualized dating as a non-achievement oriented, adultmimicking behavior that was associated with delinquency. More recently, the concept of a problem behavior syndrome has been emphasized, with dating and sexual activity considered along with aggression, drug and alcohol use, and school failure (Biglan et al., 1990; Elliott & Morse, 1989; Jessor & Jessor, 1977; Ketterlinus, Lamb, Nitz & Elster, 1992; Luster & Small, 1994; Pugh, DeMaris, Giordano & Groat, 1990; Rodgers & Rowe, 1990; Rosenbaum & Kandel, 1990). Research is increasingly more sophisticated in specifying how these behaviors may be sequenced in time (Cooper, Pierce & Huselid, 1994; Mott & Haurin, 1988; Rosenbaum & Kandel, 1990), but the conditions under which, and social mechanisms through which, dating negatively impacts the adolescent are still not very well understood. Perhaps the most fundamental problem is that this work has not typically been grounded in a theoretical framework. This situation is changing, however. Several developmental psychologists have recently applied basic notions derived from attachment theory to the dating context (see e.g. Collins & Sroufe, 1999). A core assumption of these researchers is that early family experiences influence the character and quality of later romantic involvements. Linkages between secure attachment within the family and later success within the peer arena have been most extensively studied, but Collins and Sroufe (1999) hypothesize that "attachment history is probably linked to dating experiences in ways that are similar to its association with other aspects of peer affiliation" (138). Downey, Bonica and Rincon (1999) emphasize a similar pattern of continuity across domains, while focusing on negative relationship dynamics. They suggest that early rejection by parents is related to later peer rejection, and these early negative experiences can lead to a kind of "rejection sensitivity"
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that will tend to have a limiting effect on the development of romantic relations. Furman and colleagues (Furman & Simon, 1999; Furman & Wehner, 1994) also drew on attachment theory in developing the notion that individual "views" of relationships - that is "thoughts, beliefs, and expectations" (Furman & Simon, 1999, 75) about them - will have a significant effect on the way relationship processes tend to unfold. Their more recent work emphasizes that while early family relationships are an important basis for the development of such views, experience within each domain can lead to the development of discontinuities (i.e. more differentiated perspectives and expectations about each type of relationship). This is a particularly critical addition to the literature because the authors underscore that what happens within the dating context itself is fundamentally important. Nevertheless, attachment approaches are not sufficiently comprehensive as a theoretical framework for our research for three reasons. First, the focus is relatively individualistic, as it stresses what young people bring with them to these relationships, rather than particular features or qualities of the relationships themselves. Second, the perspective as typically described does not easily lend itself to an exploration of how experiences associated with gender, race/ethnicity, or social class may potentially influence relationships' form and content. And third, the attachment approach appears somewhat limited as a conceptual bridge to the kinds of problem outcomes in which we also have an interest, including sexual risk-taking, delinquency involvement, school dropout, or relationship violence. The notion that attachment is a priori a developmental "good" needs additional scrutiny - particularly at this stage of life. This caution is consistent with a growing literature that increasingly emphasizes that strong attachments can have positive or negative effects on adjustment, depending on the reference other's normative orientations and the wider context in which these attachments occur (Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Giordano, Cernkovich, Groat, Pugh & Swinford, 1998; Hartup, 1996). Sociologists have shown more interest in adolescent problem outcomes than they have in basic relationship processes, including dating relationships. However, a small number of researchers have focused on the basic contours of early heterosexual interactions, particularly during the pre-adolescent and early adolescent years (Adler & Adler, 1998; Eder, Evans & Parker, 1995; Merten, 1996; Simon, Eder & Evans, 1992; Thorne & Luria, 1986). This body of work is important because it highlights the degree to which features of these early relations, and even individual feeling states such as being "in love," are socially constructed. The peer group is heavily implicated in the construction process. For example, Eder et al. (1995) conducted an ethnography of a middle school and documented how interactions within male and female peer groups tend to
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foster and amplify gender inequalities. Males' emphasis on success in competitive athletics leads to a preoccupation with toughness, a denial of tender or other "wimpy" emotions, and a lack of attention to the feelings of others. Girls' language routines and preoccupations (e.g. emphasis on appearance, makeup and clothing, ambivalent attitudes about sexuality) often contribute independently to this traditional picture. Eder advances a spillover argument, suggesting that both the form and content of boys' talk affects the nature of their emerging relations with young women. Boys' more tender feelings are denied, girls' feelings are ignored, and heterosexual relations become little more than another arena in which to "score." Thorne and Luria (1986) also emphasize the different styles of interaction that characterize male and female friendship groups. They point out that male peer groups frequently bond around rather public displays of "rule-breaking," and discourse is often strongly homophobic. This is contrasted with female friendships, which are more often dyadic ("best friends") and focused on intimacy issues and processes. The types of cross-gender interactions that occur, such as teasing or chasing, tend to "enhance social distance, asymmetry, and antagonism between girls and boys" (Thorne & Luria, 1986, 188). The authors suggest that because they "play to a different audience," each gender continues to develop "different needs, capacities, and types of knowledge" (188). While they do not consider adolescent relationships directly, the implication is that these distinct gender preoccupations are carried forward and negatively influence the character of later adolescent and even adult heterosexual relations. Adler and Adler (1998) also studied pre-adolescent peer cultures extensively and developed a generally compatible portrait, but their work highlights that male and female groups do not constitute totally separate worlds. Indeed, even prior to the adolescent period, cross-gender interactions occur frequently, and interviews suggest that young people would likely develop them more often if it were not for the fear of ridicule or derision from peers. They also emphasized the role of status processes within and across groups, suggesting that boys gained status among peers by "scoring" with girls, while girls gained status by simply having boys who pay attention to them, not by sexually "scoring" with boys. They note further that it is high status youths ("the populars") who begin dating first but, undoubtedly because of their primary focus on the pre-adolescent years, devote more attention to earlier forms of interaction such as flirting and teasing. In contrast, Merten's (1996) research covers the period when adolescents are old enough to declare that they are going steady ("going-with") and offers one of the few concrete descriptions of what such relations are actually like. The author presents a somewhat bleak portrait, suggesting that the majority of these
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relations are "without emotional substance." Merten emphasized the pressure young people feel to put on a good "front" when with their partner and suggested that these relationships are based on unrealistic, idealized expectations. Merten characterizes them as extremely superficial or "empty" and implies that "going steady" is a rather meaningless and even limiting adolescent social ritual. Thus, in focusing primarily on the power of peers (Adler & Adler, 1998), the superficial (Merten, 1996) and even degrading elements of heterosexual interactions (Eder et al., 1995; Thorne & Luria, 1986), this literature helps to foreshadow some of the more problematic aspects of mature male-female relations. However, the literature as a whole does not provide a clear picture of why and how some male and female adolescents eventually begin the process of forging caring, meaningful relations with one another. Nor does it serve to highlight that adolescents may learn some valuable lessons from these relations once they have done so. Still, this literature is quite important because it shows how romantic notions and behaviors are constructed within a broader cultural frame or context, but the dyadic relations themselves often appear epiphenomenal or beside the point. This likely stems in part from the focus on early adolescence, when peer influence is particularly strong and romantic interests are just beginning to develop. However, a basic premise of our research is that male and female adolescents are unlikely to expend so much of their thought, time, and energy in service of relations they experience as meaningless, degrading and empty. Instead, heterosexual interactions and relationships, like the more heavily analyzed worlds of peer and family, seem to "matter," and their meaning and impact warrant greater empirical scrutiny. DATA We began our study of adolescent romantic relations by analyzing materials available from prior research. For example, we had conducted a study of over 7,000 messages written in 247 junior high and high school yearbooks (Giordano, 1995). The collection spanned the years 1924-1993 and included books drawn from schools located in 22 states. As a first step, we transcribed and examined all of the messages that could be attributed to a boyfriend or girlfriend, focusing in particular upon similarities and differences in what individuals said when the receiver was a friend in contrast to a romantic interest. We also acquired a second collection of approximately 450 notes written by young people - the kind of notes passed during or in between classes, usually by pre-adolescent and adolescent females. However, the collection does include some notes from male writers, and approximately 85% of these notes contain references to
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romantic interests and pursuits. These materials were especially helpful at the outset because they were written without any level of framing or intrusion by the researchers. Entries in yearbooks involve a kind of summing up or overview of a relationship, while notes passed in or between classes tend to be directed toward everyday issues and concerns. At a minimum these materials demonstrated to us that adolescent romantic relations are obviously a subject of keen interest to the adolescents themselves. Next we worked with a convenience sample of 63 university students who wrote essays about the nature and impact (if any) of their high school dating experiences. This was followed by a set of individual and group interviews with a sample of teens drawn primarily from Toledo Boys Club/Girls Club, as well as from local high schools. In some cases we were able to interview both members of a particular romantic couple (n = 23). Finally, in the Spring of 2000, we conducted additional focus groups and individual interviews with a total of 147 youths. Although we had conducted some interviews with minority students in connection with the Boy's Club/Girls' Club interviews, we arranged for additional interviews with minority students and young people who represented a broader range of social types (e.g. jocks, nerds, adjudicated delinquents). The authors were assisted in this phase of the project by twelve undergraduate students who were enrolled in a field research class. We began with convenience samples, including university students and high school acquaintances, and gradually connected to organizations and agencies which provided introductions to more diverse groups (e.g. a program that targeted at-risk youth, a high school sociology class located in an area characterized by high levels of poverty, and an after school program heavily subsidized by a local juvenile court). These individuals typically participated in focus groups, but approximately 45 individual interviews were also completed. The interviews and focus group discussions were taped and later transcribed. The respondents were generally asked first about the "dating scene" at their high school. We found that the students were especially forthcoming about the romantic relations of their friends and other peers, and over the course of the interview or focus group period would subsequently tend to open-up about their own experiences. As the project evolved, we began to ask the students to compare the type of relationships they had with friends and with romantic partners. We found that this was a relatively intuitive and comfortable way to stimulate discussion, and this also connected to our emerging theoretical interest in the similarities/differences in the two types of relations. We also found that young people were relatively eloquent in comparing across different partners with whom they had been involved. While these data have been helpful in a variety of respects (e.g. as sources for developing items for the structured
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interview and as a way to explore race/ethnicity and gender effects), we rely on them in this paper as illustrations of basic relationship components we consider relatively unique to the romantic context. These provisional ideas will be explored further with the sample of 1,500 adolescents we plan to interview in the near future and a year later in a follow-up interview.
A T H E O R Y OF C O N T R A S T Adolescent friendships are frequently described as highly egalitarian and as less judgmental than the parental relations with which they are most often compared (Gecas & Serf, 1990; Youniss & Smollar, 1985). Over time, frequent interaction and high levels of mutual self-disclosure work to increase friends' real and perceived similarity, and this homophily itself provides a source of comfort and social ease. Although friendships, then, can be described as balanced and symmetrical, heterosexual relations almost by definition represent a greater element of contrast. Much of the continued emphasis on same-gender relationships likely stems from the basic assumption that identification ("they're like me") creates greater possibilities for influence. It has also been suggested that the comfort of the same-sex peer group provides a very positive arena for identity exploration, the development of autonomy from parents, and the like (Harter, 1990). However, as we have argued previously and as is consistent with some of S i m m e l ' s (1950) early observations, relations based in some element of difference, uncertainty, and even distance can be quite important to and consequential for the developing adolescent (Giordano, 1995). While adolescents communicate with their close friends, they are also in constant interaction or at least social proximity to a wider circle of friends - less intimate others, former friends, friends from a specific setting (e.g. band or detention hall), neighbors who ride the bus, siblings of best friends, people from work, and even enemies who are still on speaking terms. A n d romantic partners are an important part of this wider social circle. As Simmel (1950) noted: For the actions of the individual, his[her] differences from others is of far greater interest than is his [her] similarity with them. It largely is differentiation from others that challenges and determines our activity... If something is objectively of equal importance in terms of both similarity with a type and differentiation from it, we will be more conscious of the differentiation (30-31). Cooley (1902) makes a similar point in discussing how feelings about the self, such as pride or mortification, emerge from "the looking glass:" The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind. This
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is evident from the fact that the character and weight of that other, in whose mind we see ourselves, makes all the difference with our feeling. We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so on. We always imagine, and in imaginingshare, the judgments of the other mind ... (380). Thus, in developing relationships with the opposite sex, adolescents are crossing a very important set of boundaries. Family and friendship relations change in character over the period, but the acquisition of heterosexual relations represents a more fundamental shift in relationship style and content. This idea of crossing boundaries has been mentioned frequently in previous literature, and the consequence of making such journeys or forays into new terrain is often described quite negatively. Below, we describe five key relationship characteristics that appear to relate directly to this notion of contrast: communication awkwardness, heightened emotionality, asymmetry, power, and exclusivity and commitment.
Communication Awkwardness One key feature of these early relations is that they are characterized by high levels of social and communication awkwardness. As one junior high age female wrote in a note to her girlfriend: It's so weird, Brendan and I are really comfortable on the phone and write notes to each other (we talked for an hour and a half on Tuesday night), but we are really nervous and hardly talk to each other when we are together in person. The only guy I feel really comfortable with in person is Wayne (I told you about him didn't I?) Can I ask you a personal question?Do you douche? (J.K.[justkidding])N o . . . Have you ever kissed a guy before? Well, I haven't (isn't that SAD?!?!) But anyway, I might have to kiss Brendan on Saturday night, and I am really nervous.Oh well, I guess I'll just really luck up. The content of the note provides a window on both close friendship and early romance during this period. The writer's willingness to discuss her own insecurities and concerns to the receiver of the note (a close girlfriend) stands in strong contrast to her description of the budding romantic relationship which in-person makes her so nervous that she can hardly talk. Yet, we might best describe the romantic relationship as highly "tentative" and somewhat "scary," rather than "empty," as Merten's (1996) analyses implied - after all the writer and Brendan are "really comfortable on the phone," they "write notes to each other," and managed to talk "for an hour and a half on Tuesday night." While this tentative or awkward feature of early heterosexual relations has been frequently noted (Adler & Adler, 1998; Brown, 1999, 303; Connolly & Goldberg, 1999), it is also useful to consider that there may be systematic and
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consequential variations in the degree of awkwardness experienced. Age is undoubtedly an important correlate. However, it would also be of interest to document a gender or race/ethnicity influence. Our general hypothesis about how gender may influence these processes can be contrasted with the views articulated by Maccoby (1990), and generally supported by the sociological work on early adolescence reviewed above. Maccoby, concentrating on the literature on gender differences in children's early peer relationships and interaction styles, emphasized the tendency for females to develop more intimate friendships and to rely on more supportive styles of communication. She noted further that "the breakup of girls' friendships is usually attended by more intense emotional reactions than is the case for boys" (516). Her other findings within the friendship literature indicate that boys tend to play in larger groups, use a "restrictive interaction style, and have a greater emphasis on issues of dominance" (516). Subsequently, Maccoby asks a key developmental question: What happens, then, when individuals from these two distinctive 'cultures' attemptto interact with one another? People of both sexes are faced with a relatively unfamiliar situation to which they must adapt (517). Maccoby (1990) concludes that the transition is easiest for males, who tend to continue their dominant interaction style as they forge this new heterosexual relationship. She also notes that "the higher rates of depression in females have their onset in adolescence, when rates of cross-sex interaction rise" (517). Maccoby has used findings from the friendship literature to make a prediction opposite to what we propose here. We would suggest that precisely because females have a long history of engaging in close relationships in their childhood and pre-adolescent years (as Thorne & Luria, 1986 underscored), the developmental "leap" into this new type of association may not be as great as that facing adolescent males. Obviously, as the above quotes suggest, there is a good deal of uncertainty and trepidation on the part of both males and females. Nevertheless, romantic relationships are by their nature dyadic, a social arena with which the average female is already very familiar. Young women are, therefore, more practiced than their male counterparts in the various forms and expressions of intimacy, especially the type of mutual self-disclosure that tends to amplify it. Even the experience of an emotional breakup has an analog in previous friendship troubles. Thus, we argue that in some key respects the shift from friends to romance represents a more profound developmental transition for male adolescents. This leads first to the hypothesis that young males may experience an initially higher level of communication and social awkwardness when compared to
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f e m a l e adolescents. M o r e fundamentally, this suggests the notion that this n e w relationship, by virtue o f its e x t r e m e c o n t r a s t with y o u n g males; other interactions, m a y take on a salience, interest and i m p o r t a n c e that tends to be u n d e r p l a y e d in existing portraits. O n e c o u l d e v e n m a k e a case that such relations are, in s o m e respects, m o r e f u n d a m e n t a l to d e v e l o p m e n t for boys. W e do not wish to m i n i m i z e the large b o d y o f theory and research that e m p h a s i z e s f e m a l e s ' high levels o f investment, c o n c e r n and interest in romantic relationships, but m e r e l y to highlight that there is a greater level of continuity/similarity b e t w e e n their early p e e r and later romantic interactions. This notion o f a m o r e e x t r e m e shift for males was highlighted in an analysis o f the discourse styles o f males and females writing m e s s a g e s in high school y e a r b o o k s (Giordano, 1995). W h i l e females m a y say s o m e different things to a b o y f r i e n d than to a best friend, m a n y aspects o f the l a n g u a g e and tone are v e r y similar across all relationship types. Indeed, it was s o m e t i m e s difficult to speculate about the gender o f the r e c e i v e r o f the message, w h e r e n a m e s w e r e ambiguous, or n i c k n a m e s w e r e used. This is not typical o f m a l e discourse, as the two y e a r b o o k entries (one to a m a l e friend, the other to a girlfriend) v i v i d l y illustrate: Well this is going to be a whopper so I had better start writing. First of all your [sic] a lousy wrestler, you can't play football and you are a very weird kid but out from under all these bad qualities of yours came a small fire of courage, but I snuffed it out. Next year, Mark. Sandy, Well I don't really know where to start, so I will just blabber onward. You are very beautiful in so many ways it would take me a lifetime to express them in words. How we have gotten so close in such a short time is completely mind boggling to me. I hope our closeness will continue to grow for ages to come. I have grown to hold you as my very best friend even though you may not understand me or the things that I am talking about. I just hope that I am not too weird for you at times or embarrass yon at times, You are so unique in the way you are able to draw friends to you. That is a majical [sic] wonder many people wish they had, including yours truly. You have made this past summer very special for me in ways that it cannot be put into words for me. Well I don't know what to say but in a short sentence I LOVE YOU SANDY, WITH MY HEART AND SOUL. Now that I have saved the best for last I don't have much more to say. Best wishes in everything you do in school and in your lifetime to come (I pray that I will be there to enjoy it with you). With all my love, Doug G. M a r k ' s h u m o r o u s writing to a g o o d m a l e friend reflects the c o m p e t i t i v e oneup style o f m a l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n frequently described in the existing literature, but D o u g ' s m e s s a g e to Sandy certainly does not. A l t h o u g h there is e v i d e n c e o f a struggle ("I d o n ' t really k n o w w h e r e to start," "it cannot be put into words"), D o u g clearly m o v e s into the l a n g u a g e o f intimacy. H e first declares that the relationship is, in fact, intimate ( " w e h a v e gotten so close," " m y v e r y best
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friend"), describes its effect on him ("mind boggling"), and signals a desire for continued involvement ("I hope our closeness will continue to g r o w . . , in your lifetime to come . . . I pray that I will be there"). He showers Sandy with compliments (she is beautiful, unique in her ability to draw friends to her) and is deferential in his willingness to admit that his own attributes suffer in the comparison. Maccoby (1990) used findings from studies of interaction patterns in mixed sex groups to support the idea that males tend to transport their existing style to their new cross-sex relationships. She notes that "to some degree, men appear to bring to bear much the same kind of techniques in mixed-sex groups that they are accustomed to using in same-sex groups" (517). What happens in mixed-sex task groups is clearly relevant but does not complete the picture regarding young men's feelings about and experiences with early romantic relationships. In addition, ethnographies such as Eder et al.'s (1995) analysis of a middle school, are typically focused on public settings such as the school cafeteria or athletic events. The resulting accounts thus emphasize public discourse, which in turn emphasizes language directed to other males (or at least that speakers recognize will be heard by other males). Obviously, it is much more difficult to observe male (and female) behavior in intimate dyadic settings, but our view is that a consideration of tendencies in work/task groups or in public settings alone presents a limited perspective on male conduct within and perspectives on these early romantic dyads. For instance, Robert, a high school junior, was forthcoming about his discourse when with his girlfriend and with his same-gender friends: There was the small things in your life that I just told my girlfriend but not my guy friends. There is a tight connection between me and my boys, we would chill and do typical guy things. My guy friends would know the basic things about your life but having a girlfriend you can tell personal things. I think that I tell my girlfiiends more intimate things. [but later in the interview] I definitely fought more with my girlfriends. I had a better line of communication with my guy friends. Sometimes you cannot say some of the things you really want to say to a girlfriend. Because she might get pissed oft'. I acted totally different when I was out with my guy friends. If I was with my guy friends and my girlfriend was there, it was like, whatever, like I was all the shit, like she ain't going to tell me what to do. Cause my friends were there I had to like prove a point, it's a macho thing . . . If I was with my girlfriend, I was all nice and sweet and what do you want? Like I'll go get it. With just guy friends, they're like gimme a pop, I ' m like, you know where it's at, get on your feet, go get it . . .
We also have an interest in whether, aside from age and gender, the experiences associated with race/ethnicity may also influence the degree of social awkwardness experienced. For example, Staples (1986) argued that the gender
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segregation patterns that often characterize young children's play in grade school are not as rigid among African-American youth and suggested further that this facilitates the transition to heterosexual relationships in adolescence. Research is needed to determine whether this hypothesis about group-level differences in social ease is accurate and to explore how this might influence, for example, movement toward sexual intimacy. If significant differences in communication awkwardness emerge, it would then be important to determine whether this explains some o f the difference in timing of sexual initiation that has been documented in previous studies (Dorius et al., 1993; Miller et al., 1997; Thornton, 1990).
Heightened Emotionality Our interviews suggest, and the yearbook message directed to Sandy and quoted above highlights, a second distinguishing feature of opposite sex relations, namely the high levels of emotional affect connected with all phases of the relationship's career (see Larson, Clore & Wood, 1999). This heightened emotionality can be positive (feelings of love), as well as more negative (feelings of jealousy, hurt, and betrayal). A n d as the message to Sandy illustrates, boys as well as girls experience these kinds of emotions. In the world of adolescent romance, even small events are imbued with drama and exaggerated import, as these excerpts from the collection of notes reveals: In cooking today ... I was holding a bowl for him while he mixed the stuff. Then he wanted the bowl steadier so he put his hand on the bowl and accidentally put his hand on my hand. He didn't move it either! Of course I didn't move mine. Call me tonight at my dad's house. RIGHT AWAY! [high school freshman, female]. I talked on the phone with that girl Emily for about an hour last night. I said hello to her today but either she didn't here me or she didn't want to say anything, cuz she hasn't said anything to me all day but then again we only have gym together... [high school sophomore, male]. This heightened emotionality is not confined to early adolescence as the following excerpt from an interview with a high school senior suggests: There be a lot of people getting jealous, but you might not want to admit it, cause you don't want to get salty in front of the boys. A lot of people try to blow it off like they don't care, but really deep down inside they do, but you don't want to look bad. One key difference between same and opposite gender relations is the sexual possibilities the latter present. Once a sexual element unfolds, this undoubtedly further heightens the emotional valence of the relationship, as the following quote underscores:
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You just got to find the right one, but it just seem like every time you get a girl and you think you all cool, something happens. I'm gonna keep it real, once you laid the pipe, and you laid it good, it seems like you trigger a crazy, crazy thing in their mind [high school junior, male]. It is also quite possible that the level of emotionality that characterizes some relations, or some phases within a relationship's career, may relate more systematically to consequential transition outcomes such as those connected to sexuality and pregnancy decision making. The logic underlying this connection is illustrated by this 17-year old female's description of her emotional state in the early stages of a particular romance: "I was almost mesmerized to the point where I had . . . no thoughts." Thus, traditional predictive models that emphasize such factors as family supervision, educational achievements and aspirations, or even peer normative climate could benefit from the inclusion of more proximal factors relating to the emotional context within which intimacy behaviors tend to unfold. In general, we suggest that relationship features such as feelings of heightened emotionality will tend to act as "accelerators" or "amplifiers" that serve to hasten intimate contact. In this regard, it is important to distinguish the progression and impact of these feelings from conventional findings that derive from the adult relationships/marriage literature. In the latter tradition, variables such as stability and duration tend to be reliably associated with variation in affective states such as quality, satisfaction, and happiness with the relationship (see Glenn, 1998; Orbnch, House, Mero & Webster, 1996). However, this remains an empirical question for adolescent romantic relationships because prior work has not linked duration to the relationship qualities in which we have an interest. The relatively short duration of adolescent relationships (e.g. preliminary analyses of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health indicate an overall median relationship duration of four months and a mean of 8.5 months) suggest that it may be inappropriate to generalize from work that has focused almost exclusively on adult relationships (Longmore, Manning & Giordano, 1999).
Asymmetries A third area of difference between same-sex and romantic relations relates to the greater possibilities for asymmetries inherent in the romantic dyad. Romantic relations have a high level of instability and fragility when compared with the more settled or secure arena of friendship, and young people we have interviewed seem keenly aware of any asymmetries within their relationships. Although scholars have repeatedly emphasized that "equality and equity form
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the basis for interpersonal relationships with all but the v e r y y o u n g e s t c h i l d r e n " (Laursen & J e n s e n - C a m p b e l l , 1999, 54), this seems less accurate w h e n the referent is early r o m a n t i c relationships. This notion of asymmetry, like the level of emotionality, c o u l d be a v e r y important construct in relation to sexuality and fertility decisions and for understanding m a n y other aspects of the b e h a v i o r that o c c u r in these dyads. F o r example, in one o f our preliminary studies, one y o u n g f e m a l e succinctly s u m m a r i z e d W a l l e r ' s (1937) w e l l k n o w n principle o f least interest: It's like the less one person needs you, the more the other person's dependent. Like, he's busy with his school and he has so much to do and that kind of makes me feel like I try harder and harder ... to be with him to make sure I don't lose his attention. A n e v e n m o r e e x t r e m e e x a m p l e is p r o v i d e d in an i n t e r v i e w with a 17-year old f e m a l e w h o had b e e n i n v o l v e d in three significant romantic relationships, two o f w h i c h appeared i m b a l a n c e d f r o m her o w n perspective. Terry, the partner to w h o m the f e m a l e is referring, was significantly older and apparently m o r e socially p o l i s h e d than the respondent, and she felt this difference keenly: Why would Terry ... this TERRY be attracted to someone [like me] ... I have such a high admiration and respect for the other girls he's gone with and I don't see where I fit into this pattern. I mean I am ... he's TERRY, and I mean I'm just me ... Terry this perfect being almost, and then me. Reflecting on her i n v o l v e m e n t with Terry and her m o r e recent relationship with J e r e m y , this respondent told the i n t e r v i e w e r that she felt in general that she c o u l d not be herself within the context of these relationships. I: How come you feel yon can't be yourself'? R: I don't think I have an answer for that. I mean, I guess I'm myself all the time and it's just not, apparently, an attractable feature in a person. I'm not the type of person people flock to or appreciate and I mean I did something to catch their [boys who have liked her] interest and I don't want to lose that. I feel like I have to live up to their expectations or something because I feel like as myself I am not what they want. That they can also do better. I mean God knows Jeremy could do much better than me and I even told him that... Thus, w h i l e research on friendships has d o c u m e n t e d that close s a m e - s e x friends p r o v i d e a c o m f o r t a b l e arena for self-exploration and identity support, it is likely that additional w o r k on the heterosexual w o r l d will support its characterization as a m u c h m o r e uncertain terrain. As a result, adolescents m a y m o r e often feel that they m u s t e n g a g e in heroic measures, including fake or false-self b e h a v iors, in order to attract others, c e m e n t the relationship, or stave o f f its demise. Contrary to M e r t e n (1996), h o w e v e r , w e w o u l d not argue that all false-self b e h a v i o r is harmful or to be avoided. Indeed, w h a t seems inauthentic or f o r c e d
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in interpersonal behavior may eventuate in greater social skill, empathy, or perspective taking. For example, in one interactive note (passed back and forth during class), a female ended an entry in a kind of mocking fashion: "Well, make your note a little shorter why doncha?" In the next entry, Andy managed to eke out a longer message: Jess, Don't you just have te love this sub! She knows so much! Well I will buy the tickets. Karmen's party sounds like alot of fun, but are we going to be with Jonah and Jill all night. It's not I don't like them but when did we make plans with them about the Limo and everything else. When do you leave for Minnesota?Oh! should I get a tie to match your dress? my sister thinks I should but what do I care. Do you want to go out to eat before the dance or do you eat there?, god this is boring with a sub! Beth said there would be food at the dance so I guess we really don't need to go out. Where is it going to take place (the dance I mean)? Well did I write enough this time? [emphasis added] Well gotta go. See you later, Andy. Another example of the positive utility of false-self behavior is seen in the following quote from a University respondent who participated in a focus group: It kinda sounds gay, but I learned how to share my feelings more. One girl I did not know how to share my feelings to and she dumped me. So now I try to share my feelings more. Thus, some heterosexual relationship activities and emotions involve dynamics that differ qualitatively from those that characterize close same-sex peers. Consistent with this general idea, we suggest that in addition to those differences stemming from gender or variations in partners' levels of perceived prestige, these relationships may also incorporate to a greater extent differences in values and sociodemographic characteristics. While homophily is a well-established feature of same-gender relationships, young people often appear to expect and even seek out difference within the romantic context (e.g. age heterogamy, interfaith and cross-race/ethnicity dating, or dating those from a different clique or school). Perhaps because the relationship at its base contains a core of difference, actors may be more receptive to other not-like-me elements. Whatever the origins of this tendency, we would emphasize that these differences themselves could influence actors' relationship behaviors as well as their receptivity to new experiences. This constitutes another way in which to conceptualize these relations as providing a developmental stretch or even a hastened transition. For example, quite a few female respondents expressed the preference to date an older male often with the reasoning that he can provide more material rewards. While this theme can be found throughout (and analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health data indicate that it is typical for young women to date a partner on average two years older), this theme was found especially prominent in our interviews with African-American female students who attended an inner-city school:
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Well a lot of the girls talk up higher, their man's older, not even in high school. To me it seem as though they talk all to them because of their maturity level or because most people are materialistic. So it's like maybe he has a car or a job, and you can't get this from someone in high school. You meet people at clubs, walking down the street. If they are real interested in you they will chase you down. For me, first it's how he came at me. His looks, whatever he was drivin', his shoes and the way he carries himself. Older guys have things ... money ... it's always the money. People our ages think they got to have a car. This idea was also e x p r e s s e d in i n t e r v i e w s with m a l e students w h o attended the s a m e school: Some girls just like you for what you got, like a nice car or money. Go to the movies, I basically take her out to the mall. Basically we all spend too much money on girls. I don't spend on people unless I care about them. T h e s e quotes demonstrate s o m e o f the positive features o f a relationship that is d e m o g r a p h i c a l l y asymmetrical. M o r e generally, they underscore the i m p o r t a n c e o f investigating relationships across a range o f students w h o s e e c o n o m i c and social circumstances v a r y considerably. W h i l e extrinsic benefits a partner can p r o v i d e m a y frequently figure in at s o m e l e v e l (especially status or g o o d looks), it is unlikely that m i d d l e or upper class youths focus on utilitarian concerns to as great an extent - i.e. their ready access to a car or other material goods w o u l d obviate the n e e d for the partner to play any role in p r o v i d i n g them. T h e s e kinds o f concerns are o f interest b e c a u s e they help us understand m o r e about the m e a n i n g o f a particular social trend (here, the desire to date an older male). O b v i o u s l y , the m o r e frequent references to resources or assets of partners or potential partners likely stem f r o m the m o r e limited e c o n o m i c circumstances o f these respondents. Therefore, it m i g h t be unusual for a y o u n g w o m a n o f considerable m e a n s to base her c h o i c e o f dating partner solely on utilitarian considerations, since she is likely to take for granted such things as access to spending m o n e y , a nice car, and the like. It w o u l d also be important to investigate m o r e fully s o m e o f the c o n s e q u e n c e s that flow f r o m m o v e m e n t into these types o f relations. F o r e x a m p l e , teens frequently noted that: You run with older guys, and they don't run their mouths as much [female, senior in high school]. The best relationships are outside of school. Don't nobody knows your business and stuff. I have never really had a school relationship, i really don't like school relationships [high school male]. Thus, there are social control implications that relate to these choices as well, and it is interesting to note that a p p r o x i m a t e l y 50% o f the r o m a n t i c partners listed by A d d Health respondents did not attend the s a m e school as the respondent or
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were no longer in school. Thus, future research is needed that establishes whether behavioral, demographic, and social asymmetries are indeed more characteristic of romantic than friendship relations and specifies in greater detail what types of perceived rewards/costs and objective consequences stem from such differencebased associations.
Power Our focus on asymmetry and difference inevitably raises considerations of power in a couple's relationship. Although peers, as noted above, influence one another, scholars have emphasized that same sex actors bring relatively high levels of similarity in characteristics and values to their developing friendships. Youniss and Smollar (1985) suggest that within friendships, reality is most often "cooperatively co-constructed." In contrast, our interviews that focused on the romantic context suggest that there is a greater tendency for partners to wish to control, regulate, or change the other in some way. Because of the basic element of contrast or difference that characterizes these romantic relations, it is more likely that differences of opinion or perspective will occur. This suggests that power is a fundamentally important construct within the romantic partner domain. Our interviews suggest that both males and females frequently see a need to change the partner or some feature of the relationship, and this differs fundamentally from the way adolescents talk about (and by inference) the way they act within their friendships. However, what is less clear is the degree to which young people accede to these influence attempts and actually begin to view the romantic partner as a very important reference other. Research is thus needed on assertions of power (control attempts) within romantic dyads as well as on the actual importance of the partner as a source of influence. A core issue is the nature and extent of gender differences in power and influence. Our qualitative studies are less than definitive in this regard, however, the existing literature could support three reasonable but somewhat contradictory hypotheses: (1) Although adolescents may express high levels of interest in opposite-sex relations, the core reference group during the period remains the same-sex peer group. This notion follows from basic principles of identification discussed above and is consistent with the predominant emphasis on peers in the existing literature. (2) Theories of gender stratification stress the primacy of male influence across varied settings/contexts (Maccoby, 1990; Pugh & Wahrman, 1983; Ridgeway, 1991). This notion leads to the hypothesis that male significant
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(3) Our own provisional "theory of contrast" focuses on the developmental stretch that heterosexual relations represent. Friends begin their relationships with a foundation of similar characteristics and experiences, while heterosexual relations represent from the outset a larger element of contrast. It is possible that actors will be receptive to influence attempts from romantic partners because they are intensely interested in, yet unfamiliar with, this new relationship domain. In addition, having opened the door to one type of difference may increase the young person's receptivity to changes in other areas of life as well. Finally, to the degree that romantic relations indeed are perceived as possessing several "unique" qualities not present in the friendship domain, this also increases the salience and potential impact of this special significant other. Ideally, future research focused on the extent of partners' influence would include simultaneous assessments regarding the impact of romantic partners and same-sex friends. This would allow us to determine whether there are race or class, as well as gender, differences in the relative salience of the two social domains and to document developmental trends in influence patterns across both relationship types. Our interviews suggested some contradictory themes about the nature and extent of power assertions and influence, but the following descriptions certainly illustrate this occurs within some dyads: When she came down to my room and she'd be like you gotta clean your room, she sound like my morn some days and like when we go to parties and stuff she's like you're not drinkingcause you're driving and I don't want to drive your car [high schooljunior, male]. Overall most of the girls in my school did tend to do what their boyfriends wanted. The girls thought they were in charge because they made superficial plans but when it came deep down private relationshipwhen you are just yourselves the guys had more influence [high school senior, female]. Or, consider the following quotes that outline a somewhat more subtle influence process: I guess it all about trying to please the other person. If you want him, and he wants you to dress this way, you going to dress this way to please him, so he won't be so unfocused on you. [But later] If he really like you, he's change for you. I'll try to meet you half way [high school sophomore, female].
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It was not necessarily things that I was forced to do but things that you think about doing but you are not going to do by yourself. If there is someone else there that you trust and you think you love, you will do things that you normally wouldn't because you feel safe when you are with them. [high school junior, female] In addition, while it is c o n v e n t i o n a l to think of the boyfriend as a potential gateway to deviant behavior and the girlfriend as the pro-social influence, this is not always the case: Before my girlfriend liked to party. She would go to parties and puke about five times. Now as soon as we got serious in our relationship she settled down a lot [University student, male]. It's the first time I've had actually had somebody that's about doing something with their life like you know not just trying to be out in the streets and stuff like that. I never could really keep a person like this, that's in school and stuff like that; I was always attractive to street people, so that's a major difference there. He has a lot more respect for himself. It's just totally different [high school senior, female]. People influence you in like, if you spend that much time with them like you pick up their habits. You start changing your music tastes. I did a lot of things that I never did before like simple things from music tastes to eating different things, like lots of bad stuff, too. Like the whole thing with drinking, sex and drugs [high school junior, male]. As the c o m m e n t s above suggest, comprehensive assessments of the impact of heterosexual relationships on d e v e l o p m e n t will also need to take into account the normative orientation and behavioral histories that partners bring with them as they forge these early relations. In short, an accurate determination of the impact of partners requires consideration not only of what the c o u p l e ' s relationship is like but also of what the partner is like. This idea parallels trends in peer research that increasingly reflect the importance of m e a s u r i n g the n o r m a tive orientation of peer groups, as well as relationship qualities such as degree of integration or attachment to particular groups. To illustrate, while we have argued that particular feelings and d y n a m i c s within the relationship m a y be systematically linked wffh outcomes such as the t i m i n g of sexual initiation or use of contraception, the partner's normative beliefs about these matters and past history are also an important part of the equation. Thus, for example, if a partner brings to the current relationship a very liberal attitude toward premarital sex and previous relationships i n c l u d e d intercourse, this could have an i n d e p e n d e n t effect or interact with some features of the focal relationship (e.g. u n d e r conditions of relational a s y m m e t r y and this type of normative orientation, we might expect a shorter interval in terms of time to intercourse).
Concerns over Exclusivity and Commitment As m a n y others have previously suggested, in matters of romance, issues of exclusivity and c o m m i t m e n t appear to be basic, abiding concerns (see Feiring,
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1999). Our interviews suggest that cheating, and "a wandering eye" are extremely common - in fact normative - during much of the adolescent period. This primary finding from our study of teenagers is in contrast to research on early adolescent peer culture. For example, Adler and Adler (1998) presented a relatively idealized portrait of the exclusivity norm of romantic monogamy. "The peer culture had no concept of individuals 'playing the field.' It was absolutely forbidden, from elementary through high school, to be engaged in romantic relations with more than one person at a time" (Adler & Adler, 1998, 190). They indicated that even after a relationship is over, there is a "long waiting process after you break up with someone before you can ask somebody else out" (Adler & Adler, 1998, 190). This does not seem to fit well with the content of many of our interviews with older youth, which contain numerous references such as the following: It's a one-girl right here and a several girl man over there. He's [referring to another young man participating in the same focus group] just an indiscriminant pipe layer. He just lays pipe for a living [high school junior, male]. There is a lot of dating around, from what I see. It's not so much based on relationships, because everyone is so busy with trying others or somebody's doing it cause they are in a relationship with another person and they're trying to get at them. It is just a lot of back and forth really. When a guy is dating two girls at once, her impression of this is that no one's suppose to know but word gets around. The results of this are two girls feuding and it's a big old mess. We have a lot of that at [respondent's high school] [junior, female]. Nobody thinks about having a serious normal relationship. Everyone wants short term, just jumping girl to girl, boy to boy [high school senior, female].
The differential emphasis placed on exclusivity from the early adolescent period to the late teenage years may represent a significant developmental shift and deserves more attention in future research. In addition, while dating around, moving quickly from one partner to the next, or dating someone behind a primary partner's back were apparently common occurrences, these issues, nevertheless, cause much pain and regret, as the following reflections on past romantic partners reveal: I treated her like a queen. She treated me like shit. I learned - trust no one [high school sophomore, male]. I couldn't trust him to walk the next street. I was stupid to believe him. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb . . . [high school senior, female].
When compared with friendships, romantic relations carry higher expectations of exclusivity, whether or not these expectations are fulfilled. Commitment is a related concept, but it involves considerations about the future. Kimmel (1974) speculated that immediate reward-cost considerations are more important than commitment during the adolescent period, suggesting that investment and
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commitment become more critical in adulthood. This difference between early adolescent romantic relations and adult marital/cohabiting unions is critical because it underscores that young people will tend to remain in the relationship only when rewards seem sufficiently high to warrant continued involvement. This again points to the importance of assessing the qualitative features of these relationships, because such intangibles as feelings of heightened emotionality are the primary source of "glue," or attachment, within them. Relationships can end precisely at the moment when one partner's feelings shift and he/she declares that it is over. Although young people certainly recognize on one level that such relationships will come and go (as one young woman phrased it, "otherwise everybody would end up marrying their third grade sweetheart"), concerns about the future of the relationship and mismatched perspectives about whether there will be a future contribute significantly to conflict and perceived uncertainty. Recent analyses of data derived from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health indicate that less than half of the romantic partner nominations made by respondents were reciprocated (Carver & Udry, 1997). This suggests that the idea of differences in commitment levels could be a very important and consequential dynamic within these types of adolescent relationships. CONCLUSION Future research on heterosexual relationships could benefit from an explicit recognition that these relations have some conunonalities with other types of intimate relations, while at the same time presenting new opportunities and challenges for the adolescent. For that reason, levels of self-disclosure, intimacy or conflict within adolescent friendships and romantic relations should be assessed and compared, and we plan to conduct such comparisons in connection with our quantitative efforts. However, in this paper, we argue that it is also important to include greater research attention to some of the unique features of these relations - the greater level of asymmetry and social awkwardness that often accompanies them, partners' more intense concerns about exclusivity and commitment, the experience of high emotional affect, and a desire to regulate or change the other. We have developed quantitative measures of these constructs, and thus will be able to determine whether, net of traditionally measured qualities like duration or extent of contact, a variable like extent of jealousy impacts sexual timing. Further elaboration of this perspective on adolescent heterosexual relations will provide a useful framework for understanding how adolescent dating influences identity development, conduct within future romantic/marital
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relationships, and a variety of behavioral outcomes (e.g. delinquency, early sexual debut, or adolescent parenthood). Moreover, the relational dimensions we outlined offer a basis on which to specify the manner in which gender, race/ethnicity, or class position influence the course of romantic relationships and their impact on adolescent development. In addition, the normative and behavioral repertoire of the partner obviously extends beyond issues of sexuality. Thus an assessment of impact should also include attention to a partner's attitudes toward and history of involvement in drug and alcohol use and other problem behaviors. Currently, the literature stresses that males, and particularly older males, are an important "gateway" to problem behaviors for adolescent females, but the evidence for this is extremely limited, and there is only anectdotal evidence that female romantic partners tend to have a pro-social effect on male involvement in problem behaviors (e.g. Caspi, Moffitt & Silva, 1993; Stattin & Magnusson, 1990). Such analyses are important not only because partners can influence every day social routines (movement in/out of subcultures that encourage risk-taking more generally - a "life-style" hypothesis), but because drug/alcohol use can directly impact sexual decision-making (a "disinhibition" hypothesis). An important limitation of a relational emphasis is that it does not give sufficient weight to the focal actor's own background and identity. This suggests the need to incorporate concepts such as those outlined by Furman and Wehner (1994) that appear to capture young peoples' emerging orientation toward the opposite sex. We would suggest modifying their concept of attachment styles to include assessment of the adolescent's social and sexual identity, which we regard as a broader construct. We would expect that variations in social/sexual identity will, over time, contribute to sexual and other behavioral choices, beyond the effect of the relationship qualities or partner characteristics described above. For example, a young man who considers himself a "player" (or "indiscriminant pipe layer," as in the quote above) may move into intercourse quite rapidly and lack concern about contraception regardless of level of love or the power dynamics of a focal relationship. This notion of a romantic role or identity repertoire would thus encompass but not be limited to an actor's attachment style. Finally, we recognize that a focus on dating provides a window on only one aspect of an adolescent's life circumstances. In this regard, we see value in the configural approach to data analysis that has recently been employed in a variety of developmental studies (see Cairns, Bergman & Kagan, 1998; Magnusson, 1995; yon Eye, 1990; von Eye, Spiel & Wood, 1996). Future research efforts in this area could benefit from the use of disaggregation procedures to isolate groups of individuals whose dating lives are nested within diverse contexts (e.g. high frequency dating by an academically successful athletic star may be quite
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different in its implications f r o m high f r e q u e n c y dating by a y o u n g w o m a n w h o is c o m p l e t e l y alienated f r o m her f a m i l y and failing in school). This personcentered approach w o u l d allow us to place dating behaviors within a broader social e c o l o g y , to m o d e l effects o f c a t e g o r y m e m b e r s h i p on consequential o u t c o m e s (e.g. school dropout), and to analyze prodigal cases (those within a g i v e n social type/configuration w h o are outliers or w h o buck-the-trend in c o m p a r i s o n to similar others). T h e s e kinds o f analyses, c o m b i n e d with additional detailed descriptive studies, should p r o v i d e a basis for a m o r e c o m p r e h e n s i v e understanding o f the w a y s in w h i c h ronaantic relationships influence development.
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Glenn, N. (1998). The course of marital success and failure in five American 10-year marriage cohorts. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 569-576. Gordon, S. (1981). The sociology of sentiments and emotion. In: M. Rosenberg & R. Turner (Eds), Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives (pp. 562-592). New York: Basic Books. Hansen, D., Christopher, J., & Nangle, D. (1992). Adolescent heterosocial interactions and dating. In: V. Van Hasselt & M. Hersen (Eds), Handbook of Social Development: A Lifespan Perspective (pp. 371-394). New York: Plenum Press. Hanson, S. L., Morrison, D. R., & Ginsburg, A. (1989). The antecedents of teenage fatherhood. Demography, 26, 579-596. Hatter, S. (1990). Self and identity development. In: S. Feldman & G. Elliott (Eds), At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent (pp. 372-387). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hartup, W. W. (1996). The company they keep: Friendships and their developmental significance. Child Development, 67, 1-13. Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Hogan, D., & Kitagawa, E. (1985). The impact of social status, family structure, and neighborhood on the fertility of Black adolescents. American Journal of Sociology, 90, 825-855. Inazu, J. (1987). Partner involvement and contraceptive efficacy in premarital sexual relationships. Population and Environment, 9, 225-237. Jessor, R., & Jessor, S. (1977). Problem behavior and psychosocial development. New York: Academic Press. Ketterlinus, R., Lamb, M., Nitz, K., & Elster, A. (1992). Adolescent nonsexual and sex-related problem behaviors. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 431--456. Kimmel, D. (1974). Adulthood and aging: An interdisciplinary, developmental view. New York: Wiley. Ku, L., Sonenstein, F., & Pleck, J. (1993). Young men's risk behavior for HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases, 1988 through 1991. American Journal of Public Health, 83, 1609-1615. Larson, R. W., Clore, G. L., & Wood, G. A. (1999). The emotions of romantic relationships: Do they wreak havoc on adolescents? In: W. Furman, B. B. Brown & C. Feiring (Eds), The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence (pp. 1949). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lauritsen, J. (1994). Explaining race and gender differences in adolescent sexual behavior. Social Forces, 72, 859-884. Laursen, B., & Jensen-Campbell, L. A. (1999). The nature and functions of social exchange in adolescent romantic relationships. In: W. Furman, B. B. Brown & C. Feiring (Eds), The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence (pp. 50-74). New York: Cambridge University Press. Longmore, M. A., Manning, W. D., & Giordano, P. C. (1999, August). Dating, early sexual debut, and the buffering effects of emotional well-being. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association. Luster, T., & Small, S. (1994). Factors associated with sexual risk-taking behaviors among adolescents. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 56, 622-632. Maccoby, E. E. (1990). Gender and relationships: A developmental account. American Psychologist, 45, 513-520. Magnusson, D. (1995). Individual development: A holistic, integrated model. In: P. Moen, G. H. Elder, Jr. & K. Luscher (Eds), Examining Lives in Context: Perspectives on the Ecology of Human Development (pp. 19-60). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Marsiglio, W. (1993). Adolescent males' orientation toward paternity and contraception. Family Planning Perspectives, 25, 22-32.
