Hope in the Social Environment: Factors Affecting Future Aspirations and School Self-Efficacy for Youth in Urban Environ
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Hope in the Social Environment: Factors Affecting Future Aspirations and School Self-Efficacy for Youth in Urban Environments Henrika McCoy • Elizabeth A. Bowen
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract Having a sense of hope and aspirations for the future are often conceptualized as components of resilience for youth in urban environments. However, less is known about the factors that may influence how young people develop their future aspirations, and how those aspirations may impact their experiences at school. This study uses structural equation modeling to identify some potential pathways through which parental relationships and neighborhood environments may impact perceptions of future success and associations between future aspirations and self-efficacy in school settings for adolescents in urban environments. Data from a self-efficacy questionnaire completed by 489 participants in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (mean age 17.2) were used to test the fit of our conceptual model. The analyses indicated strong relationships among the variables and a robust model fit, as assessed by multiple fit indices. The findings suggest that several factors, including neighborhood safety and supportive parental relationships, can help youth maintain hope for the future and that such future aspirations can bolster adolescents’ sense of self-efficacy in school. Implications of these findings for social work theory, practice, policy, and research are described.
H. McCoy (&) Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1040 W. Harrison St., M/C 309, Chicago, IL 60607, USA e-mail: [email protected] E. A. Bowen School of Social Work, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 685 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
Keywords Adolescents Aspirations Neighborhood School Self-efficacy Urban
Introduction Children and adolescents who reside in urban areas in the United States—particularly youth of color, or those living in areas of concentrated poverty, are at risk for a number of negative social and developmental outcomes (Wilson 2010). These outcomes, which include physical and mental health problems, delinquency, and teen pregnancy, are interrelated, as are the risk and protective factors that predict them (Jenson 2010; Popkin et al. 2009). Clarifying these pathways has long been challenging for researchers and policymakers who are concerned with improving outcomes for urban adolescents (Jenson 2010; Szapocznik and Coatsworth 1999). Since the 1980s, risk and protective factor frameworks have emerged as the predominant approach to prevention research and intervention development in fields such as psychology, social work, and public health (Jenson 2010). Those frameworks attempt to identify specific factors that enhance the likelihood of negative outcomes (risk factors) for youth or that reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes and promote resiliency and positive development (protective factors). The literature about adolescent risk and resi
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