Lower-class Boys Research Articles

Black and white identity development: Aspects and perspectives

Empirical definitions of identity formation, and five variants, were constructed using a technique for studying multiple self-images. The method was then applied to a sample of black and white lower socioeconomic class boys. These boys were tested with this technique and given in-depth interviews twice a year, from the start to the finish of high school. The results of these longitudinal studies disclose that the black and white adolescents have emphatically differentpatterns of identity formation. The blacks are characterized by unchanging configurations of self-images. Both the content of their self-definitions and the interrelations for these self-definitions remain strikingly stable over the years. The whites, on the other hand, display a progressive integration of different self-images and stabilization of the content of these images. The more qualitative interview data corroborate these quantitative findings. The patterns displayed by the blacks are consistent with the definition of "identity foreclosure," a disruption in ego identity development. The whites' patterns, however, are consistent with progressive identity formation. In addition to discussing these results, the paper goes on to consider ways to understand the findings. Sociocultural as well as cognitive aspects of the racial differences in identity development are explored.

Relation of Type and Onset of Father Absence to Cognitive Development

SANTROCK, JOHN W. Relation of Type and Onset of Father Absence to Cognitive Development. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1972, 43, 455-469. Thirdand sixth-grade IQ and achievement scores were compared for 286 fatherabsent and 57 father-present white, predominantly lower-class boys and girls. Father absence was analyzed by onset, whether at 0-2, 3-5, 6-9, 10-11, or 12-13 years of the child's age, and by type, whether (a) death, (b) divorce, desertion, or separation, or (c) presence of a stepfather. While father absence due to divorce, desertion, or separation had the most negative influence in the initial 2 years of the child's life for boys and girls, father absence due to death was the most detrimental when it occurred in the 6-9

The Relationship between Ability to Read and the Meaning and Expression of Emotion

Two carefully matched groups of institutionalized lower-class boys, differing only in reading level, were compared on several measures of emotional meaning and expression. Although some previous findings suggested possible differences in the two groups, no relationship was found between these measures and ability to read. The implications of these findings are discussed, both with reference to previous published reports and in terms of the need for future research.

DO MATERIAL REWARDS ENHANCE THE PERFORMANCE OF LOWER-CLASS CHILDREN?

SPENCE, JANET T. Do Material Rewards Enhance the Performance of LowerClass Children? CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 1461-1470. 2 replicated experiments were performed in which lower-class preschool boys and girls were given a conceptual task under Symbolic or Material reward conditions, with or without preliminary training experience. With no pretraining, Material reward was expected to produce better performance than Symbolic, thus replicating several previous studies using a similar task and similar procedures; but with pretraining, the reverse. In the No-Training condition, only the girls in the first experiment performed as predicted, the other groups doing better with Symbolic rewards. In confirmation of expectations, the superiority of Symbolic rewards was also demonstrated in all of the Training groups.

INFORMATION PROCESSING AND THE MODIFICATION OF AN "IMPULSIVE CONCEPTUAL TEMPO"

HEIDER, ELEANOR ROSCH. Information Processing and the Modification of an Impulsive Conceptual Tempo. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 12761281. 80 middle-class and 80 lower-class boys were tested on a visual and a verbal task under 3 conditions designed to modify an tempo. For both tasks, instructions which contained an explanation of appropriate task strategy were more efective in reducing errors and lengthening response latency for lower-class impulsive Ss than was either an enforced delay of response or increased motivation for accuracy.

Adolescents' perceptions of military service as a vehicle for social mobility: A racial comparison of rural youth

The broad purpose of this paper was to investigate orientations toward military service held by Negro and white teen-age boys, utilizing data gathered in rural East Texas during 1966. Two hypotheses guided the analysis: (1) that Negro youth are more positively inclined toward military service than white boys and (2) that lower class boys with high status aspirations, regardless of race, are more positively oriented toward military service than others. Measures were available for aspiration for military service, expected military service, certainty of this expectation, and general attitude toward service. These variables were manipulated by race, SES, and level of job aspiration to test the hypotheses. The findings did not support the hypotheses: Negro and white youth were generally positive about military service and lower class youth with high aspirations differed little from other youth in their orientations toward military service. Appropriate implications were drawn and suggestions made for future research.

The effects of impulsivity on the performance of lower-class children on four WISC subtests.

The performance of 18 lower-class boys on four WISC subtests was assessed under two conditions of test administration, the standard one and one in which an imposed latency period was included. These boys generally did better in the latter condition, suggesting that the nature of the stimulus task affected the quality of the response produced.