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Marsiglio, W., & Menaghan, E. (1990). Pregnancy resolution and family formation: Understanding gender differences in adolescents' preferences and beliefs. Journal of Family lssues, 11, 313-333. McCabe, M. (1984). Toward a theory of adolescent dating. Adolescence, 19, 159-169. Merten, D. E. (1996). Going-with: The role of a social form in early romance. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 24(4), 462484. Milan, R., & Kilmann, P. (1987). Interpersonal factors in premarital contraception. The Journal of Sex Research, 23, 289-321. Miller, B., Norton, M., Curtis, T., Hill, E., Schvaneveldt, P., & Young, M. (1997). The timing of sexual intercourse among adolescents: Family, peer, and other antecedents. Youth and Society, 29, 54-83. Mott, F., & Haurin, R. (1988). Linkages between sexual activity and alcohol and drug use among American adolescents. Family Planning Perspectives, 20, 128-136. Orbuch, T., House, J., Mero, R., & Webster, P. (1996), Marital quality over the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 59, 162-171. Pugh, M., DeMaris, A., Giordano, P. C., & Groat, H. (1990). Delinquency as a risk factor in teenage pregnancy. Sociological Focus, 23, 89-100. Pugh, M., & Wahrman, R. (1983). Neutralizing sexism in mixed-sex groups: Do women have to be better than men? American Journal of Sociology, 88, 746-762. Ridgeway, C. (1991). The social construction of status value: Gender and other nominal characteristics. Social Forces, 70, 367-386. Rodgers, J., & Rowe, D. (1990). Adolescent sexual activity and mildly deviant behavior: Sibling and friendship effects. Journal of Family lssues, 11, 274-293. Roscoe, B., Diana, M., & Brooks, R. (1987). Early, middle, and late adolescents' views on dating and factors influencing partner selection. Adolescence, 22, 59-68. Rosenbaum, E., & Kandel, D. (1990). Early onset of adolescent sexual behavior and drug involvement. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 783-798. Savin-Williams, R., & Berudt, T. (1990). Friendships and peer relations. In: S. Feldman & G. Elliott (Eds), At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent (pp. 227-307). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Simmel, G. (1950). The sociology of Georg Simmel. K. H. Wolff (Ed.). New York: Free Press. Simon, R. W., Eder, D., & Evans, C. (1992). The development of feeling norms underlying romantic love among adolescent females. Social Psychological Quarterly, 55, 29-46. Sonenstein, F., Pleck, J., & Ku, L. (1991). Levels of sexual activity among adolescent males in the United States. Family Planning Perspectives, 23, 162-167. South, S., & Lloyd, K. (1992). Marriage markets and nonmarital fertility in the United States. Demography, 29, 247-264. Sprecher, S. (1989). Influences on choice of a partner and on sexual decision making in a relationship. In: K. McKinney & S. Sprecher (Eds), Human Sexuality: The Societal and Interpersonal Context (pp. 115-138). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Staples, R. (1986). Black masculinity, hypersexuality, and sexual aggression. In: R. Staples (Ed.), The Black Family: Essays and Studies (3rd ed.) (pp. 57-63). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc. Stattin, H., & Magnusson, D. (1990). Pubertal maturation in female development, VoL 2: Paths through life. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbanm Associates. Sullivan, H. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton. Thorne, B., & Luria, Z. (1986). Sexuality and gender in children's daily worlds. Social Problems, 33(3), 176-190.
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Thornton, A. (1990). The courtship process and adolescent sexuality. Journal of Family Issues, l 1, 239-273. von Eye, A. (1990). Introduction to configural frequency analysis: The search for types and antitypes in cross-classification. New York: Cambridge University Press. von Eye, A., Spiel, C., & Wood, P. (1996). Configural frequency analysis in applied psychological research. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 45, 301-352. Waller, W. (1937). The rating and dating complex. American Sociological Review, 2, 727-734. Whitbeck, L., Conger, R., & Kao, M. (1993). The influences of parental support, depressed affect, and peers on the sexual behaviors of adolescent girls. Journal of Family Issues, 14, 261-278. Whitbeck, L., Hoyt, D., & Huck, S, (1994). Early family relationships, intergenerational solidarity and support provided to parents by their adult children. Journal of Gerontology, 49, 585-594. Whitley Jr., B. (1990). College student contraceptive use: A multivariate analysis. The Journal of Sex Research, 27, 305-313. Youniss, J., & Smollar, J. (1985). Adolescent relations with mothers, fathers, and friends. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
NEW SKILLS TO LEARN IN PEER GROUPS Manuela du Bois-Reymond, Janita Ravesloot, Yolanda te Poel and Elke Zeijl
1. I N T R O D U C T I O N At the end of the old and the beginning of the new century, many thoughts are spent on children and their futures. Will they be prepared for what is forthcoming? Of course, by definition, children and young people's futures are veiled, and they will always have to live without knowing how their lives will develop. They cannot know what hardships they will encounter and, on the other side, which advantageous conditions may influence them on their way to adulthood. But it seems to us, and not only to us, that we live in a period of so much change that adolescents on their way to adulthood, need to develop special capacities in order to be able to cope with their present and future lives. Child- and youth sociologists discuss the prolongation of the youth phase as a major change in the life course. Nowadays, young people stay in school and youth cultural peer groups longer, and enter adult life at a later age. The other side of this development is that childhood, as a life phase tends to end earlier. Whereas former generations of children entered the youth phase around the age of 12 to 14, present-day children adapt youth-cultural life styles and habits at a much earlier age. This can be observed in children's manner of dressing, their music tastes, consumptive behavior and their wish and capacity to manage many aspects of their lives independently, in Europe as well as in (North) America
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(Zinnecker, 1995; Adler & Adler, 1998; Hengst, in press). 1 One of the underlying reasons for these developments is that educational values have shifted from keeping children dependent to stimulating their autonomy. Being able to cope with new demands, such as being capable of making the right decisions in complex personal and impersonal situations, getting to grips with ever-increasing amounts of information and handling this adequately, knowing that learning and acquiring know-how are essential, and learning to be flexible whilst also developing stable personalities, are all aspects connected to the concept of risk society as developed by Beck (1992). This risk society affects the young generation especially although not exclusively. Adolescents must and cannot learn to avoid risks only. On the contrary, they must find a sound balance between avoiding behavior deemed too risky, such as dropping out of school or experimenting with unsafe sex, whilst not refraining from taking other risks such as trying out new learning routes or experimenting with alcohol and other drugs moderately and sensibly. Peers may help young people to calculate such risks. Another side to this matter is that there is a tendency for policy makers and pedagogues to define young people as a social category 'at risk' (Kelly, 1999). In former times, useful knowledge - that is: knowledge bearing relevance to their future lives - was transmitted from the older to the younger generation through education at home and at school. Today children and young people obtain such knowledge through many different sources. We only need think of the various media available to them. It has ceased to be self-evident that exclusively adults teach children. Nowadays youngsters are not the only learners, adults are too, and all will stay learners throughout their lives. This has implications for the intergenerational relationship: parents and teachers have lost their self-evident authority and peers have, in many ways, become co-teachers. Hence the peer group has acquired heightened importance for children not only within, but also beyond School, and has become a site of pleasure as well as learning. All of the above means that contemporary children live in a much more complex world than their parents in terms of the options available for their educational careers and leisure activities. Complex is a term which also applies to the composition of the population: European societies have become multicultural in the last thirty or so years? Children and young people must be able to make meaningful choices - preferably meaningful for the here-and-now being as well as the future. They must be able to communicate with many different people, not only the people of their neighborhood or ethnic culture whom they know well, but also people from other cultures, who speak other languages and have other habits and outlooks. Youngsters of ethnic minorities
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must build up an identity, which unites elements of their own, and their parents' home culture with the culture and habits of the Western world. Not all succeed with this task, if only because role models are rare. What is less discussed is the fact that children and young people of the 'home culture' have to adjust to the newcomers as well. Mutual learning should take place - but does it really happen in multicultural societies? Semali and Kincheloe (1999) introduce the intriguing concept of 'indigenous knowledge' in order to question this unbalance of mutuality, and to plead for a better use of the potentials of multicultural societies (see also Stanton-Salazar, 1997). Our contribution to this volume tells about peer learning in a variety of different peer groups in European multicultural societies, the Netherlands in particular. We ask:
Which functions does the peer group fulfil for its individual members in learning to negotiate with significant others (peers, parents, teachers)? Which social competencies are acquired in this setting and how do the peer groups deal with risks? The concept of 'peer group' is understood in much the same way as Corsaro does in using the term 'peer culture', in referring to a group of children or young people 'who spend time together on an everyday basis.' We share his critique of traditional work on peer-group research in a functional stance (Corsaro, 1997, p. 95). Peers create their own cultures, which must not be studied from a functionalist viewpoint as processes of the internalization of existing values and norms, but as active practices. To stress this aspect of peer cultures, Corsaro introduces the term 'interpretive reproduction'. "The term interpretive captures the innovative and creative aspects of children's participation in society . . . . The term reproduction captures the idea that children are not simply internalizing society and culture, but are actively contributing to cultural production and change." (p. 18). In much the same way Youniss uses the term 'co-construction' to mean the unique capacity of peer groups to promote self-socialization through interaction within the cognitive-emotional context of the group, thereby co-constructing a new and meaningful reality; a reality that, in its specific way, cannot be made and internalized otherwise, i.e. through interaction with adults (Youniss & Volpe, 1978). Co-construction in the context of the peer group also means that the peer group produces solutions for dealing with the demands of adults, which differ from solutions produced by the individual. By using their present experiences and exchanging them, adolescents modify and readjust them, thus producing youthful knowledge. Broadly speaking our idea is that, besides fulfilling traditional functions such as facilitating the process of identity formation and separation from the parents
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(cf. Lavoie, 1994; Meeus & Dekovi6, 1995), contemporary peer groups have new functions that have to do with living in culturally-mixed societies, which imply high risks for the individuals, besides many opportunities. Children and young people on their way to adulthood do not know how the chances and risks will be divided under these conditions. But most of them do know that chances and risks are not evenly spread out, and that they will have to fight to get their share. The peer group helps their members by offering orientation and support, albeit not always in ways that are productive or desirable. Of all adults regarded by adolescents as significant others, parents score the highest (B6, 1989). There is evidence that parent-adolescent relationships affect peer relationships: the better the former, the better the latter in terms of the social development of adolescents (see for Dutch adolescents Dekovid & Meeus, 1997). It is stated that there is a convergence between peer groups and parent networks: both share similar attitudes. However, scholars in this field emphasize that this convergence is mediated through dynamic factors within the peer groups. Other researchers find that the peer group is most influential in the field of leisure whereas parents are most influential in the field of education (Coleman, 1989). Others still, argue that, under certain circumstances, peer group affiliation might outperform parental influence (Harris, 1995; Steinberg, 1996). Most of the studies investigating the parent-peer relationship are interested in which of the two, parents or peers, is most influential for the development of the individual adolescent. In contrast, we are interested in the productive capacities of the peer group in dealing with parents and parental demands. The remainder of this article describes our sample and research method (Section 2), and discusses the topics of learning how to negotiate with parents and teachers (Section 3) and learning how to handle risks (Section 4). We close with some general considerations about old and new functions of the peer group (Section 5).
2. S A M P L E AND R E S E A R C H M E T H O D As argued, the aim of our study is to gain insight in the diversity of experiences young people obtain within their peer group. Besides being interested in the manner in which members of various peer groups associate with each other and the way in which they perceive their peer group, we aimed at delineating the learning experiences obtained in the peer group. In order to uncover these processes we made use of focus group interviews. In comparison to other interviews, the distinctive feature of focus-group interviews is that the interaction between group members, resulting from the collective concentration
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on topics handed to them by the researcher, is the basis for data generation (Catterall & Maclaran, 1997; Kitzinger & Barbour, 1999; Morgan, 1997). Focus-group researchers are not primarily in search of individual experiences and attitudes, but encourage members of the group to talk to each other, ask each other questions, exchange anecdotes and comment upon individual experiences and views. This characteristic makes the focus-group method of particular importance to the present study. Through focus-group interviews we could not only gain insight into the mutual communication processes between group members, but also observe the prevailing values and behavioral codes within the peer group. By studying these issues we were able to connect with recent scientific notions that have drawn renewed attention to the socializing potential of peer groups (Harris, 1995). Methodological literature traditionally proclaims that these "sensitive" topics are best discussed in the safe seclusion of a dyadic interview or within the anonymity of questionnaire research. Farquhar (1999), however, puts forward the idea that respondents may be more, rather than less, likely to unveil their personal feelings in a group context than in a one-to-one setting in which power disparities between the researcher and the participant may come to the foreground. Being part of a focus group that is regarded as like-minded may strengthen the individual's feelings of support and, as a result, enhance instead of inhibit the sharing of personal experiences. Besides this, Farquhar claims that it is often difficult to determine beforehand which topics are "sensitive", as what may be threatening to one respondent may not be threatening to another. Departing from the fact that youth is a varied social category in contemporary societies, we attempted to construct a sample that is as diverse as possible, consisting of adolescent boys and girls from various age groups (14-16 years and 16-18 years), who originate from various social backgrounds and ethnic groups. 3 Such differences are likely to affect the learning experiences obtained within the peer group. Depending on the opportunities and restrictions connected with age, gender, social class, and ethnic background, individuals will develop differential strategies within the informal surroundings of the peer group, in order to be able to hold ground in a complex lifeworld. In order to capture this diversity, a theory-driven sampling strategy was adopted (Kelle, 1995). To recruit pre-existing peer groups, we approached individual youths asking them to bring along the group of friends they associate with the most. By imposing this restriction, we ensured that corresponding peer networks were included in our sample, in order to strengthen the validity of our study (Kitzinger & Barbour, 1999). Ultimately, 30 peer groups were interviewed. Of these groups, 21 consisted solely of native-Dutch youths. Four groups consisted of non-native youths only
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(two groups of Moroccan youths and two culturally mixed groups of Surinam, Moroccan, and Ghanese youths). The remaining five groups were heterogeneous in composition, thus containing both native and non-native youths. The majority of these peer groups originated in the school setting. Besides keeping each other company during breaks and sitting together in class, these youngsters also spend an important amount of their leisure time together. The remaining peer groups became acquainted with one another through leisure settings such as the local community center, the sporting club or, in the case of an informal leisure setting, the street corner. Each group we interviewed consisted of three to five members. Although we were aware that some groups consisted of more than five members, we chose to concentrate on the 'core' of the peer group: a steady group of friends (clique) of which the members interact on a daily basis, or assemble on weekly-recurring fixed times. By imposing this restriction we ensured that a good overview of the group processes taking place could be obtained during the interviews and that each individual group member would get an optimal chance to participate in the group discussion. Aside from this, we felt that this strategy contributed to the confidentiality of our study. By selecting peers who felt particularly connected with each other, we attempted to regulate any utterances which may have kicked up dust and assumed a life of their own, as a result of the fact that the respondents shared the same social network. As a rule, the focus interviews, which each took about one and a half hours, were conducted at a location that was familiar to the respondents. This could be at school, the community center, or at one of the group members' home. Two groups were invited to the university, as they lived nearby. To carry out the interviews, the members of the research team split up in twosomes. One member of the research team would lead the conversation and encourage a continuing group interaction, while the other member observed the group dynamics and took notes of the sequence of talk, in order to enhance the identification of individual speakers on the tape recordings that were made of the conversation. Immediately after each interview, the interviewer and the observer thoroughly discussed the course of the interview and, based hereupon, wrote an interview impression typifying the general atmosphere and the part each focus-group member had played in the group discussion. Subsequently, the observer would literally transcribe the taped interviews. Next, by means of close-reading context analysis, sensitizing concepts were distillated from the interview protocols. Based on these general constructs, an encoding protocol including specific categories per interview question was put together. Thus, the analysis tripartite consisted of: (1) an interview impression, (2) a literal transcription and (3) coding, which enabled us to reach a qualitative, in-depth analysis as well as a more quantitative, statistical analysis (Strauss, 1987).
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3. LEARNING HOW TO NEGOTIATE WITH PARENTS AND TEACHERS For adolescents, parents and teachers represent the most significant others of the adult population. But this does not mean that both groups confront adolescents with the same demands and expectations, nor do young people approach parents and teachers in similar ways. Although it had been suggested, most prominently by Coleman (1961), that there is a world of peers which contrasts with the adult world - an 'adolescent society' - more recent research has shown that peer groups are highly diversified and that it is too simple to place peers in opposition of parents and teachers alike (Brown, 1990; Brown, Mory & Kinney, 1994; Kinney, 1993). Whereas in former times parents and teachers, as the main socializing agents, acted in coalition in order to guarantee the acquiescence of the child/pupil to the rules of the school, the present tendency is towards the opposite. Parents defend the rights of their child against rigidities or inadequacies of the educational system and its representatives: the right to obtain sufficient and adequate education, the right to find pleasure in attending school, the right of not being treated as an inferior, etc. 4 In contemporary Europe, parents raise their children according to ideas about giving them the space to take their own decisions, teaching them to voice their own needs and wishes, and generally living together in partnership rather than in a relationship of domination and obedience (Rispens, Hermanns & Meeus, 1996; Stecher & Zinnecker, 1996; Du Bois-Reymond, in press). 5 Schools may wish to respond to these educational principles but in reality they cannot, due to cumbersome bureaucratic rules and control systems, alienation between school administers and teachers, and between teachers, parents and pupils (Postman, 1995; Levin & Kelley, 1994). Educational innovations such as the 'study house' in the Netherlands, which was introduced in order to give more room for self-regulated learning, will remain piecemeal as long as they are inserted into the prevailing bureaucratic structures of schools .6 Based on the notions of a culture of negotiation at home guided by mutual understanding and respect, and a culture of demand in schools, the attendance of which is obligatory and gives the pupils little to no influence on the curriculum and teaching methods, we expected that adolescents would use their respective peer groups to enlarge their action radius and serve their interests in different ways concerning teachers and parents. In the following we will discuss how peers use their social and communicative capacities in dealing with these two reference groups.
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In putting the question to the participants of the focal groups of how they help each other to deal with parental demands that they find restrictive, we were amazed to learn that virtually all peer group members say that they more or less accept the action radius and autonomy allowed them by their parents even if these parental rules include restrictions. Only occasionally did young people say they use their peers to get away with transgressing parental rules. By and large, they told us, the relationship with parents is a personal question, which does not stand for being disputed in the group. Peer pressure is not used to force peer members to choose between peer norms and parental norms, even if parental norms and demands deviate from those of the group. By no means do adolescents allow other members of the group to speak badly of, or with disrespect about their parents, even if they have reported a quarrel with them: 'I myself am allowed to say: my mother is a bitch. But if Rike says: yes she is a bitch, I get angry'. This does not mean the peer group has no function for its members in dealing with parental demands; it does. In comparing these strategies, the gender, ethnic and class differences are conspicuous: • girls adopt more and more refined, negotiation strategies than boys; • adolescents of ethnic minority groups adopt other strategies than Dutch-born youths; • upper-class girls use the most pronounced negotiation strategies. Gender-Specific Negotiation Strategies When we questioned the male peer group participants about how they support each other in dealing with parental demands, they responded by saying that this was no issue, there were rules and that was that: Mother's will is law. This expression, 'mother's will is law', can be viewed as a coded expression which can be decoded only by putting it into the context of the focal-group discussions. It says, firstly, that it is the parent who is the 'final determiner' of behavioral norms, not the child (boy). But it also says, secondly, that these behavioral norms correspond with the expectations of the child, who does not find them unfair. They are the result of an ongoing process of negotiating, and they are not fixed forever. If the adolescent feels that it is reasonable to open a process of negotiation, he does: 'I say two o' clock, she says one o'clock and it becomes one thirty'. Even if there is no manifest peer pressure, parents do orient their demands to peer-life standards by listening closely to what their children tell them (Zeijl, Brake & Du Bois-Reymond, 1998). And because the relationship is warm and open, the
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children (boys) do not shy away from talking about their wishes. Finally, there is a third meaning to 'mother's will is law' having precisely to do with the closeness of the relationship, and that is empathy. The boys accept parental restrictions such as having to come home not too late at night because they know that their parents (mothers) are worried if they are late ('She doesn't sleep well if I ' m out for too long'). Whilst an open relationship with one's parents is typical for most families living in modern western societies, it does not imply complete compliance from the side of the adolescent. Boys (and gifts) do experiment with risks, and not all of what they experience in this respect is communicated to and with their parents. In Section 5 we will discuss how the adolescents themselves feel responsible for risk taking, arguing that self-control as learnt in the family is part of accumulated peer capital in calculating the effects of risks. What, then, is the role and function of the male peer group if negotiating parental demands is not a big issue? It is, we would like to suggest, precisely that: finding reinforcement in the group that the relationship you have with your parents is fine, that your friends agree with how you deal with parental demands, and checking the reasonableness of these demands by comparing them to others in the group. The girls, too, hold that their relationship with their parents is basically sound and must not be contested in the group. But it is remarkable that they report many more negotiating strategies than the boys do. The reason for this is that gifts are still controlled by their parents more than boys, as socialization literature also tells us (Du Bois-Reymond & Te Poel, 1998). The girls tell about sneaky behavior ('I just don't tell them I'm going to do such and such a thing'), evasive behavior ( ' I make something up'). They trick their parents psychologically ('make them believe I'm much more reliable than my sister'), they make strategic use of a situation in which their parents are busy with something else to ask them quickly for permission, they lie about having already done their homework, and they beat their parents at their own game by saying they already have an appointment with a girlfriend, in doing so getting out from an obligatory visit to their grandparents, as they know their parents feel that appointments which are already made should be kept. Gifts very well know the limits and possibilities of their strategies. See for example the following interview conversation: QUESTION: How do you pull things off with your parents? Things that you are commonly not allowed to do, but that you are going to try to pull off anyway under the guise of 'if I steer this or that course ... I will get my way'? ANSWER: I refer to all my friends who are allowed to do that. QUESTION: Are your parents open to such a tactic?
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ANSWER: Oh yes, very much so. You should never pressure them, though. She (mother) is more likely to say no if everybody is there (other girls agree). So, it is better when she is busy doing something and I am alone with her to ask: "Morn, can I go tomorrow . . . "
And they make faultless judgements about which parent they have to turn to, in order to minimize control: QUESTION: With whom can things be arranged best: with your father or your mother? ANSWER: That depends. When I want to go somewhere, for instance, it is Saturday and I want to visit a friend, then I tell my dad: "I go for a little while to so and so". (Such a strategy is more difficult with her mother): "Where are you going, what are you going to do?" At what time are you going to be home?" (she imitates her mother's voice; the other girls laughingly agree) . . . "
In contrast to the boys, the gifts use their peer group more to cover behavior they know that their parents would not approve of, such as: visiting a party when the parents think that they are staying at a girlfriend's home; saying that they are going to a girl friend (to play 'Nintendo') whereas they are actually meeting boys in the streets; having a peer group member call you because your mother had sanctioned undesired behavior by forbidding the use of the telephone for a day, or exerting peer pressure to convince parents to allow you something ('I start to list everyone who is allowed to go to a party'). QUESTION: All these strategies . . . do they help? ANSWER: Certainly! I never try to get something done without using them, because then I would not succeed.
But basically the gifts, just as the boys, rely on a relationship of mutual trust and the fact that their parents give then enough space. When they violate their parents' trust, they feel terribly guilty and try to re-establish the relationship as soon as possible. However, as they are being raised within a familial culture of negotiation and defending one's own rights, they actively re-negotiate parental demands: if you, my mother, do not want me to lie, you will have to be more lenient - and mother will agree to this. On the other hand, it seems that mothers of gifts orient their educational practice and standards to those of their 'peer mothers', more so than is the case with mothers of boys. Coleman (1988) describes this as a control mechanism via mother-networks. Our female participants recognize this mechanism: 'She always asks other mothers and chooses the solution which is the worst for me (in the sense of the least according to the child's wishes), really super-irritating, t' For gifts more than boys, the function of the peer group in dealing with parents (mothers much more than fathers) consists of exchanging successful strategies and advising each other how to apply them, and consoling each other after quarrels with their parents (something boys do not do). Occasionally, as
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in the case of boys, peers serve as a resort to side-step parental demands. Negotiation Strategies o f Ethnic Adolescents Gender differences play an even bigger role for ethnic youth in dealing with their parents - albeit within a different cultural context. First of all, the parenting styles in Turkish, Moroccan and - to a lesser degree - Surinam families 7 are more authoritarian, and less oriented towards negotiation. As is the case with Dutch adolescents, parental norms and demands are adhered to - but the behavior of the two parties, parents and children, is governed more by rigidity. The children know that they have to obey ('no is no'), and the parents think it their fight as well as their duty to elicit desired behavior by force. As reported by the boys, disobedience is often sanctioned by corporal punishment, whereas the girls react to exaggerated parental (motherly) norms with 'pre-modern' reactions: resignation or pretending to have corporal discomfort in order not to have to do something. In comparison with Dutch girls, Moroccan and Turkish girls have fewer strategies to try to influence their parents - it would not help anyway. Nevertheless, the mothers are uncertain about parenting, knowing that their daughters meet Dutch girls (and boys) at school who are allowed many more things. The daughters use this uncertainty by pointing to accepted behavior of Dutch girls and exerting pressure on their mothers to comply: 'Then they do not dare to say no because they are ashamed'. Other mothers react by insisting on traditional cultural beliefs: 'You have to obey because I gave birth to you' and: 'I'm not your girlfriend - behave.t' It seems that female peer groups of non-native origin discuss parental demands much more extensively that male peer groups of non-native origin do. The former try to advise and help each other accept the (rigid) behavioral norms of their parents. On the whole, the peer groups serve, not so much to work out strategies to cope with parental demands and (learn to) negotiate but rather to endure frustrations and to be consoled by the fact that your peers go through similar experiences. Class-Bound Strategies It is quite evident that peer groups are constituted according to social-cultural background, as is also stated by peer researchers (see Harris, 1995). Lower-class Dutch adolescents show some basic similarities to non-native groups in talking about parental demands and peer strategies as many nonnative families are from the lower social class too. Dutch lower-class youth also feel obliged to obey without having the opportunity to argue ('You can't do anything about it'). They, too, risk a slap in their face (boys), and they, too, have more domestic work to do and are controlled more rigidly than peers from
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higher classes with more cultural capital. The function of their peer group is less to reassure each other that the basis of the relationship with the parents is fine, or to exercise and exchange negotiation strategies, but is confined to recognizing that other peers are not better off, or to consoling and be consoled if necessary. In sum and comparison: The more liberal parenting style of higher-class families reinforces the negotiation capacities of the children in their respective peer groups and vice versa. The more rigid parenting style of lowerclass families (including most of the ethnical minority families) does not add to the communicative competence of the children; here the peer and the parental discourse have been disconnected to a greater degree.
3.2 Peers and Teachers Much research has been conducted on the connection between school achievements and peer-group affiliation. Peer crowds play an important role in determining norms and values about education and teachers, thus influencing school performance (Steinberg & Darling, 1994; Cullingford & Morris, 1997; Steinberg, 1996). Whereas learning in, and for, an information society has become almost synonymous with 'life' and 'living', as is expressed in the notion of lifelong learning, schools have not lived up to the challenges connected to this. They have not modernized teaching and learning so as to make schools stimulating learning environments. Those evolved in school management and renewal have not yet understood that information societies need intrinsically motivated learners; routine learning is still the rule in most schools (Seymour, 1993; Steinberg, Kincheloe & Hinchey, 1999). Although teachers are losing their authoritative influence on the young, students know perfectly well that they are dependent on teachers as 'certificate-givers'. However, they are not willing to let teachers educate them in a broader sense - that, they feel, is none of their business. It is precisely because of such attitudes of the younger generation that educators and educational politicians in the Netherlands and other European countries now begin to insist strongly that schools reconsider their pedagogical missions. Knowledge about how to deal with your teachers is not acquired individually, but is an issue that is placed within the context of the peer group. It is not so much respect as calculation that characterizes contemporary young people's approach to school. They calculate their marks, their chances of passing exams and the risk of failure. By learning to manipulate their teachers and thus maximize their own advantages, adolescents learn 'the art of negotiation'. In the area of school life, this means they must establish a precarious balance between present aims of having fun and a school life that is not too 'stressy'
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on the one hand, and future aims concerning further education and job perspectives on the other. Through their peer group, young people experience that they can establish counter-power in the school, and learn to calculate educational risks. As we shall see however, not all youngsters calculate these risks adequately or at all.
School is Not the Only Thing in the World Contemporary youth belongs to a generation for which education is important in the sense that they know how essential qualifications are for their chances later in life. At the same time it is a generation that has unlimited distraction within and beyond the school context, more so than any other generation before. In school, peer groups meet and exchange youth-cultural news, they discuss sport and other leisure activities, they speak of soaps, music, clothing, they tell each other their traveling experiences, and broach many other issues that have no relation to the formal curriculum. In a broad sense these are the fields of informal learning, which, to a certain extent, contest formal learning. In the context of their peer groups, adolescents express this tension between formal and informal learning in many different ways. Virtually all groups, the boys even more so than the girls, answer to the question of which characteristics and behaviors of peers are NOT appreciated (who would they not let become a member of their group), that they detest nerds. 8 Nerds are pupils who identify with school and overemphasize the formal side of school: marks, learning, being ambitious to achieve, and trying to please the teacher ('she always takes the side of the teacher', 'he sucks up to the teacher', 'nerds think they have to be good at everything') (see also Kinney, 1993), From a group perspective the credo is: Friends always come before school. But whereas peers attending comprehensive schools leave it at that, peers from gymnasium further develop the argument against nerds by stating that they themselves know how to experience personal growth without becoming a n e r d - which means they do so beyond the formal school curriculum. As one of the boys sums up the argument after a long discussion about the difference between their group and nerds: If I can't learn anything from you, you're useless to me. In the opinion of these peers, there is a subtle but essential difference between self-elected learning goals and self-administered learning forms on the one hand, and 'nerd' learning behavior on the other. We would like to suggest that this distinction is crucial and does not signal a general anti-learning habit, but a search for learning experiences beyond the school context. 9 If, on the other hand, an individual within the group deviates too much from the average achievement level in the opposite direction (failure), the other members feel this to be a threat, and some effort is made to re-establish group
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equilibrium in this respect. Arguments are then produced which stress the qualification function of the school: d o n ' t be a fool, d o n ' t risk non-promotion, you need this diploma, etc. One might interpret this peer attitude as collective risk calculation, and to a certain extent it works. Yet, this does not mean that the group feels responsible for the general school career of their members; they clearly do not, and say so explicitly. According to the peers, each person in the group is responsible for him or herself, and must (and will) not bother the group by asking advice about far-reaching decisions or structural problems; this is seen to be the task of parents and school officials. W e would like to argue that this attitude reflects the objective status of students in a system of individualized mass education, in which the individual is held responsible for his or her own achievement.
Attitudes Toward and Treatment of Teachers QUESTIONS about dealing with teachers in precarious situations, such as the threat of getting a bad mark: ANSWERS: I really suck up to them.., or I say to the teacher: yes, I think that's a good point Janneke is making, don't you? ... You just have to befriend the teachers. You can make fools of them and stuff, you should have a good time, shouldn't you? But at the end of the day, you have to make sure they're your friends Conflicts of interest between teachers and students are not new. But young people today appear to handle these conflicts in new ways: the teacher is not their friend or enemy anymore (as he or she was for former generations). Nowadays students approach teachers in a matter-of-fact manner: as representatives of an institution that one visits in order to obtain certain products and services. Parents as well as students behave more like consumers than educators and the educated. Because school attendance is obligatory, students are forced to ' b u y ' the service offered, even if they do not like it in all respects. Peers help in getting the product offered by schools for a good, or at least reasonable, price. Young p e o p l e ' s attitudes towards teachers can be detected from the way they speak about them. They speak about the majority of teachers in negative, disrespecO~ul or indifferent terms. Teachers who are liked are always mentioned as exceptions to the rule, never the other way around: • I told that teacher: y o u ' r e a teacher, but you c a n ' t even explain properly! • I just yell back. I say: you know what? Close the door yourself! • If a teacher just acts normally towards me, I ' m polite to the teacher. But if one of the teachers is being irritating, I just act in the same way. • T h e y ' r e just teachers, they're not m y parents!
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• You just don't have the same amount of respect for teachers as you do for your parents. It seems that teachers' sanctioning powers are no longer built on their moral prestige, their undisputed superior knowledge or their coalition with the students' parents. Instead, contemporary teachers do best if they can strike a reasonable bargain with the pupils that will act as a guarantee that the school context will remain livable for both parties. If teachers do not succeed in this, pupils will use their sanctioning power against them. • 'teachers are called names and abused' • 'their lives are not worth living' • 'we can really make teachers cry'. However, there is a class- and ethnic difference in the attitudes youngsters take towards school and teachers. Higher-class youths are self-assured about their negotiation strategies and can calculate risks in sophisticated ways such as strategically playing truant; maintaining self-control in situations of conflict; strategically sucking up to teachers if they threatens them with bad marks etcetera. But youngsters from lower class backgrounds and (in addition) from ethnic minorities often react with feelings of powerlessness. They know perfectly well that if they were able to negotiate and handle the language and behavioral codes like other (white, well-off) students, they would have more success in school, and power towards the teachers.l° They feel that teachers are not justified in treating them with disrespect or worse. Yet they often miss the self-control and calculation that other students have and use. Both they and their parents interpret school in the 'old' way. The parents want their children to be obedient in school, and to respect their teachers as authorities, and they are frustrated if the school does not live up to these expectations. The youngsters experience the school as repressive or as lacking the power to exert authority. The students express their boredom and frustration by childish misbehavior such as eating sweets in class, clowning around in class; throwing pellets of paper etc. They complain about teachers who make them feel small or punish them in an old-fashioned manner: • If you make him angry, he gets really mad and then he sends you out of the classroom and breaks what you were working on' • If you look out of the window (he says): be careful! Those people mustn't see that there are dogs looking out of the window or they'll phone the police' • Writing out 1000 times: I am not allowed to . . . • Some of them are racist too - you can't do anything about that, you're a pupil and you have nothing to say - even though you pay (school money).
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The peer group has no way of dealing with the above, does not develop a collective strategy. In this respect peers are not each other's protectors, but only spectators. In comparison with the boys, non-native girls operate differently. In their peer groups they discuss school and school careers much more extensively than the boys do, and, by and large, they approach the school with more positive attitudes. Dutch research has shown that Turkish and Moroccan girls especially like school more than boys from the same ethnic groups. In many respects, school offers them more freedom than they have at home where they must help with household chores more than their brothers. Gifts are also pushed by their mothers to achieve, in order to have better chances in life than they did. Although parents push boys as well, the boys are less willing to accept school discipline and appear to have a lower level of frustration tolerance than the girls.ll We wish to sum up our findings about the functions of the peer group in dealing with school and teachers as follows: First: The peer group helps their members to calculate educational risks. Not long term risks, as adolescents do not feel that they can or want to advise their peers on such things as educational and vocational choices and structural learning problems, but risks in their present situation. Peers help each other endure the strain and stress of daily school life, they work out strategies through which they can manipulate their teachers to obtain good marks and assure they do not get too much homework. They help each other to train self-control, discuss the best ways of getting away with something, et cetera. Second: Not all peer groups are equally successful in working out such strategies. Students from schools with a high reputation use their peer groups to find successful strategies to apply within the school context and compensate for the boring aspects of school through participation in stimulating leisure activities. Students from lower classes, however, usually visit schools with a reputation that is not so good, and are less able in calculating educational risks. Their reaction to the aspects of school they dislike is not characterized by sophisticated strategies or arrogance but by feelings of deep frustration and aggression. Their peer groups are not especially helpful in enduring school life. Third: Female peer groups are not different from male peer groups in working out school- based strategies. Class (in combination with ethnicity) plays a more decisive role. With one exception: non-native girls. We have shown that they are much more achievement-minded than non-native boys are and lower-class students in general. They use their peer groups more actively to encourage each other.
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4 LEARNING HOW TO HANDLE RISKS If there is one life area where peer influence counts, as we are informed by health and youth research and as we know by our own everyday observation, it is risk-taking behavior. Adolescence stands as a period in the human life course in which such behavior is especially attractive, and is, to a certain extent, part of human development. The prolongation of the youth phase, extended educational trajectories and the development of peer group cultures has extended the time in the human life course in which risk behavior is exhibited. 12 But what does risk-taking behavior imply in contemporary multicultural societies characterized by an intermingling of risks and opportunities? Adults judge peer groups by the pro- or antisocial influence they have on adolescents. Educators, parents and policy makers try everything to induce young people not to take risks. Among educationalists and youth researchers there is a lively discussion about the concept of p e e r education. Although, as yet, the meaning of this concept is far from clear, it is fairly safe to state that it points to the self-socializing potentials of adults and young people. Closer inspection, however, reveals that this concept is not so much defined by the learning processes of adolescents themselves, but by the training of peer leaders in communicating to their peers certain programs designed by medical or educational experts. Peer leaders are involved in workgroups that discuss strategies to influence deviant peers. Shiner (1999) analyzes the conditions of peer-education programs and comes to the conclusion that one of the main problems is to distinguish between effective and ineffective interventions, as one does not know under which conditions peer learning exactly takes place. Age may not be as decisive a factor as usually is presumed, the conditions under which a peer group has been established and conducts its activities are more important. As child and youth researchers who regard children and young people as actors who create their own worlds and outlooks, our main interest lies in learning about their ways of handling risks - without praising or condemning certain behaviors. We are interested in what peers teach each other in this respect and, possibly but not always, how they refrain from risk taking. In the following, we will concentrate on three real and potential risk areas. 4.1 Drugs and Other Risks
The first thing worth stating is that even though the peer groups we talked to differ widely by SES, school career and ethnicity, boys and girls alike exhibit a clear consciousness of living in a risk society. Obviously they do not use
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precisely this term, but they do refer to the presence of risks that might affect their lives. The second thing worth noticing is that, yes, there are sex differences in the direction expected - boys exhibit more and more severe deviant behavior than girls - but girls, too, experiment, i.e. with the use of substances. The truly noteworthy observation, though, pertains to social class (in combination with ethnicity). It is not so that adolescents with a high SES background refrain from risk-taking behavior. But they do discuss risks in a reflexive manner in their respective peer groups: they weigh the risks, calculate their effects and deliberately explore the border between 'too dangerous' and 'why not try it just once'. In contrast, adolescents from a low social-cultural background tend to take risks in a more matter-of-fact or spontaneous manner. W e have chosen two contrasting peer groups to demonstrate those differences:
Girls Who Actively Explore Risks The group consists o f three g i d s (of 15 years old) who all follow higher secondary education. One father is employed through the official work office and two are self- employed: one has an advertising agency and the other runs a consultancy agency. One mother runs a small enterprise of her own; the second works as a nurse and the third is a housewife. In the focal-group discussion, the girls tell numerous stories - some of them referring to a period when they were younger - about playing around with the idea of sleeping in the park one night, o f accepting a b o y ' s invitation to come to his flat (and leaving in anguish after seeing pornography on the walls), about drinking too much at a party and smoking soft drugs. H o w do they comment on these types of (quasi-) risk taking? The girls peer group is so close-knit - they have known each other since primary school - that they trust each other's judgments completely. So if one o f them goes too far, the others will say: 'Don't do anything stupid, for example
at parties if you're really a bit drunk, it's easy to do something wrong. So now and then we say to each other: you really must tell me if you see me going to do something wrong'. By relying on this early warning system, they learn to anticipate risks and imagining their possible consequences in and through their group interactions. The sole fact that the group context allows for extensive communication about the attractive and seductive aspects of certain risks does not only have a risk-enhancing function but, to at least the same extent, a protective function as well. See for example the following conversation: GIRL 1: Sometimes it gets out of hand, for instance, that time at my home when we meant to go to that party (girls discuss that party) ... you know, we had the intention to briefly drop by my house and get a bottle of wine ... Because my parents were not there...and, after that, we meant to go to that party.
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GIRL 2: Yes, it was the first time that Tamara (girl 3) really, really . . . GIRL 3: N O . GIRL 2: Yes, on that party of the hockey club. GIRL I: (turning to the interviewer) She really was, the first time that she was very . . . she had drunk way too much and then she threw up in the bathroom at my home . . . QUESTION: Things should not get out of hand like that? GIRL 1: No. GIRL 2: No. GIRL 3: Thanks a lot, you guys! GIRL 2: No, but yes, indeed, that is exploring your own bounds . . . GIRL 1: Yes, because, when one of us goes too far, then I get the feeling that ] have to look out for her and then I drink almost nothing anymore. GIRL 2: It was at one stroke a "sobering" experience (all girls, including girl 3, roar with laughter).
The girls talk about certain risks in a hypothetical way (for example, about smoking soft drugs, which they have done occasionally but certainly not on a regular basis): 'Then we would tell each other that you shouldn't do it'. They do show they are in close contact to such risk behavior: We know a lot o f kids who do it'. The girls are well aware of the different peer cultures that co-determine risk behavior: 'If we were to mix with junkie-types often, we would smoke soft drugs more regularly than now we go around with (our) people'. An almost identical statement from another group of a similar composition: 'I may know many people who use drugs, but I don't want to know them'. And a third peer group: 'A little bit o f smoking drugs is nothing to worry about, you can get by quite well doing that, but I knew four addicted people. Two took an overdose - now only two remain that I k n o w . . . I've gotten one of them to start going cold turkey . . . . ' Parents are not taken into confidence in the calculation of risks, as the girls (and the boys) know very well that they give close to no space to play with the idea of risk taking. But evidently, the general home culture is influential for the way the young people deal with these matters. Perhaps it is noteworthy in this respect that Dutch parents may hold the opinion that they would rather their children experimented with alcohol, smoking and soft drugs at home, than have them do it elsewhere. Boys who Provoke Risks This group consists of four boys, three of them belong to ethnic minorities and one of them is Dutch-born (one boy is 13, two are 14 and one is 15 years old).
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Their fathers occupy lower-class jobs and their mothers are housewives or nurses. They tell about provocative behavior toward other boys, fights, and minor acts of stealing, smoking drugs, and looking at pornography on the Internet. Most of these deviant acts are committed because their neighborhood (in Amsterdam) does not provide a stimulating environment, and they are 'bored to death' every day. Occasionally they are involved in voluntary work (in a project about peers acting as Santa Claus for younger children), but this does not withhold them in the least from collective deviant behavior, not only beyond but also within the community center. They discuss all of this in a totally detached manner and with scientific precision: how a fight in a caf6 escalates into a complete butchering match, for example. This peer group does not function as a channel for aggressive behavior. On the contrary, it frames this aggression in the context of the peer group. All peer groups of all social backgrounds have the same opinion about drug taking: smoking soft drugs once in a while is not problematic (and most of them have done so), but hard drugs are bad. As the media frequently discusses this theme, all young people are well aware of the risks involved in taking hard drugs. Whereas they advise each other on soft drugs, they do not do so in the area of hard drugs. Here, everybody must decide for him or herself whether they wish to cross this border. There is a certain parallel with school here: in managing daily life at school, the peer group has an advisory function. But peers do not feel responsible for further-reaching decisions.
4.2 The Future and Future Risks
Independent of their social and ethnic backgrounds, all adolescents realize the importance of obtaining a school diploma as well as the possible risks if they fail to achieve at school. They know perfectly well that there are 'losers' in society, people who do not 'make it'. But whereas better-off students, even if they are bored by the official curriculum and have much criticism about their teachers, take school life for granted and feel 'at home' there, the opposite is true for lower-class kids (both Dutch-born and non-native youths). These youngsters are tired of learning and have to force themselves to accept that school achievement is an absolute necessity for their future (we already mentioned that non- native girls have a much more positive attitude towards learning, although that does not mean all of them have). The peer groups of youths that are tired of school learning serve as a collective locus of control through which hedonistic and realistic behavior can be balanced. Which future plans are realistic and which are not? Is it necessary to go on with learning if
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one wants to run a coffee shop later on? Yes it is ... No, it is not, to become a caf6 owner you do not need higher education! The value of a diploma is balanced against knowing the 'right' people: people with power and money. For students from homes with much social and cultural capital, the value of obtaining a diploma is so self-evident that they rarely question this given in the group. For these youngsters, other considerations are of more importance. Which subjects should they choose? Will they not restrict their choices for the future if they chose subject A instead of B, etc? However, this is not a hot issue in the group, as school itself is not a hot issue (see Section 3.2). W e asked the peer group members: what kind of people do not 'make it' in our society, in order to find out about their definitions of 'losers'. Essentially, this question elicited two kinds of responses: the first one is hedonistic and delineates 'nerds' - people who do not make use of the possibilities on offer in a consumptive 'fun' society. 'People who spend all their time learning or
working. At a certain moment they wake up and realize that they have never really lived.' Such responses are produced in peer groups for whom the gains of school achievement are doubtful. The second response emphasizes the social struggle which you, as a young person, are part of: you have to be hard, stubborn, not afraid to try something, able to take care of yourself, you have to be social, you have to have money, you have to be able to adapt, able to find a good job, etc. People who do not make it in this society are people who can not 'stand up for themselves', 'aren't independent from their parents', 'can do anything alone', who °don't want to learn anything' and, of course, 'drug-abusers'. Kids from lower classes and/or ethnic minorities are much more explicit about potential losers than the ones from upper classes. But, contrary to what one would expect (and how it was in former times) well-off young people do not take their future success for granted either. They, too, respond by expressing doubts and, they, too, know that a high price has to be paid for success: QUESTION: Who doesn't make it in this society? ANSWER: The ones who do not accept the system. On the one hand I would like to be like that, but it has just been shown too many times that it doesn't work. ANSWER: I don't know if I'll make it. In conclusion: In the younger age groups, future life plans are not yet discussed extensively. In the peer groups of 16 to 18 year-olds, the topic becomes more urgent. However, this does not mean that future life plans are discussed in the group more. Instead, these older youths say that such considerations are e v e r y b o d y ' s own business; working out a life plan is an individual, not a collective, developmental task.
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5. OLD AND N E W FUNCTIONS OF THE PEER G R O U P In reviewing our findings, we found much evidence that adolescents use their peer groups to enable co-constructions of all kinds, in their relationships with parents, teachers and prominently with other peers. We distinguish between three main functions of the peer group, which pertain to the societal changes we pointed out in the introductory paragraph. In stating this, however, we do not wish to suggest that contemporary peers and their ways of associating with each other are totally different from former times. They are not, and perhaps one of the most difficult things to accept and assess empirically, is the simultaneity of continuity and discontinuity in (post-) modern multicultural and risk societies. In discussing the roles of contemporary peer groups, we always have to keep in mind this simultaneity. Also, when we focus on certain groups of peers in explaining the respective functions, we are not saying there is no overlap between functions and target groups. In fact, we wish to enhance the understanding of peer groups by stressing the diversity of the way they function in various groups of adolescents.
