Group mentoring may offer similar supports as traditional one-on-one mentoring and a more culturally consistent forum for addressing issues of ethnicity, academic self-concept and school connectedness (Lindsay-Dennis, Cummings, McClendon, in press; Utsey, Howard & Williams, 2003). The present study investigates the development of students’ ethnic identity, academic self-concept and school connectedness through participation in a school based group mentoring program within a culturally diverse high school. Employing a mixed method design and multilevel modeling analysis, both the ethnicity of the mentor and the diversity composition of each group were assessed as contributors to the mentoring process. Ethnic identity and academic self concept did not yield significant associations (p =.75 and p =.42). School connectedness yielded a significant, but negative association (p < .05) from participation; with multicultural students reporting significantly less connection to the school. Review of process notes maintained by mentors revealed specific group processes that may have influenced the ethnic identity, academic self-concept, and school connectedness of students; such as discussion and resolution of experiences of racism.

Title: If you can not be seen - You do not exist: A quantitative study of how gender and other socialfactors affect the degree of visibility in the Swedish newscasts of Aktuellt and Rapport. (Syns duinte � finns du inte: En kvantitativ studie om inverkan av kön och andra sociala aspekter påmänniskors synlighet i Aktuellt och Rapport).Number of pages: 46Author: Helena HuhtaTutor: Martin FredrikssonCourse: Media and Communication Science CPeriod: Autumn of 2009University: Division of Informatics and Media, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this study has been to investigate to what degree women and menparticipate in the newscasts of Aktuellt and Rapport, broadcast on the Swedish public servicechannels of SVT 1 and SVT 2. Furthermore, I have also looked into how social identities, such asage and ethnicity, affect the degree of representation for each gender, respectively. Some of thebasic research questions comprise: 1. how much space is given to men compared to women in termsof: number of participants for each gender, speaking time and position in the news order? 2. Howdo the roles differ for male and female participants in terms of position and topic? 3. How do ageand ethnicity affect the degree of visibility for men and women in Aktuellt and Rapport?Material/Method: This study has been carried out as a quantitative content analysis of Aktuellt andRapport, during ten weekdays in October and November of 2009. The research units included in thestudy consist of all people visible and talking actively, on screen during the domestic news, of saidperiod, in Aktuellt and Rapport.Main results: The results show that men are more visible than women, due to there being a largernumber of male participants, and men also having a tendency to get longer speaking times.Regarding roles, women participate to a much greater extent as private persons than men - the latterrather being made visible as representatives. The main subject areas between the genders also differ, where women usually occur in a “soft news” context, and men in “hard news” context.When looking into the intersection between gender and age, the newscasts have a tendency todisplay younger females and older males. Hence, the female participants seem to have adiminishing chance of being seen as they grow older, while there is an opposite tendency for maleparticipants.Finally, regarding the intersection between ethnicity and gender, the study has shown that thegenders are more evenly represented among people of a non Swedish origin. The ethnic minoritiesare, however, underrepresented in these newscasts as a whole.Keywords: gender, ethnicity, age, intersectionality, news, media, representation.

Urban planning is responsible for the arrangement of environments that we are living in as well as for the design of urban parks that allow us to escape from everyday stressors. However, we no longer live in culturally homogenous societies, and people of different backgrounds seem to have different perspectives on urban park aesthetics as well as the range of facilities and features that parks should provide. This study focuses on preferences and perspectives that people of different cultural backgrounds have of urban parks. This research was based on a single-case study of a multi-functional park – Waterloo Park, located in Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), and was focused on investigating urban park preferences of seven ethnic groups: Caucasian Canadians, East and North Asians, South Asians, Middle- Eastern, Arabic, African/Caribbean and African/Zimbabwean or Kenyan. The feedback obtained from face-to-face interviews with Waterloo-Park users have been analyzed in order to establish how do people of different cultural backgrounds conceptualize urban parks and what their breadth of needs are when utilizing park space. Demographic information, such as ethnic association, was obtained from the participants on a self-descriptive basis. Findings from this study indicates that there are apparent differences in expectations and needs that culturally diverse users have regarding urban parks, and provides substantial evidence that culture plays an influential role in perception and evaluation of urban parks. Recommendations for professional practice advocate shifting Canadian design practices towards a true comprehensive and multifunctional park design and incorporating the various motives and needs of a culturally diverse Canadian society.