IT SCORE VARIATIONS BY INSTRUCTIONAL STYLE

Brown's It Scale for Children (ITSC) is an instrument widely used with young children for measuring sex-role preference. Evidence exists that many children may respond to masculine cues in It rather than projecting their own choices. In this study, the effects of three different instructions on the performance of Negro and white children were examined. These instructions were (a) projective, (b) semiprojective, and (c) objective. Each instruction was given to 72 lower-class prekindergarten children, 18 Negro boys, 18 white boys, 18 Negro girls, and 18 white girls. Race was an important variable in the responses to the test, many white girls apparently respond to masculine cues in the It figure; however, this was not true among Negro girls. This may be due to differences in sex-role prestige in these two subcultures. Lower-class Negro boys show greater preference for the feminine role as measured under the semiprojective and objective instructions. The relation of the ITSC scores and teacher ratings of the children's behavior supports the hypothesis that the development of sex-role preference precedes the development of sex-role adoption, suggesting that the rate of development may be faster among white boys.

Psychological differentiation and socioeconomic status.

Two studies were performed to evaluate the hypothesis that field dependence and related cognitive abilities do not differ with socioeconomic status. 6 subtests of the WISC (3 verbal and 3 performance) were administered to middle- and lower-class boys, together with a measure of field dependence (Embedded figures) and a measure of sophistication-of-body concept. Two adult male groups (middle and lower class) were given the Embedded-figures test. The hypothesis was substantially supported for both adult and child samples. Only on Block Design, a test which correlates highly with measures of field dependence, did performance differ significantly by social class. The patterning of cognitive abilities was highly similar for middle- and lower-class boys, with Block Design providing the only serious discrepancy.

The Motivating Effect of Two Reinforcers upon Lower- and Middle-Class Fifth-Grade Children

This study investigated the effectiveness of praise and knowledge of results in increasing the performance of lower- and middle-class fifth-grade pupils on a numeral cancellation test. The effectiveness of the reinforcers was based upon the mean gain (loss) scores of Tests 9 and 10 over Test 1. Middle-class boys made significantly larger gains under the knowledge-of-results condition than under the praise condition. Under the knowledge-of-results condition, lower-class boys made significantly larger gains than lower-class girls. Other differences were insignificant.

DETERMINANTS OF CHILDREN'S PREFERENCES FOR ADULTS

Films of adults were shown to 1,930 middle- and lower-class boys and girls to ascertain the effects of sex of adult and role of adult (supportive, neutral) on children's preferences for the adults. Both younger and older boys and girls showed a strong tendency to prefer adults of their own sex. Preference for the supportive as contrasted with the neutral adult was found in certain subgroups. The role played by the adult significantly influenced the frequency of like-sex choices made by middle-class girls and lower-class boys but not of those made by lower-class girls and middle-class boys. The adults preferred by children were found to be those who had been the more effective reinforcing agents with other adults in a prior study.

Status level of occupations chosen and rejected by middle and lower class boys and girls.

The hypothesis that children's occupational choices are superior in status to the occupations they reject was supported by the occupational choices and rejections of 60 middle class boys and 49 girls and 108 lower class boys, but not by those of the 107 lower class girls.

CHILDREN'S COMPREHENSION OF TEACHER AND PEER SPEECH

In order to evaluate (a) the extent to which information is successfully communicated from teachers to pupils of various social backgrounds and (b) the degree of effective communication among children from diferent social backgrounds, 64 first-grade and 127 fifth-grade public school children were requested to restore words deleted from samples of teachers' speech and the speech of children of diverse social backgrounds. Half the fifth-grade children heard the material on tapes; the balance responded to visual administration of the tasks. Generally, no significant differences were obtained in performance between first-grade SES I and SES III children. Differences related to social class and sex became salient at fifth grade. Controlling IQ markedly reduced the obtained number of SES differences, but increased sex differences. Although Negro-white differences were virtually absent, Negro and lower-class children were penalized less by speech samples derived from children of similar social backgrounds. Fifth-grade girls' superiority to boys on this language task was revealed to be a function of social-class level. Lower-class girls were superior in performance to lower-class boys on the language-comprehension tasks of this study, whereas there were no differences in performance between middle-class boys and girls.