5.1 The Peer Group as a Safe Area of Practice The peer group especially has this function for girls. They utilize their peer groups to start up the process of separation from their parents, to form their own sexual identity, and to speak of, and thus overcome, insecurities connected to these processes. As such, peer groups fulfill the same function for girls as they have always done, the content, however, has changed. Young people's relationships with their parents are no longer solely characterized by gaining independence and finding alternative area's of communication within a peer group. Although these processes are still features of this relationship, the focus now is on negotiating at home and in the peer group simultaneously, in order to find a balance between closeness and independence. For girls from ethnic minorities this applies to an even greater degree. In these cases the process of separation from the parents happens less explicitly, and is therefore more extensively talked over in the peer group. Girl's peer groups also serve as an area of sexual identity formation. The groups offer 14 and 15 year old girls a protected area within which they can obtain their first sexual experiences. In contemporary liberalized social climates and enlightened child-raising contexts, girls are allowed more freedom than former generations. In this context peer groups increasingly function as a way of self-protection, in order for girls to be able to postpone participation in genital sex and individualized sexual relationships. In comparison to former era' s, the peer group no longer helps to mold girls to a general ideal of womanhood, but
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helps t h e m to obtain social c o m p e t e n c i e s which, later, will be used to build up i n d i v i d u a l i z e d life-biographies. T h e a b o v e also applies for n o n - n a t i v e girls, although the results o f this process differ in c o m p a r i s o n to native D u t c h girls.
5.2
The Peer Group as an Increase o f Freedom N o w and in the Future
P e e r groups h a v e always f u n c t i o n e d as a w a y o f increasing the f r e e d o m o f adolescents. N o w and in the past, peer groups are the alternative life spaces the y o u n g e r generation creates for itself. It is also still a fact that boys m o r e than girls, are the ones w h o can and do increase their f r e e d o m in this way. But changes are also apparent. In multicultural societies with their n e w d e m a n d s and chances, changes especially apply to two categories o f y o u n g people: non- native girls and native boys f r o m the h i g h e r social classes. F o r n o n - n a t i v e girls, the p e e r group offers a route b e t w e e n culturally-defined and, by W e s t - E u r o p e a n standards, traditional g e n d e r relations on the one hand, and m o d e r n i z e d w a y s of life f o l l o w i n g the principle o f equal chances for m e n and w o m e n , including the possibility o f i n d e p e n d e n t w o r k i n g lives for w o m e n . A s individuals it w o u l d be difficult for n o n - n a t i v e girls to deal with these n e w demands. T h e p e e r group serves as a p l a t f o r m for discussion through w h i c h a balance can be found b e t w e e n opposing values and ways o f life at home, at school and in the area o f leisure. For instance, w e held an i n t e r v i e w with five M o r o c c a n girls o f respectively 14, 15, and 16 years o f age, w h o support e a c h other to find their "intercultural way". W e typified t h e m in our i n t e r v i e w impression (see Section 2) as follows: Sorara: the bounds-explorer. She is the daughter of a Dutch mother and a Moroccan father. Her clothing corresponds with the latest trends in the mainstream youth fashion: denim jacket, tied jeans, her hair up to her shoulders. She commonly is the first to answer our questions and is regarded by the group as "the modem one". Nadja: the bounds-guard. Dressed in traditional Moroccan clothing: woolen headscarf, no make-up. She holds clear views on most topics and departs from a clear-cut framework of norms and values, which she confronts her girl friends constantly with. She makes comments in a playful way on behavior that is not in line with these morals. Sapna: is Hindu. She wears a trendy businesswomen-like outfit that is usually intended for young women of slightly older age than she is: long gray jacket and matching trousers, her hair held up loosely, nice well-groomed make-up. She waits patiently for her moment to get involved in the conversation and answers self-assured of her opinion. She is the advisor and mentor of the group, not in the last place because of her lengthy courtship experience (with a steady boy friend). Naima: the searching culture-connector. Like Sorara, she is dressed fashionably. As far as her appearance is concerned and the ease with which she talks about boys, she makes a modern impression, but together with Nadja she watches over traditional-Moroccan norms
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and values (courtship with boys, respect for parents). Compared to the others, she most clearly is in search of an ethnical-cultural identity, which fits her life in a western country. Fatima: the rebellious Benjamin (14 years old; small stature). She wears a black headscarf that covers her forehead, neck, and parts of her shoulders. She is different from the others, in that she clearly confronts her parents and teachers with her opinion and quarrels with them to get her way. The other girls are inclined to look up to this type of behavior. Native boys from higher social classes especially utilize their peer group in order to accumulate informal learning capital, on top of learning capital taken from the official curriculum. Of all the youths, they experiment most with new media, they realize the value of being associated with peers who have also acquired much informal knowledge and know-how, and they are active in all kinds of extra-curricular activities, especially sport and music (bands). The two categories of young people described above differ strongly, but have in common that both are trendsetters in that they explore new opportunities actively.
5.3
The Peer Group as a Way of Protection Against Social Risks and Frustrations
This peer group function is two-dimensional. First, there is the function of protection. This aspect is about finding an orderly and responsible way of calculating and, if necessary, avoiding risks. Peer groups have this function for native and non-native girls and, to a lesser extent non-native and/or lower class boys. In contemporary societies, learning to calculate risks is far more important than it was in former eras, and can be seen as a new developmental task of adolescents. The omnipresence and availability of pleasure substances and entertainment in modern consumption economies, tempts adolescents in many ways. A l m o s t by definition, they take more risks than former youth generations, but at the same time no former generation had so many educational opportunities and prepositions with which to work out a lifestyle of their own choice (Green, Mitchell & Bunton, 2000). The adolescents of the peer groups we studied realize that there are an increased amount of risks and options. They do not feel it is their task to avoid risks no matter what, but to learn to deal with risks in a responsible manner. Risk-taking is something you must learn and, for this, the peer group is indispensable. There are no fixed incontrovertible definitions of risks any longer. Instead there is an almost infinite degree of variety in the definitions of risks and of how you can and must deal with them. Dutch parents seem inclined to accept the presence of risks and the moderately-experimental behavior of their adolescent children, rather than fall
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back on a pattern of rigidly forbidding certain behaviors (which would not prevent the adolescents from taking risks anyway). There is a specific group of adolescents for whom the function of the peer group is not so much learning to handle risks in a reasonable manner, but to help them endure constant frustration, which they experience in various social settings, prominently at school and in their neighborhoods, through committing aggressive and/or criminal acts. Those are mainly non-native boys (without wishing to suggest that all non-native boys belong to this group as, relatively, this is a small minority group, and without excluding this motive for Dutch-born boys). 5.4 Concluding Remarks With the Eye to Future Research
In our contribution we have described and analyzed the attitudes of various peer groups vis-h-vis parents and teachers. We found that the relationship between peers and parents is different from peers and teachers. In the former case it is an individualized relationship, governed by mutual respect and by mutual application of the principle of negotiation. In the latter case the relationship is less or not at all individualized and is governed more by disrespect and calculation from the side of the youths. For both relationships the peer group is important. Concerning parents, its role is to establish and reaffirm youth-cultural behavioral standards which the parents cannot and, more important, do not want to neglect in defining and applying parental demands. We have shown that this need to constantly renegotiate educational norms decisions and, with that, the balance of power within the family, is better preserved in families with much social and cultural capital and is in danger in families with little or no room for negotiation. In the latter case the function of the peer group is mainly one of consolation and easing frustration. As far as teachers and school are concerned, the peer group has a different function. It provides a context which allows modern kids to learn things they cannot learn in the official school curriculum and from their teachers: developing and shaping their personalities and wishes as they think is profitable and worthwhile to live in 'the new world'; school, in their opinion, represents the 'old world'. Interestingly, and disturbing for educators, this applies to both advantaged and disadvantaged youths, albeit with different content and impact. Peers from educated families stress in their peer group the necessity and challenge of personal growth and the intrinsic motivation to keep on learning, whereas peers from less educated homes spend more energy in getting the minimum of scholar capital, knowing at the same time that it might not be enough because of quick societal changes. The peer group must help make sense of this puzzling situation. 13
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One has to admit that there is not much research done yet on the interplay of what we called 'old and new functions of the peer group', that is the way adolescents come to grips with the social, emotional and cognitive requirements of learning to live in complex societies. We suggest as a research strategy comparative studies that assess intercultural differences as well as similarities in peer groups.
NOTES 1. According to a recent Dutch youth survey, 52% of the 12-14 year old girls use mascara; 69% of all 6-11 year olds listen to music on CD/cassette; 39% of the children of that age have a voice in where to go with vacation, and 51% of them have a voice in the choice of television program. 2. One out of seven children and young people is of non-Dutch origin. The majority of them have a Moroccan, Turkish, Surinam or Antillian background. Most of those families live in the four biggest cities of the Netherlands: Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam. 3. In this article, we concentrate on the younger age groups. 4. The Dutch supervisor-general of the schools inspectorate announced his plans on making schools primarily liable to parents of pupils instead of to the Ministerial Department of Education. A charter will specify the mandatory performance of schools which can be enforced legally by parents (NRC Handelsblad, 27-11-1999). A mother already won a case against a public school in Amsterdam complaining that the school had not made sufficient effort to catch up with the required learning program for their students. The mother demanded payment of the costs for extra tutoring lessons for her daughter. 5. Although the well-know typology of parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, indifferent/neglecting)is applicable to European families, Dutch and most other European societies do not correspond with the United States. There the main problem concerning parenting concerns indifferent or neglecting parenting styles. Steinberg (1996) estimates that one third of all parents are unresponsive in that sense to their children; such a proportion is not reported of any European country. 6. Ironically, in November 1999 Dutch students organized a nation-wide strike against the 'study house' by using internet communication - in other words by informal learning strategies which they are supposed to acquire in the 'study house'. They protested against an overload of learning tasks, which the 'study house' carries with it. 7. Without going into the literature here extensively, we want to state that there are some very substantial studies done in the Netherlands on the parenting style of the mentioned ethnic groups, discussing differences between Dutch and non-Dutch parenting styles. 8. It must be noted that the meaning of 'nerds' in the Dutch school context is a different one from the American definition. Here 'nerds' do not form a distinct group, the term is used to point to individual students who overachieve and are, in the view of other students, boring kids. 9. In that sense, the argument goes further than the one Willis (1981) developed by contrasting the 'lads' with the 'ear'oles'.
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10. The Dutch educational system does not have one high school for all students alike; students attend separate school types from the age of twelve, which prepare them for low, medium or high further general education or vocational careers. Also, the segregation of white and black schools is not as pronounced in the Netherlands as it is in the United States even if the number of 'black schools' in the Netherlands is growing. 11. In this respect ethnic girls in the Netherlands resemble Asian adolescents in the United States, who are also much more oriented towards school than other ethnic groups. 12. As can be shown by international comparison, Dutch youth take and avoid risks in a particular manner, which is different from other countries. For example, the number of teenage pregnancies is exceptionally low (6 out of every 1,000 women aged 15-19 years old, as opposed to 56 teenage pregnancies in the U.S.). On the other hand, young people in the Netherlands display a higher level of alcohol and drug abuse than most other countries. The number of deaths related to drug use, however, is very low (information conveyed at Jacobs Foundation Conference October 28-30, 1999, Marbach Castle, Germany 'The Transition to Adulthood: International Perspectives on What Improves Life Chances for Young People'). 13. See also Heath (2000) who argues along the same lines.
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Du Bois-Reymond, M. (in press). Negotiation Families. In: M. Du Bois-Reymond, H. H. Krtiger & H. Stinker (Eds), Childhood in Europe. New York/Washington, DC/Baltimore/Bern/Paris/ London/Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Du Bois-Reymond, M. & Te Poel, Y. (1998). Jungen- und M~idchenkindheiten in den Niederlanden [Male and Female Childhood in the Netherlands]. In: M. Horstkemper, & P. Zimmermann, (Eds), Zwischen Dramatisierung und Individualisierung. Geschlechtstypische Sozialisation im Kindesalter (253-278). Opladen: Leske+Budrich. Farquhar, C. (1999). Are focus groups suitable for 'sensitive' topics? In: R. S. Barbour & J. Kitzinger (Eds), Developing Focus Group Research. Polities, Theory and Practice. London: SAGE Publications. Green, E., Mitchell, W. & Bunton, R. (2000). Contextualizing Risk and Danger: An analysis of Young People's Perceptions of Risk. Journal of Youth studies, 3, 2, 109-126. Harris, J. E. (1995). Where is the Child's Environment? A Group Socialisation Theory of Development. Psychological Review, 112, 458-489. Heath, S. B. (2000). Risks, Rules, and Roles. Youth Perspectives on the Work of Learning for Community Development. Zeitschrift fiir Erziehungswissenschaft, 1, 61-80. Hengst, H. (in press). Rethinking the Liquidation of Childhood. In: M. Du Bois-Reymond, H. S~nker & H.-H. KriJger (Eds), Childhood in Europe: Approaches - Trends - Findings. New York: Peter Lang. Kelle, U. (1995). Computer-aided qualitative data analysis. London: SAGE Publications. Kelly, P. (1999). Wild and Tame Zones: Regulating the Transition of Youth at Risk. Journal of Youth Studies, 2, 193-211. Kinney, D. A. (1993). From 'Nerds' to 'Normals': The Recovery of Identity among Adolescents from Middle School to High School. Sociology of Education, 66, 21-40. Kitzinger, J., & Barbour, R. S. (1999). Developing Focus Group Research. Politics, theory and practice. London: SAGE Publications. Lavoie, J. C. (1994). Identity in Adolescence: Issues of Theory, Structure and Transition. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 17-28. Levin, H. M., & Kelley, C. (1994). Can Education Do It Alone? Economics of Education Review, 13(2), 97-108. Meeus, W. H. J. & Dekovit, M. (1995). Identity development, parental and peer support in adolescence. Results of a National Dutch Survey. Adolescence, 30, 931-944. Morgan, D. L. (1997). Focus groups as qualitative research. London: Sage Publications. Postman, N. (1995). The End of Education. Redefining the Value of School. New York: Alfred Knopf. Rispens, J., Hermanns, J. M. A., & Meeus, W. H. J. (1996). Opvoeden in Nederland [Parental education in the Netherlands]. Assen: Van Gorcum. Semali, L. M., & Kincheloe, J. L. (1999). What Is Indigenous Knowledge? New York/London: Falmer Press. Seymour, P. (1993). The Children's Machine. Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. New York: Basic Books. Shiner, M. (1999). Defining Peer Education. Journal of Adolescence, 22, 555-566. Stanton-Salazar, R. D. (1997). A Social Capital Framework For Understanding the Socialization of Racial Minority Children and Youth. Harvard Educational Review, 67, 1-25. Stecher, L., & Zinnecker, J. (1996). Haben Kinder heute Vorbilder? [Do contemporary children have adult examples?) In: J. Zinnecker & R. K. Silbereisen (Eds), Kindheit in Deutschland. Aktueller Survey iiber Kinder und ihre Eltern (pp. 195-212). Weinheim/Mtinchen: Juventa. Steinberg, L. (1996). Beyond the Classroom. Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents need to do. New YorULondon/Toronto/Sydney/Tokyo/Singapore: Simon & Schuster.
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Steinberg, L., & Darling, N. (1994). The Broader Context of Social Influence in Adolescence. In: R. K. Silbereisen & E. Todt (Eds), Adolescence in Context. The Interplay of Family, School, Peers, and Work in Adjustment (pp. 2545). New York/Berlin/Heidelberg/London/ Paris/Tokyo/Hong Kong/Barcelona/Budapest: Springer Vertag. Steinberg, Steinberg, S. R., Kincheloe, J. L., & Hinchey, P. H. (1999). The Post-Formal Reader. New York/ London: Falmer Press. Strauss, A. (1987). Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Willis, P. (1981). Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. New York: Columbia University Press. Youniss, J. & Volpe, J. (1978). A relational analysis of friendship. In: W. Damon (Ed.), Social Cognition (pp. 1-22). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Zeijl, E., Brake, A., Du Bois-Reymond, M. (1998). Eltern-Kind Beziehungen in den Niederlanden. Ein Vergleich mit den Ergebnissen einer deutschen Befragung. [Parent-child-relationships. A cross cultural comparison between Germany and the Netherlands.] In: P. Btichner, M. Du Bois-Reymond, J. Ecarius & B. Fuhs (Eds), Teenie-Welten Aufwachsen in Drei Europarschen Regionen. [Teenager Worlds. Growing up in Three European Regions] (pp. 63-82) Opladen: Leske & Budrich. Zinnecker, J. (1995). The cultural modernization of childhood. In: L. Chisholm, P. Btichner, H-H. Krfiger & M. Du Bois-Reymond (Eds), Growing up in Europe (pp. 85-94). Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF WHITE YOUTHS' RACIAL ATTITUDES: EVIDENCE FROM A NATIONAL SURVEY Tyrone A. Forman
INTRODUCTION Examinations of white's racial attitudes have played a prominent role in the sociological literature on race and ethnic relations. This focus on white's racial attitudes can be traced to Gunnar Myrdal's classic work An American Dilemma (1944, li) in which he focused on "what goes on in the minds of white Americans." Today, the sociological literature abounds with studies investigating the social determinants of white's racial attitudes. For the most part, however, these studies have focused exclusively on adults' racial attitudes. With some notable exceptions, there is less information available about the social determinants of young whites' racial attitudes. This omission is an especially serious one because previous research suggests that late adolescence and young adulthood represent an important period for forming enduring attitudes. As the final report for President Clinton's Initiative on Race (1998, 8) states "young Americans are this nation's greatest hope for realizing the of goal of one America. Young people must be engaged in efforts to bridge racial divides and promote racial reconciliation." Ignoring youth's "perceptions and voices" is, as one recent study of young people succinctly
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stated, a mistake (Miller & Clark, 1997, 262). Unfortunately, we know far too little about the social determinants of white youth's racial attitudes and thus even less about the possible future of race relations in the United States. Studying white youth's racial attitudes today is not only important so that we may understand their unique perspectives but also because doing so provides an opportunity to gain insight into larger racial processes. A number of researchers have recently argued that white's negative racial attitudes have shifted from overt expressions to more subtle and covert forms (Bonilla-Silva & Lewis, 1999; Bobo & Smith, 1999; Dovidio & Gaertner, 1991; McConahay, 1986). Bobo and Kluegel (1997, 95) describe the shifting pattern in this manner, As Jim Crow racism lost its embeddedness in the U.S. economic and political institutions, its ideological tenets increasingly came to be seen as inconsistent with U.S. values. Accordingly, supportfor Jim Crow items on national surveysprogressivelydeclined through the 1960s and 1970s. Authors have variously named these new forms of racism (e.g. "new racism," "symbolic racism," "color-blind racism," "laissez-faire racism," "aversive racism," "modern racism") but all agree that traditional measures of racial attitudes cannot capture them (Bobo, Kleugel & Smith, 1997; Bonilla-Silva & Forman, 2000; Gould, 1999; Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986; McConahay, 1986). Thus, for example, while some argue that traditional survey items show an overwhelming liberalization in racial thinking, these authors argue instead that the change in racism and racial attitudes is one of kind rather than of degree. If these arguments are correctly documenting new patterns in racial attitudes, we should be able to see such patterns in studies of youth. This is true, in large part, because as some have put it, late adolescence constitutes "the impressionable years" when attitudes are most susceptible to influence (Alwin & Krosnick, 1991; Alwin, Cohen & Newcomb, 1991; Krosnick & Alwin, 1989) and when the sociocultural environment may be most powerful in terms of having a lasting impact across the life span (Schuman & Scott, 1989). Thus studies of young whites' racial attitudes offer a way of testing new theories about shifting patterns of white racial attitudes, to do this however, they must include both traditional and contemporary measures. This article examines the multiple potential sources of white youth's racial attitudes. It extends previous research by using both national data and a broader range of measures (i.e., contemporary and traditional) of racial attitudes than have been used in the past. Furthermore, by considering the influence of each social determinant on white youth's racial attitudes singularly and in combination I follow closely the guide outlined by Gordon Allport (1954, 218) against looking for the sources of negative racial attitudes in a "single
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sovereign explanation." The two specific questions that guide this study are: (1) What are the social determinants of white youth's racial attitudes today? (2) Are the associations between the social determinants and white youth's racial attitudes similar or different for traditional and contemporary racial attitudes?
PREVIOUS RESEARCH Previous investigations have identified a number of important social determinants of white youth's racial attitudes (Bullock, 1976, 1978; Johnson & Marini, 1998; Patchen, 1982; Regens & Bullock, 1979; Scott & McPartland, 1982; St. John, 1975; Useem, 1972). l These social determinants can be classified into three categories: (1) social background, (2) social values, and (3) academic orientation. In the following section, 1 briefly discuss each factor and suggest how it is related to white youth's racial attitudes. Social Background Gender
A number of studies have shown that males tend to be more racially prejudiced than females (Bullock, 1976, 1978; Dentler & Elkins, 1967; Essed, 1997; Furnham & Gunter, 1989; Gotlieb & TenHouten, 1965; Johnson & Marini, 1998; Patchen, 1982; Scott & McPartland, 1982; Useem, 1972). These differences have been found in cross-national surveys, national surveys, regional surveys, and even ethnographic studies of students. For example, one recent ethnographic study found "that racial insults, in both same-gender and cross-gender situations, mostly involve white adolescent males" (Essed, 1997, 149). Not all studies, however, have found gender differences. For example, other work (both ethnographic and survey) has found that gender and racial attitudes are unrelated among white youth (Regens & Bullock, 1979; Pinderhughes, 1997). Socioeconomic Status
Socioeconomic status (SES) as measured by educational attainment is positively related to racial attitudes, such that a higher level of educational attainment is associated with lower racial prejudice (Schaefer, 1996; Schuman, Steeh, Bobo & Krysan, 1997). Previous research on young whites' racial attitudes typically support the general finding that high socioeconomic status is associated with lower racial prejudice (Bullock, 1976, 1978; Dentler & Elkins, 1967; Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975; Regens & Bullock, 1979; Scott & McPartland, 1982; Useem, 1972). However, some research has found no
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association between SES and white youth's racial attitudes (Lombardi, 1963; Armor, 1972). It is unclear why these disparate findings occurred.
Urbanicity Louis Wirth's (1938) classic statement, "Urbanism as a way of life," argued that urbanism, measured in terms of population size, increased tolerance (see also Milgram, 1970; Stouffer, 1955). Research that has examined urban-rural differences in white adults' racial attitudes has found that residents of large urban areas are more racially tolerant than are residents of rural areas (Abrahamson & Carter, 1986; Tuch, 1987; Wilson, 1985). However, because research on white youth's racial attitudes has frequently been limited to a specific locale (e.g. Bullock, 1976; Olsen, 1997; Patchen, 1982; Pinderhughes, 1997), little is known about urban-rural differences in young white's racial attitudes. The evidence that is available is consistent with findings for white adults (Bullock, 1978; Regens, & Bullock, 1979).
Region Numerous studies have shown important regional differences in white adult's racial attitudes (Abrahamson & Carter, 1986; Glaser, 1994; Middleton, 1976; Schuman, Steeh, Bobo & Krysan, 1997; Tuch, 1987; Tuch & Martin, 1997; Wilson, 1986). In general, southerners are more racially prejudiced than are non-southerners. Regional differences in white youth's racial attitudes have not been examined in part again because most studies of white youth's racial attitudes focus on a specific geographic location or area (Bullock, 1976; Olsen, 1997; Patchen, 1982; Pinderhughes, 1997; Schofield, 1982; Wells & Crain, 1997). The one study that has used nationally representative data found that white southern students were more racially intolerant than their northern counterparts (Scott & McPartland, 1982). One weakness in this literature is that most studies have treated the southern region as a monolith. There is increasing evidence from studies of white adult' s racial attitudes that such treatment is problematic (Glaser, 1994; Tuch & Martin, 1997). Since the early works of Dollard (1937), Davis, Gardner and Gardner (1941), Johnson (1941), and Key (1949) the "black belt" or "deep south" has been characterized as having a distinctive racial climate. According to Key (1949, 5) "it is the whites of the black belt who have the deepest and most immediate concern about the maintenance of white supremacy." Historically, the Deep South has had a higher rate of minority lynchings, higher proportion of African American residents, and more racially conservative whites than the peripheral states. Recent investigations continue to support such a distinction (see Glaser, 1994; Tuch & Martin, 1997).
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Social Values Political Ideology Not surprisingly, prior research has shown that the politically conservative are more racially prejudiced than are their liberal counterparts (Carmines & Stimson, 1989; Kinder & Sanders, 1996; Sniderman & Piazza, 1993; Sniderman, Tetlock, Carmines & Peterson, 1994). In contrast, one recent study has not found the above pattern, Abramowitz (1994) found little evidence of an as sociation between white racial attitudes and political orientation. Though most of this research has been conducted among adults, there is evidence that young people are increasingly politically aware and active (Hepburn, 1985; Kinder & Sears, 1985; Sigel & Hoskin, 1981; Travers, 1982). In fact, the limited information we have available on white youth's racial attitudes shows that the politically conservative express greater racial intolerance (Johnson & Marini, 1998; McCtelland & Auster, 1990). Religiosity Despite the fact that several of the world's major faiths ascribe to the principle that people should accept others unconditionally, without regard to their race, prior research shows that religious people are more prejudiced than are non-religious people (Allport & Kramer, 1946; Allport, 1966; Allport & Ross, 1967; Batson & Ventis, 1982; Batson & Burris, 1994; Gorsuch, 1988; Gorsuch & Aleshire, 1974). In contrast, most previous research on young people's religiosity has found no association between religiosity and racial prejudice (Lombardi, 1963; Patchen, 1982; Useem, 1972). However, these studies either utilized limited measures of religiosity (e.g. church attendance) or focused solely on denominational affiliation. These measures are problematic in light of the simple fact that many young people have little control over their denominational affiliation or whether or not they attend church. As one recent study noted, "children normally adopt the given religion(s) and denomination(s) of their parents, rather than converting to something else or constructing a purely personal religion. Any changes wilt usually come in adolescence and adulthood" (Fumham & Stacey, 1991, 113). On the other hand young people are likely to have control over their assessment of religion's importance to them. In fact, research has found that religious importance is a more reliable indicator of adolescent religiosity than is church attendance (Benson, Donahue & Erickson, 1989; Johnstone, 1992). The distinction here between young people's self-reported religious importance versus self-reported religious attendance and affiliation is consistent with Allport and Ross' (1967) distinction between extrinsic (i.e. institutionalized or utilitarian) versus intrinsic (i.e.
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interiorized or committed) religiosity. Allport (1954, 451-456) hypothesized that an institutionalized religious orientation (e.g. extrinsic religiosity) would increase racial prejudice whereas an interiorized religious orientation (e.g. intrinsic religiosity) would reduce racial prejudice. Opposed to studies using extrinsic measures of young people's religiosity (e.g. attendance and affiliation) those using intrinsic measures of religiosity (e.g. religious importance) have found quite different patterns of association. For example, two studies that used an intrinsic measure of young people's religiosity found a positive association between religiosity and racial tolerance (Bullock, 1976; Johnson & Marini, 1998). Higher levels of religiosity (using a combination of religious importance and preference) were associated with greater racial tolerance. Academic Orientation Academic Achievement (Grades) Students of high academic achievement generally have more positive racial attitudes (Bullock, 1976; Dentler & Elkins, 1967; Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975; Regens & Bullock, 1979; Singer, 1967; St. John, 1975; Useem, 1972). Bullock (1976, 280) explains these patterns stating, "perhaps poor [achieving] students, like lower-status people, feel more threatened." Consistent with this view is other work that shows that downward mobility in academic status is associated with increased racial intolerance (Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975; Lombardi, 1963). However, other studies have found that academic achievement was not related to racial prejudice (Patchen, 1982). One recent study of high achieving white students (i.e. grade point average of a "B" or higher) found that racial prejudice had increased between 1997 and 1998 (Blair, 1998). Thus, there is some evidence to suggest that the relationship between academic achievement and white youth's attitudes is diminishing or possibly reversing. Academic Track If academic achievement is associated with white youth's racial attitudes academic tracking is also likely to be related. Academic tracking refers to the grouping of students in classes according to academic achievement. Academic tracking is important because it oftentimes leads to resegregation by race in schools (see Epstein, 1985; Oakes, 1985; Patchen, 1982; Schofield, 1989). In light of the important role of academic tracking in American high schools and its influence on resegregation by race within schools, it is important to investigate the relationship between academic tracking and white youth's racial attitudes. To date, relatively little is known about the relationship between academic tracking and white youth's racial attitudes.
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Educational Aspirations White students' concern for doing well in school is also related to their racial attitudes. For instance, past research has shown that white students that have aspirations to attend a four-year college were more racially tolerant than their peers who did not have such aspirations (Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975; Patchen, 1982). Although achievement and aspirations are collinear, previous research has shown that controlling for academic achievement does not significantly reduce the association between academic aspirations and white youth's racial attitudes. Therefore, in the present study I examine the relationship between college aspiration and white youth's racial attitudes. Truancy 2 There is some evidence linking poor school attendance and/or dropping out to white youth's racial attitudes (Macleod, 1995; Patchen, 1982; Pinderhughes, 1997; Wang, 1994). For instance, one recent study of white youth's racial attitudes found that, "school-attending white young people interviewed at two separate high schools in southern Brooklyn displayed significantly more tolerant attitudes than did at-risk teenagers who had dropped out of school (Pinderhughes, 1997, 93)." Moreover, recent research shows that poor school attendance is an important precursor to, or risk factor for, dropping out (Jordan, Lara & McPartland, 1996; Voelkl, Welte & Wieczorek, 1999). In the realm of race relations it is important to note that many young whites who are involved in overtly racist organizations, such as the skinheads, also attend school irregularly or have dropped out altogether (see Finnegan, 1998; Wooden, 1995). Conceptual and Methodological Limitations
Overall, previous research on the social determinants of young white' s racial attitudes has several important drawbacks. First, when young people's racial attitudes have been examined, the focus has largely been on younger children (Connolly, 1998; Holmes, 1995; Schofield, 1982; Troyna & Hatcher, 1992). As Pinderhughes (1993, 480) explains, "little has been written about adolescence, although this is obviously a crucial period for identity development and attitude formation." Second, when studies focus explicitly on white youth's racial attitudes they tend to be based on case studies or representative samples from a geographically limited area that are not well suited for generalizing to the nation as a whole (e.g. Bullock, 1976; Crull & Burton, 1985; Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975; Lombardi, 1963; Olsen, 1997; Patchen, Hoffman & Brown, 1977; Patchen, 1982; Pinderhughes, 1997; Schofield, 1982; Wells & Crain, 1997). Third, most of the studies examining the social determinants of white
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youth's racial attitudes are more than a decade old (Bullock, 1976, 1977, 1978; Chesler, Wittes & Radin, 1968; Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975; Lombardi, 1963; St. John, 1975; Patchen, 1982; Regens & Bullock, 1979; Scott & McPartland, 1982; Useem, 1972). In fact, the only national study to explore the social determinants of white youth's racial attitudes, that I was able to identify, is nearly two decades old (see Scott & McPartland, 1982). Fourth, because the data are a decade or two old much of this work has exclusively focused on measures of traditional racial attitudes. In light of increasing evidence that the expression of racial attitudes has shifted from overt (e.g. traditional) to covert (e.g. contemporary) forms, there is reason to question the reliability of previous research findings which rely solely on traditional measures (Bobo, Kluegel & Smith, 1997; Bonilla-Silva & Forman, 2000; Dovidio & Gaertner, 1991; Kinder & Sanders, 1996; Pettigrew, 1985; Sears & Kinder, 1971). In sum, as a result of these limitations, much of what is known regarding white youth's racial attitudes is regionally specific, unreliable, does not generalize to the larger white adolescent population, and is not current - a fact that is increasingly problematic given the rapid changes in the racial demography of the U.S.
Measuring Contemporary Racial Attitudes among White Youth As stated earlier, several authors have recently suggested that we need to reconceptualize and refine our measurement of racial attitudes to incorporate the changing forms of their expression (Bobo, Kluegel & Smith, 1997; Bonilla-Silva & Lewis, 1999; Bonilla-Silva & Forman, 2000; Dovidio & Gaertner, 1991; McConahay, 1986). For example, Lawrence Bobo and his colleagues have defined these new forms as "laissez-faire racism." They, as well as many others, have argued that in order to tap into these new racial forms, we need to use new measures. Traditional measures of racial attitudes only capture old forms. Thus, they do not tell us whether or not there is more or less racism, just whether there is more or less of a particular kind. Moreover, whites' "resistance . . . to ameliorating the U.S. racist social conditions and institutions (Bobo, Kluegel & Smith, 1997, 16)" is increasingly being expressed in passive and less explicit ways. For instance, large numbers of whites recognize the persistence of racial inequality but are unwilling to support - i.e. passively resist - any actions that seek to redress this inequality. As opposed to in the past when white resistance was overt and often loud, if not violent, today most white resistance is covert and passive. In many ways, racial apathy may be an especially good way to conceptualize this contemporary form of white racial resistance - what Bobo and his colleagues have labeled laissez-faire racism. The connection that I am making here between racial apathy
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and racial attitudes is not new. In Daniel Katz's (1960) classic statement entitled "The functional approach to the study of attitudes" he writes, Most research on attitudes has been directed at beliefs concerning the undesirable character of minority groups or of deviants, with accompanying feelings of distrust, contempt, and hatred. Many attitudes, however, are not the projection of repressed aggression but are expressions of apathy or withdrawal. The individual protects himself from a difficult or demanding world and salvages his self-respect by retreating within his own shell (Katz, 1960, 182). Here Katz argues that apathy is not truly a lack of opinion about a group, but an expression of a particular kind of dislike. As one recent analyst pointed out, "very often, when people say they don't feel anything . . . it can mask and underlie great c r u e l t y . . . [and] can shape how [individuals] behave in powerful ways (Johnson, 1997, 66)." If Bobo, Bonilla-Silva, Kinder and others are correct that in the current post-civil-rights moment a subtle and covert racial rhetoric has largely replaced the overt expression of racial animus then racial apathy may in fact be one form in which racial distaste is now expressed. This is likely to be especially true for white youth. As opposed to their parents, members of the baby boom generation, who grew up during a period in which there was increased societal wide social liberalism and overt discrimination against racial minorities, today's white youth grew up during a period of increased social conservatism. Omi and Winant (1994, 113) have described the social climate during this period as being dominated by "a new mood of 'social meanness' , . . [where] many Americans resented having to provide for the 'underprivileged' " - especially racial minorities. Here I am building on previous political socialization research that argues that the historical era and the sociopolitical context in which adolescence are socialized influences their political views and thus creates distinctive differences among birth cohorts (Alwin, Cohen & Newcombe, 1991; Alwin, 1998; Jennings & Niemi, 1975). Therefore, this pattern of passive and covert expressions of white resistance or laissez-faire racism - what I will measure here as racial apathy - is likely to be more pronounced among younger whites than older ones.
HYPOTHESES Based on the existing literature, I formulated several hypotheses about the social determinants of white youth's racial attitudes. H r I hypothesize that males will be more racially intolerant than females.
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H 2. I hypothesize that white youth with more well-educated parents will be more racially tolerant than their peers whose parents are less well-educated. H 3. I hypothesize that white youth residing in the "Deep South" will be more racially intolerant than their peers living outside of the "Deep South." H 4. I hypothesize that white youth located in urban areas will be more racially tolerant than their peers living outside of urban areas.
H 5. I hypothesize that politically conservative white youth will be more racially intolerant than their politically liberal peers. H 6. I hypothesize that more religious white youth will be more racially tolerant
than their less religious peers. H 7. I hypothesize that high achieving white youth will be more racially tolerant than their low achieving peers.
H 8. I hypothesize that white youth enrolled in the "college prep" track will be more racially tolerant than their peers enrolled in lower academic tracks (e.g. general and vocational). H 9. I hypothesize that white youth who aspire to attend college will be more racially tolerant than their peers who do not. 1-11o. I hypothesize that white youth who miss school often will be more racially
intolerant than their peers who do not. Hll. I hypothesize that the social determinants of white youth's racial attitudes will be more strongly linked to traditional forms of racial attitudes (e.g. social distance attitudes) than contemporary forms of racial attitudes (e.g. racial apathy and concern for race relations). Consistent with this view, I also expect the explanatory power (i.e. R-square) of the social determinants will be larger for traditional prejudice than for contemporary prejudice. This is expected because I argue that the expression of contemporary prejudice is more generally held (i.e. hegemonic) across various subgroups of white youth today than is the expression of traditional prejudice (see Bonilla-Silva & Forman, 2000; MacLeod, 1995; Pinderhughes, 1997; Wellman, 1993). Consequently, subgroup differences should be more apparent on traditional rather than on contemporary measures of racial attitudes.
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METHODS Sample In order to test these hypotheses 1 use data from the 1998 University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF). MTF is a repeated cross-sectional survey of high school seniors that has been conducted annually since 1975. In the spring of each year, high school seniors complete a questionnaire focused largely on drug use, which also includes a wide range of items concerning student's racial attitudes, interracial contact, and perceptions of race relations. The design and methods of the study are summarized briefly below; a more detailed description is available elsewhere (see Bachman, Johnston & O'Malley, 1996). Each year, a three-stage national probability sample is drawn from the 48 coterminous states, and questionnaires are administered in approximately 135 high schools (Kish, 1965). First, particular geographic regions are selected; next, schools are selected; and finally, students are selected from within each school. This procedure has yielded nationally representative samples of approximately 16,000 high school seniors annually since 1975. Students complete self-administered, machine readable questionnaires during a normal class period. In 1998 the questionnaire response rate was 85%. Absence on the day of data collection is the primary reason that students are missed; it is estimated that less than 1% of students refuse to complete the questionnaire. While approximately 16,000 respondents are surveyed each year, for the purposes of this analysis, the format of the questionnaire results in a sample size that is only about one-sixth this size (six different questionnaire forms are used each year, each administered to a random one sixth of the sample, prior to 1989 MTF used only five forms). While sociodemographic measures appear in all forms, other items of interest for the present study, such as student's racial attitudes and perceptions of race relations appear in only two forms: form 3 (approximate N = 1,721) and form 5 (approximate N = 1,733); accordingly, analyses presented here are based on a random one-third of the total sample. All analyses use sample weights to take into account school sample sizes, as well as variations in selection probabilities that occurred at earlier stages of the sampling proceduresJ Given the focus of the present paper on white youth' s racial attitudes, only data from white youth are analyzed. Social and Demographic Characteristics of Sample Demographically, the sample is quite diverse. The sample contains equal numbers of young men and women. There is also considerable variability in these
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white youth's parents' education; however, a majority of their parents have at least completed high school and a substantial proportion have some college experience or more. In terms of region, 7% of the white youth live in the Deep South, a little more than a quarter reside in the Outer South (28%) and Midwest (31%) respectively, approximately 16% live in the West, and another 18% live in the Northeast. A little less than a quarter of white youth live in large urban areas (Metropolitan Statistical Areas or MSAs), approximately half live in medium sized MSAs, 13% live in small cities, and another 14% reside in either small towns or rural communities. In terms of political ideology, most white youth consider themselves politically moderate (42%), approximately 29% are conservative, and another 29% are liberal. According to the data a majority of white youth are somewhat religious. For example, 58% report that religion is either "very important" or "pretty important." A little less than one in five of white youth (17%) report having grades of "Ds and Cs," 49% "Bs," and 34% "As" in high school. In addition, a majority report being enrolled in college preparatory classes (58%), another third are enrolled in general education (28%), and 14% are enrolled in vocational classes. Given the levels of academic achievement reported, it is not surprisingly that three quarters of these white youth expect to attend a four-year college or university (76%). Finally, the majority of the white youth surveyed report never having missed a day of school in the past academic year (66%). Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for the dependent and independent variables used in this study.
MEASURES Dependent Variables
Five dependent variables are used to investigate white youth's racial attitudes, including attitudes toward integration, attitudes toward segregation, assessment of black-white relations, concern for race relations, and racial apathy. Social Distance Attitudes 4
Racial prejudice contains both cognitive and affective dimensions (Allport, 1954). Yet, according to Pettigrew (1997, 76) researchers over the last couple of decades have "focused almost exclusively on the cognitive component of [racial] prejudice." Pettigrew (1997, 89) further argues that "the reassertion of emotion into the study of prejudice represents a more comprehensive approach." Social distance sentiment is an important affective component of racial prejudice (see Allport, 1954; Pettigrew, 1980; Bobo & Hutchings, 1996; Bogardus, 1925, 1928, 1933, 1967; Schuman, Steeh, Bobo & Krysan, 1997). The Monitoring tile Future
185
Social Determinants of White Youth's Racial Attitudes Table 1.
Means, Ranges, and Standard Deviations of Measures Used in Analyses.
Variables
Range
Mean
S.D.
Integration Segregation Racial Apathy Concern for Race Relations B/W Relations worse
(1-4) (1-4) (1-5) (1-4) (1-5)
3.20 2.84 2.29 2.54 2.37
0.55 0.75 1.21 1.01 0.99
Gender (l=Male) Parents' education Northeast Midwest West Outer South Deep South Urbanicity Political Ideology Religious Importance Grades Academic Track College Aspirations Truancy
(0-1) (1-5) (0-1) (0-1) (0-1) (0-1) (0-1) (1-5) (1-5) (1-4) ( 1-3) (1-3) (1-4) (1-5)
0.50 3.I7 0.18 0.31 0.16 0.28 0.07 3.80 2.97 2.68 2.17 2.44 3.19 1.70
0.50 1.10 0.39 0.46 0.36 0.45 0.25 1.04 1.04 1.02 0.70 0.72 1.05 1.19
Survey contains eleven social distance items which parallel items included in several other regional and national surveys (see Bogardus, 1925, 1928, 1933; 1967; Crull & Burton, 1985; Bobo & Hutchings, 1996; Schuman, Steeh, Bobo & Krysan, 1997; Owen, Eisner & McFanl, 1981; Smith & Dempsey, 1983; Wilson, 1996). These social distance items ask white youth how they personally would feel or act in particular situations that involve interracial contact (for exact wording of questions see the Appendix). Three domains for interracial contact are considered here: schools, neighborhoods, and informal social activities (see Schuman, Steeh, Bobo & Krysan, 1997). Respondents were asked to rate on a four point Likert-type scale a series of statements as not at all acceptable, somewhat acceptable, acceptable, and desirable: (1) "Not at all acceptable" was defined as " I ' d avoid this if I possibly could." (2) "Somewhat acceptable" was defined as "I could live with this but not be happy about it." (3) "Acceptable" was defined as "This would be O.K., or I ' d be neutral about this." (4) "Desirable" was defined as " I ' d really like this."
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A. FORMAN
Exploratory factor analysis was conducted because there were eleven social distance items in the MTF survey and it was presumed that they represented one latent construct, namely racial attitudes. An oblique, common factor analysis with Maximum Likelihood (ML) extraction was used and it extracted two factors with eigenvalues greater than one. According to Table 2, seven items load strongly and positively on the first factor labeled integration (a = .92). The integration factor accounted for 43.8% of the common variance. The remaining four items load strongly and positively on the second factor labeled segregation (a = .89). 5 The segregation factor accounted for 13.6% of the common variance. It should be noted that although the integration and segregation factors constitute separate dimensions of racial prejudice, and can be empirically differentiated, they are not completely distinct. For example, the interfactor correlation is not small (+ = - .47). I decided, however, to keep the factors separate because of recent survey results which showed that 68% of white youth
Maximum Likelihood Common Factor Analysis Using Oblique Rotation: Racial Attitude Items (1998 Monitoring the Future Survey).
Table 2.
Pattern Matrix Integration Segregation
Items h a v i n g close personal friends o f another race h a v i n g a j o b supervisor o f another race h a v i n g a family of a different race live next d o o r h a v i n g s o m e of y o u r fututre c h i l d r e n ' s friends be o f another race h a v i n g a j o b w h e r e s o m e e m p l o y e e s are o f a different race living in an area w h e r e some neighbors are o f a different race some of y o u r future c h i l d r e n ' s schoolmates are of another race future c h i l d r e n ' s friends be all o f y o u r race h a v i n g a j o b w h e r e all e m p l o y e e s are o f y o u r race all y o u r n e i g h b o r ' s are y o u r race all o f y o u r future c h i l d r e n ' s schoolmates are o f y o u r race V a r i a n c e a c c o u n t e d for: Cronbach's Alpha Chi-square (64) = 6209.78*** Factor Correlation (qb) Factor I Factor I F a c t o r II Note:
a
1.00 -0.47
0.781 0.766 0.784 0.723 0.795 0.828 0.787 -----
--~ ---
0.622 0.855 0.894 0.858
43.8 0.92
13.6 0.89
---
Factor II 1.00
items that h a d w e a k factor loadings o n a specific factor are excluded for clarity o f
presentation purposes.
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supported the "separate but equal" (i.e. "having the races live apart is okay") (see also Pinderhughes, 1993). Given the rather large proportion of white youth reporting being comfortable with segregation it is important to consider the segregation and integration dimensions separately. Racial Apathy Racial apathy is measured by one item in the MTF survey. Respondents were asked to rate on a five point Likert-type scale the following statement: Maybe some minority groups do get unfair treatment, but that's no business of mine. Possible responses ranged from "disagree" (1) to "agree" (5). High scores represent greater racial apathy. Concern about Race Relations This is measured by one item in the MTF survey. Respondents were asked to rate on a four point Likert-type scale the following statement: Of all the problems facing the nation today, how often do you worry about race relations. Possible responses ranged from "never" (1) to "often" (4). Assessment of Black-White Relations This is measured by one item in the MTF survey. Respondents were asked to rate on a five point Likert-type scale the following statement: "Thinking about the country as a whole, would you say relations between white people and black people have been getting better, getting worse, or staying pretty much the same?" Possible responses ranged from "better" (1) to "worse" (5).
Independent Variables Social background Four measures of social background were measured in this study: gender, parent's socioeconomic status, urbanicity, and region. Gender is coded 1 = Male, 0 = Female. Parental education is an average of father's and mother's educational attainment using the following scale: 1 = completed grade school or less, 2 = some high school, 3 = completed high school, 4 = some college, 5 = completed college, 6 = graduate or professional school after college. Urbanicity consisted of five categories, ranging from farm to large urban area. Region consisted of five categories, including the Northeast, North Central, Outer South (i.e. North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky), Deep South (i.e. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina), and West. In multivariate analysis "Deep South" is the excluded category.
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Social values Two measures of social values were measured in this study: political ideology and religiosity. Political ideology was measured by the following question: How would you describe your political beliefs? Response categories ranged from "very conservative" (1) to "very liberal" (6). 6 Because previous research has found that religious importance is a more reliable indicator of adolescent religiosity than is self-reported church attendance (Benson, Donahue & Erickson 1989; Johnstone, 1992) I used a single item to measure Religiosity: How important is religion in your life? Possible responses ranged from "not important" (1) to "very important" (4). 7
Academic orientation Four measures of academic orientation were measured in this study: grades, academic track, college aspirations, and truancy. 8 Grades were measured using student's self-report of average grades in high school. 9 Academic Track was also measured using student's self-report of the high school curriculum in which they were enrolled. Possible categories from which students chose were: "other" (1), "vocational/technical" (2), "general" (3), and "college prep" (4). 1° College aspirations were measured by the following item: How likely is it that you will graduate from college (four-year program)? Students chose from the following alternatives: "definitely won't" (1); "probably won't" (2); "probably will" (3); and "definitely will" (4). Truancy was measured by the following question: During the last four weeks, how many whole days of school have you missed because you skipped or "cut?" Possible responses ranged from 1-5, where 1 = none, 2 = 1 day, 3 = 2 days, 4 = 3 days, and 5 = 4 or more days.
Analysis Strategy The overall goal of the analyses was to assess the relationship between the theoretically relevant social determinants and white youth's racial attitudes as well as whether or not the influence of the social determinants differ for traditional and contemporary racial attitudes. To achieve this goal, two sets of analysis were conducted. Bivariate associations (one-way analysis of variance) between each social determinant and white youth's racial attitudes are presented. Next, using multivariate analyses (OLS regression analysis) I examine the simultaneous influence of the social determinants on white youth's racial attitudes.