Abstract “Grappling on the Grain Belt: Wrestling in Manitoba to 1931,” explores the history of wrestling in the geographic region now demarcated as Manitoba, from the pre-Confederation period to the Great Depression, with particular emphasis on the period after 1896 when the Canadian West experienced its most remarkable demographic growth. Wrestling was a frequently controversial, often divisive, but ultimately dynamic, popular, and persistent cultural form that proved adaptable to changing social conditions. Far from being ‘merely’ a sport, residents of Manitoba found greater meaning in its practice beyond the simple act of two people struggling for physical advantage on a mat, in a ring, or on a grassy field. This study examines wrestling as a social phenomenon that echoed larger, and fluid, debates over sport’s ‘proper’ purpose, expressions of masculinity, respectable public conduct, and views concerning the position of immigrant and minority communities in a predominantly Anglo-Protestant society. It likewise explores the meanings that various groups in the province, demarcated by such factors as ethnicity and occupation, attached to wrestling in the decades before the Great Depression. In doing so, it illuminates wrestling as a complex and socially-significant cultural activity which, to date, has been virtually unexplored by Canadian historians looking at the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Kvinnor har visats vara mer empatiska än män vid självskattning samt att vita och svarta barn känner mer empati för en målperson med samma hudfärg. Denna studies syfte var att undersöka om män och kvinnor kände olika mycket empati beroende på målpersonens etni-citet, om det fanns några könsskillnader i empati samt om något av könen väckte mer empati. Deltagarna var 208 män och kvinnor med svensk och invandrarbakgrund, majoriteten studerade på Mälardalens högskola. Resultatet visade en signifikant disordinal interaktion där svenska deltagare visade högre empati för en svensk målperson än vad de gjorde för en invandrad och invandrardeltagare visade högre empati för en invandrad målperson än vad de gjorde för en svensk. Ingen huvudeffekt för empati och deltagarnas etnicitet fanns. Män uppvisade signifikant lägre empati än kvinnor. Inget av könen väckte signifikant mer empati. Vikten av upplevd likhet mellan målperson och empatisör diskuterades och vidare forskning med äldre deltagare föreslogs.

After the surge of Hakka movement in 1980s, Hakka identity has become a public issue. As the Commission of Hakka Affairs in every level of government was constructed and Hakka colleges were founded in several universities in the following years, the category of Hakka people has been institutionalized. But in the meantime, less and less young generation of Hakka people lost the proficiency of the Hakka dialect, which was widely seen as a crucial element of the Hakka identity. This thesis aims to explore how Hakka young generation built their ethnic identity under the paradoxical situation in which the rise of Hakka identify in the public domain has been interwoven with the loss of Hakka proficiency. The author focused on three Hakka groups, including the association of young Hakka in Meinon, the organizations of I-Min Temple (Temple of the Righteous) in Kaohsiung City, and a Hakka dialect classes held by Kaohsiung Municipal government. The author also interview with young Hakka who has no affiliation with any group. The research result found the following results. First, all of the interviewees unanimously refer patrimonial lineage as the criteria of Hakka membership. Second, different groups have different understandings of the contents of Hakka culture. The members in the association of Hakka younger generation in Meinon tend to connect the Hakka identity with local identity, while the interviewees of the organizations of I-Min Temple emphasize the religious practices. The members of the Hakka dialect classes are more responsive to the official version of Hakka identity. Those interviewees without affiliation do not have clear patter and Hakka identity is even not meaningful for many. The study shows that although the public version of Hakka identity emphasizes the diverse sources of identity, but the patrimonial lineage is perceived as the main criteria of Hakka identity. On the other hand, the official category of Hakka does not imply a unified understanding of Hakka ethnicity. This thesis shows the limitation of ¡§groupism¡¨ assumption of which ethnic categories are naturally identical with social groups and social practices. Students of Hakka studies should pay more attention to the complicated relationships between ethnic categories and practices.

This thesis utilizes a series of seven logistic regression models to examine the predictors of the likelihood of adoption among U.S. women based on the National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle 6. The individual characteristics that have been found most influential in determining adoption behavior in past studies were examined, including age at the time of the interview, parity, fecundity status, and socioeconomic status. A special focus was placed upon the relationship between the race and ethnicity of a woman and her adoption behavior, which has received limited attention in the adoption literature. The results of this analysis suggest that the main determinants of adoption are undergoing change. While findings on the relationship between a woman’s age and her likelihood of adoption are consistent with past research, the relationships of parity, marital status, fecundity status and socioeconomic status with adoption behavior each exhibit surprising developments. Additionally, the results of this analysis reveal that race and ethnicity are important variables in terms of the adoption behavior of U.S. women. The implications of these results, as well as the need for more comprehensive adoption data, are also discussed.