Perceived Opportunities, Gang Membership, and Delinquency

Certain aspects of the opportunity structure paradigm were operationalized in a study of delinquent gangs in Chicago. Negro and white lower-class gang boys were compared with lower-class nongang boys from the same neighborhoods, and with middle-class boys, of the same race. The ranking of the six race-by-class-by-gang-status groups on official delinquency rates corresponded more closely to ranking on perceptions of legitimate opportunities than to ranking on perceptions of illegitimate opportunities, which is consistent with the assumption that illegitimate opportunities intervene after legitimate opportunities have been appraised and found wanting. Gang members perceived legitimate opportunities as available less often than nongang boys, lower-class boys, less often than middle-class, and Negro boys, less often than white. Differences in perceptions of illegitimate opportunities were in the reverse direction, as expected. Language: en

SOCIAL CLASS AND THE CHILD'S PERCEPTION OF THE PARENT.

This study examines some aspects of the way boys from the middle or lower classes perceive their parents. Data were collected from 367 boys, age 9 through 11, by means of a structured questionnaire. It was found that boys from the middle class tend to perceive their parents as more competent, emotionally secure, accepting and interested in their child's performance than do lower-class boys. Social class differences in the boy's perception of the parent were much greater with respect to the father than the mother.

Field Observations of Middle Class "Gangs"

Field Observations of Middle Class "Gangs"

Effects of maternal employment on lower-class boys.

Effects of maternal employment on lower-class boys.

Delinquent Subcultures: Sociological Interpretations of Gang Delinquency

Group delinquency has been of theoretical in terest to American sociology for more than half a century. During that time, four major interpretations of the origins of gang delinquency and delinquent subcultures have emerged. The classical view developed by Thrasher focuses on the de velopment of spontaneous groups under conditions of weak social control and social disorganization. Two other views, somewhat akin, emphasize the adjustment problems of lower class boys and stress respectively the status deprivation of such boys when they fail to place well according to the middle class measuring rod and the alienation produced when opportunities to achieve universally demanded success goals are denied lower class boys. Another view is that of the lower class street gang and its way of life as the adolescent version of a more general adult life style, namely, lower class culture. There is a no ticeable tendency in the recent theories to emphasize irrational explanations of gang delinquency, to view the boys who par ticipate as driven rather than attracted, and polemical pres sures have tended to produce extreme theoretical interpreta tions.

The Distribution of Juvenile Delinquency in the Social Class Structure

There is no simple relationship between ascribed social status and delinquency. Both the status structure of the residential community and the extent to which delinquency is a function of a cultural tradition in a residential community affect the delinquency life-chances of a boy at each ascribed social class level. The largest proportion of delinquents for any status group comes from the more homogeneous status areas for that group, while the delinquency life-chances of boys in any status group tend to be greatest in the lower status areas and in high delinquency rate areas. Evidence presented in the paper for types of conforming and deviating boys lend support to the conclusions that (1) there is more frequent and serious delinquent deviation in the lower than in the middle stratum when self-reports of delinquent deviation are examined, (2) that the career oriented delinquent is found only among lower class boys, (3) that the major type of lower status boy is a conforming non-achiever while the conforming achiever is the major type in the middle class, (4) that conformers are more likely to be isolates than are non-conformers, and (5) that peer-oriented delinquency is the most common form of delinquent organization at both lower and middle status levels. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1961. Copyright © 1961 by the American Sociological Association) Male Delinquency Male Offender Juvenile Male Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Offender Class Factors Social Class Social Organization Delinquency Causes 07-02

A Long-term Observation of the Physical Stength in the Growing Period

In order to observe the physical strength in growing, it is a matter never to be neglected that the physique and also the psychological and intellectual influences must be considered. Nevertheless this sort of study has hitherto been very rare, and leaves much to be discussed.The writer, reflecting this point deeply, investigated the growth and change of the physique under the influence of mental activity, and thus tried to grasp the actual state of the physical development.As an object to be examined, I selected the pupils of a certain primary school in Tokyo and those- of a middle school in its neighbourhood. I made physical examinations for 7 times and practised Awaji-method inspections for the whole pupils at the beginning of each school term from September, 1950 to that in 1952. I selected 413 boys and 405 girls as thorough examined ones through the whole terms, and applied them Rhorer-Index exponent as a physical characterstic. The result and conclusion for these experiments came as follows:For the development of physique during the growth period, psychological factors must play a pretty important part. Above all for lower class boys and girls in the primary school, for the second and third year boys in the middle school, and for the girls in the fifth and sixth year of the primary school and in the first year in the middle school, 2 could admit a reletive importance between the psychological operations and the growth of the physical constitution.