Social Detemainants of White Youth's Racial Attitudes
189
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RESULTS Bivariate Results
Tables 3a and 3b present information pertinent to evaluating the bivariate relationships of each social determinant and each outcome measure. These results show gender effects on four of the five outcome measures. For example, white males have lower mean levels than white females on the integration scale and the concern for race relations measure. They also have higher mean levels on the segregation scale and racial apathy measure. In short, consistent with previous research white males are more racially intolerant than white females (Bullock, 1976, 1978; Essed, 1997; Johnson & Marini, 1998; Patchen, 1982; Scott & McPartland, 1982). This pattern is true for both traditional and contemporary measures of racial attitudes. In addition, as indicated by the -q [eta] coefficients at least one traditional (integration) measure of racial attitudes has medium effect sizes. 11 Socioeconomic status has long been presumed to influence white youth's racial attitudes (Bullock, 1976, 1978; Regens & Bullock, 1979; Scott & McPartland, 1982; Useem, 1972). Consistent with this view I found that socioeconomic status as measured by parent's education reduced racial intolerance in its traditional and contemporary forms. White youth who had parents with high levels of education also had higher mean levels of integration, as well as lower mean levels of segregation and racial apathy. Despite these relationships being highly statistically significant, in general, the effect sizes for socioeconomic status were small. Regional differences in white youth's racial attitudes were also found, however, only for the traditional racial attitude scales (i.e. integration and segregation) and on concern for race relations; in both cases the effect sizes were small. Consistent with earlier sociological research (Dollard, 1937; Davis, Gardner & Gardner, 1941; Johnson, 1941; Key, 1949), white youth living in the "deep south" had the least favorable attitudes toward integration, most favorable attitudes toward living, studying, and working in segregated environments, were most concerned about race relations and believed black/white relations were getting worse. Researchers have long observed that urban residents are more tolerant than rural residents (Milgram, 1970; Stouffer, 1955; Wirth, 1938). Consistent with previous work, urban white youth show greater racial tolerance than rural white youth (see also Bullock, 1976, 1978; Regens & Bullock, 1979). Again, the effect sizes for the association between urbanicity and traditional racial attitudes were small. Similar to the results for regional differences there was no
Social Determinants of White Youth's Racial Attitudes
193
association between urbanicity and racial apathy. There was a trivial effect size for the other measure of contemporary racial attitudes, concern for race relations. According to Table 3b, politically conservative white youth are less racially tolerant than politically liberal white youth. Although the effect sizes are small, these results are consistent with previous research (see McClelland & Auster, 1990). The relationship between religiosity and white youth's racial attitudes provided more mixed results. For example, consistent with some previous research that found no association between religiosity and racial attitudes among white youth (Patchen, 1982; Useem, 1972) this study finds that for integration attitudes there is no statistical relationship between religiosity, as measured by religious importance, and white youth's racial attitudes. However, there was a statistically significant link between religious importance and segregation attitudes; the results run counter to the direction observed in two previous studies that found that young whites who were more religious were also more racially tolerant (see Bullock, 1976; Johnson & Marini, 1998). 12 It should be noted that these results are more in line with research among adults which has consistently found that religious people are more prejudiced than are non-religious people (Allport & Kramer, 1946; Allport & Ross, 1967; Batson & Ventis, 1982; Batson & Burris, 1994; Gorsuch, 1988; Herring & Amissah, 1997). The results show that white youth who report religion is important in their lives have the most favorable attitudes toward living, studying, and working in segregated environments. This apparently counter intuitive finding might be related to the fact that places of worship, at least in the U.S., are some of the most racially segregated institutions (Gallup, 1997). 13 Therefore, young whites exposed to this type of "hyper-segregation" in church might develop a view of racial segregation as benign. It must also be acknowledged that in terms of effect sizes the effect is small. In contrast to the findings for segregation attitudes, I find that young whites that are more religious are less racially apathetic and more concerned about race relations. In short, the results for contemporary racial attitudes provide some limited support for Allport's (1954) hypothesis that an interiorized religious orientation (e.g. religious importance) reduces racial prejudice. Similar to findings of most past research, I find that high achieving white youth (i.e. high grades) are more racially tolerant (see Bullock, 1976; Regens & Bullock, 1979; St. John, 1975). These small effects are discernible for at least one measure of traditional racial attitudes and both measures of contemporary racial attitudes. If academic achievement is associated with white youth's racial attitudes academic tracking is also likely to be related. To the best of my knowledge there has been no empirical investigation of this
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relationship. The present study found that white youth that were enrolled in the college prep track were also more racially tolerant. This effect was true across all outcomes. Consistent with prior research I also found that white youth that aspire to attend a four-year college were more racially tolerant than their peers who did not have such aspirations (Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975; Patchen, 1982). While there exists few previous empirical investigations of the relationship between truancy and racial attitudes this study found a statistical link between truancy and white youth's racial attitudes. Specifically, white youth that never miss school are more racially tolerant than those whom miss school four or more times. Although these are rather small effects, they are statistically significant for both measures of traditional and one measure of contemporary racial attitudes. These results provide an important national level baseline data for the association between truancy and white youth's racial attitudes.
Multivariate Results Several of these social determinants are, of course, correlated. Therefore the next step is to construct a multivariate regression model of the social determinants of white youth's racial attitudesJ 4 More specifically, Table 4 shows the results for the regression of traditional and contemporary measures of racial attitudes on social background, social values, and academic orientation factors. I present the standardized regression coefficients in order to facilitate the interpretation of the relative effects of the social determinants. I examined each regression model for evidence of multicollinearity and influential observations. These and other robustness tests yielded no evidence suggesting a problematic model specification. In general, the bivariate and multivariate results are quite consistent. There are two exceptions that are worth highlighting. First, once other factors are controlled, parents' education does not matter. Second, there is no statistically significant difference between high and low achieving white youth once I control for other factors. This finding is consistent with recent evidence that showed an increase in racial prejudice among high achieving white students (Blair, 1998). Thus, if racial prejudice is rising among high achieving students it is also likely that the association between achievement and racial prejudice that has been found in previous research could be diminishing as high achieving white youth become more similar to low achieving white youth in their racial outlook. In general, these multivariate analyses reveal that racial intolerance is more common among white youth that are male, southern (especially residents
Social Determinants of White Youth's Racial Attitudes
t 95
Table 4. Standardized Parameter Estimates for Regression of White Youth's Racial Attitudes on Social Backgrond, Social Values, and Academic Orientation (1998 Monitoring the Future Survey). Racial Attitudes Traditional Integration
Contemporary
Segregation RacialApathy
Concern about RaceRelations
Social Background Gender
Male -0.233*** Female (omitted category) . Parents' Education -0.033
.
0.141"** . -0.044
0.114"** . -0.005
-0.092*** -0.014
Region
Northeast Midwest West Outer South Deep S o u t h (omitted category) Urbanicity
0.182"** 0.170"* 0.294*** 0.185"** .
-0.127" -0.092 -0.261"** -0.144"* . .
-0.043 -0.043 -0.050 -0.040 .
-0.208*** -0.208*** -0.239*** -0.152"*
0.067*
-0.10t***
-0.023
0.067*
0.111"** -0.040
-0.043 0.107"**
-0.078** -0.055
0.074* 0.060
0.008 0.014 0.153"** -0.086**
0.065 -0.043 -0.025 0.066*
0.009 -0.189"** -0.t28"** 0.019
1,436 0.102
1,470 0.051
Social Values
Political Ideology Religions Importance Academic Orientation
Grades Academic Track College Aspirations Truancy N R2 (adj.)
1,436 0.173
0.009 0.047 -0.007 -0.030 1,470 0.045
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (two tailed tests).
of the Deep South), from rural areas, politically conservative, religious, and truant. Taken in their entirety, the regression results generally support my hypothesis that the theoretically relevant social determinants more strongly affect traditional racial attitudes than contemporary racial attitudes. For instance, according to Table 4 the adjusted R-squares for both traditional measures of racial attitudes were seventeen and 10% respectively, in contrast, the adjusted R-squares for both contemporary prejudice measures were 5% and 4% respectively. In short, the
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adjusted R-squares for the traditional racial attitude items were two to three times that for the two contemporary racial attitude items. In addition, as hypothesized most of the social determinants of white youth's racial attitudes were more strongly linked to traditional racial attitudes than to contemporary racial attitudes. For instance, the association between gender and both measures of traditional racial attitudes were stronger than the association between gender and both measures of contemporary racial attitudes. In fact, the effect of gender on the various traditional and contemporary racial attitudes can be placed on a continuum: from the integration attitude scale where there is a medium effect size for gender; through segregation attitudes and racial apathy where there is a small effect size; to concern for race relations where gender has a statistically significant but trivial effect size. Region is related to each traditional measure of racial attitudes but only one measure of contemporary racial attitudes. A similar pattern is seen for the influence of urbanicity, religious importance, and truancy on young whites' racial attitudes. There were two relationships that remained statistically linked across both traditional and contemporary measures of racial attitudes: political ideology and college aspirations. Although in both instances the standardized coefficients were larger for measures of traditional racial attitudes than for contemporary racial attitudes. Remarkably, these results are also consistent with previous research that used entirely different measures of traditional and contemporary racial attitudes (Bobo & Kluegel, 1997). There was one result that did not support my hypothesis. One indicator of academic orientation, academic track, was not statistically linked to either traditional measure of white youth's racial attitudes but was linked to racial apathy. Overall, these results reveal that although subgroup differences remain alive and well for measures of traditional racial attitudes, it is not the case for contemporary measures of racial attitudes. This entire set of results informs an emerging line of thinking about the consolidation of a laissez-faire racial ideology during the post-civil rights era, which according to my results has progressively solidified itself among white youth. DISCUSSION
AND CONCLUSION
This study differs from most of the earlier research on white youth's racial attitudes in two important ways. First, it uses recent, nationally representative data of white youth' s racial attitudes and includes a broader range of measures of racial attitudes (e.g. traditional and contemporary measures) than earlier studies. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, this study introduces a new measure of contemporary racial attitudes, namely racial apathy. Given the paucity of
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empirical analyses and even fewer new theoretical formulations in more than a decade; the results of this study on youth's racial attitudes deserve serious consideration. With regard to the study's first goal, to investigate the relationships between the social determinants and white youth's racial attitudes, I was able to confirm some results of earlier research. The results revealed that all three factors social background, social values, and academic orientation - relate to white youth's racial attitudes. For example, men, southern youth, rural youth, politically conservative youth, religious youth, and truant youth generally are more racially prejudiced than their female, non-southern, urban, politically liberal, non-religious, and non-truant counterparts. With regard to the study's second goal - to compare the influence of the social determinants on white youth's racial attitudes across measures of traditional and contemporary racial attitudes - I was able to use measures of racial attitudes which have not been previously used in studies investigating white youth to shed further light on recent theoretical arguments about the shifting nature of white's racial attitudes in general. The results lend additional support to what is quickly becoming the new paradigm for the study of white's racial attitudes. For instance, the results confirmed my hypothesis about the differential influence of the social determinants on white youth's traditional and contemporary racial attitudes. Moreover, these results suggest that a reliance on traditional measures of racial attitudes no longer provide an accurate portrait of whites' racial attitudes, especially young whites' racial attitudes. In this regard, my rationale for including both traditional and contemporary racial attitudes was well founded. Although this study fills an important gap in our knowledge about young whites' racial attitudes, it also raises several additional issues for future theory and research. First, future research should broaden the conceptualization and measurement of white youth's racial attitudes. My approach to measuring contemporary racial attitudes among young whites is admittedly different from that used by others (Bobo & Kluegel, 1997; Bonilla-Silva & Forman, 2000; Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986; McConahay, 1986). It focuses on the implicit and passive way in which today's young whites express their unwillingness to support actions to redress racial inequality, namely racial apathy. In fact, the work presented here relies heavily on the early thinking of Daniel Katz (1960) in that racial apathy is conceptualized to be a central element of negative racial attitudes. As Bobo, Kluegel and Smith (1997, 41) notes, "a large number of white Americans have become comfortable with as much racial inequality and segregation as a putatively nondiscriminatory polity and free market economy can produce." Thus many young whites today acknowledge persistent racial inequality but are unconcerned and in many instances unwilling
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to do anything to redress these patterns of inequality (for similar findings see Bonilla & Forman, 2000). In light of the results found here, future investigations should develop multiple-item measures of racial apathy. The omission of such measures from future research on whites' racial attitudes will possibly limit our understanding of their attitudes. Second, future studies should explicitly investigate social trends in young whites' racial attitudes. To date, most of the existing literature that has explored social trends in racial attitudes has focused exclusively on adults (for an exception see Tuch, Sigelman & MacDonald, 1999). 15 Future research would examine whether or not the shifts in white adults' expression of negative racial attitudes are also apparent among white youth. More importantly, this research would be expressly focused on testing the basic hypothesis that racial attitudes have changed, shifting from traditional to contemporary forms. Third, as our understanding of the sources of white youth's racial attitudes improves, future research needs to shift to exploring the cohort- and periodrelated implications of the emerging debate over the "new racism." For instance, it would be useful to investigate if the societal-wide changes in the expression of racial attitudes have had a larger impact on young whites than on older whites. That is, white youth's racial attitudes today could reflect cohort-specific socialization or more generalized contextual influences experienced by all regardless of cohort membership. Finally, given previous research showing that the socio-cultural environment may be most powerful in influencing attitudes during late adolescence and young adulthood, future inquiries should investigate the role that schools and the media play in influencing young white's racial attitudes. For example, is the racial composition of the schools young whites attend related to their racial attitudes? If so, what characteristics of the school might explain why school racial composition matters for their attitudes. Alternatively, to what extent has the overrepresentation of racial minorities reflecting middle-class status on prime-time television (see Entman & Rojecki, 2000) influenced many young whites today to reject actions to redress racial inequality (i.e. to become racially apathetic)? The findings presented in this chapter, as well as future research designed to answer the questions above, will further our understanding of young whites' racial attitudes and the future of U.S. race relations.
NOTES 1. Because high school seniors are the focus of this study modifications were made to measures in order to have developmentally appropriate measures. For example, grades, academic track, and college aspirations were measures of "educational attainment" since
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all the students in my sample were high school seniors. Social class background was measured by averaging the student's mother and father education. 2. An argument can be made for treating truancy as an outcome variable. However, there are equally compelling reasons for keeping it on the right side of the equation. For example, prior work has treated truancy as theoretically and causally prior to racial prejudice (Macleod, 1995; Patchen, 1982; Wang, 1994). Second, given that this study focuses on high school seniors, there is reason to believe that the extent of racial prejudice might be underestimated due to the omission of high school drop-outs. Keeping truancy in my models allows me to mitigate this potential bias because previous work has shown that truancy is an important precursor to dropping out of high school (Voelkl, Welte & Wieczorek, 1999), especially for whites (Jordan, Lara & McPartland, 1996). Thus, if we assume that truants and dropouts have similar racial attitudes (there is empirical evidence from Macleod (1995) and Pinderhughes (1997) to suppott such an assumption) the inclusion of a measure of truancy in the present analysis should reduce bias associated with omitting high school drop-outs. Therefore, while the endogeneity problem is of some concern here it is superseded by a concern for presenting an analysis that is consistent with previous model specifications and that minimizes bias associated with omitting drop-outs. 3. The complex sampling design employed in this study means that the actual sampling variance may be larger than the variance expected from a simple random sample. Frequently this also means that standard errors reported from conventional statistical packages (e.g. SPSS and SAS) will underestimate the true sampling variability. Therefore, I used standard errors adjusted utilizing the Taylor series linearization method (for a discussion of this method see Lehtonen & Pahkinen, 1995). 4. When measuring racial attitudes it is important to draw a distinction between questions that consider commitments to abstract principles (social norms) and those that consider desires for one's own life (personal preferences) (for a discussion of this distinction see Schuman, Steeh, Bobo & Krysan, 1997, Chapters 1 and 7). As Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) have shown, personal preferences are most relevant for individual behavior. In addition to their relevance for behavior, American youth's personal preferences also have been shown to be more reliable over time than general attitudes toward social norms (Brackbill, 1974). Therefore, in this study I use social distance items aimed at eliciting white youth's personal desires and preferences regarding social distance between the races. Several recent studies have also used social distance attitudes as one measure of racial prejudice with some success (Dyer, Vedlitz & Worchel, 1989; Herring & Amissah, 1997; Johnson & Marini, 1998; Schuman, Steeh, Bobo & Krysan, 1997; Smith & Dempsey, 1983; Wilson, 1996). 5. This factor structure is consistent with Johnson and Marini's (1998) confirmatory factor analyses of the same items. 6. Supplemental analyses revealed that on all outcome variables no statistically significant difference existed between the "very conservative" and "radical" categories. As a result I combined these categories into "very conservative." 7. Given the different theoretical expectations for the two variables (i.e. religious importance and religious attendance) in the research literature (see Allport, 1954; Allport & Ross, 1967) and their high degree of collinearity (r = 0.72) in the present study I chose the measure that has been shown to be most reliable among adolescents instead of combining them into a single scale or examining their influence separately. Future research should investigate these issues further.
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8. Some argue that each of these items are measuring the same underlying dimension. An examination of their intercorrelation, however, shows only moderate associations (r = 0.33 between grades and academic track, r = 0.34 between grades and college aspirations, and r = 0.50 between academic track and college aspirations). In addition, others claim that these "academic orientation" items really measure "social class." Again, an examination of the intercorrelation between parent's educational attainment and the academic orientation measures reveals small to moderate associations (r = 0.19 between grades and social class, r = 0.22 between academic track and social class, and r = 0.32 between college aspirations and social class). 9. Previous research shows that student's self-reported grades and their actual grades taken from official school records are strongly correlated (r = 0.80) (see Donovan & Jessor, 1985; Dombusch et al., 1987). In addition, this variable was highly skewed with most students reporting grades of As and Bs. Because there were so few students reporting Ds this category was combined with Cs in order to have enough students within each category to conduct reliable statistical analyses. Therefore, the recoded academic track measure consisted of three categories: "1" (Cs and Ds), "2" (Bs) and
"3" (As). 10. Supplemental analyses revealed that on all outcome variables no statistically significant difference existed between the "vocational/technical" and "other" categories. As a result I combined these categories into "vocational." 11. Standard deviation units, or effect sizes, provide a common metric for evaluating results both within and across studies. For substantive interpretations I rely on the standards described by Rosenthal and Rosnow (1991) for effect sizes (ES): ES =< 0.10 are considered trivial, ES =< 0.20 are considered small, effects =< 0.50 are considered medium, and effects ~ 0.50 are considered large (see also Cohen, 1988). There are two types of effect sizes: variance accounted for measures (e.g. R-squared [R2], eta-squared [~q2], omega-squared [to2], rho [p], or eta I-q]) or standardized difference measures (e.g. standardized differences in means) (for further discussion see Cohen, 1988). I rely on the latter effect sizes here. 12. It should be noted that these results are more in line with research among adults which has consistently found that religious people are more prejudice than non-religious people. (Allport & Kramen, 1946; Allport & Ross, 1967: Batson & Ventis, 1982; Batson & Burris, 1994; Gorsuch, 1988; Herring & Amissah, 1997). 13. This is most likely to be the case since in the present study religious importance and church attendance are highly correlated (r = 0.72). 14. Regression models for the outcome variable "Black/White Relations Worse" were omitted given the weak bivariate associations reported in Tables 3a and 3b. These results are available from the author. 15. However, this study only reported trends for young whites' social distance attitudes and made no attempt to link these social trends to the existing debate on the changing nature of whites' racial attitudes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Duane Alwin, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Reynolds Farley, James Jackson, David Kinney, Steve Raudenbush, John Wallace, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.
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APPENDIX Question Wording for Measures of Racial Attitudes Measures of Racial Attitudes
Attitude towards Integration How would you feel about having close personal friends of another race? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about having a job with a supervisor of a different race? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about having a family of a different race (but same level of education and income) move next door to you? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about having some of your future children's friends be of other races? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about having a job where some employees are of a different race? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about living in an area where some of the neighbors are of other races? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about having your future children go to schools where some of the children are of other races? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4)
Attitude towards Segregation How would you feel about having your future children's friends be all of your race? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about having a job where all the employees are of your race? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about living in an area where all the neighbors are of your race? (Not at aI1 acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4) How would you feel about having your future children go to schools where all the children are of your race? (Not at all acceptable = 1; Somewhat acceptable = 2; Acceptable = 3; Desirable = 4)
BETWEEN A "SOFT" A N D A "HARD" PLACE: GENDER IDENTITY IN THE SCHOOLING A N D JOB BEHAVIORS OF LOW-INCOME MINORITY YOUTH Prudence L. Carter
INTRODUCTION In our society, individuals juggle several identities; contemporary African American and Latino youth are no different. They often engage unconsciously in a balancing act to handle matters of their racial, ethnic, gender and class identities. Their social positions not only affect their behaviors within social institutions such as schools and workplaces, but they also shape their daily interactions with each other. Moreover, social organizations, such as schools, reward students with varying social identities differentially (Bowles & Gintis, 1976; Solomon, 1991; Willis, 1977; Fordham, 1996; Best, 1983). Thus, the interaction of these social forces can lead to significant differences in educational, social and economic attainment between males and females. This article addresses how the interaction of race, ethnic, class and gender identity differentially impact male and female youths' of color negotiation of schooling and their approaches to the opportunity structure. Research shows that African American and Latino female students appear to maintain higher educational aspirations and academic achievement than their
Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Volume8, pages 211-233. Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN: 0-7623-0051-5
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male counterparts (Ford & Harris, 1992; Solorzano, 1992; Fordham, 1993; Carter & Wilson, 1997). While significant differences in academic performance between boys and gifts have been well documented, social scientists require more understanding in why these patterns occur. 1 Some argue that minority girls may not reject schooling to the extent that minority boys do because they do not experience the same level of estrangement from the normalized American female roles as their male counterparts experience vis-a-vis the normalized male role (Fordham, 1993). Fuller (1980), in studying Afro-Caribbean women's response to sexism and racism in British society, found that these women were specifically critical of the world of school. Yet, they took an instrumental approach to schooling, acting in accordance with school standards for a credential that promised a better job in the future. While not the model "good" students, these women did sufficient work to obtain the credential. Minority women who seemed less expectant of future economic support from men would employ such a strategy. Other studies have shown that the more "feminine" the gender identity of both boys and girls, the better their performance as measured by classroom grade point averages. Burke suggests that certain behaviors, such as sitting still and paying attention in class, are imbued with "feminine" meaning and therefore are avoided by individuals with more "masculine" identities (1989, 166). At the same time, research has shown that while minority boys may not perform as well, they embrace the value of a school credential for instrumental reasons, such as the acquisition of a high school diploma for collegiate sport eligibility (Solomon, 1991). When social scientists introduce race and ethnicity with gender, the processes that lead to gender differences may become more complex. Past research has presented evidence that minority youth are active social agents who maintain distinctive identities (see also Giroux, 1983; Solomon, 1991). Yet, this research has not dealt explicitly with between-gender differences in the negotiation of schooling, focusing instead on either males or females alone (see Holland & Eisenhart, 1990; MacLeod, 1987; Solomon, 1991). With the interactions among race, ethnicity, gender and class, the idea of "appropriate" self-action becomes more complicated for low-income minority adolescents. Poor urban African American and Latino teenagers wrestle not only with the normative developmental tasks of adolescence, but also with racial, ethnic and gender role constructions within their communities and larger society. In this article, I will examine how the constructions of masculinity and femininity, invoked through the respondents' usage of metaphors such as "hardness" and "softness," respectively, influence African American and Latino youths' active ways of being in school. The following data will reveal that some African American and Latino youth maintain a need to wrap themselves in a "hard"
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(tough) coat of armor to protect themselves against bleak social conditions within poor neighborhoods. However when these social actors face larger structural conditions, certain behaviors imbued with a "feminine" (or "soft") meaning may serve as a relative advantage for females in their social and economic attainment. These findings suggest that we examine the simultaneity of race, class and gender forces in addressing academic and economic mobility outcomes. Methods: Sample and Data Collection
The findings presented here draw extensively on survey and interview data collected from a mixed-gender, inter-ethnic sample of 68 low-income youth who took part in a research study that I conducted (see Table 1 for sample breakdown). The adolescent respondents who comprise the sample were interviewed over a 10-month period from November 1997 to August 1998. They, along with other members of their families, are research participants in a larger quasi-experimental longitudinal and separately funded study of 317 low-income African American and Latino families from various neighborhoods in Yonkers, NY - the Yonkers Family and Community Project (YF&CP). All of these youth are native born racial and ethnic minorities. The group of Latinos consists primarily of first and second generation Puerto Rican and Dominican youth, while the African American youth have ancestral roots that stretch mainly from the southern U.S. and New York. In addition, all of my respondents' families would be described as poor, according to both state and federal guidelines. They lived in low-income government-subsidized homes, where the interviews and many observations took place. Until 1994, all of the respondents spent many of their formative years growing up in the same high poverty, predominantly minority neighborhoods. 2 About 85% of the youth in the sample lived in a single-parent household. The individual interview instrument consisted of two parts: an unstructured interview protocol and a short survey comprised of closed-ended and widely used and reliable measures. These interviews made inquiries about the research participants' beliefs about opportunity, educational and career aspirations, school performance and delinquent behaviors, job attainment, gender roles, "appropriate" ethnic or cultural behavior among their peers and family (e.g. speech, dress, codeswitching). Secondly, data gathered from several single-sex group interviews with the same research participants was used to complement and triangulate the data gathered from the individual interviews and to allow the researcher to ascertain the opinions of a larger number of research participants in a relatively easy-to-access fashion. Similarly, these unstructured group
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Table 1.
Gender, Ethnic, and Age Breakdown of Sample.
African American
Latino
Total N
Ages 13-15 Ages 16-20
Female Male
25 (60%) 17 (40%)
13 (50%) 13 (50%)
38 (56%) 30 (44%)
17 (50%) 17 (50%)
21 (62%) 13 (38%)
Total N
42 (100%)
26 (100%)
68 (100%)
34 (100%)
34 (100%)
interviews explored the meaning behind beliefs, attitudes and actions that deal with racial and ethnic and gender identity, as well the research participants' beliefs about the opportunity structure, race relations, and the means to success and achievement in this society.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Acting and (Mis)Achieving: Gender Differences in School Performance As Table 2 shows, female students in this sample reported a significantly higher mean grade point average - 79.85, compared to a mean of 74.61 for males (p < 0.05). Furthermore, girls were more than 21/2 times as likely to report being "B" students; and boys were more than 21/2 times as likely to report being "C" students (p < 0.10). These data also reveal significant differences between males and females in terms of other school behaviors and beliefs. For example, cutting school and hanging with the "fellas" (other guys) became much more identifiable with the male teenagers. Gifts admitted to practicing these behaviors also, but the expectation that males would engage in them was much greater. Statistical analyses reveal that the males in the sample were significantly more likely to cut an entire day of school than the females. Thirty-five percent of the males admitted to cutting school often or sometimes, compared to only 9% of the females (p < 0.05) (see Table 2). Frequently, both male and female respondents mentioned the differences between boys and girls in approaches and attitudes toward schooling. Almost all of the girls in the sample believed that gifts take a more pragmatic approach to school, perform better and thus are more likely to succeed. Similarly, male respondents often commented that gifts are smarter and presented themselves better to employers. Yet, several boys were careful to distinguish between "school smarts" and "street smarts," the latter of which they believed boys
Gender Identity in the Schooling and Job Behaviors of Minority Youth Table 2.
2i5
S c h o o l i n g B e h a v i o r s and Aspirations by Gender.
Percent Who: Cut Often/Sometimes Cut an Entire Day of School Are mainly "B" Students Are mainly "C" Students Participate in School Team Sports Aspire to Attend College Mean Grade Point Average Total N
Females 9%** 61%* 22%* 26%* 84% 79.85** 26a
Males 35% 23% 58% 50% 87% 74.61 23
**p<0.05; *p<0.10; aThe total N is based only on those who were enrolled in school at interview time.
possessed more. As 17-year old M i c h a e l * p e r c e i v e d it, girls w e r e m o r e " b o o k " smart than boys but not m o r e "street" smart: Michael: Girls' just smarter than boys. Girls is smarter in class work, but not streetwise. They fight over stupid stuff. (Imitating) "She got my sneakers on!" "I don't like her, she be looking at me." Boys is like smarter than that. Only thing you ain't gone do is let somebody play you, or like put their hands on you. M i c h a e l described h o w girls did not possess the s a m e interpersonal negotiation skills that boys possessed. H e b e l i e v e d that girls conflicted o v e r petty matters, w h i l e males were m o r e likely to conflict with violations o f the "street" c o d e that A n d e r s o n (1990, 1994) has described. Various behaviors about h o w to handle o n e s e l f in an inner city, p l a g u e d by m a n y social and e c o n o m i c woes, constitute "street smarts." F o r example, it includes k n o w i n g h o w to l o o k another in the eye, averting o n e ' s g a z e at the right m o m e n t ; k n o w i n g h o w to a v o i d potentially lifethreatening fights and encounters; also k n o w i n g h o w to d e f e n d o n e s e l f through fighting; and h o w to navigate through dangerous (i.e. gang) territories. Others like 18-year old Sylvestre and 15-year old Tiara surmised that school differences c o u l d be e x p l a i n e d by sex differences in p s y c h o s o c i a l d e v e l o p m e n t (e.g. levels o f maturity) and parental monitoring: Sylvestre: I think that it will be easier for a woman. Girls and women are a little bit smnarter than us. It's true. I'm serious. I see it. They think smarter than guys. P.C.: Why do you think that they are smarter? Sylvestre: I don't know. I know that they got a little more push, a little more drive.
* I use pseudonyms throughout this text to protect my respondents' privacy and identities.
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P.C.: Do you as a young male feel more pressure to conform or to hang out with your partners? Sylvestre: I think that now I think we bored. I think like between the teens and the early 20s, there's like a phase that guys go through. Like guys just got to be guys, like just hang out, just be on the comer, chill. Some guys stay on the corner, and girls just say let me think, let me get my life together. PC: In your opinion, in school, do you think it's easier for boys or girls to be really smart in school? Tiara: A girl. PC: Why do you say that? Tiara: Well, boys I know are not into books. Most girls I know love to read, whites, black all, in the library. Boys just love gym. Boys that I know just love to go to gym. But girls are not. I'm not interested in gym, but I play gym. PC: Is that the norm that the girls perform better than the boys? Tiara: Unn-huh (affirmative). PC: Why do you think that girls perform better than boys? Tiara: I dunno about that. Most boys just come to school to play. Boys always are in gym; that's one class that boys do not miss. I always think about that. But I'm saying, most girls, I mean, they're just in class. Most boys are always cutting. Like when I'm going to the bathroom or something, the boys in the hallway playing, rolling dice or something. PC: But girls want to have fun too, don't they? Why do you think that girls stick to the rules more easily than boys? Tiara: I don't know, but for me some of my classes I do like to be in and those that I don't like to be in, I still go to. I like to hang out, do what I have to do, but my mother has a rule. If I don't go to school, then I can't go outside. Sick or playing like you're sick, can't go outside. So that's why I go to school, cause otherwise I can't do the things that I want to do. When I'm ready to do 'era, I can't. So, that's why I do my thing at school, 'cause when I get home I want to hang out with my friends, call my friends up, you know, go outside. But if I don't [go to school] then I can't. On one hand, Sylvestre suggest that males and females have different develo p m e n t a l trajectories, w h i l e T i a r a s u g g e s t t h a t t h e s a n c t i o n s f r o m h e r m o t h e r for n o t a t t e n d i n g classes a n d d o i n g h e r s c h o o l w o r k matter. L a t e r in this article, I s u g g e s t h o w d i f f e r e n c e s i n p a r e n t a l e x p e c t a t i o n s for m a l e s a n d f e m a l e s m a y t r a n s l a t e i n t o t h e b e h a v i o r a l p a t t e r n s m e n t i o n e d b y S y l v e s t r e a n d Tiara. The processes that determine the differential schooling behaviors of these b o y s a n d girls are c o m p l e x . B e s i d e s t h e structural issues s u c h as c u r r i c u l a r l i m i t a t i o n s , ability t r a c k i n g , l o w t e a c h e r e x p e c t a t i o n s , w h i c h o t h e r s d i s c u s s elsew h e r e ( B e r e n d s , 1995; M a c L e o d , 1987; L u c a s , 1999; Carter, 1999), g e n d e r i d e n t i t y issues p l a y e d s o m e role in t h e i r b e h a v i o r s . F o r m y m a l e r e s p o n d e n t s , i s s u e s o f m a s c u l i n i t y p r e o c c u p i e d a g r e a t deal o f t h e i r t h o u g h t p r o c e s s e s . A n d b o t h o b s e r v a t i o n s a n d ideas s h a r e d b y t h e r e s p o n d e n t s t h e m s e l v e s r a i s e d
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questions about the extent to which the school behaviors of many of the males mirrored what they saw daily in their respective housing projects. At home, they encountered numerous unemployed men, hanging out in the parking lot, rejected by an increasingly technocratic and service economy that has tittle use for the unskilled, manual laborer. For these young men, symbols and expressions of manhood - more importantly either a black or Hispanic manhood - maintained a critical role in their daily existence. In this next section, I examine why these influences matter.
The Hardness of Being a Man Both male and female respondents explained differences in schooling and actual job attainment behaviors using discourse around issues of femininity and masculinity and gender roles. The salience and relevance of being "hard" was sprinkled throughout numerous interviews, especially among the female respondents who quite readily pointed out gender differences, as the following excerpt reveals: 3 P.C.: [Do] you think that it's easier, from the point of view of your peers, for a girl to be smart or do well in school or for a boy to be smart? Adrienne: It's easier for a girl to be smart because if a boy is smart, he gets stuff from his crew or whatever like, "Ah man you're soft, you're soft! I can't believe you know that poetry stuff." So they'll [boys] try to hide that they're smart that they know stuff like that. So I think that it's easier for a girl. Being "hard" encompassed being able to take the gamble and risk reprimands and suspensions by cutting school, being truant, and hanging out with the guys. As Fig. 1 reveals, 57% of the males reported getting a kick out of engaging in risky and dangerous behaviors compared to only 37% of the females (p = 0.10). Throughout the data, there was clear evidence that my young male respondents experienced much pressure to be the "man." Manliness entailed the ability to appear "hard" and not too "soft." For example, during an all-male group discussion, 13-year old Marcus accused 13-year old Michael of being "soft" because he refused to fight. "Hardness" has emerged as a coat of armor, a protection against the battle scars from a history of severe social and economic oppressions, ranging from racial insubordination to the fines of de-industrialization and the loss of jobs in the central cities. Its contemporary meanings stem from lives of inner-city poverty where an underground economy "thrives," where turf wars of gang members endanger the lives of its residents, where individuals must generate creative and often illicit plans to survive, and where a different communicative system and styles of interaction materialize (Liebow,
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1967; Anderson, 1994; Kelley, 1994; Wilson, 1987; Massey & Denton, 1993). Although several of my male respondents shared their woes about living daily with the negative stereotypes of black and Latino men, often the actual male models found within neighborhoods conformed to those images of streetcorner men (Liebow, 1967; Hannerz, 1969). In my visits to their housing complexes during the afternoons, I observed many men hanging out in the parking lots and comers; and my respondents would describe them either as unemployed or as "street pharmacists" (a colloquial term used for those who sell drugs). Gender expectations for males and females are inscribed within every facet of U.S. society and in the ways individuals move, gesture, and interact. Therefore, they are inescapable. Scholar-activist Frances Beale argued over three decades ago: America has defined the roles to which each individual should subscribe. It has defined 'manhood' in terms of its own interests[;] [t]herefore, an individual who has a good job, makes a lot of money, and drives a Cadillac is a real 'man,' and conversely, an individual who is lacking in these 'qualities' is less of a man. The advertising media in this country continuously inform the American male of his need for indispensable signs of his virility (Beale, 1975).
Connell (1995) refers to this notion of manliness as the hegemonic conceptualization of masculinity. The males interviewed in this study greatly embraced parts of the hegemonic conceptualization of masculinity. Massive unemployment and urban poverty, coupled with institutional racism, however, have powerfully interacted to reshape the notion of masculinity for black and Latino males (Liebow, 1967; Staples, 1982). Figure 2 shows that both the African American and Latino males in the sample subscribed to normative beliefs about the connection between manhood and job success. In fact, 60% of them believed that respect for men came with the acquisition of a good job. Almost an equal percentage of females maintained a similar belief. However, the males were more likely than their female peers to hang on to the last vestiges of traditional beliefs about a "man's role" and a "woman's place." Well over one-third of them believed that it was better that a man was the provider and the woman was the homemaker, compared to only 13% of the females in the sample. Further analyses, however, reveal that the Latino males adhered to these beliefs more than the African American males, and thus account for the significant differences between males and females in the sample. 4 Because girls generally perform better scholastically than boys, boys might be compelled to find alternative school practices to distinguish themselves from those associated with girls. In this study, team sports and rap music appeared to be the activities that preoccupied many of the boys' minds. Fifty percent of
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the boys played a team sport, compared to 26% of the girls. Also, the most popular career choice among the boys was professional athlete, followed very closely by businessman. Some have suggested that a fixation with excelling in school sports versus academic achievement have become alternatives to classroom success for minority males, particularly black males (Solomon, 1991; Hoberman, 1997). A preoccupation with sports by the majority of the males in the sample does not signify that these young men did not acknowledge the value of obtaining a high school diploma. As Table 2 revealed, 87% of the males aspired to attend college, compared to 84% of the females. Nor does it signify that being a male precludes being a high achiever in school; 15% of the males (compared to 30% of the females) in the sample were classified as "high school achievers." Yet, it does suggest that these young men, influenced by normative cultural values about both work and manhood, sought a high school credential as a means to obtain financial success. Unfortunately, most desired to obtained this success through one of the very few avenues that a limited opportunity structure has allowed for many men of color - the professional sports world - even though less than 1% of college athletes make the cut into professional sports. Still, black male professional athletes, in particular, have become exemplars for hegemonic masculinity, although their fame and wealth have not yielded much social authority to black men as a whole (Connell, 1995).
Girls Can't Be Too Soft Although the evidence suggests that girls approach schooling and mobility in ways more in accordance with school authorities' expectations, this does not dismiss the fact that these young women still struggled and often did not perform up to par. School failure did exist among them; and the notion of "hardness" frequently transcended gender. That is, the males in the sample did not hold exclusive rights to the need to appear "hard." Girls, too, often had to project tough images so that they could avoid being picked on by others. Fighting was a common practice through which that tough image is projected. Much of this behavior arose from their needs to protect their self-image and their egos from insults and affronts. During one of my female group interviews, I inquired about the prevalence of fights, and they explained it to me this way: P.C.: You know that I've interviewed a lot of teenagers, and I want to l~low why are girls fighting so much? What would cause you to fight someone? AI: Boys! A2: Boys!
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A3: Boys! A4: That's stupid. A5: It I ain't married to him, I ain't fighting over him. P.C.: Have any of you have ever been in a fight? A: Not over boys! (several of them say this) P.C.: Have you ever been in a fight at all? They all say, "yeah!" P.C.: Over what? AI: Over trash talking. A2: Over gossip. A3: She said, he said. A4: Trash talk. P.C.: What about just trying to talk your way out of things instead of fighting? AI: I'm sick and tired of talking. It don't work! It don't work! A2: If you try to talk it out, they say, "Oh come home, pussy, you all chicken and that kind of stuff." All six of the girls in this particular group interview had b e e n in fights with other girls (and occasionally with boys) at school. Bickering c o n t i n u o u s l y over limited resources and social goods - e.g. respect and b o y s ' attention, girls were typically described as the "fighters" by the majority of m y respondents. Respect is so inextricably l i n k e d to a "tough" persona, m e a n i n g that the more an indiv i d u a l ' s d e m e a n o r and behavior signify that she c a n n o t be reckoned with, the greater her formidability. W h e n p u s h e d further to explain their reasons for fighting, they often criticized these reasons for fighting. Still, these girls fought and one essential m o t i v e for fighting was to avoid b e i n g considered too "soft." "Softness," an essence c o n v e n t i o n a l l y associated with the female, had d i m i n ished in social appeal to m a n y of m y female respondents. Frequently, they verbalized their u n d e r s t a n d i n g of what the d o m i n a n t construction of "female" roles were and recognized that fighting a m o n g females defied the n o t i o n of " b e i n g a lady" - that to which females should aspire. A c c o r d i n g to 17-year old Rayesha: "Your parents is o n you. ' B e a lady. Cross your legs. D o n ' t curse.' Y o u know. ' A n d d o n ' t use certain language. D o n ' t scream too loud. Be a lady. Put o n short skirts and . . . [ d o n ' t go] p u n c h i n g [others] in the face and fight. M y m o t h e r ' s like ' D o n ' t fight. Be a lady.' " H a n n a h had the following to say about the expectations of black w o m e n : Hannah: Yeah because a Black woman is supposed to, is expected to be nice and conservative. But then the guys, there are no expectations for guys, because guys are going to be guys regardless. And if a girl doesn't, if she doesn't act the way that they feel a woman should act, then they call her all kinds of names and stuff like that.
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P.C,: Like what? Hannah: Like, she ain't no good and stuff like that. I don't know, she think, I don't know (sucks her teeth nervously). P.C,: A bunch of bad words? Hannah: Yeah, a bunch of bad things, or you know, whatever, stereotyping her, and they don't even really know her. P.C.: So, they call women bitches and ho's? Hannah: Yeah (sounds relieved that Prudence said it first), and sluts and stuff like that. P.C.: But if they do it, it's different? Hannah: It's a whole different story. Don't no one call them no names. It's like it's all right for them to do it but it's not all right for a female to do it and I don't understand that. In this dialogue, Hannah appeared exasperated over the double standards held for males and females around sexual behaviors. Also, she expressed her frustration that female agency is limited compared to that of males, since women would be sanctioned more by society for asserting sexual freedom. Although Hannah and other female informants ascertained that a w o m a n ' s respect was linked to how "nice" and "conservative" or "lady-like" she could be, they frequently mentioned and exhibited behaviors that did not conform to these images. Some competition, conflict, and tension surfaced in many of the African American girls' social relationships. Three of the non-black Latina females shared stories of physical and verbal aggressions as well. Often flamed through channels of hearsay, the tension among these girls would escalate to a breaking point, eventually resulting in a fight. Consequently, several of them were suspended from school for fighting. Quite commonly I heard responses that girls cannot have "true girlfriends" because women are "two-faced" and are not trustworthy. Some girls said that they could talk to boys more easily than other girls. At one point during an all female group interview, several commented: "Girls around here will turn they back on you. They tell your business. You don't want to beat them up, but you have to." Anderson (1990) has suggested that African American teenage girls, in particular, find themselves engaging in typically masculine behaviors when they work not to appear too "soft." Much of the literature on gender stresses different cultures between males and females, but these generalizations about "girls' and b o y s ' cultures" come primarily from research done on those who are classprivileged and white. This literature argues that boys stress position and hierarchy, whereas girls emphasize the construction of intimacy and connection (e.g. Gilligan, 1982). Research on racial and ethnic minority and working class girls has shown that these patterns do not necessarily hold within these communities (see Brown, 1999). To some extent, physical aggression and verbal
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assertiveness are common modes of expression among both African American males and females, which resonate historically with African American culture (Goodwin, 1991; Stevens, 1997). Various academic works have indicated that "playing the dozens" and brassy behavior have been defined as ritualized forms of insult to express power and aggression in social interactions among African Americans (Gates, 1988; Goodwin, 1991; Major, 1994). Way (1996) has argued that as adolescent girls mature and become involved in romantic relationships, trust among same-sex peers diminishes and their sense of betrayal augments as they experience others' "stealing" their romantic partners. She notes that "These heightened feelings of self-protection and vulnerability may cause adolescents to become increasingly cautious about whom they trust among their peers, who are also physically and sexually maturing and, perhaps, becoming more wary and self-protected" (Way, 1996, 187). Certainly, my female respondents channeled a great deal of energy into not being manipulated, not coming across as too "soft," and not being easily made fun of or taken advantage of. Also, Fordham (1993) has used the metaphor of "toudness," referring also to the boisterous and assertive language of Black girls, as another indicator of this necessity not to appear too "soft." "Loudness," Fordham argues, "is meant as one of the ways by which African American women seek to deny the society's efforts to assign them to a stigmatized status.., proclaiming African American women's existence, their collective denial of, and resistance to, their socially proclaimed powerlessness, or 'nothingness'" (1993, 25). Similarly, Holland and Eisenhart (1990) found that black college women found it necessary to project a "together person" image, one who is not easily messed with, made fun of, and could not be manipulated. Despite scholars' and writers' documentation of intense, supportive relationships among women of color (Collins, 1991; Anzaldt~a, 1990; Guy-Sheftall, 1996), much of my evidence suggests that these relationships are much more complex than they appear on the surface for these poor, young teenage girls. Their tendencies to fight each other for male affection and attention also illuminated some of the existent conflict between the demands of female culture and their own personal goals.
Gender Differences in Aspirations and Parental Expectations Since girls could not be to "soft," a significant number of the female respondents did exhibit problem behaviours in school. In fact, of the dropouts in the study (a total of 15%), 70% were female. Their reasons for dropping out varied. Consistently, they shared stories of frustration with the pedagogical approaches employed by their teachers, boredom with school, family problems, and peer pressure. Nevertheless, over half of the female dropouts (compared to one third
225
Gender Identity in the Schooling and Job Behaviors of Minority Youth
of the male dropouts) realized the necessity to get "that piece of paper" and were at the time of interview enrolled in either GED or vocational education programs. Moreover, these young females challenged traditional notions about what constituted "women's work." Some researchers and scholars have argued that boys and girls in American society are socialized in very different ways, with girls' tending to avoid high-prestige occupations, and boys' being trained toward high achievement (e.g. Taylor, Gilligan & Sullivan, 1995). On the contrary, 75% of the Latina girls aspired to professional, specialty occupations. 5 Although both the males and females in the sample maintained high job aspirations, the latter aspired to hold slightly more prestigious jobs than the former (p < 0.1O) (see Table 3). For them, there existed two modal job preference categories: physician and fashion designer. Eighty-four percent of the African American girls aspired to professional, specialty jobs; their modal category job preference category was lawyer. Meanwhile, only 40% of Latino males aspired to professional, specialty occupations (excluding professional athletics); auto mechanic was the modal job preference category. When excluding professional athletics - the modal job preference for African American males, the analysis shows that only 44% of them aspired to professional, specialty jobs. 6 These findings then are quite striking, considering the current body of literature on gender role socialization and career development and mirror labor statistics which reveal that higher percentages of women of color are represented in professional occupations than their male counterparts (Jaynes & Williams, 1989). 7 Frequently, social science research ignores the interaction of race, ethnicity, gender and class and misses these patterns that do not conform to career choices and career development patterns of white, middle-class youth. In environments Table 3.
Comparison of Prestige Scores a of Jobs Aspired to, by Gender.
Percent Who Aspire to Professional, Specialty Occupationsa Mean Prestige Score for Job Aspired to Total N
Male
Female
38% 55.18 26
76%* 62.54** 37
SampleTotal 59% 59.50 63
* p < 0.01; **p = 0.06; ~Excludesprofessional athlete, ff professional athletic careers were included, this percentage would increase for males to 63%. i These prestige scores were developed by the National Opinion Research Council (NORC) for the 1980 Census occupational classification.
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P R U D E N C E L. C A R T E R
where men have difficulties securing jobs, the prospects of both marriage and a dual-income family have dimmed (Wilson, 1987). Unlike their white counterparts, minority females are socialized to view marriage separately from economic security, because historically it has not been expected that marriage will ever remove them from the labor market (Jones, 1985; Fuller, 1988; Holland & Eisenhart, 1990; Fernandez-Kelly, 1995). These analyses suggest that some African American and Latino mothers appear to be raising their daughters not to be too "soft," to be self-sufficient and not to be financially dependent on male partners. It is important to understand the family and community context in which these young women are being raised. Approximately 15% of the youth in the sample lived in a two-parent household. For the majority, their daily parental contact came from their mothers, who as unmarried heads of households are raising their children alone with whatever financial means they can muster, and 71% of my respondents' mothers worked outside the home. As Table 4 reveals, overall a significantly higher percentage of the females' mothers expected that their daughters had a high chance of having a better life than they have in the future and attending college. That is, 89% of the females' mothers expected their daughters to have a high chance of a better life than they, compared with only 59% of the males' mothers. Eighty-three percent of the females' mothers believed that their daughters had a high chance of attending college, compared with only 56% of the males' mothers. Eighty percent of the females' mothers, versus 59% of the males' mothers, believed that their daughters would obtain a well-paying job in the future. Still, roughly equal percentages of my respondents' mothers maintained high educational aspirations Table 4.