Social comparison theory offers a useful conceptual framework to understand how mainstream American sociocultural values of appearance may shape the development of body image disturbance and eating disorders. Some experimental research demonstrates that women report significantly greater increases in negative affect and body image disturbance and decreases in self-esteem after viewing thin models than after viewing inanimate objects, normal-weight models, and overweight women. The main goal of this study was to investigate whether the effects of viewing thin models are influenced by the ethnicity of the observer and/or the ethnic and racial similarity of the model to the observer. In addition, the study tested the extent to which social comparison tendency, trait appearance evaluation, ethnic identity, and racial identity may moderate these effects. In study 1, women rated the race, attractiveness, and thinness of a group of ethnically diverse models. Study 2 assessed affect, self-esteem, and body image in Euro-American (n = 105), African-American (n = 91), and Latina (n = 111) women before and after viewing ethnically self-similar models, self-different models, or control images. Results indicated that ethnic similarity between model and participants influenced affect such that increased social comparison tendency in Latina participants predicted increased negative affect after viewing Latina models. Additionally, the type of media images viewed and proposed moderators influenced affect and body image. As predicted, positive appearance evaluation was more strongly associated with positive feelings about one’s weight after viewing models and, in African-American and Latina women, increased idealization of Whiteness was associated with decreased positive feelings regarding one’s weight after viewing White models. Unexpectedly, increased social comparison tendency was associated with increased positive affect after viewing African-American models whereas increased social comparison tendency was associated with less positive affect after viewing Latina models. Finally, independent of media exposure, African-American women reported higher appearance-based self-esteem and body image than Euro-American and Latina women and increased social comparison tendency, decreased positive appearance evaluation, decreased ethnic identity, and increased racial identity idealizing Whiteness were each associated with undesirable levels of self-esteem and body image. Clinical implications and directions for future research are provided.

This study compared the treatment acceptability of four social skills interventions that are commonly used with children with autism, as rated by parents of children with autism spectrum disorders, general education teachers, and special education teachers. Using the survey method and the Treatment Evaluation Inventory-Short Form, ratings of the acceptability of social stories, cognitive-behavorial programs, peer-mediated interactions, and technological devices were explored. The influence of ethnicity of respondent, age of child, and problem severity on acceptability ratings was also investigated. Major findings were as follows: (a) all four of the social skills programs were viewed as acceptable interventions; (b) treatment acceptability ratings were not influenced by group membership, ethnicity (Caucasian/Non-Caucasian), child age, and problem severity; (c) peer-mediated interactions and cognitive-behavioral programs received the highest rankings, followed by social stories and technological devices; (d) significant associations were found between group membership and the overall rankings of cognitive-behavioral programs and technological devices. Study limitations and implications for intervention are also discussed.

In this study, I specify the reasons why racial minority undergraduate students choose to pursue higher education studies at historically White colleges/universities, despite the schools' potential for diversity controversies. Rather than looking at why students do not attend historically White institutions, I investigate what characteristics of both the educational institutions and the students contribute to students' decisions to stay at historically White institutions despite perceived hostile environments. I also examine students' experiences at historically White institutions, including attitudes toward diversity and any discrimination that they may experience. In doing so, this study adds a fresh yet central perspective to the complex issue of diversity: the opinions of students of color themselves. Doing so may lead to more positive answers and propositions for what administrations can do to increase the percentage of racial minority students. The study is a mixed-methods approach, including 17 semi-structured interviews with Latina/o students and a sample of 287 students who self-identify as racial minorities, including Latina/os, African Americans, and Asian Americans, at a historically White southern university. From these mixed-method results, the following themes were found: 1) The size of a hometown has a statistically significant effect on how often discrimination is experienced, 2) Self-identifying as Black has a statistically significant effect on how often discrimination is experienced, 3) Latina/o students choose to attend SCU because of university affordability, proximity to their home towns, and the university's academic reputation, 4) Latina/o students experience racial oppression at SCU because of the lack of campus diversity, direct racist acts toward themselves and friends, and they consider transferring to more diverse educational institutions, and 5) Latina/o students remain at SCU because they want to make a difference at the university for themselves and others, certain characteristics of the university are appealing, and because of professorial mentors.