Parents' Expectation for Life Chances and School Aspirations, By Gender. Females
Males
89%
59%*
Percent Parents believe that R has a high chance of a better life than parent Percent Parents believe that R has a high chance of attending college Percent Parents believe that R has a high chance for a well-paying job in future Percent Parents aspire that R attends college
83%
56%*
80% 91%
59% 89%
Total N
35
27
*p < 0.05 (two-sided chi-square)
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for their children; 91% and 89% of the females' and males' mothers, respectively, desired for their' children to attend at least junior college or part of a 4-year college program. This high rate of mother-headed families among these youth raises questions about how children who live in these contexts form expectations about their economic futures and family life courses.
Economic Implications for the "Man" Compared to their female counterparts, many of the boys in the sample embraced gestures and practices that could potentially threaten their social and economic progress in efforts to maintain that "hard" image. For instance, the evidence of the "hard" personae maintained by these young men has some implications in the current research on working class and poor African American and Latino males in the labor market. Moss' and Tilly's (1996) work on urban labor markets and minority men suggests that the "hard" persona has often been misinterpreted by employers as aggressive and threatening, consequently denying these young, urban, low-income males job opportunities. Employers look for "soft" or non-cognitive skills such as a certain type of interactional and communicative style and demeanor (Kirschenman & Neckerman, 1991). According to Moss and Tilly, these "soft" skills are in part culturally defined, and in their study of employers, African American men rated poorly on these subjective, non-cognitive measures of evaluation. It is important to note the difference between the "soft" that my male respondents used to characterize femininity, and the "soft" that Moss and Tilly use to describe non-cognitive skills preferred by white employers. Although these two connotations of "soft" are quite interrelated, the former most often refers to the quality of perceived female traits and femininity, with male sex roles as the reference category. The latter connotation takes mainstream (white) cultural styles as the reference point and characterizes as "soft" those non-cognitive tastes and skills that are preferable and more pervasive in certain workplaces. Meanwhile, many of the males and females in this sample have interpreted these lost job opportunities as employers' preferences for female employees because they are more likely to possess these "soft" skills. Several male respondents commented that retailers were more likely to hire females as cashiers, for example, because they are seen as less threatening and more capable of conforming to the "right" dress styles and codes. Excerpts from interviews with two young males (one Dominican, the other African American) and one young woman (Puerto Rican) make this point most directly: P.C.: Whenyoulookaroundyou,do youthinkit's goingto be easierfor you as a Dominicanman to succeedin life? Or will it be easierfor yoursister as a Dominicanwomanto succeedin life?
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Alberto: I think it'll be easier for her. The Dominican woman. To succeed in life. P.C.: Why do you think that? Alberto: Tell you the truth, ladies and-when they're characterized and situated. That they're really not . . . they're not characterized in that racial group as much as it would be a Dominican man. As they stereotype us to be. Because most Dominicans are characterized as drug dealers. P.C.: That's the men or the women? Alberto: The males, P.C.: So women don't have that problem? Alberto: No.
P.C.: Do you think it is easier for black men or black women to succeed in life? DeAndre: I think for black women. It's easy for them to get a job, but in a lot of jobs only men would do like construction. No gifts would want to get her hands all messed up. You know what I ' m talking about right? I ' m saying a girl can do that, but that's not for a gift. That's more for a man to me. P.C.: Why do you think it is easier though for a black woman to get a job? DeAndre: Most of the job managers when you go to apply for a job might be black men, and they prefer to hire a female. Most gifts carry themselves in a different way from boys. Gifts are more well-mannered than boys.
P.C.: What about in larger in society? Do you think it would be easier for you as a young Puerto Rican woman to get a job, or would it be easier for your brother? Is it easier for women or for men? Sylvia: Women. P.C.: Why do you say that? Sylvia: I think that it's easier for a woman to get a job now because of the way they dress, the way they present themselves. You look good, you have a job if it's a guy boss. But men, they don't really get hired. I don't know why. That's how I see it because they don't really present themselves. They are very slow. P.C.: How do they tend to present themselves? Sylvia: Ghetto! There's a lot of ghetto people out here now. A lot of teenagers, they ghetto. They like to dress with their pants down to here. They like to have their hair wild, with the braids. You can't really get a job like that. P.C.: So women are less likely to go in dressing like that? They know what employers expect? Sylvia: Exactly! The association of "soft" skills with females and the expectation that females possess the proclivity for these skills has particular economic
consequences,
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suggesting that in a burgeoning service economy, minority women are more likely to be employed. Hence, gender differences might coincide with the way that opportunities have been made available in this society. For instance, although both groups' hiring percentages were significantly and strikingly lower than their white counterparts, Holzer (1996) found that among Blacks, the hiring of females relative to males rises with the number of tasks performed and credentials required. In addition, the probability for hire is greater for black females than males when the job requirement includes much customer contact. Some of these differences may owe to the actual feminization of certain job sectors; there exists greater concentration of females than males in clerical and sales job. No doubt, these patterns occur because of the occupational choices of employees by gender as well as employer preferences (Holzer, 1996). Employers may prefer to hire females for certain types of jobs for reasons not easily measured or observed and tied to internalized beliefs about masculinity and femininity. And further, many of these beliefs are connected to stereotypical beliefs about racial minorities, for example those of the "angry" or "aggressive Black male" or "the Dominican drug dealer," as Alberto mentioned. Certainly, the implications are enormous. "From the employer's point of view, the young (minority) male's perceived subcultural differences may be an important part of the reason he does not deserve trust on the job. Often his language is not understood or appreciated. His presentation of self, particularly his dress, often is not suitable to the employer, and if something is said about it, the young male will probably feel he is being treated unfairly" (Anderson, 1980, p. 71). Gender norms influence this presentation of self that Anderson described from his ethnographic research almost two decades ago, and that characterizes the behaviors of the young men whom I interviewed recently. These young males reject various social behaviors because they are perceived as "soft." Yet, given that minority men who do not conform to the dominant cultural behaviors of mainstream organizations may not fare well because of innate organizational biases (Gould, 1999), these males' chances for social and economic mobility remain in jeopardy. CONCLUSION In sum, this paper is an attempt to add to the discussion of how gender, race, and ethnicity interact to set the cultural guidelines influencing the behavioral patterns of poor, minority males and females in schools and within the labor market. Paradoxically, normative gender role constructions can work against males of color. Many low-income minority males have begun to associate their masculinity with "hardness," and this "hardness" manifests itself through dress,
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language, demeanor and other styles, as well as in approaches to school. Yet, now in an increasing service economy, employers do not reward this male-oriented behavior. Moreover, poor minority males aspire to careers and types of work where their chances for success remain low either because of limited opportunity or because of potentially low academic attainment and human, social and economic capital. Although their academic performances would not be described as remarkable, the relatively better performance of minority girls in schools could place them at a very modest advantage in an extremely limited opportunity structure. In addition, the association of "softness" with girls (and by extension their relatively higher proclivity for "soft" skills), minority females could likely fare better in the labor market. These patterns have some critical educational and economic implications for many African American and Latino youths, particularly since their class and racial statuses already preclude the attainment of certain social and political resources in American society.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (#SBR-9801981) and the Spencer Foundation. I thank Kathryn Neckerman, Angela Aidala, Francesca Polletta, Katherine Newman, and Herbert Gans and an anonymous reviewer of this volume for their critical comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. Thanks to Sheldon Danziger, Mary Corcoran, and the Ford Foundation Program on Poverty, the Underclass and Social Policy for office and resource support. Correspondence may be addressed to the author at the Department of Sociology, Harvard University, 668 William James Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, or via electronic mail at
[email protected]
NOTES 1. The academic performance of boys and girls has been well documented for other racial and ethnic groups, too. Generally, research has shown that girls perform better than boys in subjects which require verbal competence throughout their scholastic careers, whereas other research discloses that boys outperform girls in math and science areas (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; Stevenson & Newman, 1986; Catsambis, 1994; Nowell & Hedges, 1998). Also, females have higher college attendance rates than males (Dortch, 1997). 2. In 1994, approximately half of the youth in my sample, along with their families, moved from their high poverty, predominantly minority neighborhoods to middleincome, predominantly white neighborhoods as a part of a housing experiment - the result of a suit against housing discrimination in Yonkers, NY. 3. The fact that many of my female respondents quite easily discussed gender issues with me illuminate one of this study's methodological dilemmas. During their
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face-to-face interviews with me, the males did not tend to confront issues of masculinity and femininity as often as the females. In fact, much of the data I have from the male respondents on gender come from a group interview of African American and Latino males that was facilitated by an African American male whom I hired. This observation speaks to the relevance of the methodological debate about racial, ethnic and gender matching for surveys and interviews during social science research. 4. Throughout U.S. history, African American woman have worked and toiled outside of the home (see Jones, 1985), a social fact inculcated within the minds of many African American males and females. Hence, it should not be surprising that relatively few of them (18% vs. 62% of the Latino males) would subscribe to these beliefs about a woman's place being inside of the home. The cultural and social status of Latino males differ from their African American counterparts, particularly given their parent's immigrant status in this country. There were few inter-ethnic differences found between the Latinos and African Americans in attitudes and behaviors; yet some cultural differences are discussed elsewhere (Carter, 1999). This discussion is limited to general differences found between males and females, controlling for ethnicity. 5. Professional, specialty occupations would require at minimum a college degree. 6. When professional sports are included, the percentage of males aspiring to professional, specialty occupations increases to 50% and 75% for Latino and African American males, respectively. 7. While there may exist higher percentages of women of color in white collar jobs, research has shown that segmentation exists within the labor market for women of color. Despite their increased representation in the office setting and "white collar" jobs, African American and Latino women are usually overrepresented in clerical or administrative support jobs and drastically underrepresented in senior level positions (Benjamin, 1991). Their male counterparts hax~e a slightly greater representation, though relatively low compared to white men and women in the workforce.
REFERENCES Anderson, E. (1980). Some Observations on Black Youth Employment. In: B. E. Anderson & I. V. Sawbell (Eds), Youth Employment and Public Policy (pp. 64-87). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Anderson, E. (1990). Streetwise: Race, Class and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Anderson, E. (1994). The Code of the Streets. Atlantic Monthly, 273, 80-90. Anzaldua, G. (Ed.) (1990). Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Books. Beale, F. (1979). Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female. In: T. Cade (Ed.), The Black Woman: An Anthology (pp. 90-I00). New York: New American Library. Benjamin, L. (199l). The Black Elite. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Berends, M. (1995). Educational Stratification and Students' Social Bonding to School. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 16(3), 327-351. Best, R. (1983). We've All Got Scars: What Boys and Girls Learn in Elementary School. Bloomington, Indiana University Press. Bowles, S., & H. Gintis (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York, Basic Books.
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Brown, W. B. (1999). Surviving Against Insurmountable Odds: African-American Mothers and Their Gang-Affiliated Daughters. Humanity and Society, 23(2), 102-124. Burke, P. J. (1989). Gender Identity, Sex, and School Performance. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52(2), 159-169. Carter, D., & Wilson, R. (1997). Minorities in Higher Education (1996-1997 15th Annual Status Report). Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education. Carter, P. (1999). Balancing 'Acts': Issues of Identity and Cultural Resistance in the Social and Educational Behaviors of Minority Youth. Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, Columbia University, New York, NY. Catsambis, S. (1994). The Path to Math: Gender and Racial-Ethnic Differences in Mathematics Participation from Middle School to High School. Sociology of Education, 67(3), 199-215. Collins, P. H. (1991). Black Feminist Thought. New York: Routledge. Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Crenshaw, K. (1992). Whose Story Is It Anyway?: Feminist and AntiRacist Appropriations of Anita Hill. In: T. Morrison (Ed.), Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power (pp. 402-436). New York: Pantheon Books. DeLe6n, B. (1996). Career Development of Hispanic Adolescent Girls. In: B. J. R. Leadbeater & N. Way (Eds), Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities (pp. 380-398). New York: New York University Press. Dortch, S. (1997). Hey Guys: Hit the Books. American Demographics, •9(9), 4--9. Fernandez Kelly, M. P. (1995). Social and Cultural Capital in the Urban Ghetto: Implications for the Economic Sociology of Immigration. In: A. Portes (Ed.), The Economic Sociology of Immigration: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Ford, D. Y., & Harris J. J. II1. (1992). The American Achievement Ideology and Achievement Differentials Among Preadolescent Gifted and Nongifted African American Males and Females. Journal of Negro Education, 61(1), 45-64. Fordham, S. (1993). Those Loud Black Gifts: (Black) Women, Silence, and Gender Passing in the Academy. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 24(1), 3-32. Fordham, S. (1996). Blacked Out." Dilemmas of Race, Identity, and Success at Capital High. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Fuller, M. (1980). Black Girls in a London Comprehensive School. In: R. Deem (Ed.), Schooling for Women's Work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Gates, H. L. (1988). The Signifying Monkey. New York: Oxford Press. Gilligan, C. (1982). In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Giroux, H. (1983). Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey. Goodwin, M. (1991). He-Said-She-Said: Talk As Social Organization among Black Children. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Gould, M. (1999). Race and Theory: Culture, Poverty and Adaptation to Discrimination in Wilson and Ogbu. Sociological Theory, 17(2), 171-200. Guy-Sheftall, B. (Ed.). (1996). Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. New York: New Press. Hannerz, U. (1969). Soulside: Inquiries into Ghetto Culture and Community. New York: Columbia University Press.
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Hoberman, J. (1997). Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race. New York: Houghton Mifflin Mariner Books. Holland, D. C., & Eisenhart, M. A. (1990). Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement and College Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Holzer, H. J. (1996). Employer Skill Needs and Labor Market Outcomes by Race and Gender Institute for Research on Poverty, Discussion Paper No. 1087-96. hooks, b. (1984). From Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press. Jaynes, G., & Williams, R. M. (1989). A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Jones, J. (1985). Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family from Slavery to Present. New York: Basic Books. Kelley, R. (1994). Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class. New York: Free Press. Kirschenman, J,, & Neckerman, K. M. (1991). 'We'd Love to Hire Them But': The Meaning of Race for Employers. In: C. Jencks & P. E. Peterson (Eds), The Urban Underclass (pp. 203-234). Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. Liebow, E. (1967). Tally's Corner." A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men. Boston: Little Brown. Lucas, S. (1999). Tracking Inequality: Stratification and Mobility in American High Schools. New York, Teachers College Press. Maccoby, E. E., & Jacklin, C. N. (1974). Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. MacLeod, J. (1987). Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations & Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Major, C. (Ed.) (1994). Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang~ New York: Penguin Books. Massey, D., & Denton, N. (1993). American Apartheid. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Moss, P., & Tilly, C. (1996). 'Soft' Skills and Race: An Investigation of Black Men's Employment Problems. Work and Occupations, 23, 252-276. Nowell, A., & Hedges, L. V. (1998). Trends in Gender Differences in Academic Achievement from 1960 to 1994: An Analysis of Differences in Mean, Variance, and Extreme scores. Sex Roles, 39(1/2), 21~-3. Solomon, R. P. (1991). Black Resistance in High School. Albany, NY: SUNY-Albany Press. Solorzano, D. (1992). An Exploratory Analysis of the Effects of Race, Class, and Gender on Student and Parent Mobility Aspirations. Journal of Negro Education, 61(1), 30-44. Staples, R. (1982). Black Masculinity: The Black Male's Role in American Society. San Francisco, CA: Black Scholar Press. Stevens, J. W. (1997). African American Female Adolescent Identity Development: A ThreeDimensional Perspective. Child Welfare, 76(1), 145-172. Stevenson, H. W., & Newman, R. S. (1986). Long-Term Prediction of Achievement and Attitudes in Mathematics and Reading. Child Development, 57, 646-659. Taylor, J. M., Gilligan, C., & Sullivan, A. M. (Eds) (1995). Between Voices and Silence: Women and Girls, Race and Relationship. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Way, N. (1996). Between Experiences of Betrayal and Desire: Close Friendships among Urban Adolescents. In: B. J. Leadbeater & N. Way (Eds), Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities (pp. 173-192). New York: New York University Press. Willis, P. (1977). Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. New York: Columbia University Press. Wilson, W. J. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
VIOLENT EVENTS AND SOCIAL IDENTITY: SPECIFYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESPECT AND MASCULINITY IN INNER-CITY YOUTH VIOLENCE Deanna L. Wilkinson
INTRODUCTION "Toughness" has been central to masculine identity in many social contexts of American life. Issues of respect, honor, and pride repeatedly are described as central features of male identity formation beginning in early adolescence. Physical prowess, emotional detachment, and the willingness to engage in violence to resolve interpersonal conflicts are seen as hallmarks of adolescent (Anderson, 1994, 1999; Canada, 1995; Messerschmidt, 1993). While these terms have been used to explain high rates of interpersonal violence among nonwhites in central cities, "toughness" has persistently been highly regarded, a source of considerable status among adolescents in a wide range of subcultures from streetcorner groups to gangs (Canada, 1995; Goffman, 1959, 1963, 1967, 1983; Hagedorn, 1997; Hannerz, 1969; Miller, 1958; Toch, 1969; Whyte, 1943; Wolfgang & Ferracuti, 1982). While changing over time with tastes, efforts at "impression management" through violence have been evident across ethnicities and cultures (Katz, 1988). In some cases, displays of toughness are aesthetic: facial expression, symbols and clothing, physical posture and gestures, Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Volume 8, pages 235-269. Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 1SBN: 0-7623-0051-5
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car styles, graffiti, and unique phrases and speech patterns all are part of "street style" that can be complemented by physical aggression. The acquisition of 'tough' status requires young males to move beyond symbolic representation to physical violence. The process of self-preservation through displays of toughness, nerve, or violent behavior is considered a necessary part of day-to-day life for inner-city adolescents, especially young males (Anderson, 1994, 1999; Canada, 1995; Wilkinson & Fagan, 1996). Violence often is used to perpetuate and refine the pursuit of "toughness," and to claim the identity of being among the toughest. Acquiring fighting skills (and perhaps more importantly shooting experience) is considered important as a means of survival in the inner city (Sullivan, 1989, 113). "Fair fights" have consistently represented the most elementary form of interpersonal violence among inner city youths, and perceived insults or transgressions typically have been grounds for fighting (Anderson, 1978; Cloward & Ohlin, 1960; Strodtbeck & Short, 1968; Suttles, 1968; Thrasher, 1927; Whyte, 1943; Wolfgang, 1958). Until the 1960s, fatalities were rare, whether by firearm or any other weapon. And the circumstances that called for fighting generally were confined to territorial disputes, ritual displays of toughness, or family and ethnic solidarity (Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998a). Rising homicide rates among inner city adolescents in recent years suggest sharp changes in this social and behavioral landscape. The ready availability of guns increases the stakes of toughness among socially isolated inner city adolescent males (Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998a, b). The use of guns has instrumental value that is communicated through displays of dominance and urban "myths," but also through the incorporation of gun violence into the social discourse of everyday life among pre-adolescents and adolescents. The current work focuses on adolescent peer relations and violent interactions as important contexts in which crystallizing social identity is possible. This study examines the reported rules regarding respect, identity, and violence among 125 violent youth in New York and the micro level dynamics of violent events that these individuals had been involved in. The paper attempts to further specify the emergence or existence of a "street code" that shapes perceptions of grievances and norms on their resolution; and an "ecology of danger" in which social interactions are perceived as threatening or lethal, and individuals are normatively seen as harboring hostile intent and the willingness to inflict harm. SETTING
THE EMPIRICAL
CONTEXT
Impression management seems to be an important aspect of negotiating the street world. The status and reputations earned through violent means provide
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inner city adolescent males with positive feelings of self worth and "large" identities especially when other opportunities for identity development are not available (Hagedorn, 1997; Messerschmidt, 1993). The concept of respect or honor refers to granting deferential treatment to what Goffman called one's "personal space." One who grants another respect would acknowledge and esteem the other's individuality and personal space (or least not attack it). The adolescent male is looking to others to reflect back ("looking glass self" phenomenon) aspects of his own self-image which is constantly shaped and reshaped within the context of social interaction with others. Other than the half dozen ethnographies of inner city neighborhoods (Anderson, 1990, 1999; Bourgois, 1995; Duneier, 1992; Hagedorn, 1988; MacLeod, 1987; Sullivan, 1989; Wright & Decker, 1997) or the journalistic accounts of inner city violence (Canada, 1995; Donaldson, 1993; Kotlowitz, 1991; Simon & Burns, 1997) the research literature is scant in the area of adolescent violence and the micro level social processes of that violence. Violent behavior among adolescent males is highly contextualized. To date, we have limited understanding of the consequences of high rates of exposure to violent incidents and how those incidents shape other developmental outcomes for the actors. I have argued elsewhere that guns play a significant role in shaping the lives of many inner city adolescent males (Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998a, b; Wilkinson, 1998; Wilkinson & Fagan, 2000). There appears to be a growing number of situations and contexts where conflicts arise that may escalate to lethal violence. The use of violence may reflect both an apparent lowering of the thresholds for using weapons to resolve conflicts and a socialization process into a world where gun use is valued and necessary. The presence of firearms influences decisions both in social interactions with the potential for becoming disputes, and therefore affects the public identity making process (Wilkinson, 1998). Elijah Anderson's study of inner city Philadelphia is perhaps the most detailed description of violence and inner city life (Anderson, 1994, 1999). Anderson suggests that the alienation, social isolation and despair about the future experienced by many inner city residents, may have created an alternative system of positive identities and building self-esteem which is reflected in what he calls the "code of the streets." According to the street code, individuals who gain the most status are the most violent and frequently dominate others. Anderson describes how the street code has a strong influence over the behaviors of young children, adolescents, and young adults. Children (from both decent and street families) growing up in this environment learn the "code of the streets" by navigating their way through interpersonal situations that oftentimes involve violent encounters. Social identity and respect are the most important features
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of the street code. Within this context, there are clear cut rules for using violence to gain respect. The public nature of a person's image or status identity often requires open displays of "nerve," including attacks on others, getting revenge for previous situations with an opponent, protecting members of one's social group, and having the fight to "props." There is only a limited amount of respect available and the process of acquiring respect is highly competitive. Projecting the fight image is all-important in this context and backing up the projection with violent behavior is expected. According to Anderson, the street code provides rules for how individuals are to communicate with one another, how respect is to be earned, how and when respect is granted to another, and what should happen when someone disrespects you. Violence is used as a tool in promoting one's self-image. Developmentally, as children begin to approach adolescence there is a stronger need for social approval and status. Ecological theories would predict that these needs would be even stronger in an inner city context where fewer opportunities for receiving positive status (according to middle class values) are available to young adolescents. Though Anderson's work provides a cohesive framework for understanding aspects of inner city life and violence, this framework is limited in that it was primarily derived from a single research tool (ethnographic study), derived from a restricted setting (Philadelphia neighborhoods) and, most importantly, focused on an adultoriented perspective.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Two primary theoretical frameworks inform the current research: symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969; Goffman, 1959, 1963, 1967, 1983; Luckenbill, 1977; Schwendinger & Schwendinger, 1985; Strauss, 1997), and social ecological theories (Bursik & Grasmick, 1994; Sampson, 1997; Sampson & Wilson, 1995). Each perspective is examined from the point of a developmental context in which adolescent males are situated and interact. Symbolic interactionist studies of social identity emphasize the group or public nature of interaction that enables individuals to form and maintain personal and social identities (Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Eder, with Evans & Parker, 1995; Kinney, 1993; Schwendinger & Schwendinger, 1985). According to Goffman (1963), group formation crystalizes one's personal and social identity. Social identity has a stronger influence because "individuals have little control over situations and especially going outside of the expected role for their particular social identity" (Goffman, 1963, 128). Many of the vital functions of adolescent social life operate through these groupings whether they are loosely or tightly connected (e.g. social learning and mentoring, play,
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nurturing, social support, and economic opportunity). Goffman argues that the "norms regarding social identity pertain to kinds of role repertoires or profiles we feel it permissible for any given individual to sustain" (Goffman, 1963, 63). The process of categorizing others (from one's own frame of reference) shapes human experience. Researchers have described the dynamic nature of social identity during different periods of adolescent development. Kinney (1993) for example, found that "identity recovery" was possible through increased opportunity and diversity of peer groups. These school-based studies show that the school setting offers a myriad of opportunities and constraints to identity development. The street, as a social context, offers a similar opportunity for adolescent identity formation, trials, and maintenance. The complexities of developing positive social and personal identities among inner-city minority males is both structurally and situationally determined (Anderson, 1990, 1994, 1999; Billson, 1981; Majors & Billson, 1992). The physical and social isolation that young people experience in the inner city undoubtedly shapes the range of behavioral and cognitive repertoires. Advanced segregation and social isolation of inner-city communities create social boundaries that effectively seal off adolescent networks from potentially moderating influences of other social contexts (Massey & Denton, 1993; Sampson & Wilson, 1995). The social position of the inner city affords limited avenues for adolescents to obtain the types of social status and roles available to children in other ecological contexts. Social roles are dominated by street-oriented peer groups, with limited opportunity for broader participation in community life such as after-school groups, volunteer organizations, or supervised athletics (Short, 1998). In the absence of opportunities to participate in prosocial activities at the local community level, inner city adolescent often are unable to demonstrate the types of refined skills that bring status in later years. Alternatives to conventional status attainment then, may be limited in the inner city to manifestations of physical power or domination, athletic performance, verbal agility, or displays of material wealth. Social status inordinately depends on one's position within social hierarchies, and for males those hierarchies often axe established through manifestations of physical power or fighting (Anderson, 1999; Guerra, Nucci & Huesmann, 1994; Hagedorn, 1997; Messerschmidt, 1993). The continual demand for personal "respect" coupled with limited avenues by which to attain it, sets up conflicts often resolved through fighting, an available pathway to high status. In these circumstances, cultural diffusion transmits such views and behavioral norms quite efficiently (e.g. Tienda, 1991). There are recurring interactions among individual youths. Adolescents see each other daily in school, on the journey to and from school, in their
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neighborhoods, and in a range of social activities such as parties or athletic events. Individuals rank each other in these contexts through a variety of social comparisons. These processes naturally give rise to competition and disputes. The social interactional aspects of adolescence makes the roles of third parties and the group context also very important. Witnesses play a critical role in the initiation and settlement of disputes, at times encouraging violence for their own vicarious pleasure, or raising the stakes of a conflict so high that violence becomes a necessity to the participants in the dispute. From children on playgrounds to adolescents in street-corner groups, witnesses are a part of this landscape of social interactions and influence decisions about how to conduct social relations or settle disputes. The process of placing or defining oneself and others among adolescents has been studied primarily within the context of elementary and secondary schools (Brown, 1990, 1994; Eder & Enke, 1991; Eder et al., 1995; Kinney, 1993; Schwendinger & Schwendinger, 1985) and primarily with white samples (see Billson, 1981; Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Majors & Billson, 1992), for an exception. Studies of adolescent identity in school settings consistently show that a status hierarchy exists within the setting and those individuals who are the most popular and visible get the most status (Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Eder et al., 1995; Kinney, 1993; Schwendinger & Schwendinger, 1985). Peer groups are very significant in the formation of personal and social identities in childhood and adolescence. The vast array of social interactions or "events" adolescent males participate in within this context is also important for identity development. METHODOLOGY The author, in collaboration by Dr. Jeffrey Fagan, conducted the original study at Columbia University from 1995 to 1998. Interviews were conducted with a targeted sample of 125 active violent offenders from two New York City neighborhoods (for more details see, Wilkinson, 1998; Wilkinson, McClain, & Fagan, 1996). The primary field methods were in-depth interviews and biographical methods focusing on the social and symbolic construction of violent events (Cornish, 1993, 1994). "Peer" interviewers were used to increase interviewerrespondent rapport and enhance data collection efforts. Proximate age, race/ethnicity, and gender matches between the interviewer and interviewee were deemed necessary for success of the study. The study design included sampling from two primary targeted pools: a recently released sample of young violent offenders and a matched sample drawn from the study neighborhoods. Eligible respondents were males, from 16-24 years of age, who either are
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convicted of illegal possession of handguns or other violent offenses (criminal justice sample), or who, upon screening, were identified as actively involved in these behaviors in the past six months (neighborhood sample). The recently released sample consists of young men who were released from Rikers Island Academy between April, 1995 and December, 19961 and who, upon release, entered a membership program called Friends oflsland Academy, Guys Insight on Imprisonment for Teenagers (G.I.I.F.T.). 2 The neighborhood samples were generated using chain referral or snowball sampling techniques (Bieracki & Watters, 1981; Cornish, 1993, 1994; Watters & Bieracki, 1989). The primary justification for including only active violent offenders in our sample was that we were interested in the social processes of violent events among individuals who had multiple events to report (to overcome the base rate problem). While the results will not be generalizable to the larger adolescent male population or even the neighborhoods, we learn about the cognitive landscapes of active violent offenders. We selected two neighborhoods for this study primarily to control for the effects neighborhood differences may have on violent behavior. The two neighborhoods are among the worst of in terms of poverty and violent crime in the City of New York. The sample for this analysis was exclusively minority and male, 44.8% African-American, 41.6% Puerto Rican American, and 13.6% Caribbean or mixed ethnicity. Fifty-eight percent resided in East New York or Brownsville, Brooklyn and 41.6% resided in the South Bronx. Forty-five percent were recently released from Rikers Island or other correctional institution while 55% were recruited from the study neighborhoods. The average age was 19.29 with 24.8% at the model age 18 years old. Respondents provided detailed descriptions of a total of 306 violent events that occurred in the two-year period prior to the interview. Respondents described an average of 2.44 events per interview, the range went from 1 event (16%) to 10 events (0.8%). See Table 1 for additional information on the characteristics of the sample. Narrative interviews took one to two hours to complete. They were tape-recorded, fully transcribed, and analyzed using NUD*IST and SPSS software. The interview protocol focused on identifying the interpersonal dynamics of neighborhood violence, identity and status issues, representations of self-identity, attacks on identity, negotiating survival, and the role of contexts and circumstances in shaping violent outcomes. Respondents were asked to describe the process of social interaction with other young males on the street around issues such as image, reputation, respect, and identity attacks. In addition, they are asked to reconstruct three violent events: one where guns were present and they were used, one where guns were present and they not used, and one where guns were not present. Events included both "completed"
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Table 1.
Sample Characteristics.
Variable
%
N
58.4 41.6
125 125
45.0 55.0
125 125
19.29 19 18
125 125 125
44.8 41.6 13.6
125 125 125
19.4 26.4 11.4 16.8 5.4members 46.9
120 120 114 119 104 104
96.8 14.0 years old 99.0 84.3 89.7 91.4 79.2 72.9
125 73 125 121 117 125 125 96
Neighborhood East New York South Bronx
Sample Source Recently Released (Jail) Neighborhood Chain Referral
Age Mean Median Mode
Race/Ethnicity African American Puerto Rican American Other Islands or Mixed Ethnicity
Structural Position Completed High School or GED Enrolled in School Currently Employed (legal work) Raised in Two Parent Family Mean Family Size Respondent is a Father
Risk Factors~ViolentBehaviors Ever Owned a Gun Median Age of First Gun Involved in Violence Involved in Drug Economy Ever been Incarcerated Ever Witnessed a Serious Violent Incident Reported about a Gun Event Experienced feeling like a Punk/Herb
a n d n o n - c o m p l e t e d v i o l e n t situations, t h e l a t e r g r o u p i n c l u d e d e v e n t s w h e r e v i o l e n c e w a s a v o i d e d i n a v a r i e t y o f s i t u a t i o n a l a n d social contexts. T h e a n a l y s i s o f t h e i n t e r v i e w n a r r a t i v e s f o c u s e d o n e l a b o r a t i n g social processes of violent events in two dangerous neighborhoods. The events have b e e n classified as e r u p t i n g o u t o f s o m e t y p e o f c h a l l e n g e or test to o n e ' s social i d e n t i t y or status. T h e s e e v e n t s c o u l d b e c a l l e d " c h a r a c t e r c o n t e s t s , " strategies o f " i m p r e s s i o n m a n a g e m e n t " a n d / o r " f a c e s a v i n g " situations. T h r e e d i s t i n c t i v e
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types of challenges to identity were described: personal, material, and social. Personal attacks challenge who a person has a right to be (projected self-image), material affronts contest what possessions a person has a right to have, and finally, relational assaults who a person has a right to be in relationship with. The initial interaction sparking many of these events involved some type of insult, degradation, violent threat, bump, slight, ice grill (hard stares), domination, cunning, or unprovoked physical attack. These situations erupting out some identity concern account for 66.5% of all of the events described by respondents. 3 The parameters of a character contest are determined by social interactions among actors of differing status ("mixed interactions") in specific contexts. As argued elsewhere, this dynamic may be most salient during the adolescent years (Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998b).
R E C U R R E N T THEMES The data presented below show, as hypothesized, that violence is an important tool in forming and maintaining a social identity that increases the odds of daily survival among young men in inner-city neighborhoods. Here, we describe different types of situational identities that respondents report, how those identities are won and lost, and how young men compete for desirable identities. These complex processes unfold over time and have specific developmental stages. This paper explores what appears to be a hierarchy of social identities among late adolescent males with regard to violent behavior. Young inner-city residents must learn to negotiate the street world by building a social identity, projecting a reputation, and developing a protective peer group in the neighborhood. The process of finding a niche and forming a "safe" identity typically includes engaging in violent behavior. Violent events occurring in the public context of social interaction serve as "defining moments" for identity formation and maintenance. The importance of a dominance hierarchy of toughness appears to be most salient during the adolescent and early adulthood years for males. The data presented in this paper illustrate several possibilities of how this process unfolds, and suggest that guns play a significant role in forming and sustaining "positive" social identities within the neighborhoods. As noted above, taking on one or more of these social identities varies by interactional context, stage of development, and social network. There is a competition for respect in the inner city, and the quantity of respect seems to establish one's place on a dominance hierarchy as well as one's social status (the two are intimately intermingled). Information and impression management are the most critical tools young men use to negotiate the street. Knowledge of the "players" in the
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neighborhood is needed to determine what type of action is appropriate in a face-to-face encounter and how respect is to be apportioned. Individuals who have higher levels of status on the street expect to receive displays of respect. However, attacks on that status are also to be expected. The quest for respect in this setting may include both symbolic and overt expressions of violence. The stakes are very high in this context because manhood is dependent upon being "fearless" and "untouchable" (Anderson, 1999; Messerschmidt, 1993).
Socialization and Identity The social construction of male identity in the context of the street world follows specific age-graded tracks. It appears that violence plays a central role in defining social identities during different age periods in the inner-city street context. Development, age-specific expectations, and fitualized "rites of passage" add legitimacy to gaining and withholding respect through violent means. The exampies and quotes illustrate respondents' experiences with victimization and the perpetuation of violence during these periods. Children growing up in this context learn to negotiate the neighborhood through both the use and avoidance of violence. Whether judged as right or wrong morally, boys find that violence is one of a small number of available resources that enable them to gain status. Violence is a resource for passage from one status or identity to another. Crafting a powerful social identity is a critical tool for survival in the inner-city context. Social standing can be achieved via several routes the common thread of which is the threat or use of violent force. The socialization process into this dynamic is quite clear, according to our respondents. At an early age, males frequently experience violent attacks and must learn "how it is in the street." One respondent reported: "All right, say your small, probably let people pick on you and stuff like that, just let them do what they want, but as you get older you start fighting back. You stop letting people take advantage of you." Developing a desirable social identity on the street appears to become important for males between the ages of 7 and 11. Defining one' s status in comparison to others involves a number of staged plateaus or schedules. According to one respondent (Respondent SBN27): "Everybody's a herb when they're - in the b e g i n n i n g . . , everybody I know who's keeping it real {being honest} has gotten fucked up so bad that they just don't wanna get fucked up no more. So that's why they act the way they act." Two themes emerge in this analysis: these young males have low status initially, and establishing status requires public acts of violence. The process, described by our sample as a kind of "who's who" of the street serves as a way of identifying potential threats and resources within neighborhood associ-
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ations. Participation in violent social interaction, provides young men with information about the abilities and potential of others with whom they share social space and time. This public performance allows others to classify and categorize males in terms of threat, power, "heart," and status: (Respondent ENYN16): Back in high school, I was new in school, and, you know, I was a freshman and the niggas thought shit was sweet, I used to go to school uptown. And of course the fact that I was from Brooklyn, I had to represent Brooklyn, so there was other freshmen that was getting hurt and beat up and, you know, stuff like that as part of initiation into the school. And I could not see that happening to me. So I retaliated with my violence, and I beat up the biggest nigga out {of} the crew in the school, you know, just to let niggas know what I was capable of doing. So that was the only time I really used violence {to get rep}, you know . . .
As with other social contexts, peer groups play a significant role in defining social identities. Belonging to a clique or streetcorner group may fulfill a variety of needs for young men, including protection, income generation, adventure, companionship, love, identity affirmation, partying, and drug/alcohol consumption in a social atmosphere. The social network, among other contexts, enables masculine views to take shape. Groups also take on social identity, and group affiliation brings with it privileges and obligations. According to our data, criminals and those who exhibit tough qualities and behavior are the "populars" and get the most attention from others. One respondent described the attention that "bad guys" got in his neighborhood was very appealing to him as a young adolescent: (Respondent G-54): It got a lot . . . to do with people I was hanging with, and I seen that all the attention was going to the bad guys at that time. All the attention used to go to the criminals . . . (Interviewer RM): Like all the . . . (G-54): . . . yeah, everybedy used to hang out in front of the school was known, and all the regulars known was the criminals. So I used to see that. So I used to get that 'damn, I want some attention, I want to be like them' and shit, you know. That's like damn I want to be like them and shit I want to be known. That's, that's what it is, I wanted to be known. (RM): True. (G-54): And . . . my morns too, she wasn't giving me the money I needed and shit so, as you know, robbery was the best thing at that time. But this go - this is back in a - before I put that 10 month {incarceration} you know, I was into that bullshit. Then I moved up levels and shit, you know.
The pressure among peers to "be part of the scene" or to "prove that you are capable of using violence to fit in" to the street life is intense. Group influence seemed especially important in establishing one's identity. One respondent described the pressure he felt at an early age: (Interviewer RM): All right. Can you remember a time when you felt like a punk or a herb? (Respondent ENYN17): Yeah, when I was little.
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(RM): When was it? (ENYN17): I was in a public school. (RM): What happened? (ENYN17): {laughs} There was these guys that I used to hang with. (RM): Yeah. (ENYN17): But they was doing a lot, they was starting fights and everything and, but I wasn't with that, but I still wanted to be with these dudes. (RM): Yeah. (ENYN17): So they calling me a herb and punk and you know what I ' m saying? (RM): 'Cause, 'cause you ain't wanted to get with? (ENYN17): 'Cause I ain't want to get with them, I wanted to be with them, but I couldn't do what they was doing, you know what I'm saying? (RM): True, that's true. (ENYN17): Yeah. (RM): True. How old was you? (ENYN17): I was, like, nine.
Another respondent described how peers made assumptions about him based upon the type of house he lived in. His belief that others felt that "shit was sweet in a private house" made him feel like an outsider. Boys from the public housing projects intensified this distinction by teasing and threatening the respondent. To prove he was "status worthy," the respondent became the first kid on the block to have a gun. The gun was used strategically to demonstrate the respondent's capacity for violence: (Interviewer WW): Have you ever felt you needed to do something violent to amp up your own reputation? (Respondent ENYN16): When I was young, yeah. Being that I lived in a private house and the projects was right across the street. You know, project kids automatically assume that shit was sweet in a private house . . . (WW): So what did you do? (ENYN16): . . . Kids from project(s) just came over with no problem because they figured all right, ain't that many niggas on the block and obviously if we living in the private houses, we must be pussy. {When I was} young, I always had a little burner {gun} or my pops always had a burner in the crib. But being that I had a burner, you know, as soon as they came with the drama, they came with bats and sticks, I already had a gun so I squeezed it off at them. Actually, I didn't really squeeze it off at them. I just pulled it out to let them know that I wasn't afraid. I pull(ed) it out to let them know that ain't nothing sweet over here. And I wanted to squeeze after but, you know, back there and I still had some of my little teachings in me, so I didn't really do it . . . . But they got the message by just seeing me pull out. They had sticks and bats and I had a gun. (VV) So did that help? (ENYN16): Yeah, that helped. No one really saw me as no punk or herb after that situa-
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tion. They'd bring the drama to everybody else except me and my brother . . . I d e n t i t y c h a l l e n g e s o c c u r w h e n the status o f o t h e r s is not k n o w n or w h e n the situ a t i o n calls for definition and classification. S h o w s o f d i s r e s p e c t , o r " d i s s i n g , " o f t e n are d e f i n e d b y y o u n g m a l e s as an i n t e n t i o n a l attack or a t t e m p t to d o w n g r a d e s o m e o n e e l s e ' s identity. In o r d e r to p r e s e r v e o n e ' s social standing, t h e s e c h a p l e n g e s m u s t b e a d d r e s s e d a g g r e s s i v e l y . All parties in this t y p e o f i n t e r a c t i o n will define the situation f r o m their r e f e r e n c e point, w h i c h m a y i n c l u d e the c o l l e c t i v e m e a n i n g s a t t a c h e d to the action. This i d e n t i t y n e g o t i a t i o n or testing p r o c e s s clearly is central to the m a k i n g , r e m a k i n g , a n d b r e a k i n g o f identities. R e s p o n d e n t s d e s c r i b e d the t e s t i n g p r o c e s s as a n e c e s s a r y part o f social d e v e l o p m e n t s t a b i l i z e d and s t r e n g t h e n e d t h e i r identities. O n e r e s p o n d e n t d e s c r i b e d h o w " t e s t i n g " occurs: (Interviewer DT): So what usually happens when nigga gets like this with you in your face or something? (Respondent ENYNI3): Oh, man, that's like, testing your manhood. That's like, anything you ever been taught since you was younger, what's gonna come out now. (DT): Yeah. (ENYN13): Should you wait now, do it now, or handle it? Do you try to talk? Usually that don't even work, 'cause nobody's talking to you, they either - the more and more you try to talk, the more and more they gonna disrespect you. That's how I feel. (DT): So, what happens if somebody, I mean, disrespect somebody, what -- what happens? (ENYN13): They fight. I mean, they fight or they - or they threaten. They make threats to your morn, all types of threats, and you, like - you can't let this dude come after your moms.
(DT): Yeah. (ENYN13): . . . {people} don't even be fightin' each other, they be teamed up, you know, they be tryin' hype it up. There may be one just two, three people and they - just buck wild over there. It didn't even {used to} be like that. And the more and more they hype it up, the more and more people read, damn, it's like? So, now they feels - that's how they see somebody doin' that shit - he ain't fuckin' with me. And it just keeps growin,' keeps growin,' almost nonsense (DT): Yeah. (ENYN13): - hate and that. Somebody don't know you or know who you are, what you about, they all gonna test you, all are gonna try to see what you about. It goes both ways, too. Maybe somebody think you cool and wanna know who you are. They wanna know if you blood or a bad guy, want to know if you good. R o b b e r y situations f r e q u e n t l y p r o v i d e y o u n g m a l e s w i t h o p p o r t u n i t i e s to i m p r e s s their p e e r s and u p g r a d e status. S e v e r a l o f the e x a m p l e s d e s c r i b e d h e r e i n are o r d e r e d or set up b y p e e r s to define status: (Interviewer JM): Have yon ever felt like you needed to do something to, like, fit in with your peoples? (Respondent SBN51): Maybe like smoke or something like that, or rob a
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nigga. Make sure you ain't no herb or nothing like that. Yeah, I did shit like that. (JM): Yeah, what you needed to do? (SBN51): I had to steal a chain, from a fucking lady. (JM): Why for your little crew? (SBN51): Yeah, they told me to steal a chain so I stole it, to see if I had heart. So I went and I grabbed the chain and I whacked it. (JM): Yon ever used no gun or nothing, fight? (SBN51): No. Went up to her and grabbed it, asked her a question and grabbed it. (JM): What you asked her? (SBN51): I asked her where 42nd Street is at, and I was standing fight on it. I just snatched the chain. T h e p r o j e c t e d i d e n t i t y or r e p u t a t i o n a n i n d i v i d u a l a c h i e v e s h a s m u l t i p l e d i m e n sions. V i o l e n t p e r f o r m a n c e s c a n b e s e e n as r e p r e s e n t a t i o n s o f self, g r o u p , a n d n e i g h b o r h o o d territory a n d w o r d o f m o u t h c a n i n c r e a s e the social b e n e f i t o f v i o l e n t acts: (Interviewer RM): What is reputation about? Why is that, like, so important to young brothers? (Respondent G-31): It is like fame. Every time you do something to boost your rep that makes on a street level, it brings your fame higher and higher in your own little community. Boom, I live {in the projects}. It is divided into five sections. Every time a section come in and beef {with} my section, I get down for mine. Not only my section and that section will know. The other three section will know too. So my street level right there will go higher. Then it will hit the Cherry Valley Mall area and it'll just keep getting higher. So I'll be going to {a guy} from section three, 'Oh, I heard about you this, that,' ... Yeah. 'Cause I mean it is bad. In a way, life is fucked up 'cause all the shit you did, you get in trouble for doing, is what you got to do. There is no way to avoid it. 'Cause it is coming at you at every angle. I mean at first I thought All right stay in school if you can stay smart and stay in school, I'll be all right but ...
A Hierarchy of Social Identities T e e n a g e r s m a y s i t u a t i o n a l l y e n g a g e in v i o l e n t b e h a v i o r to f o r m a n d / o r m a i n t a i n c e r t a i n social i d e n t i t i e s w i t h i n t h e b r o a d e r social c o n t e x t o f the neighborhood. Projecting the right image may have consequences for personal safety, social a c c e p t a n c e , a n d self e s t e e m a m o n g i n d i v i d u a l s . W i t h i n a n i s o l a t e d social w o r l d w h e r e r e s p e c t a n d v a l u e d social s t a n d i n g is l i m i t e d , the t h r e a t o f g u n v i o l e n c e i n t r o d u c e s n e w c o m p l e x i t i e s to t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f social i d e n tity. R e s p o n d e n t s d e s c r i b e d social identities s u c h as: b e i n g " c r a z y , " " w i l d , " o r a " k i l l e r " ( o n e w h o p e r f o r m s e x t r a o r d i n a r y acts o f v i o l e n c e ) , " h o l d i n g y o u r o w n " (a f u n c t i o n a l f i g h t e r / s h o o t e r ) , a n d b e i n g a " p u n k " or " h e r b " (a f r e q u e n t v i c t i m s t r u g g l i n g for survival). 4 S o c i a l i d e n t i t i e s b e c o m e m o r e s a l i e n t t h r o u g h
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repeated performance; the social implications of each performance determines when and how an actor will be known to others in the neighborhood, and, in turn, affect subsequent interactions. Strauss explained that "face-to-face interaction is a fluid, moving, running process; during its course the participants take successive stances vis-a-vis each other . . . . The initial reading of the other's identity merely sets the stage for action, gives each some cues for his lines" (Strauss, 1997, 57). In addition, Strauss points out that individuals classify their own identity in the situation, and "may also be acting toward an invisible third, much as if the latter were actually present" (Strauss, 1997, 58). These classifications are bounded by the limits of personal experience and social structure: The person who knows his world well, who is familiar with all its pathways, is strongly committed. Committed to what? To a conception of himself as a certain kind - or kinds of person, who is expected to, and himself expects to, act in certain ways in certain situations. If the situations that arise are not entirely familiar, they are nevertheless somewhat like the old ones and demand similar lines of action (Strauss, 1997, 41). Social identity may be built, earned, applied, or assigned (Strauss, 1997, 145). During the course of social interaction, individuals "may force each other into such statuses" (Strauss, 1997, 79). Strauss explained the process of "status forcing" with the following statement: Status positions exist not merely to be filled at appropriate times by appropriate persons as in rituals; but they get assigned according to the witting judgments and often unwitting impulses evoked during interactional encounters (Strauss, 1997, 85). •
.
.
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Status forcing has different consequences for the identity of actors depending upon the duration and permanence of that status. Strauss argued "it makes a difference whether the placement is temporary (banishment), permanent (exile), or of uncertain duration (idolization)" (Strauss, 1997, 83). He argued that some forced statuses were "reversible" and therefore would have less long-term impact on identities• According to Strauss, social identity is extremely dynamic because it is in motion (e.g. identities on the way up and the way down, as well as those holding on). In this essay an attempt has been made to apply this framework to an analysis of social identity among young males in the inner city. An elevated social identity can both prevent violence from coming (he won't get picked on) and promote additional violence (other young men will attempt to knock him off his elevated status). The individual who performs poorly becomes known as a punk or herb. One who has a perfoixns admirably gains status and becomes known for "holding his own." One who gives an extraordinary performance is labeled as "wild" or "crazy." These social identities may be temporary or permanent. The following section briefly describes the
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characteristics o f these three ideal identity types. T h e m a j o r i t y of respondents classified t h e m s e l v e s as b e i n g s o m e o n e w h o "holds his o w n ; " a small n u m b e r described t h e m s e l v e s as fitting into t h e , c r a z y , " " w i l d , " or "killer" identity at the t i m e o f the interview. Few, if any, o f the respondents classified t h e m s e l v e s as a p u n k or herb; h o w e v e r , m o s t respondents, 7 8 % o f those queried (71 o f 96 respondents with available data), described one or m o r e situations during c h i l d h o o d or a d o l e s c e n c e o f feeling like a p u n k or herb as a direct result o f v i o l e n c e perpetrated against t h e m by older, m o r e p o w e r f u l males. All described the importance o f using v i o l e n c e to gain social status and personal security.
Being Known as "Crazy, . . . . Wild," or "Killer" A t the top o f the identity hierarchy o f the street is the " c r a z y , " " w i l d , " or "killer" social identity. Individuals w h o p e r f o r m extraordinary acts o f v i o l e n c e a r e feared and are granted a l e v e l o f respect that is not easily attained. A p p r o x i m a t e l y 14% o f the sample described t h e m s e l v e s or others as being " w i l d , " " c r a z y , " or a "killer." S o m e t o o k on this identity temporarily or situationally w h i l e others described the identity as permanent. T h e p e r f o r m a n c e s that lead to this identity often are considered shocking or j u d g e d to be b e y o n d what was n e c e s s a r y to handle a g i v e n situation. O n c e an individual gives an extraordinary p e r f o r m a n c e , he m a y notice changes in the w a y others relate to him. H e m a y also start v i e w i n g h i m s e l f differently. This status brings with it a level o f p o w e r and personal fulfillment that m a y be reinforced by projecting this identity and future violent p e r f o r m a n c e s enable h i m to maintain the i m a g e o f the m o s t violent or toughest on the street. (Respondent SBN37): I seen him, one kid everybody used to look up to, and he thought he was impossible, he thought nobody couldn't - he thought he was a serious gangster. Couldn't be killed . . . . He was the big man, he used to walk up to spots and rob people. (Interviewer RM): What made him a big man? (SBN37): I guess the way he presented hisself. The way he went after people's spots, take their drugs, he didn't care. Like he was God or something, you know what I'm saying? He got shot maybe a couple of times and thought he couldn't die. So I guess that's what made him the big man or made him feel like he was the big man. - - 4 (Respondent ENYN15): Well they get respect like that, they want respect. Now-a-days niggas bust their gun, they ain'.t got to be trying to shoot you, they just bust their gun at you, make themselves look big, that's the only thing, that's how it go, then they get respect, everybody going to be thinking he's a killer, he know he ain't no killer, but everybody think he a killer, unless he shine a gun. ---/(Interviewer RM): So when you shot the guy you shot.., or when you found out he was dead or something, how did that make you feel? (Respondent G-61): It ain't hype me. It didn't make me feel like going out there and doing it again; it just made me feel like ... I just got a stripe, that's how that made me feel~.I
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got a stripe. (RM): Did you get a reputation after that? (G-61): Well, I kept a reputation b u t . . . 'cause I was into a lot of stuff, ... and thing(s) I did. Came to where I was like one of the people, I was like one of the most {violent} people they would come and get when it was time for conflict, than anybody . . . . that I really be around when there {is} beef, when it's beef time they know who to come get. And out of those people, I was one of the top ones they would come and g e t . . . 'cause they always known me . . . . for being trigger happy and ... ---/(Interviewer JM): So what you was saying when the beef was going down? (Respondent G-88): Yo, when the beef, at that time kid, yo, you mind blanks out. You just go crazy, man. Especially me, I went crazy. I didn't give a fuck what was going to happen to me, B . . . . I just want to get the shit done, you know what I'm saying. To you it's all about respect. You gotta get your respect out here, man. Gotta get your respect. A person w h o has an identity as s o m e o n e w h o is crazy, wild, or a killer gives o f f the i m p r e s s i o n that he has e x t r e m e "heart," is untouchable, and is unconcerned with the repercussions o f violent acts. H e has the capability to use e x t r e m e v i o l e n c e and gets respect for d o m i n a t i n g others. Others m a y want to associate with h i m to benefit f r o m his high status on the street. T h e identity itself carries privileges, expectations, and obligations that m a y catalyze additional violent encounters. T h e p o w e r f u l identity m a y be d o w n g r a d e d by s o m e o n e e l s e ' s extraordinary performance.
Being Known as "Holding Your Own" M a n y respondents characterized the process o f " h o l d i n g your o w n " in violent situations and described h o w personal identities f o r m e d around displays o f " d o i n g w h a t you got to do" are generally positive on the street. T h e m a j o r i t y o f the respondents w o u l d be c a t e g o r i z e d as " h o l d i n g their o w n . " Individuals w h o ' h o l d their o w n " are respected on the street, largely due to the n u m e r o u s challenges that must be o v e r c o m e to attain and retain such an identity (Strauss, 1997, 90). A person w h o has an identity as s o m e o n e w h o "holds his o w n , " gives off the i m p r e s s i o n that he has the capability to use e x t r e m e v i o l e n c e but does so only w h e n necessary. This person will face a c h a l l e n g e directly and is respected for that position. This identity allows an individual to be considered an "insider" with the street world; h o w e v e r , this status can be unstable and m a y require acts o f v i o l e n c e w h e n faced with public challenges. S e v e r a l respondents described t h e m s e l v e s as h a v i n g this identity: (Respondent ENYN20): {Someone} who can just handle their own, who's not no troublemaker, but who finishes trouble when it comes. ---/(Respondent G-09): ... It's a lot of popularity, you know. Your image that you hold is your reputation. You need that on the streets 'cause without that then anybody ... and everybody can do what they want to you. I f . . . if you let them. But the rep that you have shall keep.., you know, if it's a good rep, it will keep these people away from you, keep
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'em on your good side. I mean, most people who know of you and know how you get down for yours, they know you don't play, that they won't mess with you, because they don't wanna get hurt, because of the reputation that you had. Maybe they don't wanna start because they know you cool, whatever. --/(Respondent ENYN05): Yeah, you will go through people trying to get to know you. This, of course, is a problem because it starts when yon younger by getting that reputation, you know, you not trying to be a killer or a thug, but you just want people to know, yo, who you is 'don't fuck with me I won't fuck with you.' So you got to break up a few heads you got to do whatever to get that reputation. --/(Respondent ENYN16): I was always one holding my own. I always had peoples behind me. I was always a fighter. ---/(Respondent ENYN13): Somebody who doesn't fight over B.S. (ENYN13): Somebody who think, you know, who wants to shoot a fair one, it will be just a fight and he could hold his ground, hold his own. But it gotta be over somethin' important. It gotta be either somethin' personal between that nigga - you know, everybody ain't gonna get along, but if you have a fight you might as well fight and get it over with. One lost, one lost, you know. They don't always go down like that. That's why I hate that, too. A s i l l u s t r a t e d b y the a b o v e e x a m p l e s , a n i n d i v i d u a l w h o ' h o l d s his o w n ' h a s u s e d v i o l e n c e as a r e s o u r c e for o b t a i n i n g t h a t status. T h e s e y o u n g m e n face t h e s a m e t y p e o f t e s t i n g p r o c e s s as the p u n k or h e r b ; h o w e v e r , it is e x p e c t e d t h a t this class o f m e n will h a n d l e t h e i r conflicts w i t h v i o l e n c e a n d it will b e effective. I f v i o l e n c e is n o t effective, s o m e o n e w h o is k n o w n to ' h o l d his o w n " will b e g r a n t e d r e s p e c t f o r p u t t i n g u p a g o o d fight or t a k i n g a b u l l e t " l i k e a m a n . " I f this c h a r a c t e r is s i t u a t i o n a l l y " p u n k e d " or " h e r b e d " b y s o m e o n e w i t h a l o w e r status, h i s i d e n t i t y c o u l d f a c e a d o w n w a r d slide. B e i n g K n o w n as a " P u n k " o r a " H e r b " A t t h e b o t t o m o f t h e status h i e r a r c h y o f t h e street is t h e " p u n k " or " h e r b . " Like,
t h e s c h o o l - b a s e d " n e r d " or " d w e e b , " t h e p u n k or h e r b i d e n t i t y is a s s i g n e d to t h o s e w h o h a v e f a i l e d to a t t a i n a h i g h status o r a t o u g h identity. I n t h e i n n e r city, t h o s e w h o c a n n o t fight or p r o v e t h e i r t o u g h n e s s m a y i n s t e a d b e s t i g m a t i z e d e i t h e r t e m p o r a r i l y or p e r m a n e n t l y , a n d o t h e r g u y s i n t h e n e i g h b o r h o o d will act u p o n t h a t stigma. T h e p r o c e s s o f " p u n k i n g " or " h e r b i n g " s o m e o n e , as r e s p o n d e n t s c a l l e d it, c l o s e l y r e s e m b l e d t h e p r o c e s s o f ' f o o l - m a k i n g ' d e s c r i b e d b y K l a p p c i t e d in Strauss (1997). S t r a u s s states: on-in Klapp has suggested the different conditions that determine how a person can become a fool and remain one: 'Because fool-making is a collective imputation it is not necessary, however, that a person actually have the traits or perform the role of the fool. A person is a fool when he is socially defined ... What makes a fool role stick? Among the factors responsible for permanent characterization as a fool we may particularly note (1) repeated performances or obvious personal traits which continually suggest the role of a fool; (2) a striking, conclusive, or colorful single exhibition which convinces the public that the person
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is irremediably a fool; (3) a story or epithet so 'good' that it is continually repeated and remembered, making up an imperishable legend; and (4) failure to contradict a fool role by roles or stories of a different category.'(Klapp, 1949, 159-160, cited in Strauss, 1997, 80-81). If s o m e o n e has the p u n k or herb identity, he is considered "fair g a m e " for attacks and robberies. T h e attacks are m o t i v a t e d both by the n e e d to restate the d o m i n a n c e hierarchy and as a p u n i s h m e n t for not living up to group norms. I f a y o u n g m a n does not h a v e a tough identity or at least h a v e close associates or relatives w h o can protect him, either by association or literally, he is a punk. Others in the setting degrade, dominate, and v i c t i m i z e those individuals w h o h a v e p u n k or herb characteristics, typically via direct or implicit e m a s c u l a t i o n o f the " w e a k e r " males. Punks and herbs also are called "soft," "sucker," " w i m p , " " p u s s y , " "bitch," "ass," and " c h u m p . " G i v e n the intensified acceptance o f hegem o n i c masculinity in the inner-city context, these m e s s a g e s w o u l d h a v e a strong n e g a t i v e impact on a p u n k or h e r b ' s s e l f - i m a g e (Hagedorn, 1997; Majors & Billson, 1992; M e s s e r s c h m i d t , 1993). M o s t y o u n g m e n assume that "outsiders" in the n e i g h b o r h o o d (and relevant social network) are punks or herbs, and the outsider must p r o v e otherwise. Several respondents offered definitions o f the p u n k or herb identity: (Respondent SBN49): The definition for a punk or a herb, well, around my 'hood {it} is like somebody that don't want to fight and shit. Like somebody would go up to them and push them or whatever and they won't fight back. So, you know, everybody call him a punk. And the definition for a herb is like, say, somebody who is being nice, or somebody who is scared of somebody, and they tell him 'yo, go do that, or go, do this.' And, you know, he is just, he listens to whatever they say. {The guy} is just sunning him, he's herbing him. (Respondent ENYN36): Pss. That's easy yo. A punk or a herb is somebody who, it's somebody.., who l e t . . , some next person.., make him do shit, make him feel like a sucker. Like if somebody walk up on y o u . . , and start talking and start mushing you in your face or putting his fingers in your face.., and you ain't constantly doing nothing about it or he's constantly motherfucking disrespecting you on the real, that's a herb. When you let that nigga get away with it you {are} a herb. (Respondent ENYN24): A person who can't defend himself or {is } scared to defend himself. (Respondent ENYN56): Punk or a herb, getting played and not doing nothing about it, you know. (Respondent ENYN20): A herb is a bad ass nigga, someone who's bad and who snitches. You know, {he} gets into a altercation and they lose or something and {then} snitch...
Status Forcing and Situational Identities Negotiating the street requires tests o f character, k n o w l e d g e o f the rules of respect, familiarity with the players on the street, and open displays o f violence. Since the social identities o f actors in the setting are e v e r changing, the testing process
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appears to be continuous until at least 20 years of age. The "mixed contacts" between young males of differing social standing provides the clearest context for observing all facets of status forcing - identity on the way up, on the way down, and holding steady. As Goffman (1963, 12) states, "the very anticipation of such contacts can of course lead normals and the stigmatized to arrange life so as to avoid them. Presumably this will have larger consequences for the stigmatized, since more arranging will usually be necessary on their part." For example, those who are attempting to transcend a punk or herb identity must interact with those who "hold their own" or those identified as "killers" in order to avail an opportunity for "identity recovery" (Kinney, 1993). Punks and herbs absorb all manner of abuse in inner-city neighborhoods. Lower status males are used by more powerful street guys to test their nerve. A young male who "holds his own" may face threats from punks who are attempting to ascend into a higher social identity. The identity shift also can be publicly constructed through reinforcement and praise by those observing and/or hearing about the performance. Observers and others in the neighborhood offer rewards for these performances in the currency of respect. Violent behavior motivated by other issues may also have side benefits for social identity, especially among members of the peer group. The street environment serves as the "classroom" for violent "schooling" and learning about manhood. One hypothesis that emerges from this analysis is evidence of an age grading of identity building via violent performances. The data suggest that mixed age interactions play an important role in this process. It appears that older children and adolescents exert downward pressure on others their own age and younger through identity challenges which, in part, shape\s the social identities of both parties. At younger ages, boys are pushing upward for status by challenging boys a few years older. The social meaning of violent events reaches a broader audience than those immediately present in a situation. Each violent event or potentially violent interaction provides a lesson for its participants, first-hand observers, vicarious observers, and others influenced by stories about the situation. Children learn from personal experience and by observing others use violence to "make" their social identity (or at least one important vector of a young male's identity) or "break" someone else's identity on the street. Three types of performances (poor, successful, and extraordinary) may occur in a violent event. A poor performance is status depriving, a successful performance is status maintaining, and an extraordinary performance is status enhancing. The main focus here is to emphasize the role that violence plays in shaping situational identities. Gun use may involve "crossing a line" or giving an extraordinary performance that shifts one's view of oneself from a "punk" or even "holding your own" to "crazy" or "wild." Guns are used by many as a resource for improving
Violent Events and Social Identity performance. increased the of toughness. resolution at
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The abundance of guns in these neighborhoods apparently has severity of violent performances. Guns have changed the meaning For the majority of our sample, guns became relevant for conflict around 14 years of age.
Transcending the Punk or Herb Identity Punks or herbs need to develop 'nerve" or a willingness to kill in order to deter future attacks and improve their standing in the neighborhood. As Goffman (t963, 10) explains: "The stigmatized individual can also attempt to correct his condition indirectly by devoting much private effort to the mastery of areas of activity ordinarily felt to be closed on incidental and physical grounds to one with his shortcomings." Countermeasures would include building fighting skills, aligning with tougher peers, acquiring and using firearms, and staging winnable violent events. This process was explained repeatedly by our respondents when they reflected back on past experiences. Face-to-face interactions that involve identity tests or challenges in the form of insults, looks, bumps, and other confrontations also represent status-forcing situations. In interactions on the street, social status is defined both individually and collectively. A lack of acknowledgment or denial of status by others may result in violence that under these circumstances, m a y be justified as maintaining the dominance hierarchy. The first example presented below illustrates the stigma a young man experiences when he is labeled a punk or herb. In this event, the respondent was j u m p e d by a group of teenagers from another neighborhood after two of them demand a hit off his blunt. The respondent refused to share and was offended by the request because the opponents were strangers to him. His friends were present but did not get involved in the fight. He described the situation as a learning experience that resulted in him arming himself, not relying on his friends for backup, and being better prepared for future violence: (Interviewer JM): All right. Can you remember any time when you were growing up that you felt like a punk or a herb? (Respondent SBN24): Yes. I felt like a punk and a herb when I fucking, when I was in the streets, and ... I used to get jumped. And niggas, you think you have boys, but niggas really don't look out for you ... So you got to look out for yourself. So, yeah, I felt like a punk and a herb at one time. (JM): Did it bother you? (SBN24): Of course it bothered me. Everybody in the neighborhood, you know, saying, calling you a herb. Even the bitches make fun of you ... (JM): So, can you tell me a little bit about an experience you went through when you was a punk? (SBN24): Yes. There was fucking one time I was chilling in front of the building .., just
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rolling the fucking blunt, trying to get my shit. And fucking two niggas came up to me and I didn't know them niggas. They fucking from another neighborhood. I was chilling and they were like, 'yo, let me get something,' . . . like coming out all ruggedness. And I said, 'what the luck? . . . . I don't know your ass. I don't know what the fuck you have to pass my shit to you. Get the fuck out of here.' And niggas came out. They broke out. Five minutes later niggas came back with like six other niggas and fucking just started beating on my ass. I took the one nigga and I was knocking him, but I got my ass kicked . . . . My boys was watching and they didn't do shit. So, I felt like a punk and a herb . . . . (JM): Why they didn't get in? They your boys, fight? (SBN24): To tell you the truth, yo, in my neighborhood there ain't no such thing as boys • . . Nobody looks out for nobody. You got to be on your own. They your boys and everything, but if they see a nigga that's bigger than him, or . . . got more props, {then} they punks. (JM): So, what happened with that? How did that situation end? (SBN24): . . . I had to go to the hospital for two or three days . . . but you know, I came back up. It's not like I fucking died or nothing like that. I didn't get no broken bones or shit like that. But they fucked me up, yes. I got to learn a lesson• I experienced something. (JM): After that, you felt like you needed to do something to amp up your reputation? (SBN24): Yes, like get a fucking fide, fuck up somebody, you know what I ' m saying, have a piece. To be strapped and . . . (JM): What made you do that? I mean, you know, tell me a little bit about that? (SBN24): Well, it's like I was fucking - I would go around and, you know, if anybody looked at me hard, I would just fucking snuff the shit out of them and if they wanted to fucking keep going, I would just buck them fight there, or fucking go with my fide and just blast niggas. Fuck that. I don't give a fuck about po-po (police). For some respondents,
a g u n is t h e b e s t s o l u t i o n to t h e p u n k o r h e r b s t i g m a .
In the next example, the respondent contrasted his current status as a "hit man" to h o w h e f e l t w h e n b i g g e r m a l e s i n t h e n e i g h b o r h o o d
u s e d to p i c k o n h i m .
A t a g e 19, h e s o l v e d h i s c o n f l i c t s w i t h g u n s : (Respondent SBN31): Yeah, man, I felt like a punk. When I didn't have no motherfucking money I felt like a punk, man, 'cause everybodY have fun. I also feel like a punk when big motherfuckers are bothering me. Big niggas like - big niggas when I was small used to always kick me in my ass. Ain't no motherfuckers kicking me in my ass in '96, 'cause I'ma put a fucking bullet in they ass, they want to kick me in my ass. (Interviewer JM): Do yon ever feel like a punk or a herb now? (SBN31): Man, I don't feel like a punk now. I feel like, I feel like a motherfucking hit man fight now, I feel like a hit man. (JM): You feel like a hit? (SBN31): Yeah. Fucking hit man, yo. Why I consider myself a hit man, 'cause my motherfucking man tell me that somebody did something to him, you ain't got to tell me too long 'cause I ' m going to get him, that's why I consider myself a hit man. You give me the gun, the utensil, I ' m going to use it.
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P e e r s f r e q u e n t l y g e t i n v o l v e d in s i t u a t i o n s w h e r e t h e i r f r i e n d s are b e i n g d i s r e spected or victimized by others. Respondents
d e s c r i b e d v i o l e n t s i t u a t i o n s in
w h i c h t h e y c o m e to t h e a i d o f o t h e r s a n d a l s o t h o s e in w h i c h o t h e r s c o m e to t h e i r aid. O n e r e s p o n d e n t d e s c r i b e d a s c e n e in w h i c h a t e e n a g e r w a s b e i n g ' r u d e ' to h i s f r i e n d a n d a n s w e r e d t h e r e s p o n d e n t ' s second challenging remark. When
request for respect with a
t h e ' r u d e ' m a n r e f u s e d to b a c k d o w n , t h e
r e s p o n d e n t s h o t h i m in t h e h e a d a n d l a t e r a t t e m p t e d to r a t i o n a l i z e his a c t i o n s b y d e n y i n g t h e o p p o n e n t ' s w o r t h o r s o c i a l status: (Interviewer RM): Did you ever shoot anyone? (Respondent G-61): Yeah. (RM): When? Before you got shot or after? (G-61): After - after I got shot. I shot somebody. We had this conflict, this kid, I don't know him but we was just sitting next {to him}, and he exchanged words with my friend, so he told . . . he came to the kid, the kid came to my friend and my friend told him to m o v e . . , so my man was like 'move, what you mean move, man, the word is excuse me,' he was like 'no, move' . . . some rude boy. So he was like, I heard them, so I turned around and said 'yo, what the fuck is going on, yo,' the kid talking about 'what you gonna do,' so I said 'what you mean what I'm gonna do,' so I shot him . . . A s e c o n d e x a m p l e s h o w s a n o l d e r a n d t o u g h e r f r i e n d a t t e m p t i n g to ' g e t j u s t i c e ' for the respondent. The respondent had a history of problems with an opponent,
and
the
respondent's
friend
attempted
to
force
the
return
of
the
r e s p o n d e n t ' s s t o l e n p r o p e r t y . W h e n t h e o p p o n e n t o r d e r s t h e f r i e n d to m i n d h i s o w n b u s i n e s s , t h e f r i e n d d e c i d e d to s h o t h i m . C l e a r l y , t h e o p p o n e n t d i d n o t p r o p e r l y a c k n o w l e d g e t h e status o f t h e s h o o t e r a c c o r d i n g to t h e r e s p o n d e n t : (Interviewer w w ) : Can you remember of a situation where the beef went down, where a beef went down and somebody got hurt involving you? (Respondent G-81): Yeah . . . . I had problems with this Puerto Rican kid . . . . so he was just talking a lot of shit to me, 'cause he beat me for a remote control car. He kept my shit. (WW): When was this? (G-81): This was like, I was 15, I was like between 15 and 1 4 . . . So he beat me, he kept my shit. So my man came, so he came home and shit . . . . I had a ghat (gun) on me that night, because I wasn't going to take it to that level. So I seen the Puerto Rican kid, I stepped to him. I'm like, 'yo, when am I going to get my shit?' He's like 'yo I don't got it.' So my man, my man I was with was l~ke 'yo, when you going to get his shit?' So the Puerto Rican kid telling my man 'yo, mind your business, you don't have nothing to do with this.' So we broke (left). I told the nigga, 'yo that's my man.' So he talking shit, 'fuck y'all niggas, man, I'll flip on both of y'all.' So I snuffed him. So me and him 'bout t o . . . then my man snuffed him. So he heard that my man told him 'I'm going to kill you, watch, I'm going to kill you, don't let me catch you,' so I had the ghat on the side of my hand. But I ain't know what my man was going to do, so I'm off guard that minute, looking at them argue 'bout. My man just grabbed the ghat from my hand, popped him twice in the leg, boom, boom, in front of
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the building, in front of, like, five people. So we standing there, and I'm like 'yo, oh shit, what did you do that for, son?' So boom. The Puerto Rican kid went through the back through the back of the building. (WW): He was shot. (G-81): Yeah, he was shot twice in the leg. So I'm about to leave - so I'm about to go back in the building, my man went through the back of the building followed him, so I'm going to get him so we can jet. {I} get to the back of the building, my man finished him off, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, loaded nine shots at him. Shot him twice, had seven left, let off the rest at him. Next thing you know we both scheming, I don't know what happen then, we both left. (WW): You don't know if the guy got killed? (G-81): Nah, he didn't die though, he didn't die. He came home, but walks down to me. I didn't have nothing to do with it. He didn't have to say nothin' to me, next thing you know my man got locked up for that, 'cause he snitched. The Puerto Riean guy snitched, so my man got locked up. Yo, I don't know what that nigga was thinking in his head, bro, I can't tell you that.
Avoiding the Punk or Herb Identity by Pushing Upward T h e n e x t e x a m p l e i l l u s t r a t e s h o w o n e r e s p o n d e n t , at 11 y e a r s old, f o u g h t w i t h a n o l d e r o p p o n e n t t o a v o i d b e i n g t r e a t e d like a p u n k . A s h e e x p l a i n e d t h e o p p o n e n t w a s k n o w n as a b u l l y a n d o f t e n p i c k e d o n y o u n g e r k i d s . T h e r e s p o n d e n t d e s c r i b e d t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f s t a n d i n g u p f o r h i m s e l f a g a i n s t his o p p o n e n t : (Interviewer DB): Umm, who was the guy you was fighting with? (Respondent ENYN76): Some nigga named Mike. (DB): What was your relationship with the guy? (ENYN76): We ain't have none. I knew was a bully, so I tried to keep away from him. (DB): How was he in size? Bigger, taller, smaller, shorter? (ENYN76): He was taller than me at the time, and wild. (DB): Around the same age? (ENYN76): Nah, he was 20. I was 11. (DB): Psst, you fighting 11, you fighting a 20 n i g g a ? . . . Go ahead, tell me what happened with the fight? (ENYN76):... We playing football together out in the streets, this nigga hitting me, boom. I got away, I had two pieces of stick and started booking at this nigga, swinging at him, constantly. (DB): Y'all was playing football, and he just hit you in the back of the head with no kind of reason? (ENYN76): See, we playing three second hold, right? Shit's dead, that's how I look at it. The play was dead. So {I said} 'why you swinging on me for?' I felt he swung at me. (DB): You feel when he swung at you, or you know he swung at you? (ENYN76): Yup, I know he did.
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(DB): And he hit you in the back of your head? (ENYN76): Yeah, he hit me . . . (DB): For nothing? (ENYN76): I thought it was for nothing. I said 'what the fuck you doing?' What the luck he thinking, I'm tile little man, since I was a little man, at the time, and he tried to push me away and shit, you know. I was like 'what the fuck this nigga trying to do.' (DB): True . . . (ENYN76): So I got the stick - I got my little bat and went to work on his ass. I wanted to kill this nigga. (DB): Was there any kind of argument before you went and got the weapon? (ENYN76): Yeah. (DB): What was it about? (ENYN76): He hit me over my head, that's it. This nigga's right there, he like a bully, you know what I'm saying, the bully of the block. He took advantage of the little niggas. I didn't go for that shit. (DB): What happened next after that, what you did? (ENYN76): I couldn't hit him in his head, so I hit him in his arms and s h i t . . . (DB): All right, how many times you tried to hit him with the bat? (ENYN76): It was like three, four times, then he grabbed the bat. (DB): You hit him three to four times, then be grabbed it . , . (ENYN76): Then he grabbed it. (DB): So you 11 years old, and you fighting this nigga with a bat, and you swung at him three times, four times. You hit him? (ENYN76): Yeah, I hit him, a few times . . . (DB): And then he grabbed it? (ENYN76): Then he grabbed the bat. (DB): And what he did? (ENYN76): He was like 'shorty, don't be playing me like that.' That's when everybody came outside and broke it up.
Getting Even for Punk or Herb Experience T h e d e t a i l e d g u n e v e n t d e s c r i b e d b e l o w illustrates the s i g n i f i c a n c e o f overc o m i n g a p u n k or h e r b i d e n t i t y f o r a y o u n g i n n e r - c i t y male. This " r e v e n g e o f the n e r d s " tale is an i n t e r e s t i n g story o f h o w a 19-year old A f r i c a n - A m e r i c a n m a l e got r e v e n g e for a p u n k / h e r b e x p e r i e n c e that o c c u r r e d in j u n i o r h i g h school. T h e i n c i d e n t started w h e n the r e s p o n d e n t ran into s o m e o n e w h o t o o k his hat a f e w y e a r s earlier. A l t h o u g h the r e s p o n d e n t r e m e m b e r e d his o p p o n e n t readily, the o p p o n e n t did n o t r e m e m b e r him. T h e r e s p o n d e n t w a s instantly h e a t e d u p o n s e e i n g his e n e m y and r e m e m b e r i n g the p r e v i o u s n e g a t i v e e n c o u n t e r . T h e
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respondent explained the event as a very important experience of regaining something that was lost by humiliating and terrorizing his opponent. The respondent pulled out 9 m m semi-automatic handgun and put it to his e n e m y ' s neck. He attempted to restore his opponent's memory by reminding him of the previous encounter when the respondent's hat was taken and the opponent publicly humiliated him. The respondent wanted to kill his adversary but instead robbed and pistol-whipped him. Clearly, the respondent enjoyed the event, the event was especially rewarding because of his previous status as a victim. He explained: (Respondent ENYN77): Yeah, a lot of niggas used to be scared of this punk-ass nigga. I mean... I ain't gonna front, you know I was a new head in school, you know, niggas was like 'yo, he's a big man.' I was like, 'word,' I was a little punk-ass too, I was scared of him - I wasn't scared, I was just like, yo, I didn't want to get jumped. Back then I didn't really know how to fight. The opponent showed fear, cried, and apparently believed that his life was at stake. The respondent and his friends were able to totally dominate the victim. The attack was a group activity that included six of the respondent's friends against one unarmed victim. The respondent described the situation as if he were controlling all of the actions of his opponent as well as the behavior of his friends. He explains: (ENYN77): I'm not really a killer, you know. I hit {him} with my pistol, I pistol-whipped his ass, he just fell to his knees. I just let my roans do what they wanted to do, they - they took off his pants and.., we let him run home in his underwear. As the respondent explained the gun played a central role in this event: (ENYN77): Yeah, 'cause all h e . . . {said was} 'just don't kill me,' he was saying that shit, niggas laughing at him. He was looking like a little sorry ass. Nigga really act pussy if they don't got a gun. During the event, the respondent was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, a combination that he believes is explosive: (ENYN77): Yeah, because I feel like when you drink you be, like, yon become more looser. When you smoke you become more meaner. Both of them combined, it's just like total destruction. W h e n asked why violence was necessary in this situation, the respondent expressed concerns about justice and revenge. He declared: "Because yo, whoever took something from me always pay the price. If not that day, {then} someday. A n d they always did." He explained that this situation compensated for negative experiences he had in his youth. (DB): Thinking back, why do you think you did what you did?
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(ENYN77): Because, see, I always {was} like a fighter, you know, but when I feel like I ' m outnumber{ed}, {like} back in the days, I would just let it be. But as I got older I couldn't let it happen no more so you know I just had to do what I had to do." The respondent was arrested but not convicted for this incident. He said he felt good about the situation afterward because he performed
welt. The respondent
was asked what was gained or lost from the situation: (ENYN77): I didn't have nothing to lose and I gained everything. (DB): You gained everything, like what? (ENYN77): Respect. Yeah, man he took my hat. I ain't never seen nigga since. . . . I heard he moved out of state.
Status Forcing Among the Tough Young
males who
"hold their own"
or have "thug" status may face identity
challenges from peers outside their social network or geographic territory. Many y o u n g m a l e s c a p i t a l i z e o n s i t u a t i o n a l o p p o r t u n i t i e s to f o r c e o t h e r s ' s t a t u s d o w n ward, as described below: (Interviewer DT): Could you tell me how it occurred? (Respondent G-75): How it occurred? (DT): Yeah. (G-75): All right. I had a 2ittle problem with this kid for a while, ever since I has in high school, all right. He was a thug. He used to come around my projects, 'cause - my projects that I moved to. I ' m originally from a certain project that is known for having a reputation of having all thugs in there. I had moved to these projects where it wasn't too many thug niggas. I was probably one of only thug niggas in there. So he would come around my way, fuck around with niggas, the herbs around my way, and he must've thought he knew where I was coming from, {like} once I moved to those projects I turned herb or some shit. My name ain't Herb. One day {his boys} had jumped me. I let that slide. I don't think he was there, it was he boys that did that . . . . Then one day my peoples come over there to see me from my old projects. He there with his men. My man like 'what is the verdict, son, what's the verdict.' Niggas try to take it out in the street. He acting like he got a guard jewel {gun} on, he acting like he got something on him so. My man come to me like 'yo, let me get the heat,' referring to a gun. Yeah, all fight I go in alive, I grab it, make sure it is loaded . . . . When he get around the kid he gives it back to me, and said 'no, I ' m fight him straight on. He fights the fair one with the kid. They fight for a while, break it up, start fighting again. Now they fought for ten minutes, they both tired. This dude still wants to fight. This dude starts a fight with my other man that came to visit, too. My man's like, 'yo, you don't know me, get out of my face. First he tried to give my man five, like 'what's up,' like 'good one.' My man don't know him, he was like 'what you mean give you five, 'he was poking my man in the eye and shit, some pussy shit. So he was like 'what you mean give you five? I don't know you, you don't know me, 'he was like 'what you want to fight with me, man . . . Then so he come over to me and tried to give me five . . . He said 'you're a pussy' or some shit, I said, 'what? You talking to me?' I had the gun that my friend had gave me. I had {the} gun off safety, loaded, in my pocket and this dude is
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trying to fight with me. I had one of two choices. I could fight with him now. The police was already on their way. It was just a 15-minute fight, everybody {was} outside the building, you know, somebody had to call the cops. I had a choice. I could fight with this dude. He could have had a gun on him, which he was acting like he had a gun on him, and his man was there. Or I could take care of my business, hit with it, shoot him, whatever I got to do, and break out. The cops is on their way. I could fight with him, it could go off while we fighting, wrestling, bong. I ' m getting shot as a motherfucker. Or I could just hit him with it. I choose to hit him with it. I pull it out boom. I hit {him} over the head with it then he started coming at me I hit again in the head with it then he tried to wrestle me for {it} and I shot him in the shoulder. That is what happened. The shit jammed, son or he would have been done off. It jammed because I had hit him with it. It was only a .25, brand new, we just got it that day, chrome .25. I hit him here and here, gave him stitches, boom. After I hit him he started running. I ' m like this, 'aw, shit,' then I started breaking out. I went to the back of the building. (DT): Did you know the guy before you shot him? (G-75): Yeah I knew him, I had a few incidents with him. (DT): You all didn't get along, right? (G-75): Nah he tried to play too much of a thug I didn't never have a problem with him but, you know what I mean, he wanted a problem with me.
Unsuccessful Status-ForcingAttempts Unsuccessful attempts at status forcing occur when one's self-presentation does not match one's action. These actions are called 'fronting' or 'not being real' in situations where others call the behavior into question. Fronting is ordinarily perceived as a personal challenge with the potential for further escalation. The front represents an attempt to gain status. It becomes problematic when the challenged perceives a threat as empty and issues a counterchallenge. The streetwise individual can spot a phony quickly; young men who present themselves as tough better be prepared to back up their presentation with action. Fronting may be an attempt to practice the techniques of being tough when one desires to move up toward a certain status; alternatively, fronting also can be an attempt to account for one's actions to avoid violence. Misrepresentation is not tolerated on the street, and putting on a front unsuccessfully as described below can be extremely dangerous: (Respondent ENYN33): And he hit him in the head with a spray can, he went boom - I mean, he told me, my man told me what happened. (Interviewer DT): Yeah. (ENYN33): He caught him in the head and he said 'yo, my man,' so we ran up to him, because he beat up my man and hit him with the spray can. So we were like 'yo, yo we got to do something,' 'Cause he's down there and stuff, you know. So we step up to him, he like, 'nah, man,' like he was trying to front, telling that he beat him up 'cause of this, this and that, whatever, 'cause he bumped him and stuff like that. You know, bedropped his name and all that other crazy stuff.
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(DT): Oh, like that, graffiti? (ENYN33): Yeah, graffiti, that's what it was. So then, um, it was like 'yo, man, fuck that,' 'cause he - my man had stitches in the head. So like, 'yo, we got to do something to this motherfucker, man, 'you know. So fight there, my man just caught him in - caught him from behind, just snuffed him, boom, caught him in the jaw, fight. So fight there his man that he was with him, he like, 'yo, what the luck, man, what's up, what's y'all niggas doing, man.' . . . He was like, 'cause he always deep, he's got his mad heads with him, so fight there another kid came up and they pulled and we knew he was ready to pull out . . . . My man just came up and say 'yo, watch your back,' 'cause I - I was - I was ready to go up to the kid and snuff him too. So fight there one of his homeboys came and just was ready to release. Then right there my man said 'yo, yo, watch your back, watch your back.' So fight there, it was 'cause - it was for protection, 'cause I wasn't gonna shoot this guy, but he had the gun, and I just said - he said 'watch,' I looked and he pulled out the gun and I went like this, boom and pulled it out and - I just pointed at him fight there and I just there, boom, boom, boom, boom, started spraying him, you know what I'm saying. So they say - they say that, urn, that I tried to kill him and stuff like that, but I wasn't trying to kill that kid. It was just that - that he was trying to shoot me, so I was doing it for protection. (DT): Hmm. (ENYN33): So that's why, what happened, I caught him - I don't know if I caught him or not, but they were saying that I caught him in the legs and stuff. I n sum, t h e r e are a v a r i e t y o f w a y s in w h i c h y o u n g m a l e s " f o r c e s t a t u s " o n e a c h other. V i o l e n c e is i n s t r u m e n t a l in this process. T h e r e are status c o n s e q u e n c e s for all parties i n v o l v e d in a v i o l e n t event. T h e r e s p o n d e n t s d e s c r i b e d a number of status-forcing situations including upward movement, downward m o v e m e n t , a n d status m a i n t e n a n c e . I d e n t i t y c h a l l e n g e s are v e r y c o m m o n , t h e r e is a d e v e l o p m e n t a l c o m p o n e n t to i d e n t i t y - b a s e d v i o l e n t e v e n t s , a n d t h e s e e x a m ples s h o w t h e p e r p e t u a t i o n o f t o u g h n e s s n o r m s o f m a s c u l i n i t y .
DISCUSSION B a s e d o n t h e data p r e s e n t e d in this paper, s e v e r a l s t a t e m e n t s c a n b e m a d e a b o u t t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w e e n social c o n t e x t , v i o l e n t situations, a n d social i d e n t i t y a m o n g a d o l e s c e n t m a l e s in t h e s e i n n e r city n e i g h b o r h o o d s . T h e street c o n t e x t offers a v a r i e t y o f m e c h a n i s m s for the d e v e l o p m e n t o f social identity. T h e t w o i n n e r - c i t y n e i g h b o r h o o d s s t u d i e d h e r e clearly are z o n e s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y a n " e c o l o g y o f d a n g e r " i n c l u d i n g h i g h l e v e l s o f r i s k for v i c t i m i z a t i o n , f r e q u e n t e x p o s u r e to v i o l e n t e x p e r i e n c e s , a n d a n o r m a t i v e f r a m e w o r k s u p p o r t v i o l e n t b e h a v i o r . T h e p u b l i c or i n t e r a c t i o n a l n a t u r e o f v i o l e n c e a m o n g a d o l e s c e n t s a l l o w s t h e a i r i n g o f i d e n t i t y c o n t e s t s to take o n a m o r e s i g n i f i c a n t a n d p o t e n tially d e a d l y m e a n i n g , e s p e c i a l l y c o u p l e d w i t h t h e r e a d y a v a i l a b i l i t y o f firearms a m o n g this p o p u l a t i o n . T h e social s p a c e b e c o m e s e v e n m o r e c l o s e d w h e n t h e
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experiences of active violent offenders is examined. In other contexts, such as middle-class schools, we see adolescents forming desirable identities via athletic ability, physical attractiveness, social skills, and wealth (Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Kinney, 1993). The current data, and previous research, suggests that for innercity males prestige is granted to those who are tough, who have gained respect by proving their toughness, and who reenact their appropriate role in public. As Messerschmidt (1993) points out, toughness or displaying a willingness to fight when necessary exists in these contexts; however, the current data show that violence is the single most critical resource for gaining status among those inner-city males who frequently participate in street life. The dynamics of violent events reflect several interesting processes: (1) achievement of a highly valued social identity occurs through extreme displays of violence, (2) achievement of a "safe" social identity may also require the use of extreme forms of violence, (3) the ready availability of guns clearly increases the stakes of how one achieves status, (4) much behavior is motivated by avoiding being a punk or herb (sucker or weakling), (5) identities can change from being a punk or herb into a more positive status such as "holding your own," (6) guns equalize the odds for some smaller young men through the process of "showing nerve," (7) one can feel like a punk for a specific situation but not take on a punk identity, (8) one can feel like a "crazy" killer in a specific situation but not take on a "crazy," "wild," or "killer" identity. If "compulsive masculinity" or Anderson's "street orientation" is as dominant in public spaces and crucial for personal safety as our data suggest, then those who do not conform are highly likely to be victimized. The reproduction of social identifies constructed through violent behavior, and the eclipsing or devaluation of other identities spreads in increasingly socially isolated networks. These identifies reinforce the dominance hierarchy built on "toughness" and violence, and its salience devalues other identities. Those unwilling to adopt at least some dimensions of these norms either overtly or symbolically are vulnerable to physical attack. Accordingly, these identities are strategic necessities to navigate through everyday dangers of inner city life. The maintenance and reinforcement of identities supportive of violence is made possible by an effective socio-cultural dynamic that sets forth an age grading pathway to manhood that includes both behaviors and the means of resolving violations of respect. The incorporation of violent attitudes and behaviors as a "rite of passage" has been documented in this study. The illustrations in this paper show the strong influence of a street code, similar to the codes identified by Anderson (1994), or the code of honor described by (Toch, 1969), over the behaviors of young children, adolescents, and young adults.
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The absence of alternative means of attaining valued masculine identities further compound the problem. The transmission of these social processes occur on both the micro and macro level. Children growing up in this environment learn these codes, or behavioral-affective systems, by navigating their way through everyday interpersonal situations that oftentimes involve violence encounters. Delinquency research in earlier eras showed how conventional and deviant behaviors often lived side by side within groups, and also within individuals (Cloward & Ohlin, 1960; Cohen, 1955). One effect of "danger" as a dominant ecological marker is the difficulty that adolescents have in maintaining that duality of behavior and of orientation. The street code has a functional purpose for attaining status and avoiding danger, even for adolescents who harbor conventional attitudes and goals. Negotiating safety within this context is extremely difficult especially when much of the social activity available to young men who have left school and are "hanging out" on the inner-city street corner involves expressing dominance over others. The effects are a hardening of street codes, and an eclipsing of other avenues for social status and respect. Attempts to reverse this cycle must address its manifestations at the individual, group, and societal levels. The crisis of youth gun violence reflects broader trends in youth violence, but also significant changes in the material conditions and social controls in the communities where gun violence is most common. Understanding youth gun violence requires that we also understand the dynamic contextualism of these neighborhoods, the influence of these social processes on socialization, social control, and behavior, and the role of guns in shaping norms and behaviors. Youth gun violence is central to the ecological background of many neighborhoods, and also to the developmental landscape that shapes behavioral expectancies and social identities of area adolescents. By examining the extreme end of the spectrum we get a fuller understanding of the complex social processes that create and sustain environments where violence is deemed necessary. The use of guns has instrumental value that is communicated through displays of dominance and urban "myths," but also through the incorporation of gun violence into the social discourse of everyday life among pre-adolescents and adolescents. Guns are widely available and frequently displayed. They are salient symbols of power and status, and strategic means of gaining status, domination, or material goods. The current cohort of young men in their late adolescent years grew up during a time of alarmingly high rates of violence (again mostly gun) in their neighborhoods. Self-protection and personal safety became increasingly dependent on firearm possession and often use.
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One important development is an apparent breakdown in the age grading of behaviors, where traditional segmentation of younger adolescents from older ones, and behavioral transitions from one developmental stage to the next, are short-circuited by the strategic presence of firearms. The development of an ecology of danger reflects the confluence and interaction of several sources of contagion. First is the contagion of fear. Weapons serve as an environmental cue that in turn may increase aggressiveness (Slaby, 1997; Slaby & Roedell, 1982). Adolescents presume that their counterparts are armed, and if not, could easily become armed. They also assume that other adolescents are willing to use guns, often at a low threshold of provocation. Indeed, respondents describe their neighborhoods as "war zones" where violence, especially gun violence, is very likely to erupt. Any examination of the trajectory of individuals' identity pathways must closely examine the specific social contexts in which development is situated. The data presented herein highlight the importance of social networks and peer groups in the social construction of violent events. Future research should move toward longitudinal studies using this in-depth qualitative approach to capture more closely the age specific developmental unfolding hypothesized from these data. The important role of age-grading also suggests longitudinal designs with both younger and older cohorts. If identity is a central focus of these dynamics, research with younger children is necessary to assess how behavioral progressions are tied to identity development and situational techniques of avoidance. The interactions of adolescents across age cohorts also are important points of diffusion of behavioral norms and identity development.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to the special efforts of my field crew in making this research possible. I thank Jeffrey Fagan, Elin Waring, Mercer Sullivan, Drew Humprehies, Dennis Rosenbaum, and Edem Avakeme for their valuable feedback and suggestions. I also thank David Kinney and the anonymous reviewers for sound advice which helped to make the paper more focused. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Sociological Association meetings in Toronto, 1997. Support for this research was provided by grants from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Justice and the National Science Foundation. The opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agencies.
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NOTES 1. The interviews were conducted from June, 1995 and March, 1997. 2. Friends o f Island Academy (Friends) is a non-profit organization founded in 1992. Friends provides educational, vocational, and mentoring services to young men and women who have left the educational Academy (alternative high school) at Rikers Island. Guys Insight on Imprisonment for Teenagers (G.I.I.F.T.) Pack is a program for youth run by the youth membership of Friends. The main approach is peer counseling and outreach where ex-offenders assist soon-to-be released offenders to make positive changes by learning from their mistakes. G.I.I.F.T. Pack members regularly engage in public speaking at Rikers Island Academy, New York City schools, community based organizations, and in local media outlets. 3. Unfortunately, we have no idea if this percentage is typical or atypical. Few studies have classified violent events, especially among adolescents. 4. The three types of social identity discussed here were the most commonly described by our sample. Most of the interactions were defined in terms of avoiding being classifted as a punk or herb. Respondents also did describe other violence-related social identities including "the avoider," "the nice guy," "the beef handler," "too cool for violence," and others.
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"TROUB LEMAK ERS," "AVERAGE KIDS," AND "BETTER-BEHAVED YOUTH": THE POLITICS OF LABELING IN SOCIAL SERVICE DELIVERY Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh
INTRODUCTION There has emerged a renewed interest in the notion of "community" in the American social policy arena. Similar to the late 1960s, when social unrest forced the nation to consider the plight of inner-city neighborhoods, those working in the policy sphere have grown increasingly aware that perhaps inner-city problems are greater than the sum of individual and household needs and that "neighborhoods" and "communities" e n t o t o will require attention if the poor and needy are to experience quality of life improvements. The return to supra-individual/household designations has been motivated by several factors, most notably the perceived failure of government programs that work in isolation from other non-governmental agencies and the dissatisfaction with initiatives - regardless of sponsorship - that operate without broad resident input and support. This essay examines this realignment of service delivery that has taken place as a result of a reinvigorated concern with the urban community. Of particular concern is the impact on marginal and "at-risk" youth. This
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segment of young people continue to pose challenges for families, residents, local organizations, and institutional representatives - such as social workers and police officers - who attempt to reproduce safe and secure residential environments. Concerns with the normative development of at-risk youth has increased steadily since the late 1970s with the entrenchment of unemployment, violent gang activity, the prevalence of drug distribution, and the "social isolation" of youth from mainstream institutions (Wilson, 1987). The aim in this essay is not to consider the diversity of practical interventions into the lives of at-risk youth (which has already been published elsewhere [Venkatesh, 1999]), nor to conduct an exhaustive review of community-based policies targeting at-risk youth, but to analyze the components of this new policy-making complex as it affects the daily struggle of urban poor communities to confront the challenges to their adolescent and youth populace. To do So, this essay will draw upon longitudinal ethnographic observations of service delivery for at-risk - sometimes called "troubled" - youth in predominantly African-American poor communities in Chicago, Illinois. The observations, conversations, and informal interviews occurred in two periods, the first between 1992 and 1997 and the second in 1999-2000. The focus of the data collection has been to document the interactions of local service providers, residents, youth, and actors in the larger policy-making community. The site for this study is the Greater Grand Boulevard Community (hereafter Grand Boulevard), a large contiguous set of concentrated poor, predominantly African-American community areas in the South Side of Chicago.
D I F F E R E N C E AND H I E R A R C H Y IN THE SOCIAL SERVICE FIELD The postwar social transformation of America's inner cities has received much attention in the last two decades. Some aspects of this history have been well documented, such as the decimation of the economic base of inner cities, the evisceration of its institutional sector and, the retrenchment of the welfare state. However, there has been significantly less attention paid to the effects of these transformations on the delivery of human services to poor and needy populations. Those observing the social work profession have documented the growing professionalization and bureaucratization of the field, and concomitantly, its gradual move away from organizing and community building. Others studying law enforcement have pointed to ebb and flows in police practices, such as the entrenchment of "suppression" tactics in the 1980s that rely largely on police - to the exclusion of other community actors - and the
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modest attempt to alter this posture through "community policing" initiatives in the 1990s (Klein, 1995; Spergel, 1995). These worthwhile observations are generally directed at macro-social institutions- in these instances, "social work" and "law enforcement". Less information exists at the social organizational level, specifically on the manner by which community-based actors have altered their practices in response to the macro-social transformations. In Chicago, as in other major metropolitan areas, there has been a shift in the delivery of social services to the poor and needy, one that has had significant consequences for the capacity of communities to address their needs. This shift, occurring at the end of the 1980s, has had two distinct, but interrelated components. On the one hand, in Chicago's Grand Boulevard community, associations comprised of local stakeholders formed in order to address community-based concerns. These included federations of social service agencies, religious networks of pastors and ministers, and boards comprised of investors, bank and savings and loan officers, real estate developers, and others interested in economic development. The agendas differed. For example, while one association sought to remedy the growing gap between churches and the local population, another prioritized the lack of investment in the local commercial sector. But, the common objective in all such efforts was to develop strategies that used the collective strength of the association/network to leverage external resources. One of the most visible has been the Grand Boulevard Development Board (hereafter the Board), whose participants have included political officials, bank presidents, pastors, and resident stakeholders, the majority of whom are well-known and have some measure of political influence locally and in the wider city. The Board continues to monitor any large-scale projects that reconfigure the physical composition of Chicago's South Side African-American neighborhoods - e.g. slum clearance, commercial development, new transportation corridors. It proactively solicits government and non-government funding for economic development, and for various social and human services. At the same time that the Board was forming, a number of prominent foundations wanted to restructure their philanthropic practices by devising initiatives and funding strategies that would rebuild the social fabric of urban poor areas as a whole - that is, by not only bettering the lives of select individuals and households but by strengthening local social relations through the promotion of cooperative ventures, such as networking or collaborative programming. The assumptions behind this strategy were that: (1) the "social isolation" of the urban poor from the mainstream needed to be rectified, and (2) individuals and organizations involved - including foundations, youth centers, schools, residents, and churches - would have to work collaboratively
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and cooperatively as a "community" in order to engender social change and reintegration into the mainstream. Indeed, the word "community" became a catchall phrase around which foundation representatives and local actors and practitioners invoked when signaling their perceived unique service delivery philosophy. And, the field of youth-based service delivery was quickly becoming the empirical site that anchored the practices of this heterogeneous group. That is, there was a general consensus among those involved that normative youth socialization had been deleteriously impacted by large-scale structural transformations and that a community-based effort based on collaboration and cooperation was necessary to bring about renewed, productive contact with youth and mainstream institutions. Many members of the Board participated in the foundation-sponsored dialogues to rethink community-based service provision. Out of the meetings and workshops, the Board emerged as the self-appointed "spokesperson for the [Greater Grand Boulevard] community". The Board declared its intent to serve as the forum for community discussion and debate as well as the fiscal agent for any planning efforts that sought to outline a vision for Grand Boulevard's overall growth and development. A smaller association, the "Youth Network," was formed that included many influential members of the Board as well as practitioners who had experience in delivering services to youth - e.g. high school principals, directors of youth centers, community advocacy staffers, pastors, outreach personnel in the police department. The Youth Network was a subsidiary of the Board. The objective of the Network was to realize the vision of collaboration promoted by the funders in conjunction with the Board. To do so, it would promote service reform among organizations in Grand Boulevard by designing a comprehensive community-based approach to youth service delivery. The Network would be responsible for soliciting outside funding as well as recruiting participation from youth, residents, and local organizations. An executive committee, comprised of select members of the Network, made decisions on behalf of the organization. It was a Board-appointed committee that wrote the mission of Youth Network and invited stakeholders and organizations in Grand Boulevard to participate. In these early stages, the Youth Network was promised strong financial support from the most important philanthropic organizations in the city, which was not altogether surprising given that the most vocal members of the executive committee had experience procuring funding from government and non-government organizations. At this early stage, there was a general consensus among Board and Youth Network members regarding the importance of a holistic response to local youth constituencies; however, there was less shared understanding regarding the
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specific youth who would be served, which agencies would be best involved in such a cooperative effort, the appropriate strategies to promote youth development and, perhaps most importantly, who had the authority to guide the Network and make decisions. The Network issued reports and pamphlets to promote the new "community-based" initiative, and as they publicized their approach to local youth in seminars and focus groups, questions arose regarding how best to implement their stated vision. A current of disgruntlement and hostility lay beneath the public optimism. Some organizations questioned why they were not invited to join the Youth Network. Others on the Network wondered how they could influence the design of programs and receive some of the resources the Network had obtained from external funders. Some jockeying was to be expected, since organizations were operating in the context of poverty and scarce external funding opportunities were scarce. However, the ongoing efforts of the Board and the Youth Network to put into practice their community-based initiative placed in sharp relief several critical issues regarding contemporary policy making in urban poor areas. For example, one of Youth Network' s earliest proposals was to bring together youth from different segments of the entire Grand Boulevard community. This was intended to remedy the "turf' battles in which agencies worked primarily in some cases, only - with their local youth populace in a guarded manner, often eschewing collaboration or outreach beyond their existing client pool. Almost immediately after the Youth Network created programs such as track meets, art fairs, and dances for local youth, participants in the initiative asked critical questions regarding the Network's approach. There were multiple understanding of "community" that appeared to be circulating in Grand Boulevard and some individuals questioned the formulation of community formally invoked by the powerful members of the Youth Network. For example, in advertising their programs in public meetings and in recruitment drives to bring aboard new organizational affiliates, Youth Network spokespersons had expressed preference for one particular vision of community that centered on territorial boundaries and that eliminated many of the larger public housing developments in the area. It was a vision of "community" whose geographic boundaries also excluded city blocks that historically had been part of the Greater Grand Boulevard area. Those service providers who were part of the Youth Network "community" appeared fairly homogenous in terms of their stature within Grand Boulevard. That is, the Network included primarily the politically-powerful actors who, taken as a whole, had already constituted a community of sorts. The interpretation of partiality and favoritism was proffered both by organizations that were not members of Youth Network as well as by those formally involved -
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in the Network, but that were not appointed to serve on the powerful executive committees. This perception of elitism in the selection process was not a wholly inaccurate one, given the well-established connections of Network members in broader political circles. But, the influential members of Youth Network who were advertising the new initiatives were also not completely at fault since they had historically played a leadership role in local affairs and so, had the organizational wherewithal to assume a frontline position in this latest effort. It was not surprising that they would exercise a relatively greater role in the Youth Network initiative, at least in the early stages of the effort. There were certainly other networks of individuals and collective actors in existence - besides the elite-tier representatives on the Network - who were involved in the social and political life of the Grand Boulevard community. However, the most prominent individuals in the area had come together to create the Youth Network. One of the most contentious components of Youth Network's agenda was its self-designation as the premiere forum where all ideas, funding, and collaboration regarding youth-related programs in Grand Boulevard should take place. As one Network founder stated, "We see ourselves as the hub, where anyone and everyone can come, meet with one another, find resources and go back and deliver needed services. We are the hub in the wheel". Youth Network members wanted to centralize the delivery of services and programs for Grand Boulevard's youth, the theory being that bringing various constituencies into contact with one another would reform service provision - e.g. to eliminate duplication of resources, create synergies through collaboration, motivate service providers to exchange resources. Thus, implicit in the desire to bring about centralization was the recognition that there were social cleavages in the community that had to be transcended in order to improve the capacity of individual providers. And, the Youth Network somewhat immodestly advertised their perceived unique capacity to realize this objective. It is worthwhile to consider the most salient division in the field of service provision as being among individuals and organizations who differed in terms of political and social capital. Within the poor communities of many large American cities, service providers may be seen in terms of their position on one of three "tiers" (Venkatesh, 1997; see also Stagner, & Richman, 1985; Kettner & Martin, 1994) The concept of a tier-based differentiation of service providers is taken from an earlier work (Venkatesh, 1997) in which I attempt to categorize the form that human and social service provision assume in contemporary urban poor communities. "Service provider" is a broad category, referencing the universe of individuals, organizations and social groups that participate in the exchange and allocation of resources and assistance within poor communities. Thus, not only youth centers such as the Boys and Girls
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Club, but also neighborhood block clubs, churches, community activists that volunteer in a library or school, and the school itself is a "service provider" because they each participate in a helping process. • The "Elite Tier": The larger, established human and social service providers
form an elite tier. Elite-tier providers usually have been in existence for a longer duration in part because their relations with the funding community enables them to remain fiscally sound. They tend to have larger staff sizes and they will offer stable, predictable programming. However, they are relatively inflexible and more conservative in terms of changing their funding or programming priorities in accordance with shifting needs of their clientele. They are usually the first point-of-contact for an external world - e.g. philanthropies, charities, government agencies - that seeks counsel, legitimacy, and support in their dealings with that community. And, while they serve a youth sector that tends to possess stable relations with other community institutions, elite tier providers have not been as successful when reaching out to the more marginal and at-risk youth segments. Families and households that struggle to make ends meet often do not establish steady, continuous relationships with this tier, thus the elite tier also may also service a restricted adult population in urban poor communities. • The " L o w e r 77er": In many urban poor communities, there are organizations and stakeholders who administer goods and services, but who fall 'under the radar' of the broader public. The lower-tier of providers is comprised of individuals and organizations that are typically smaller in size, that may not have a separate staff, that may operate in a small office or out of their home and, that routinely come in and out of existence as funding and support becomes available. Grassroots actors such as storefront churches, block club presidents, 'morn and pop' storeowners who hire locally and informally, and outreach workers and advocacy agencies who conduct conflict resolution with warring street gangs are some common examples of lower-tier actors. They are extraordinarily flexible in terms of providing services as they are called for by local residents, but they do not have the wherewithal to offer programs on a continuous basis. This sector usually has the most intimate contact with the marginal youth segments, yet they may work with youth in isolation from the larger elite-tier providers. • The " M i d d l e Tier": As its name suggests, there is a layer of organizations that combine characteristics of the elite and lower tiers. Mid-size providers usually are capable of remaining fiscally sound and have sufficient staff to administer services on a continuous basis, but they may lack political capital in terms of active involvement in the citywide forums and initiatives and
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they may not be advisors to philanthropies and government agencies. Often, they are subsidiaries of larger national providers, such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of America or the YMCA, and so their personal inability or reluctance to conduct fundraising through politicking and networking may not jeopardize their existence. They are also distinct from their elite-tier counterparts because they may quickly adjust their programming to meet a local need, such as gang conflicts that require organizational mediation, or a school shutdown or teachers strike that requires changes in programming or hours of operation. Unlike the elite tier, they will be less hesitant to confront the marginal youth segments - often embracing them as they do their lower-tier counterparts and the consequence may be a highly varied set of youth clients. They usually have better relations with lower-tier providers because they will offer space, resources, and supports for grassroots actors. The majority of members in Youth Network, and everyone who served on its policy making committees, belonged to an "elite-tier" that historically had the greatest political and social capital in the Grand Boulevard area. There were several "middle-tier" actors present, but many did not play a prominent role in the early stages of the initiative and were not asked by their elite counterparts to serve on the privileged executive and policy-making communities. There were few "lower-tier" actors present, and those who did attend were quite vocal in terms of demanding access to resources and influence in decision-making. As one might expect, one of the most important roles of the middle-tier actors was to provide liaison between the lower and elite tier representatives on Youth Network. By posing their work as transcending the tier hierarchy in Grand Boulevard, the Network spokespersons necessarily tied the fate of their initiative to the involvement of actors outside of their own personal networks, namely those outside of the elite tier. Even if they did not explicitly hope to erase the tier divisions, their intention to create community-wide events where many different sectors of youth (and service providers) met and collaborated with one another would eventually have to confront directly the ties of enmity and alliance in Grand Boulevard. Given that there was not an established history of cooperation among actors in different tiers, and that the Youth Network was comprised predominantly of elite actors, there was noticeable skepticism among observers whether the Network's policy initiative and its goals of community-wide (read: cross-tier) collaboration would succeed in bridging social divisions. Youth Network's public presentations of its proposal to lead a "community" response to the "youth crisis", albeit laden with demands for a unified, wide-reaching, and inclusive base of participants in Grand Boulevard, initially
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received unfavorable attention. The negative interpretations were grounded in the tier divisions that separated actors in the human service field. That is, the Youth N e t w o r k ' s vision of a cohesive, non-hierarchical approach to service provision for youth ran orthogonal to the historic divisions in Grand Boulevard whereby Youth Network formed one of many extant social networks that differed in terms of status, access to external resources, and ability to influence community affairs. There was little public recognition among Network members that, in the field of human service delivery, they were at the top of a social hierarchy. As the N e t w o r k ' s members advertised their proposal, they did not explicitly recognize their own privileged status within the overall social organization of Grand Boulevard providers. The Youth Network did not advertise the youth-based initiatives in terms of supplementing their constituent members' programs with those of other middle and lower tier providers in Grand Boulevard. Instead, the N e t w o r k ' s dominant publicizing motif emphasized its inherent capacity to serve as the logical meeting ground for a community-wide effort to address youth development. The public discord arose almost immediately after the Network had devised its proposal to respond to the "youth crisis". The tepid, and at times antagonistic reception to its programmatic vision centered on the N e t w o r k ' s definition of "the Grand Boulevard community" and, correlatively, the place of the Network in this collectivity. Many service providers who contributed to the design of the youth initiative raised questions concerning the overall structure of the proposal. The following 1993 interaction, at a Youth Network sponsored a "town hall meeting" intended to recruit wider support for the youth initiatives, was exemplary. "The question I have for you all", said John Carliss, the director of youth programming at a Boys and Girls Club, "is why we haven't heard about [the Youth Network] before. You have all these lines [on this map] and it looks like my Club ain't in the community?" "We had to draw the map to give people an idea of the target area we're trying to serve", said a Youth Network staffer. "We didn't mean to exclude you intentionally. We are n'ying to find an area that will work to ... " "But, you don't have public housing in [the area]. Why?" interrupted Carliss. "Why didn't you ask us [who offer youth-related programs in public housing] to work with you. You keep talking about the community, but what's that about?" "This is an effort to bring in everyone in the community. We want to get input from everyone". "Then we ought to sit where yon sit", exclaimed Cartiss. "That's what I'm saying. You deciding and you doing what you want. I got troubled kids and they need help". In this interaction, John Carliss and others raised three separate concerns. The first revolved around the territory that the Youth Network would consider as
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constitutive of "Grand Boulevard". Some of Carliss' clients came from a large public housing development that was not included in the Network's map of "Grand Boulevard", although it was common knowledge that the housing development was historically part of "Grand Boulevard". Carliss was a representative of the "middle-tier" because his center had never been part of such prominent public initiatives and his willingness to conduct outreach to gangs and other marginal groups had left him open to criticism from elite providers. He understood his position on Youth Network to be an advocate for those who delivered "non-traditional programs", and a spokesperson for "smaller folks who don't get a lot of attention" - namely, those who belong to the "middle" and "lower" tiers. (The Network's map was drawn in such a manner that many small neighborhoods were excluded and other organizational representatives were quick to point out the curious social service gerrymandering.) The second concern raised at the meeting revolved around the place of marginal youth in the Network's programs. Residents and service providers in the middle and lower tiers who attended the meeting wanted a more explicit commitment by Youth Network to reach out to street gang members and "troubled youth". Youth Network staffers and Board members said they would consider doing so, but admitted reluctance when asked to include "troubled youth" in the initiative (see below). This did not appease the smaller providers whose primary youth constituency was rooted in the marginal segments of their respective neighborhoods. The final concem revolved around the composition of the Youth Network's decision-making committees. Audience members wanted a clear indication as to the process by which they could raise objections, contribute opinions, vote on resource allocation, and influence the initiative's implementation. Youth Network admitted that it did not have a clear protocol for all of these processes, but its spokespersons were explicit in their wish to "include everybody in the decision-making process". If the public "town hall meetings", focus groups, and workshops were peppered by critical scrutiny of the Network initiative, the private dialogues and responses by actors were even more focused on the calculus by which the Network defined the boundaries of the Grand Boulevard community and the manner by which its members outlined their own leadership role in the cross-neighborhood effort. However, much of the criticism of Youth Network, either by outsiders or existing members of the Network, was not waged as a direct challenge to the notion that a holistic community-based response to youth was necessary. In fact, there appeared to be a general consensus among elite, middle, and lower-tier providers that collaboration was necessary in order to address the gravity of youth alienation in Grand Boulevard. Instead, it
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was difficult for some persons to interpret the comprehensive community-based youth initiative of the Network outside of the historic relationships among service providers in the Grand Boulevard community. The programmatic vision of the Youth Network could not be separated off from the social organization of relationships among providers in Grand Boulevard - that is, the tier structure that distinguished providers relative to one another. Youth Network's public pronouncements of inclusiveness were always interpreted in the light of power relations, resource inequities, and social networks inside this service community. In addition, those organizations in Grand Boulevard that had historically felt themselves to be neglected members of the human service field did not immediately see the possibility to win new resources and experience significant gain from cross-neighborhood, cross-tier collaboration. Instead, many perceived the Network as an expansion of power by an already politically dominant set of actors. Thus, they remained cautious as to the benefits they could receive. Who Are Our "Troubled Youth"?
The manifest public discord between elite-tier members of Youth Network and the lower- and middle-tier actors is based also in different perceptions of Grand Boulevard's "troubled youth" problem - the phrase that gradually settled into Youth Network discourse. That is, the division of service providers in tiers refers not only to disparities in terms of social and political capital, but also to differential perceptions of local youth that exist among service providers. This perceptual discordance is itself rooted in an experiential disjuncture that reflected the varying ways in which elite- and, middle- and lower-tier organizations encounter and respond to neighborhood youth. Youth Network members - mostly the elite-tier service providers, but on occasion a middle-tier actor - speak in terms of a general unwillingness to service local "troubled youth", whom they define negatively in terms of individuals who do not share the characteristics of "better behaved" youth. Typically, the attributes that elite-tier members assign to the "better behaved" youth include some composite of regular attendance in school, full-time employment and/or active pursuit of education after school, contact with the older and larger churches in the community, and active involvement in the programming of local museums, libraries, and youth centers. This dichotomy is an ideal-typical one that elite-tier actors usually invoke either at a high level of abstraction, such as in discussions about "youth in Grand Boulevard", or with reference to a concrete case, say a particular youth whose behavior they are discussing. This does not mean that they castigate all of the youth who
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suffer poor connections to mainstream institutions, but they are willing to criticize gang members, those involved in drug trafficking, and "troublemakers" who disrupted their programming and who they feel could be legitimately excluded from their respective organizations. Those elite-tier members who deliver services to local youth argue that their time and energy is increasingly devoted to removing "troubled youth" from their facilities. Without doing so, they find it difficult to create an atmosphere that is conducive to learning for "better behaved" youth. As if singing in unison, nearly each one explains their decision making in terms of three factors: they have limited resources and cannot help everyone (so they focused on better behaved youth); most of the troubled youth already command the lion's share of resources from social service, law enforcement and educational providers in Grand Boulevard (much to the neglect of better behaved youth); and, working with troubled youth is a risk that they cannot justify since many of their funders (and the public broadly) may not approve of this outreach. The determinations by elite-tier actors concerning the characteristics of "troubled" and "better behaved" youth are made in consultation with one another, often on the basis of casual discussion with other elite-tier actors. I had the following conversation with several elite service providers at a track meet sponsored by the Youth Network in which the goal was to bring youth from different territories of Grand Boulevard together in a peaceful manner. In my presence, a pastor at a large church and the director of a prominent youth center were discussing the appropriate method of responding to an unruly youth w h o m they both knew: "Why do you want to kick Billy out of the Center and let Tony stay in?" I asked the Center's director, Timothy Brown. "I thought they both got into the fight?" "Yeah, Sudhir", answered Brown, "but Billy's got a lot of family problems, he's got a lot of needs, and I'm not sure he's ready to be a part of what we have going". "But, Tony started the fight?" I said. "It's never that easy", said Timothy. "What do you think Pastor Williams? About Timothy? Is he OK?" "OK?" said Pastor Williams, "Well, the boy could use some time by himself, maybe needs some counseling, not sure he's ready for all you have [at the Center]". "But, the gang thing. I heard he's running with Vicelords [street gang]. I know a lot of folks will be doing that, but, well,...." said Timothy Brown, his voice trailing off. "Look", said Pastor Williams, "You need to make hard decisions and we have to support you. That's how we do this". This type of co-evaluation and interaction suggests that the dichotomy of "troubled" and "better behaved" is not a ready-made label that Grand Boulevard youth wear, nor is it one that can be self-evidently and easily identified by any
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service provider or community member. It is an emergent attribute that is affixed onto any particular youth in question, and one that is continually reconstituted through the conversations that occur among the service providers. The label is never an indelible mark. It is one that can have serious consequences in that it follows the youth throughout their interactions with other providers, but it is also continually questioned, negated, reaffirmed, and revisited in light of new experiences. For example, after Center director Timothy Brown expelled Billy from his the Center, Billy encountered resistance from other organizations that offered youth programs. They both had heard of Billy's expulsion and were fearful about admitting him into their activities. Only with the aid of a high school counselor did Billy gain eventual acceptance into a Big Brother program administered by a church whose pastor was also a member of Grand Boulevard's elite-tier providers. Two years later, Timothy Brown had re-evaluated Billy and pointed to the confirmation of other service providers as the motive for allowing him to return to the Center: "I wasn't really sure, but you had the all these folks at Youth Network telling me that Billy stopped gang banging, you know, was shaping up. Now, I just don't let someone come back with an apology. No. I listen, I listen to how other folks around here are dealing with them. If they causing trouble for someone else, then they probably going to give me a hard time, you know? So, you have to respect other people's understanding, you can't do this alone, its just too bard, you know?
Not only does the decision-making of the elite tier actors occur in the context of others in their tier, but this intra-tier communication about youth occurs by middle and lower-tier service providers as well. They too attach labels to youth, thereby including some in, and excluding others from, their programs. And, like their elite-tier counterparts, they base their decisions on the conversations with others in their social network - who are not always, but more often than not, members of their own. Notwithstanding that the labeling of youth occurs across tiers, those in the middle and lower strata have distinctive patterns of service delivery. From the perspective of many middle- and lower-tier actors, there appears to be several types of youth in Grand Boulevard, each of whom requires different needs. Middle- and lower-tier providers invoke the category "troubled youth", but their criteria for inclusion is constructed in two ways: positively in terms of constituent behaviors - the most common being history of incarceration or detention in juvenile homes and, sustained gang affiliation and involvement in drug trafficking - and negatively, in terms of a youth's inability to sustain continuous interaction with the middle and elite tier providers. "Troubled youth," from their perspective, is akin to an industrial reserve of clients who possess irregular or non-existent connections with elite-tier service providers
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and who passed through middle and lower-tier facilities because of their need for services and attention. Unlike elite-tier actors, for middle- and lower-tier providers the remaining non-troubled youth population is not simply characterized as "better behaved" (Indeed, they often referred to the promise they see in the young person who attends their own facilities and who is moving from the role of hard-core gang member to one with decreased gang involvement and an expressed interest in school and state-sanctioned labor force participation. This youth is perceived to be a valuable asset in their programs because they act as a leader and a role model who can exert a positive influence on their "troubled" peers.) Instead, the non-troubled youth assumes three guises. One is a cohort with relatively stable connections with mainstream social institutions - typically the school and the family - and who are high achievers in such arenas. Middle-tier providers in particular state that their own facilities are comprised of such youth, but lower-tier providers felt that they could not attract this contingent. The other non-troubled youth population appears as an "average" group of youth who are neither the highest nor the lowest achievers in terms of scholastic performance, criminal involvement, or civic affairs. This is a group that escapes public attention because they are not involved in socially deleterious practices, such as gang activity, or in visible, popular activities such as school government or organized athletics. In the words of one middle-tier representative who directs a vocational program for young adults, they are "just your average kids who don't get into trouble and who don't make a lot of noise". Middle-tier providers argue that many of their youth clients emerge from this segment of the adolescent and young adult population. However, if their facilities are deluged with the troubled youth variant, the "average" group would be intimidated and withdraw their involvement. In this manner, for middle-tier providers, retaining the "average kids" while simultaneously distributing resources to troubled youth is an ongoing challenge. By contrast, lower-tier staffers state that "average" youth never come to them voluntarily. Their most stable client base is comprised of youth who have moved out of the "troubled" category and become part of the "average" group as their involvement in marginal activities diminishes. These individuals become the "success stories", in the words of one lower-tier actor, Carlton Frissell. Frissell was a public housing tenant who received several hundred dollars a month to operate a makeshift after school center in an un-used apartment in his building. As Frissell stated, Lot of these kids, they get better and they leave, you know, they go to the YMCA or the Boys and Girls club. And, I can't blame them. Hell, there really ain't much I got for them in here but some games and a TV. But, remember what we're doing. They're our success
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stories, you understand. Lot of them was bad kids when they started, wasn't nobody who wanted them. But, they come in here, we teach them, teach them to respect themselves and they get better. I seen it happen everyday, they get better and they move on. And, that's good, you know, because now they just like everyone else! For lower-tier actors, such average youth are a demonstrable symbol that the lower-tier provider fills a niche in the community. However, that such youth were disproportionately represented in the lower tier was also a stark reminder of the limited capacities of lower-tier actors to fulfill the needs of all local youth - just as the inability of elite-tier providers to service gang members was also a sign of their own limits. For the purposes of this essay, it is important to note that the taxonomies among middle/lower and elite-tier actors, i.e. based on phrases such as "troubled", "better behaved", and "average" youth, are not necessarily based on the mean-spiritedness of individuals who are passing judgment on local youth in an uncaring manner. Moreover, the emergence of such categorization cannot be reduced either to an overarching agenda by the elite tier to forcibly exclude others in their network, nor is it a product of the preference among lower-tier actors for youth who are challenged and who require inordinate degrees of attention and support. The categories are fluid and they can change over time: that is, any young person can move from one or another category and the providers themselves may construct the relationship among youth groups differently over time. These distinctions are better understood as the product of a specific set of social structures in place in the Grand Boulevard community that inflects the delivery of services to youth. That is, these markers of youth status are as beacons that orient the action of service providers, both during the service delivery process and their interaction with other providers and stakeholders. They afford service providers a basis with which to clarify their own role in the larger community and their own relationship to other providers. Part of the process of rebuilding ties of enmity and alliance by providers in Grand Boulevard includes the reconstruction of taxonomies of their youth client pool. Notwithstanding their sincere intentions to facilitate healthy youth development, the use of youth as pawns to construct their own identities and location in the local status arena of service provision is a common affair. To whom they provided services is less a reflection of the service provider' s strong belief in the inherent qualities of their clients than it is a means by which they signify their own position within the increasingly competitive arena of human service delivery where funds are limited and longevity is based on professional networks and political capital. In Chicago's Grand Boulevard community, the networks and alliances among providers are renegotiated and reconstituted through forums such as Youth
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Network in which actors confront one another and exchange perceptions of local youth. The Youth Network's bi-monthly meetings are one place to witness the jostling of elite-, middle-, and lower-tier actors around the question of youth. One of the mandates of Youth Network is to increase "youth participation" both in the governance of the administrative body and in the design of programs and activities. Expectedly, discussion often centers on the appropriate youth who can serve on Youth Network planning committees. The debates do not necessarily revolve around patronage, whereby members of Youth Network want to nominate their own youth candidates. Instead, there is disagreement over the criteria by which youth should be chosen as well as the social and behavior markers that distinguish youth in Grand Boulevard. Descriptive terms such as "troubled", "better behaved", "normal", and "average" are used frequently and often unsystematically. Both in private meetings among Youth Network and the open "town hall" meetings at which residents (and many other lower-tier providers) attend, when these attributions arise, they spark accusation and defensive posturing. In one meeting of Youth Network members, a conversation pitted the elite members of the Network against some of the newer arrivals who had been asked to join the Network and who had far less experience in prominent, large-scale comprehensive community-based initiatives. The debate reached its apex in an exchange between Mark Tremain, a Youth Network Board member (and director of an elite-tier provider), and William Johnson, the director of New Paths, a small youth center (on the lower-tier) that specialized in gang conflict resolution in public housing. "I think if we want to increase youth involvement, then we need all kinds of youth here", said William Johnson, "and, I gotta say, that I just don't see gangs around the table". "Well, let me just say", replied Mark Tremain, "that I don't think its a good idea to get that kind of youth here. We're not the police - ". "Do I look like a police officer?" interrupted William Johnson. "You can't keep pretending police will solve the problem. You all can't keep ignoring the troubled kids". "Don't accuse us before you know what we do, Mr. Johnson. You can't expect everyone to reach out to every youth around here. It's not that easy. Now, we need responsible youth, we don't need troublemakers coming here. We need people that can be on our committees". "Troublemakers?" said Johnson. "Most of the kids in this community are in trouble. What do you mean? You have to have them around, you need to hear what they got to say". "Well", said Tremain abruptly, "Youth Network is not going to become involved with the gangs, that's not what we think is best. That's not the kind of youth we need to be bringing around the table".
After this exchange, as other Youth Network participants expressed their own opinion, two politicized camps formed: one favoring the inclusion of all sectors of youth and another hoping to limit the type of youth who are involved. This
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difference of opinion was significant because those advocating an enlargement of the number of youth who could potentially serve on Youth Network wanted ultimately to expand the types of youth that were targeted by Youth Network programming. Thus, the immediate debate over appointing youth on the Network was part of a broader debate over the appropriate target audience [of youth] in Grand Boulevard that should be served by the Network. The lower-tier members on Youth Network believed that if some of the more promising members of the "troubled youth" constituency - such as those leaving the street gangs - could serve on Youth Network committees, this could lay the groundwork for the eventual enlistment of all troubled youth in Network programs - which would then provide a foundation to bring aboard more lower-tier service providers onto Youth Network. Middle-tier actors generally supported this proposal but they formed a divided camp: some were excited because their inclusion in Youth Network had placed them in circuits of political capital and they did not want to jeopardize continued expansion of their personal networks by offering unmitigated support to lower-tier actors; other middle-tier providers took the side of their lower-tier counterparts by arguing that outreach to troubled youth would actually increase their own political capital because of their effective ability to liaison between different sectors of the community. In this manner, the debate on "youth participation" on Youth Network committees could never be divorced from the larger social organizational issues that separated - or, at the least, differentiated service providers from one another. To include "troubled youth" could mean to disrupt the power base on Youth Network since the inclusion of any perceived marginal young person might lead to the recruitment of marginal service providers as well, i.e. those on the lower tier. This was a real possibility because the majority of elite-tier members on Youth Network had little experience with program design and implementation to youth whom they felt lacked stable connections to mainstream institutions and whom they felt were involved in deviant or delinquent social activities. If they included persons outside their familiar client pool, they would be admitting their own inadequacy and need to consult other, most probably lower tier, actors who had familiarity with "troubled youth". This would effectively legitimize lower-tier actors and create the potential for including them in greater numbers in Youth Network, thereby threatening their own position of power in the association. The Dilemmas of the (Elite- and Middle-Tier) Broker It is worth examining in greater detail the perspective of those elite- and middletier providers that are represented on the Board and Youth Network. Since many of these actors are effectively gateways for resources to pass from the external
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world to the urban poor, they can have significant influence over the lives of their constituents. They can also shape the capacities of government agencies, funders, and charitable organizations to gain an understanding of community dynamics and, to then distribute resources in an effective manner. From the perspective of those in need of goods and services, this liaison function is obviously valuable, but it produces a pernicious effect on service delivery because of the power that is lodged within these strata. In an earlier age of machine politics, such mediating entities (usually political officials, businesspersons or, at times, "shady" entrepreneurs in illicit trades) were known as "brokers" because of their capacity to deliver resources to their constituents in return for a commanding vote for the machine candidates on election day. In the field of service delivery, the distribution of resources is not necessarily in exchange for electoral votes, but the populace can still return the favor to elite and middle tier actors by choosing to patronize certain organizations and participating in particular initiatives - or, alternatively, by withholding their involvement in other organizations and initiatives. If a service provider can demonstrate the capacity to mobilize residents, their social capital may rise in the eyes of the wider policy community and so too will their ability to garner resources for their constituents. Thus, a tradeoff is present in which many parties stand to benefit. The contours of the broker relationship involving middle- and elite-tier actors were evident in the Youth Network's comprehensive youth initiative in Grand Boulevard. From the outset, Youth Network founders and staffers - almost entirely elite-tier actors - admitted feeling some discomfort as they tried to situate the newly-conceived body in a prominent position on local youth issues. The members' frustrations stemmed not from the public expectation that they would advocate on behalf of the community per se, since as one member stated "We've been used to fighting for people around here for the longest." Instead, their uneasiness stemmed from the discursive frame that been placed around the Youth Network - namely, the institutional forum to initiate service reform around youth-service delivery (which would make them the spokesperson for youthrelated issues). As indicated, this representation of their mission was engendering unfavorable response in and around Grand Boulevard and the larger city. At bottom, this public persona generated considerable pressure on Youth Network to measurably improve the lives of local youth. Expectedly, some elite-tier members on the Network wanted to downplay such expectations. They also wanted to direct attention away from the hierarchical nature of the social relationships among providers in Grand Boulevard - certainly, these members did not feel comfortable confronting this tier-division publicly in the context of a highly visible social service initiative.
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Elite members of Youth Network attributed some of the responsibility for the public's high expectations onto the funders of the initiative. They suggested that the local foundations were idealistic in their calls to reform the youth-service delivery process by making it fully "comprehensive," i.e. by ensuring that it embraces all community members. Most of the senior staff and board members at Youth Network labeled comprehensive community initiatives as partially unrealistic because of the extant inequities in access to external funding among organizations in Grand Boulevard, the different knowledge and experience of local providers within social policy circles and, the existing hostile ties among providers that pitted organizations against one another. They felt that these obstacles to effective collaboration had greater likelihood of being rectified through "backroom discussion," outside of the public eye where people could speak more candidly and act forthrightly with one another. Two statements are exemplary. One individual on the Youth Network Board of Directors interpreted the need to devise a comprehensive youth initiative as self-effacing: The XXX Foundation will not give us a penny if we don't do some kind of outreach, and I don't mean just bringing in residents. They feel that service reform like [the youth initiative of Youth Network] means everyone has to be involved in some way, either that they are on our committee or they are aware of it. Do you know what that's like? No way can you get people who never wrote a grant together with people who get thousands of dollars. We're different, we do different things, let's face it and let's deal with those differences. I can't pretend I don't have connections, I can't do that because the families I hetp would be hurt if I threw all that away.
Another Youth Network Board of Directors emphasized turf wars between organizations in Grand Boulevard: Look, you see who comes to the meetings. Its the same folks that see the Mayor, you know, its the ones that get all the money, that have the know-how. If we try to bring in too many of the little people, we're killing ourselves. People hate each other around here, as much as they say they want to work together, that usually means each person wants their money and just to, you know, be left by themselves. What's wrong with that? Let foundations find all these small fry. I worked hard to get here. Why do I have to give that up?
Similar to these two individuals, other Youth Network members interpreted the programmatic vision of a comprehensive approach to youth service delivery as one that would never be fully within their control. In other words, the emotionally charged nature of the existing social relationships in Grand Boulevard among providers made such a vision of cooperation and sharing unlikely. However, since they were reliant on the funders for financial support, the elite-tier members of Youth Network suggested that refusal to participate in the initiative was not a realistic option: most importantly, withdrawing from the initiative could result in the immediate loss of grants and funding opportunities and so threaten future their capacity to obtain any support.
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These "elite tier" actors on the Network had minimal daily experience with individuals and organizations in the human service delivery field outside of their own, usually elite-based, personal networks. The need to be comprehensive forced them to confront publicly the social organizational tier-based divisions and the differences in terms of experience, social capital, and philosophies of service delivery in Grand Boulevard. Some elite-tier members of Youth Network argued that publicly admitting their own privileged status would be inimical to the goal of increasing the involvement of grassroots organizations and local stakeholders in the initiative. From their perspective, the existing "turf' wars and lack of productive connections among organizations in Grand Boulevard, particularly across tiers, could not be overcome simply by bringing organizations in different-tiers together. As one elite-tier provider of services to adolescent and young adult women said, "You probably hear this a lot, now, but folks don't trust one another. Its not like we laughing and having a good time. We need to be straight up, you know, have a honest talk before we can really sit at the table and start doing programming. We need to just get to air it out first before we can do something." The middle-tier actors involved in Youth Network were equally reliant on external funding for their sustenance, but they did not share the concerns of the elite tier. Many were working with lower-tier actors and were themselves trying to gain entree into the political world of public funding and private philanthropy. Their ability to garner sufficient economic resources for their operations did not necessarily translate into social capital. For example, they were rarely asked to participate on blue-ribbon commissions; they were not the first choice of program officers in philanthropic initiatives; and, many felt that funders informally consulted with their elite-tier associates before sharing funding with them. Thus, they felt trapped in many respects by their small voice in the public arena and argued that openly "air[ing] out" the tier-based divisions in Grand Boulevard could bring them into the foreground in the eyes of program officers, mayoral staffers, government representatives, and so on. As one middletier actor noted at the time, "See, we like all this attention; we don't feel no pressure. Hell, we work with gangs, people who running programs out of their home. We work with everyone. We deserve some of the credit. Let's let it happen, man, its about time we got help. Ain't nobody giving us nothing right now." If the middle-tier actors expressed disgruntlement because they were off the radar screen of the philanthropic community, their low profile actually served them well as Youth Network's initiative progressed. By the third year of the initiative, Youth Network's executive committee had recruited several middle-tier actors in addition to the elite members. For the middle-tier actors,
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the experience was enlightening because they were privy to the backroom discussions between the funders and Youth Network - discussions that rarely made their way into the larger meetings of Youth Network where the remaining middle-tier and all of the lower-tier actors were present. Their presence placed them in contact with funders and gave them a newfound legitimacy. However, their position outside of the elite tier meant that they were not vulnerable to many of the criticisms that were being waged at Youth Network - such as the lack of adequate resident involvement or the minimal presence of at-risk youth. In the wider world, it was the elite tier that was perceived to be responsible for the progress of the initiative, even though the practical implementation of the cross-neighborhood collaborative programming for youth involved the input and direction of middle-tier actors as well. As the funders of Youth Network expressed a desire for more concrete outcomes and indicators of success, the frustration of elite-tier actors no longer conformed to a Janus-faced posture whereby backstage, 'off-the-record' negative comments about the funders sat alongside an otherwise optimistic public "front stage" presence. After the fourth year in which Youth Network had brought together youth from different Grand Boulevard neighborhoods in common social programming, many elite-tier members were willing to consider the possibility of ending the initiative altogether, even if that jeopardized their external relations within the funding community. And, they made their feelings of disenchantment known to their funders. At a meeting with program officers of the two foundations sponsoring Youth Network, an elite tier member of the Network's Board of Directors said, We have invited you to this Network meeting because we want you to see some of our struggle. We want you to see that we are reaching out to all of the organizations you mention [in the middle and lower tiers], but we go way back with these people. We know each other and the type of atmosphere that you seem to want is not going to be easy. Its my opinion it may not be possible, if you want to know the truth. There isn't just one community here. There's a lot of different people, its a big place, and we don't always get along. We need to remember that, maybe some of the things we do around here won't change that.
The influential elite-tier actors in Grand Boulevard who agreed to build Youth Network and carry out the foundation-conceived plan were faced with a tremendous challenge. Their role fell squarely in line with a historical tradition of African-American collective representation, namely political brokerage. Since their migration to cities in mass numbers at the turn of the century, African-Americans have been subjected to various forms of discrimination and, to procure a minimal level of resources from city agencies, businesses, and charitable organizations, they have relied on particularly influential persons who had well-developed ties outside of the community (Spear, 1974). These "brokers" -
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alternatively called "accomodationist politicians" and "gatekeepers" in earlier time periods (c.f. Hirsch, 1983) - certainly were motivated by personal gain, but many were sincerely interested in bettering the lives of their constituents and felt comfortable trading the capacity to mobilize blacks (to vote, protest, patronize certain businesses, and so on) for the receipt of a much-needed good or service (garbage pickup, street cleaning, policing, financing for small entrepreneurs). In Grand Boulevard and neighboring areas that suffered adequate city services, the broker played a valuable role by acting as employer, social service agent, banker, business associate, investor, and liaison. The broker was often the only means by which the black community could interact productively with an otherwise hostile and indifferent society whose institutions were loathe to offer resources to "institutional ghetto" communities (see Drake & Cayton, 1945). The Board and Youth Network both contained many such highly influential persons who had been servicing their communities by procuring resources from external agencies. Some had been operating in this manner since the 1960s when some of the most intricate brokerage arrangements developed between black Americans, philanthropies, and government agencies. Ironically, at that time, many had come into being by advocating on behalf of marginal youth and street gangs that were becoming increasingly violence-prone and a counterproductive force in the black community. The contemporary role of elite-tier service providers in Grand Boulevard that played a leadership role in the Youth Network speaks to some of the disadvantageous attributes of a brokerage system. In a social context of limited resources for social service provision, it is not surprising to find that some actors will place their own interests ahead of support for a broad based movement that can create new alliances and potentially restructure the field of stakeholders by allowing newer, grassroots and/or neglected groups into the decision-making process. For elite-tier members of Youth Network, the publicity regarding the comprehensive community initiative for youth was a threat to a status quo that successfully enabled them to garner external resources. While a community-wide initiative may have brought reform to a field of service delivery characterized by fractious relations, turf battles, duplication of programs and ineffective delivery of services, it also created the very real threat that more players would be competing for a finite pool of resources. As one elite-tier actor (a director of day-care centers) noted, "We were never really sure that this would work, you know. Not everyone is happy because its a big goal, you know, helping all the youth. I'm not sure any community really works like that, and they want the poorest community to be the most efficient. It just doesn't make sense, its just that we feel a lot of pressure and we already have enough." This director was not alone in his wish to downplay the expectations of funders
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and the general public regarding the capacity of a community-wide youth initiative to be, at once, fully inclusive of youth and service providers.
CONCLUSION This essay has drawn upon observations of social service provision to analyze the factors that affect public policy implementation in contexts of concentrated poverty. The specific case study has been the "comprehensive community initiative" [CCI] that arose in the late 1980s as a means of promoting more effective service delivery to the urban poor. "CCI"s contain several important premises, including the notion that individual and household assistance should be supplemented with strategies affecting communities en toto and, the caveat that collaboration among many different parties is the most effective way to fulfill this goal. While the intention of such efforts has been laudatory, their implementation has raised thorny issues regarding the ability of externally-conceived initiatives to promote collaboration and strengthen the social fabric of local communities. The essay has examined one obstacle to the attainment of CCIs, namely: the social organizational dynamics in any community that can mediate the implementation of a policy initiative. This is certainly not an entirely novel sociological observation and numerous CCIs have demonstrated attention to social relationships that exist at the community level. This essay has attempted to propose a formal conceptual framework - i.e. the "three tier" structure - that can help those in the social policy arena to construct policies that are responsive to the extant organization of relationships that are in existence. One of the most important features of local social organization that can impact social policy is the perception of youth among those working in the service provider arena. How organizational directors, local stakeholders, pastors, principals, etc. perceive and evaluate youth, and correlatively, how they develop categories to reference segments of the youth populace will be determinative of the forms of intervention that they subsequently develop to service youth. In the example above, the generic notion of a "community" in the Youth Network initiative signaled a belief in inclusiveness: the Network seemed intent on reaching a wide-reaching segment of the youth client base. In their brochures, press releases, and "town hall" meetings, the Network staff took great pains to embrace all segments of the Greater Grand Boulevard community, particularly those providers who had been left out of mainstream service delivery initiatives and those youth who had received minimal attention in these efforts. In practice, such outreach was made difficult because the process by which youth were identified in everyday discourse - e.g. "troublemakers," "average
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kids," - were highly contested labels that were defined differently by members of each tier. A "troublemaker" for the elite tier could be a stable, reliable client for a grassroots actor. The Network initiative was not the first public forum in which actors debated over the appropriateness of such terms and the applicable referent group [of local youth] to whom such terms could apply. Service providers in different tiers knew one another and had experiences forging relationships with one another; many relation-building strategies had failed in the past because of different mechanisms for identifying and talking about youth. Thus, the formation of Youth Network simply provided a more public forum for the cleavages in local social organization to manifest. I have argued that the use of particular terms and definitions are not arbitrary. They reflect the tier-placement of providers and stakeholders: summarily stated, the constraints and opportunities that each tier affords will, to some degree, shape the perceptions as well as the form of relationships that form between provider and [youth] client. The perception of elite-tier actors that a gang member is a "troublemaker" does not necessarily signal an evil intent, but may result from the inexperience of such actors with youth who lack stable connections to schools, labor markets, and other [non-law enforcement] institutions. The elite tier must secure their funding streams, protect their relationships with funders, and ensure that their organizations run with minimal disruption. To include the so-called 'troublemaker' into their program may be perceived as a dangerous liaison because staff members have little experience catering to the needs of this youth populace. Over time, the perceptions of elite representatives may expectedly skew toward pejorative labeling: that is, experiencing marginal youth primarily as disruptions, elite tier actors may simply classify the youth as disruptive and forget that organization of funding and turf battles makes elite tier members less motivated to conduct broad outreach and provision. Comprehensive community-based initiatives are noteworthy because they can bring these social relations to the light of day. By tying the provision of funds to the collaboration of different service providers and stakeholders, they bring into sharp relief the lines of enmity and alliance that exist in any urban poor community. The funders of such initiatives, then, are implicated in the process by which such initiatives affect youth and impact the community in the long rtm. Strategies that funders can use to mobilize more effective community-based service delivery are discussed elsewhere (Venkatesh, 1997, 2000). Here, the policy implication is proffered that the designers, funders, and evaluators of the initiative would benefit by developing an understanding of the means by which local youth are identified and the ways in which the indigenous categories can signal aspects of social relations in the wider community. A foundation that
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directs the governance body of a CCI to ensure adequate "youth participation," for example, may inevitably reproduce the chasms that separate residents, organizations, and stakeholders. (In the case of Youth Network, one could argue that the Network initiative cemented the poor relationships in Greater Grand Boulevard, rather than helping people to forge more effective relationships with one another.) It may be more helpful if the foundation were to request a preliminary study of the diversity of youth factions that exist in an area, the organizations that service each, and the possibilities for cooperation given this field of relations, ties and networks. This essay has argued that the concept of "tiers" may be one means to move toward the development of effective community-based funding strategies.
NOTE 1. The concept of a tier-based differentiation of service providers is taken from an earlier work (Venkatesh, 1997) in which I attempt to categorize the form that human and social service provision assume in contemporary urban poor communities. "Service provider" is intended to serve as a broad category, referencing the universe of individuals, organiaziations and social groups that participate in the exchange and allocation of resources and assistance within the poor communities. Thus, not only youth centers such as the Boys and Girls Club, but also neighborhood block clubs, churches, community activists that volunteer in a library or school, and the the school itself is a "service provider" because they each participate in a helping process.
REFERENCES Drake, St. Clair & Cayton. H. (1945). Black Metropolis. Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press. Hirsch, A. (1983). Making the Second Ghetto. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kettner, P. M. & Martin, L. Lawrence. (1994). Purchase Services at 20: Are We Using it Welt? Public Welfare, [Summer], 14-20. Klein, M. (1995). The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence and Control. New York: Oxford University Press. Spear, A. H. (1967). Black Chicago: Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Spergel, I. A. (1992). The Youth Gang Problem: A Community Approach. New York: Oxford University Press. Stagner, M. W. & Richman, H. A. (1985). General Assistance Profiles: Findings from a Longitudinal Study of Newly Approved Recipients'. Chicago: Illinois Department of Public Aid. Venkatesh, S. A. (1999). Community-basedInterventions into Street Gang Activity. Journal of Community Psychology, 27(5), 551-568. Venkatesh, S. A. (2000). American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto. Cambridge: Harvard UniversityPress. Wilson W. J. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press.
Y O U N G CITIZENS" THE POSITION OF CHILDREN IN COMMUNITARIAN THEORY Gary Alan Fine, Wendy Espeland and Dean Rojek
INTRODUCTION understand how young children are treated in public policy domains, it is essential to examine how social theories imagine the position of minors. Given the centrality of the image of the child in so many contemporary policy debates (e.g. Best, 1990; Fine & Mechling, 1991), every political perspective has an implicit or explicit view of the symbolic position of the child in society. Over the past decade a distinctive approach has become increasingly influential in proposing a new model for the American polity: communitarianism. Given its increasing popularity in contemporary political culture - notably in the Clinton administration, in which sociologist Amitai Etzioni and his colleagues have played influential roles - we believe that it is important to examine the implications of that theoretical approach for policies about children. The communitarian approach emphasizes the role of values and citizenship in the establishment of the state as a means of organizing community, as a result it has considerable implications for understanding how children should be morally socialized. I Any theory that hopes to provide a model for understanding the good society must explain how people come to be the upstanding citizens that the state must depend upon for creating that culture. As a result, the creation of responsible To
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autonomy through socialization and moral education must be a core concern. Children should properly play a central role in communitarian theory. Although communitarians have addressed the needs and value of children in practical terms, advocating a broad range of policies that affect children, children's distinctive status raises questions about how to balance autonomy and moral order that are seldom addressed. When this theoretical issue is confronted, communitarian theory offers a valuable perspective for understanding our responsibilities toward children, and for guiding us in balancing the interests of children with those of parents, families, and the broader community. As Amitai Etzioni argues in The New Golden Rule (p. 5), a good society requires a careful mix of autonomy and order, of individual rights and social responsibility, of individuality and community. Children pose special dilemmas for each of these dualisms. In this essay we begin by illustrating the absence of children in some key theoretical formulations. We next argue why we think this gap is an important limitation. Finally we suggest strategies for redressing this neglect, and illustrate the value of these strategies for communitarian theory with scholarship that moves us in the right directions. We claim that communitarian theorists have neglected to discuss how children fit their conceptions of autonomy and moral order. 2 This is odd, given that "the problem of order" has been a central theoretical preoccupation, and since children are so clearly crucial conduits in the production and maintenance of social order, however order is conceptualized. Of course, the absence of children in communitarian theory is a characteristic it shares with much social theory. With the exception of explicitly developmental theories (e.g. Mead, Freud, Piaget & Erickson) most social theory neglects children. Nevertheless, it is startling when a central communitarian theorist such as Amitai Etzioni (p. 95) criticizes libertarian theory for ignoring children and for treating them as miniature adults. Etzioni is vulnerable to many of the same charges that he makes of libertarians; he, too, ignores children and assumes that their interests are accounted for by our shared morality. When conceiving of morality, he treats children as little adults by his unwillingness to address the implications of their status as not fully autonomous moral actors, relying on moral agents to act on their behalf. In one of the few passages where Etzioni does discuss children, he briefly notes the special challenge that children pose since they (and future generations) cannot be at the bargaining table to argue for their interests or their conception of the good. Nevertheless he contends that, "Children are protected by our shared moral commitments that encompass them". That our moral commitments to children are shared seems to us an empirical question. As we subsequently argue, few topics are as divisive as when they are framed in terms of "what is
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best for children" and who has the responsibility to decide. Furthermore, it is questionable whether our moral commitments to children adequately protect the rights and interests of those who cannot negotiate on their own behalf, that values that are good for adults are good for children, and that conflict between the interests of children and adults is either rare or easily reconciled through recourse to our shared moral values. These difficult questions should be addressed, both in public discourse and scholarly research. Another place where the absence of children is notable is in Etzioni's discussion of the characteristics that allow us to assess or "measure" if a given society is communitarian (pp. 51-53). These characteristics revolve around legal protections against authoritarian threat and protecting rights to privacy, for example, limiting policing and regulation. He suggests that moral dialogue, education and suasion should be the main way to accomplish control and consent; law and other forms of coercion should be last resorts, available only under carefully specified conditions. There is no effort to spell out how these forms of social control should be adapted to the conditions and concerns of children, especially in their relations with parents, community members, and agents of the state. For example, should we be as reluctant to invoke law as a device to control children as we are with adults? The line between coercion and suasion is harder to draw for vulnerable children than for adults. Should we allow children's underdeveloped (and under-theorized) autonomy to alter how we think about applying comparable standards to safeguard their rights and interests?
THE C E N T R A L I T Y OF C H I L D R E N FOR COMMUNITARIAN
THOUGHT
The justifications for incorporating children into communitarian thought are many and powerful: Children are crucial for the reproduction and stability of communities; their socialization, a collective project, builds our capacity for consensual values and autonomy; their responsible autonomy is emergent and must be conceptually and practically distinguished from that of adults; children require agents (e.g. parents, teachers, judges, doctors) to act on their behalf; this complicates the understanding of autonomy since it requires us to balance agents' conflicting goals for children and the conflicts that inevitably emerge between the interests of children, and those of their agents; and finally, children can become potent symbols that are easily mobilized by those with diverse and often self-serving agendas. If the goal of communitarian theory is to advance thinking about how to reconcile order and autonomy, if it wishes to be responsive to politics, and if it wants to provide an authoritative moral voice in support of communal values, it must confront the distinctive characteristics of children.
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The Reproduction of Communities Social continuity depends on progeny. Without children who are socialized and eventually willing to take on the burdens of community life, no social system can survive. Fundamental to any conception of order is the challenge of reproducing community; central to the communitarian project is a concern with how minors are transformed into citizens, and the hurdles that they face in the transition. Without the transition of power or the transmission of responsibility from generation to generation, order is impossible. When Etzioni (p. 23) discusses stability, he does not link it to reproduction, in either the literal or figurative sense. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of autonomy for stability, writing "For societies to be stable, they must be metastable, that is, to keep the same overarching pattern, they must continue to remake themselves". He argues that a social autonomy that fosters adaptability is crucial for remaking societies. We agree. But we also emphasize that the socialization and protection of children are crucial to the stability and reproducibility of communities and the values held by their citizens. If communitarian thought is to be relevant to stable communities, it must begin by theorizing the proper role of state, community, and family in their responsibility for children.
Children's Emerging Autonomy One way that children pose a special problem for communitarlan theory is because of their special status. They are not fully socialized or fully autonomous. Children, with their limited and emerging autonomy, pose a challenging case for those who argue that morality, although mediated by communities, is located in the individual and where conflicts of interests and rights often emerge. Etzioni argues in The New Golden Rule that two core features constitute a communitarian approach: personal autonomy and moral order. Etzioni (1996, p. 257) writes: "The community provides one with a normative foundation, a starting point, culture and tradition, fellowship, and place for moral dialogue, but is not the ultimate moral arbiter. The members are. This is the ultimate reason that the communitarian paradigm entails a profound commitment to moral order that is basically voluntary, and to a social order that is well-balanced with socially secured autonomy - the new golden rule". The claim that members are the final arbiter of community values, while a plausible contention for adults, must be transformed in understanding and directing the lives of children. For children, moral order is not a voluntary construction, and personal autonomy is only slowly provided: a choice that adults have the responsibility to select. Children do not, can not, and should
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not have the same position within a community that adults have: the reality of developmental imperatives does not permit it. Citizenship is viewed through the prism of age. Communitarian theory must address the reality of children who are only gradually autonomous.
The Socialization of Children The fate of communities depends on the socialization of children. Socialization produces children's social selves. It confers identities and the capacity to understand each other as individuals. It transforms children into citizens. Nothing matters more for those relations that Etzioni encourages: value consensus, the development of the (inner) moral voice, and the right "mix" of order and autonomy. Recognizing the 'baseline' function of the community in which the child is socialized (including the family and secondary institutions, such as schools, churches, and clubs) is key. The child builds on and modifies what has been given through the expectations of the social environment. The community becomes a model that the child uses to measure the good life, either accepting it or by using it as a negative reference. The child must build a moral position based upon earlier socialization, coupled with communal reinforcement of core values. Etzioni says little about socialization per se but does emphasize the importance of values that are internalized in moral development. He rightly argues that this process continues beyond childhood, and that this does not produce rule-bound, "over-socialized" people. Nevertheless, a more expansive appreciation of socialization would strengthen his claims about the centrality of the social. Or, as he puts it, why "the me needs the we". For example, after surveying views on human nature - that vary according to whether it is inherently good or evil, social or individualistic - he argues that our need for autonomy reflects the "animal base" of human nature (p. 169). It is hard to imagine a less autonomous being than one that is driven by instinct or hedonistic pursuits. What he fails to appreciate is that socialization is more fundamental than he makes it out to be. As Mead, Wittgenstein, and others have argued, our ability to understand language, perceive objects, think, and even our capacity for autonomy are all products of social interaction.
Reconceiving Autonomy In Etzioni's theory, individual autonomy is necessary since the ultimate locus of morality is the individual who cannot be reduced to an "oversocialized" rule-follower (p. 169). But what Etzioni refers to as "social autonomy" is also cen-
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tral for the long term stability of communities since this allows for flexibility, innovation, mad the capacity to adapt to novel circumstances in radically new ways. In a section entitled "socially constructed autonomy" (pp. 23-24), Etzioni argues that autonomy is not only an individual virtue but an "attribute" of society. 3 Societies that value autonomy provide people with the opportunities and legitimacy to express their values and preferences. One key form of adaptability that Etzioni does not address is the capacity to construct and re-construct adult responsibilities for children, including proper forms of children's autonomy, and the autonomy of those who care for them. We need to conceptualize children's autonomy as dynamic (changing both during the course of a individual child's life and historically) and as fundamentally relational. Several examples reveal how our understandings of children's autonomy have shifted over time. Viviana Zelizer's (1985) classic analysis of the "priceless child" shows how our conceptions of children and how we value them correspond to a changing political economy (old-age assistance, creating pensions), increased life expectancy, and decreased birth rates. Where once children were economic assets for the family, they have become increasingly priceless; as their economic values has declined, their intrinsic worth has increased. Understood as economic assets, children were "little adults" when it came to production; nevertheless, their capacity to act as free agents was severely curtailed by parents and employers whose authority was nearly limitless. But once children's value was understood in moral and emotional terms, their "pricelessness" warranted state intervention to protect their rights and shield them from those who would exploit them or threaten their moral standing. This has reached the point in which government (and the electorate) has come to believe that social control is far more acceptable when dealing with minors than with other citizens. 4 Autonomy is a relative term. It is constructed in relation to those from whom one is autonomous and in tandem with o u r conceptions of those who are responsible for its development and control. Just as our conceptions of children and their autonomy change over time so do our understandings of who is charged with socializing them, nurturing their autonomy, and protecting them, whether parents, relatives, religious leaders, community members, teachers or agents of the government. As Mitchell Stevens (1996) and Sharon Hays (1996) have argued, our image of children and their needs are linked to our conceptions of the mothers they require. In Stevens' analysis of the home schooling movement in the U.S., children are simultaneously constructed as needy and autonomous in ways that makes an attentive and devoted mother, someone who appreciates the uniqueness of her child and the child's needs, best equipped to educate that child. School bureaucracies catering to the "average" child
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discourage a child's initiative in directing her own education; their reliance on standardized curricula cannot accommodate the distinctive talents and challenges of a child the way a knowledgeable mother can. For Hays, the current cultural model of how to be a good mother involves an "ideology of intensive mothering" in which children are sacred and their interests central. Children and their Agents Because children's autonomy emerges over time, children require agents to act on their behalf. This complicates discussions of autonomy, since a child's emerging autonomy must be reconciled with the autonomy of those who act on behalf of children. This can lead to bitter conflict between the rights of parents to raise children as they see fit and the rights of children as citizens. How does the state mediate such conflict? Often, not effectively. How to allocate responsibility for children is a bedeviling question. While the attitude toward the proper role of the government is changing, becoming more involved (or intrusive, depending on one's perspective), collective ideology posits a zone of autonomy and control for parents. Each child (through choices of his or her family) is permitted to fend for itself. Does the state have the authority to insist that parents bear responsibility for their children in the ways that public representatives believe best? This is an issue of which we as a society are deeply conflicted, and is exemplified in questions as to whether parents should be held responsible for the misdeeds of their children, an issue that emerged after the massacre at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. Part of the complexity of the communitarian project involves differing perspectives on what is the appropriate locus for the protection of children. Children should be protected but who has that responsibility? Some policies are mandated at the federal level, others are linked to actions by state legislatures, still others depend on decisions made within localities (most notably school districts), and still others are left to families. The issue of autonomy is complicated because policies that involve children have two analytically distinct targets: adult guardians of children and the children themselves. Governmental policies to protect children often involve mandating that parents serve as agents of the state. For instance, a government policy to outlaw corporal punishment (such as the 1979 "anti-spanking" legislation in Sweden) would prevent children from being subject to certain forms of discipline, while simultaneously preventing parents from disciplining children in accord with their cultural standards. Just as agencies of government can force more localized governmental bodies (the federal government forcing states to act or states forcing communities to act), governmental agencies can remove the autonomy
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of parents, recruiting them to enforce social control. In the area of child policy, the collective protection of one group of citizens often places limits on action and enforces obligations on others. Debates center on what resources and rights we are willing to trade in order to act in ways that "protect" the child (at least in the eyes of policymakers). We demand it both ways: we wish every child to be protected, but we also demand that parents have the responsibility for deciding how these ends are met. Often when the parents are unable to protect their children, the child suffers, and eventually the society as a whole must confront that problem. While many governmental policies are structured so that they appear to be for the benefit of the child, the recognition that the success of the child is the responsibility of the parents suggests why it is possible to claim with some measure of credibility that our society is simultaneously pro-childhood and anti-child. Communitarians emphasize that there is a further level of moral suasion and social control that often is ignored in discussion of child policy: the role of the community. This vision was phrased memorably by former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton when she titled her book It Takes a Village (to raise a child). While endless discussions ensued about what she meant by this slogan, and about the policy implications, her idea that a network of concerned adults should be involved in socialization has undeniable appeal. Surely part of this is romantic, imagining a time when the child could roam a small town freely, and in which every adult would be a surrogate parent for all children of the community. Like all such notions, the historical reality was not always so rosy, but the appeal suggests that on some level we as a society might be willing to trade some personal autonomy for the security of a caring community. A communitarian project involves the encouragement of structures that increase our collective investment in children. Children as Symbols
The debate over who should speak for children has a greater import and inspires greater controversy than the question of who should speak for adults. The question of how adults should treat children makes clear that this central responsibility of a society is a matter of controversy. Few topics are more contentious. Witness contemporary debates about sex education, the availability of contraceptives in schools, educational curricula, or parental consent for abortions. Indeed, it sometimes appears that most of our thorniest social problems are issues of childhood. The fractiousness associated with policy directed at children stems partly from the fact that children and childhood make especially potent symbols: symbols easily appropriated by politicians, reformers, and advertisers, and
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symbols that express the anxieties and contradictions that characterize our times. 5 Thus, a current television ad plays on the anxieties of working mothers. Cellular phones are offered as a device that permits more time with one's children (one can take the girls to the beach and still not miss that important phone call) when they are as likely to detract attention from children by making it difficult to protect homelife from the intrusion of work. But the symbolic uses of children are not always so strategic. We often project personal and social uncertainties onto external dangers, magnifying those dangers, making internal threats psychologically tolerable. For instance, fears of kidnappers (Best, 1990) and Halloween sadists (Best & Horiuchi, 1985) reflect baby-boomers' insecurities about being adequate parents. These anxieties stern from the dramatic changes in family life - changes brought about by demographic shifts, economic trends, feminism, divorce - that make parents' own childhoods so unlike that of their children (Fine & Mechling, 1991). The child's body has become a potent symbol and the treatment of this body abduction, physical abuse, sexual abuse, satanism, sexual behavior, drug and alcohol use, suicide, and abortion - has become a powerful cultural text. We argue that children as current and future citizens are crucial components of, and pose distinctive challenges to, communitarian theory. If we do not address their roles as sources of stability and as repositories of communal values, and if we do not appreciate their unique role as gradually autonomous moral actors, we are less able to protect them.
REDRESSING THE NEGLECT OF CHILDREN If we are correct that the theoretical neglect of children is a serious failing, how can we redress this neglect? How should communitafian theory approach children? We propose five s~eps and illustrate these with examples of recent work that points in the right direction. To do this, we must recognize the role of children and childhood socialization for the stability of communities and the capacity of citizens to share moral values. Further, we must explain how the emergence of the child's social self is a pre-requisite for the adult moral self, and what this depiction of the self implies for how we can enhance social and civic responsibility. Socializing Children to Become Responsible Citizens Alice and Peter Rossi (1990) offer communitarians a potent example of the value of careful investigations of children' s socialization for understanding what shapes our moral commitments. Their analysis, based on cross-generational surveys of family members throughout the life course, discloses some of the
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conditions that produce stronger or weaker ties among people; they identify some factors that cause some people to have a more pronounced sense of obligations to others, including a stronger sense of civic duty, and why others feel less inclined to help others. They also analyze the processes by which values and perceptions of duty are transmitted across generations. One key factor is the role played by what they call emotional expressiveness (ibid: 305; 441-457; 242-245). An emotionally expressive person is someone who is affectionate, able to express feelings, concerned to please others, and eager to offer help. This emotional style is encouraged by affectionate parents (especially those of the other gender), by stable homes and close families, and by having children (for men); it is powerfully mediated by gender relations, and depressed by having well-educated parents, family troubles such as prolonged unemployment, divorce, and Substance abuse. One effect of expressiveness is that it increases the sense of obligation to others. Expressive people feel a stronger sense of civic duty than others. Conditions that promote expressiveness (frequent contact, family rituals, shared histories, sexual intimacy) increase our sense of obligations to others. One striking feature of the Rossis' findings is how persistent are the effects of early childhood socialization. Their influence spans a person's lifetime, affecting relations between parents and young children, their adult children, the way they treat other friends and relatives. Years later, early childhood relations still shape how we interpret our responsibility to care for a sick relative, reach out to a friend, or help a neighbor. The Rossis emphasize that understanding the context in which we become moral persons explains how we understand our moral obligations. As we emphasize, it is surely the case that the immediate contexts of social life influence how and when these responsibilities are expressed, but the research indicates that our understandings of these contexts are a function of previous, influential experiences.
Unpacking the "Special Status" of Children Second, we must examine how the special status of children as less than fully autonomous beings diverges from communitarian conceptions of adult morality. This requires special obligations of adults, and creates conflicts that attend these obligations. Recall Etzioni's (pp. 51-53) emphasis on the importance of law in a communitarian society. He argues that a good measure of a communitarian society is that laws protect against authoritarian threats and defend the right to privacy. Yet, law and other coercive policies should not be the primary ways we accomplish control and consent. Rather, these should be invoked only as a
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last resort when the stakes are grave and after efforts to educate, persuade, and enlist support by other means have failed. But, as we asked earlier, how does this apply to children? Does children's dependence on other agents suggest that we must be more vigilant in protecting their interests? Is more intrusion warranted for children? Are we more willing to resort to laws to control children's behavior than we are for adults? If we answer yes to these questions, we must explain and defend this response. What are the circumstances and criteria that permit more coercive responses and more intrusion into the lives of children than we would permit for adults? Further, how do we take particular age categories into account, particularly in light of gradually increasing autonomy? An analysis of curfew laws sheds fight on this dilemma. Curfews have become a popular way to address some of the problems of troubled and troubling youth. We can think of curfews as community (adult) standards backed by the force of the agents of social control. Proponents claim that curfews, in removing children (or, more properly, adolescents) from the street during the late evening and early morning, force them back home; doing so supports families, lessens the temptations of gangs, crime and drugs, encourages them to get more sleep, and perhaps even improves their school performance. Directed exclusively at children (Davis & Schwartz, 1987), they are a manifestation of a special legal status for children that was just being devised within the emerging juvenile court system. First created in Chicago in 1899, this court purported to "treat" and not punish wayward youth; proceduralism was de-emphasized to promote flexibility and common sense in trying to help troubled children. Curfew ordinances became a part of the juvenile court' s legal armament of parens patriae that provided the state extensive power to protect children, even protecting them from their own parents. An outgrowth of this paternalism was a new category of deviance, the status offense, referring to behaviors that were not a violation of criminal law but simply were behaviors not in accord with the status of being a minor: a violation of community mores. In addition to "softening" some of the effects of the criminal justice system for children, their special legal status has also been invoked in ways that limits some protections that are enjoyed by adults. Curfews use children's special legal status to justify allowing police to avoid the court-mmldated rigors of "probable cause" when they pick them up and interrogate them. Curfews laws probably do little harm: the affronts to civil liberties in questioning the occasional teen at three o'clock in the morning seem minor in light of the sense of empowerment that some communities feel from this legislation. These laws also provide police with a way to deal with a category of potentially troublesome people. Children by their presence alone become
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potential targets of police control. Yet, curfews also serve the purpose of conveniently diverting our attention from more significant causes of crime and delinquency. They can provide symbolic fixes to complicated problems. Whatever their effectiveness (Fine & Rojek, 1991), curfews are tools used by a society in which the role of children is uncertain, parents feel ineffective, and families are seen as dysfunctional. When this happens, we turn to the state to assume the role of legal guardian of children. Curfews are partly designed to enhance an image of the sanctity of the family and the safety of the home when both of these images are vulnerable. They provide police with a legal strategy, a "tool" to use for increasing the scrutiny of children. In passing curfew laws city councils affirm concern about crime and dramatize their intention to act. Such a law mollifies parent and enhances their authority by putting the force of the police behind their demands. The example of curfew laws highlights key concerns, and offers constructive lessons for communitarian theory. First, it demonstrates the salience of children's special status, both legally and as a symbol of other anxieties. Such an approach, of course, should properly take into account the emerging autonomy of young people as they age, a realization that curfew laws do not always recognize, defining sixteen year old people as "children," erasing differences between eight and sixteen. Children do deserve special treatment in the criminal justice system, as well as in other institutional arenas. But in order to adjudicate the terms of this special status our theory must catch up with practice. If we take Etzioni's criteria seriously, we must ask if efforts to curtail the rights of children indicate that a society is less communitarian than one that appeals to parents via other means? If it does not, than we must explain why. We must question our motives to ensure that our goals for policy that constrains the rights of children are not grounded in self-interest. This suggests a third important step in redressing the neglect of children in communitarian theory. In our evaluations of the various protections offered and denied children and their agents, we must recognize that the potent symbolic power of children makes them easy targets. We must not exploit children's lack of autonomy simply to demonstrate our "toughness on crime". One troubling feature of current thinking about juvenile crime is that we want it both ways. We invoke children's limited autonomy in order to provide them protections that we think in the long run will serve their interests and those of the community. Yet, another popular strategy among prosecutors who wish to signal their toughness is to convince the public that it is legitimate to try children as young as eleven as adults when they have committed a serious crime. Communitarian theory could be a powerful tool for demonstrating such
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inconsistencies and helping elevate discussions about when children's constrained autonomy should matter in their accountability for their actions. Level-headed evaluation is needed to judge the appropriateness of laws dictated by children's special status. What are the consequences of our intrusions into the lives of children? Are they really producing the intended effects? We must not allow their vulnerability to our manipulations, and their symbolic appeal, to make it appear that we are solving real problems when we are not. Responsibility as a Social Project: Sick Babies and Good Parents
A fourth step in theorizing the special place of children is to recognize that taking responsibility for children is a moral accomplishment that can be facilitated or retarded by cultural, organizational or political configurations. Communitarians must empirically examine the conditions that promote responsibility for children, analyze the strategies that best protect the rights and interests of children, and explain the conditions that account for variation in our willingness and ability to make commitments. Carol Heimer and Lisa Staffen's (1998) research does precisely this. Their investigation of neo-natal intensive care units uses the unexpected arrival of a critically sick baby to examine the social organization of responsibility. In situations where the need to assume an extraordinary level of commitment for a new child presents itself more as a fate than a choice, what explains why some people (including parents with few resources: money, education, experience, networks) embrace this demanding responsibility, whatever the magnitude, while others deflect or shirk this responsibility? As Heimer and Staffen show, taking responsibility is a complex negotiation. Healthcare professionals and parents often have conflicting views about what it means to be responsible and who the responsible party should be. Like parents, healthcare workers want to help sick babies get better. But this involves not only coordinating the care of one ill child with the others in a neo-natal intensive care unit, but also teaching inexperienced parents how to care for them (to help them gradually become more autonomous from professionals), and evaluating parents to ensure that they are competent to care for their children when they leave the hospital. Parents, despite their inexperience and ignorance, must monitor and assess the care their child is receiving, become an informed and effective advocate of behalf of their sick child, and eventually assume the main burden of care. This typically includes, in addition to learning to interpret symptoms, manipulate machinery, discern what it "normal", soliciting and coordinating professional help from among multiple sources and organizations.
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What it means to be a responsible parent is ambiguous, shifts over time, and is constructed differently by hospital staff and parents. For hospital workers, documenting parental involvement is part of the process of attaching labels to people as appropriate or inappropriate parents. Parents, in order to monitor the care their children receive, must become savvy organizational actors. They must learn the elaborate and confusing division of labor and jurisdictions that characterize complex organizations like hospitals. It is a difficult challenge to discern if your sick child is receiving appropriate care when medical problems are so complex, when interventions are so sophisticated, and when the care your child receives must be coordinated by dozens of specialists with multiple patients. As Heimer and Staffen argue, it is not enough simply to be responsible individuals, or in this context, loving parents who want the best for their babies. Rather, being a responsible parent requires sophisticated social action. What it means to be a responsible parent is negotiated in the context of bureaucratic accounts, professional norms, racial and gender stereotyping, organizational routines, and state regulations. Although the challenges that are faced by these parents are extreme, both in their demands and in their institutional embeddedness, Heimer and Staffen argue that all parents confront similar dilemmas in caring for their children. Responsible parents must invest in their children as unique beings with distinctive needs; but they also must be able to assert their children's rights and needs in bureaucratic categories. Rather than understanding responsibility as an ethical issue, a dilemma that individuals confront, Heimer and Staffen disclose the various ways that responsibility is produced, derailed, and sustained by our relations in and around organizations, by our conceptions of race and gender, by our capacities to imagine futures and to deploy categories. Understood in these terms, responsibility looks less like a conscious decision made by an individual and more like patterns of action that are coordinated, framed, and set in motion by many institutional actors. One implication of this work is that if we are concerned with understanding our commitments to others, expending our efforts on theorizing the role of human nature may be less productive than trying to account for the conditions that facilitate or suppress it. Arguments about whether we are fundamentally selfish beings or altruistic creatures seem largely irrelevant in light of powerful evidence about how responsibility is socially produced. While there are serious differences in willingness to subordinate desires for collective goods, these differences are probably more responsive to social context than theories of human nature imply. Instead we should direct our attention to how systems of allocating responsibility are embedded in institutional contexts, how they are constructed, and how they conflict with other forms of responsibility.
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Units of Analysis: Theorizing Embeddedness Our ability to incorporate children into theories of autonomy and responsibility depends on recognizing the embeddedness of children. As a fifth step toward incorporating children into our theories, we must recognize that theoretical language matters for how responsibility is conceived. One virtue of communitarian theory is its critique of individualist conceptions of citizens as self-interested free agents. The individualist view fails to convey how deeply people are embedded in complex sets of relations; that values and preferences are collective accomplishments; and that people are often motivated to act on behalf of others. In challenging this depiction of individuals in practical and political terms, as well as in theoretical terms, communitarian theory can respect and celebrate people's embeddedness when it comes to caring for children. Communitarian theory correctly challenges the model of a rational actor as the fundamental or exclusive "unit" of moral analysis. However, this does not mean that we should turn the community into a reified agent with needs, strains and so on. Doing so diverts attention from our own agency and responsibilities by making society an autonomous force that is not under our control. One way to encourage people to take responsibility for one another is to emphasize that it is people who have needs and obligations to one another, and that the fundamental feature of collectivities are the people who comprise them, their attachments to one another, and their capacity to enact and represent these attachments. Discussions of the needs of society or communities as if they were autonomous entities (characterized by equilibria, strain, or moral decay) detract from our sense of agency, and hence our responsibilities to act on one another's behalf. Functional obligations seem more abstract and remote than do our responsibilities to concrete others. 6 We can retain a Durkheimian conception of morality, reminding us that our ties to one another are moral, without requiring that we construct society as an independent entity and force. This requires theories attentive to how the reification of collecfivities influences accountability. Judith Levine (1997) has demonstrated how powerfully our assumptions about the relevant units of analysis can influence policymaking, sometimes in deleterious ways. She investigates how poor mothers make decisions about whether to work outside the home or enroll for welfare. What is clear from her analysis is that economic incentives are only one part of these mothers' deliberations. They evaluate the consequences of their decisions, not simply as individuals seeking to improve their financial situation, but as people embedded in a range of relationships.
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Most of the women Levine interviewed were deeply concerned about the care their child would receive while they were at work. Even if they receive financial assistance for childcare, the quality of care that is available and affordable remains a serious deterrent to working outside the home. Some mothers believe that no one is as well equipped to care for their children as they are. Others believe that if they cannot get a family member or trusted friend to care for their child, it is too risky to entrust your child to the care of strangers. Many believe that outsiders cannot be trusted to be as vigilant as is required, to care as deeply about their child's safety, and to know where and with whom the dangers lie. For these women, work is not a realistic option when the care provided for their child leaves them fearful. For these women, utility cannot be translated into income and utility is not a characteristic of individuals. Assuming that people's utilities routinely incorporate the well-being of their household members (Becket, 1991) is an important improvement in economic models. The salience of social ties is a feature of economic life. But this is not sufficient. Another reason why household utility does not fully incorporate the parameters of choice is that these welfare mothers also consider their contributions to friends, neighbors and community members when deciding about work. Some welfare mothers do not take jobs because they understand how vital it is that they be home, not just for their own children but for their neighbors' children. Welfare debates have often been framed in terms of why (lazy, undeserving, dependent) , people don't take jobs to improve their lives. The debate usually centers on the financial trade-off between poorly paying jobs and the benefits welfare mothers receive. Yet, as Levine argues, welfare mothers often discount the benefits of financial policy incentives because these are not sensitive to the value of their other roles. Policymakers do not value, perhaps do not even recognize, the multiple roles that these women play, as mothers, neighbors, kin, and as informed members of the community. Welfare reform is often designed to foster a particular kind of autonomy, with incentives designed to force poor people to take on the responsibility of supporting themselves, to eliminate "welfare dependency". But, as Levine makes clear other sets of incentives suggest other responses. Seligman and Darling (1989) make a point similar to Levine's in a different policy realm. They argue that policies for helping people cope with the disabilities of their children focus too exclusively on the wrong unit of analysis. Standard practice is to treat only the disabled child in a family, rather than understanding the disabled child's place in the family. Since the child's outcome depends heavily on his or her family, and since the family is often seriously
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affected by the child's disability, treating these roles as distinct, rather than deeply inter-dependent, lessens the effectiveness of policies that are designed to help. Here our desire to protect a children's emerging autonomy, to give children a greater sense of control, and our desire to encourage disabled children to take prime responsibility for managing their conditions, means that we neglect the family and the child's place in it. Our policies and our theoretical language should not deflect attention from individual responsibilities to others. By showing how people are embedded in their communities, how they conceive their responsibilities not only as rational actors maximizing individual gain, but as members of communities, especially as this pertains to children, communitarian theory can advance fired debates about welfare reform. In explaining how individual autonomy is constrained by their community standing, by their being embedded in networks that span households, we can better grasp how people understand the scope of their responsibilities. CONCLUSION While communitarian theory has been adult-centered, the models of social life presented can be modified to take into account the position of children. They are our offspring, and we must select what costs we will be willing to expend on their behalf. Ultimately a communitarian policy toward children is one that permits children to gain a measure of autonomy while instructing them in the moral order. The reality of child development suggests that this process will be gradual, as children slowly are given responsibility and the autonomy to make personal choices. Inevitably, adult-sponsored morality takes priority over the choices of childhood, shaping the biology of children into social forms. Adult authority, while it may be shared voluntarily, can not be discarded. The community is a community of adults to which children are permitted a slow, if somewhat awkward, introduction to citizenship, with autonomy given, but not taken. Communitarian theory has much to offer those who wish to understand children and to improve their circumstances. Communitarians can be effective advocates for children, offering compelling strategies for why and how we ought to value children. By emphasizing the value of children in reproducing community, the importance of childhood for the capacity to assume responsibilities later, and children's special status as future citizens, communitarians are well poised to lead debates on protecting children's welfare. Who is to function as an agent of children is also enriched by a communitarian perspective that emphasizes children as not just the property and responsibility
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of parents, but as resources of communities and states. By attending to shifting conceptions of children and asking who is responsible for controlling and nurturing their autonomy, communitarians demonstrate that our conceptions of children must be explicitly part of debates on policies that affect them, whether this takes the form o f states concerned with children as future public citizens, of parents concerned with children as unique, incommensurable beings that require specialized care, or o f educators concerned about what adults in the future will need to know. But communitarian theory can also benefit from directing its attention to children. Since children represent a complex test case o f how we conceive autonomy and duty, by focusing on them, we are forced to sharpen our concepts, specify relations more carefully, and ask hard questions. Children can encourage communitarians to explain and account for those value choices and social relations that they wish to encourage. In this children serve as a powerful force for shaping our sense o f shared community.
NOTES 1. In this paper we focus upon socialization from adults to children, and pay little attention to peer socialization. Clearly peer socialization is critical to responsibility, autonomy and moral citizenship. Morality is not only taught "downward," but "across" as well, although even here it is adults that set the tone for this peer interaction. 2. For instance, children, childhood, youth, or adolescence do not appear in the index to The New Golden Rule. Unless otherwise noted, all references to Etzioni are from this book. We are taking it as our proxy for communitarian theory but we believe the point pertains more broadly. Elsewhere, Etzioni (1993) offers strong opinions about policies directed toward children. For example, he urges us to avoid putting young children in daycare, advocates moral education in schools, mandatory public service for youths, stricter divorces laws, and considers curfews a potentially useful tool. Nevertheless, in his recent efforts to conceptualize the relationship between autonomy and order he does not grant any special status to children. Philip Selznick's (1992: 148-182) discussion of theories of moral development and socialization is a notable exception to this neglect of children. Yet even here, the special challenges that children pose for communitarian thinking are not explicitly ad&essed 3. Etzioni seems to equate the "social construction" of autonomy with autonomy as an attribute of society, rather than acknowledging that individual autonomy is as much the result of social processes as the relative autonomy of collectivities. One of the most sophisticated analyses of autonomy is that of G. H. Mead in his analysis of the emergence of the ' T ' and "Me" as the components of the self. The "me", which has internalized group morality, remains dialectically liked to the 'T', with its capacity to act spontaneously, to reflect on and reject the constraints of the me, to surprise our self with our own actions. But both aspects of the self are the results of complex, deeply intertwined social processes. 4. For other compelling examples of changing views on children and their autonomy,
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see Phillipe Aries, 1962; Hunt, 1970; and Stone, 1977. Whether understood as frightening demons, sinful creatures with dangerous impulses, or little adults with serious economic responsibilities, these sources depict the variety in our conceptions of children and childrearing practices, and how these are profoundly shaped by their social contexts. 5. As Nicola Beisal (1997) demonstrates, children played a central role in the moral reform movements in Victorian America. Protecting children from corruption provided a rallying cry for savvy reformers like Anthony Comstock, as well as a focus for people's diffuse anxieties about reproducing class boundaries, changing family relations, and the scourge of immigration. 6. For example, Latan~ and Darley (1970) found that even the briefest contact with someone greatly increases our willingness to help a stranger in need. Similarly, Heimer and Staffen (1998:296-311) explain why frequent contact is crucial for parents to come to see their premature babies as persons rather than objects and as possessing unique potential. Doing so increases parents' commitments to their babies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T h e authors thank M i t c h e l l Stevens, Carol Heimer, Vilna Bashi, E d w a r d L e h m a n , Judith L e v i n e , Daniel Cook, and B r u c e Carruthers for their helpful comments.
REFERENCES Aries, P. (1962). Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. Trans. Robert Baldick. New York: Vintage. Becket, G. (1991). A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Beisal, N. (1997). hnperiled Innocents: Anthony Comstock and Family Reproduction in Victorian America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Best, J. (1990). Threatened Children. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Best, J., & Horiuchi, G. T. (1985). The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban Legends. Social Problems, 32, 488-499. Edin, K., & Lein, L. (1997). Making Ends Meet. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Etzioni, A. (1996). The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society. New York: Basic Books. Etzioni, A. (1993). The Spirit of Community: The Reinvention of American Society. New York: Simon and Schuster. Fine, G. A., & Mechling, J. (1991). Minor Difficulties: Changing Children in the Late Twentieth Century. In: A. Wolfe (Ed.), America at Century's End (pp. 58-78). Berkeley: University of California Press. Fine, G. A., & Rojek, D. G. (1991). Atlanta's Curfew Was Ovencated. Atlanta Journal/Constitution, (October 20): G1-G2. Hays, S. (1996). The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven: Yale University Press. Heimer, C. A., & Staffen, L. R. (1998). For the Sake of the Children: The Social Organization of Responsibility in the Hospital and the Home. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Hunt, D. (1970). Parents and Children in History: The Psychology of Family Life in Early Modern France. New York: Basic. Latan~, B., & Darley, J. M. (1970). The Unresponsive Bystander. New York: Meredith Corporation. Levine, J. (1997). How Poor Women Decide about Welfare and Work: Economic and Sociological Models of Choice. Ph. D.dissertafion, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Rossi, A. S., & Rossi, P. H. (1990). Of Human Bonding: Parent-Child Relations Across the Life Course. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Selznick, P. (1992). The Moral Commonwealth: Social Theory and the Promise of Community. Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press. Stevens, M. (1996). Kingdom and Coalition: Hierarchy and Autonomy in the Home Education Movement. Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Stone, L. (1977). The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800. New York: Harper and Row. Zelizer, V. (1985). Pricing the Priceless Child. New York: Basic Books.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Manuela du Bois-Reymond is Professor in Youth Sociology and Education. She works at Leiden University (the Netherlands) in the Department of Educational Studies. She is interested in the way modernization processes influence the life worlds of children and youth. She publishes on child culture (Kinderkultur), trendsetter learners in society as well as educational and work trajectories of adolescents and young adults. She is currently involved in research on informal learning of peer groups, and in divergence of European schooling and work trajectories of youth.
Prudence L. Carter received her M.A. in Sociology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University. She recently completed post-doctoral work at the University of Michigan and has since joined the faculty at Harvard University as an Assistant Professor of Sociology. Her publications have appeared in Ethnic and Racial Studies and African American Research Perspectives. Dr. Carter's current research and teaching interests include race and ethnicity, education, gender, culture and identity, urban poverty and social policy. At present, she is completing a book manuscript based on her dissertation research, which contends with the oppositional cultural explanations for the achievement outcomes of African American, Puerto Rican and Dominican students in New York. Robert Crosnoe received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology and Research Fellow at the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. His work has appeared in Social Psychology Quarterly, Sociology of Education, and Journal of Adolescent Research. His current research focuses on issues of risk and resilience during adolescence and young adulthood, with a particular interest on race and ethnicity in the the educational system. Wendy Nelson Espeland received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. She is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University and a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation (2000-2001). 319
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Her book, The Struggle for Water, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1998; she has also published work in the Annual Review of Sociology, Law and Social Inquiry, Law and Society Review, and the American Journal of Sociology. She is currently writing a book with Mitchell Stevens about the politics of commensuration, the processes by which qualitative distinctions are transformed into quantitative ones.
Gary Alan Fine received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Social Psychology. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of Georgia, and is currently Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University. He is the author of Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing as Social Worlds (University of Chicago Press, 1983), With the Boys: Little League Baseball and Preadolescent Culture (University of Chicago Press, 1987), and Gifted Tongues: Adolescents and the Culture of High School Debate (Princeton University Press, 2001). His current research is an analysis of the organizational creation of scientific knowledge through an ethnographic investigation of the National Weather Service. Tyrone A. Forman received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies and a Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is conducting research in four areas: (1) studies of intergroup attitudes and relations among people of color; (2) studies of the patterns, trends, and social determinants of young whites' racial attitudes; (3) studies of the social psychological consequences of racial stratification for African Americans' well-being; and (4) studies of African American father's roles in families across the life course. His work on these topics has appeared in Social Problems, Discourse and Society, Perspectives on Social Problems, Journal of Negro Education, Health Education and Behavior and Journal of Studies on Alcohol. Peggy C. Giordano received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota, and is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology at Bowling Green State University. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Criminology, Journal of Marriage and the Family, and the American Journal of Sociology. She recently completed a longitudinal follow-up study of two cohorts of adolescents, and is currently conducting a study of 1500 adolescents. The new project, the Toledo Adolescent Relationship Study, focuses on the nature and meaning of adolescent romantic relationships and explores how these relationships influence a variety of developmental outcomes.
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David A. Kinney received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Indiana UniversityBloomington and did post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago. He is currently Associate Professor of Sociology at Central Michigan University and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life at the University of Michigan. His publications have appeared in Sociology of
Education, Youth and Society, Personal Relationships During Adolescence (Sage), and New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development (JosseyBass). He is currently conducting ethnographic research with children and their parents in a study of how families manage work, home life, and children's activity involvement in a fast-paced society. Monica Longmore is a social psychologist who received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Washington State University and is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at Bowling Green State University. Her research has been published in journals, such as Social Psychology Quarterly, Social Forces, and Journal of Marriage and the Family. She is part of the ToledoAdolescent Relationship Study research team that is examining the meanings of adolescent's relationships. Her research interests include how self and identity buffer against or moderate adverse family and social influences.
Wendy D. Manning is a family demographer who earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at Bowling Green State University and Director of the Center for Family and Demographic Research. Her publications have appeared in Demography, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal of Marriage and the Family, and Journal of Family Issues. She is a member of Giordano's research team that is studying the meaning of adolescent's relationships and focuses specifically on their implications for fertility-related outcomes. Manning is also collecting qualitative data on the meaning of adult coh~fbiting relationships. Yolanda te Poel works as Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, section Education and Youth Studies of Leiden University (the Netherlands). She received her Ph.D. in Social Sciences at the same university. She published on professionalization of youth work,changes in leisure of children and youth, sexual education of youth and educational and work trajectories of youth in (among others) 'Young': Nordic Journal of Youth Research, the 'Journal of Leisure Research', 'ZSE' (German Journal for Sociology of Education and Socialisation) and 'Zeitschrift fiir Piidagogik' (Journal of Educational Studies). She is currently involved in research on
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informal learning of peer groups of children and youth, and in longitudinal research on educational and labour trajectories of young adults. Janita Ravesloot wrote her Ph.D. on youth and sexuality. She works as Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies of Leiden University (the Netherlands). She published on changes in sexuality of youth as well as on sexual health of youth, on leisure of young adolescents and educational trajectories in
'Young': Nordic Journal of Youth Research, The Journal of Leisure Research and 'Zeitschrift Zeitschrift fiir Piidagogik' (Journal of Educational Studies). She is involved in research on informal learning of peer groups. Dean G. Rojek received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, was on the faculty at the University of Arizona and currently is on the faculty at the University of Georgia. His areas of research are homicide, adolescent drug involvement, crime in China, and treatment programs for DUI offenders. He has taught courses in the sociology of law in China and the past two years has taught at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. He is currently completing a book on homicide, examining victim and offender relationships, and the role that drugs play in escalating social interactions to lethal violence. Katherine Brown Rosier received her Ph.D. from Indiana UniversityBloomington. She is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Louisiana State University. Her recent book, Mothering Inner-city Children: The Early School Years, was published in 2000 by Rutgers University Press. Other publications have appeared in The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, The Journal of Comparative Family Studies, New Directions for Child Development, and several edited volumes. While continuing to write on experiences of low-income African American children and families, she is also conducting research on Louisiana's new Covenant Marriage Law. She and a colleague are currently co-authoring a book on Covenant Marriage for the American Sociological Association's Rose Monograph Series. Colin H. Sacks received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and did post-doctoral work at Indiana University-Bloomington. He currently teaches Psychology at Diablo Valley College. His publications have appeared in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Teaching and Teacher Education, and American Educational Research Journal. His current research interests include effective teaching methods for disadvantaged children, learned helplessness in adults and children, and the development of musical cognition.
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Sheryl R. Tynes received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona and is currently Associate Professor of Sociology at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. In 1996, Stanford University Press published her book Turning Points in Social Security: From 'Cruel Hoax' to 'Sacred Entitlement.' She has also published in Social Science Research, Sociological Inquiry, Teaching Sociology, and Sociological Studies of Child Development. Her current publications and research involve a comparison of young children living in inner-city and suburban neighborhoods. Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University
of Chicago. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of Research in the Institute for Research in African-American Studies, at Columbia University. He is the author of American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (Harvard University Press, 2000). His research is on youth, underground economies, and social organization in urban poor communities. Deanna L. Wilkinson received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University and a Research Fellow at the Center for Public Policy also at Temple University. Her publications have appeared in Crime and Justice Annual Review of Research, Law and Contemporary Problems, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Crime and Delinquency, and in numerous edited volumes. She is currently Principal Investigator on a large study of victimization among urban adolescents in fifteen Philadelphia neighborhoods. Elke Zeijl has worked as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Education, Educational Studies and Youth Studies Section. After taking her doctoral degree, she became a post-doctoral research assistant in the same Section. Currently, she works for the Dutch Social and Cultural Planning Bureau (SCP), which advises the Dutch national government with regard to social and cultural issues. Elke Zeijl has published in the Journal of Leisure Research, in Teeniewelten (Teenage world), Kindsein in der Schule (Being child within the school context), and in the Dutch journal Vernieuwing (Renewal). In addition, she wrote Young Adolescents' Leisure, a cross-cultural and cross-sectional study of Dutch and German 10-15 year-olds. Currently, her research focuses on youth and emancipation matters.
