The risk and protective variables for Latino students’ experience of depression, college adjustment, and drop-out intentions were examined. Perceived bicultural competence emerged as a protective factor, and cultural incongruity, negative perceptions of the university environment, and intragroup marginalization emerged as risk factors associated with these psychological and academic outcomes. Multiple regressions revealed cultural incongruity predicted depression and college adjustment, and bicultural competence predicted college adjustment and drop-out intentions when other variables were controlled.

OBJECTIVE:Financial strain may directly or indirectly (i.e., through perceived stress) impact students' psychological symptoms and academic and social integration, yet few studies have tested these relationships. The authors explored the mediating effect of perceived stress on the relationship between financial strain and 2 important outcomes: psychological symptomology and academic and social integration.PARTICIPANTS:Participants were 157 undergraduate students. Data were collected from December 2013 to March 2014.METHODS:Cross-sectional data collection conducted using online survey software.RESULTS:It was found that perceived stress mediated the relationship between financial strain and (a) psychological symptomology and (b) academic and social integration. Both models included first-generation status as a covariate.CONCLUSIONS:Results suggest that perceived stress is an important intervention target for reducing psychological symptoms and improving academic and social integration for undergraduate students. Implications for university health centers and mental health professionals include incorporating a public health model to minimize stress risk.

Numerous researchers have explored discipline practices in schools in the United States and have found racial disparities as well as the disproportionate use of exclusionary practices for students with disabilities. However, less attention has been paid to students with a subgroup of disabilities, including emotional disturbances, learning disabilities, and autism. We compared rates of suspension, expulsion, referral to law enforcement, and drop out among students with and without those particular disabilities within the Chicago Public Schools system to see if there were disparities. We hypothesized that students with these specified disabilities would experience higher rates of exclusionary discipline practices. We conducted a series of chisquare analyses using system-wide data and determined that students with these disabilities were suspended, expelled, referred to law enforcement, and dropped out at higher rates than those without disabilities. The magnitude of these disparities varied as a function of the specific disciplinary practice and the disability type. We provide suggestions for future research in addition to alternatives to exclusionary discipline.

In 2011, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology commissioned a presidential task force to document teaching criteria for model psychology teachers in undergraduate education. The resulting list of criteria reflects activities related to face-to-face course interaction and online teaching, training, and education; course design; implementation of learning experiences; and the assessment process. Specifically, the model encompasses six broad areas, namely training, instructional methods, assessment process, syllabi, content, and student evaluations of teaching. As a developmental tool, the model can serve as a self-guided course for self-assessment of educational practices and can help identify areas of potential development. It can prompt reflection about teaching strengths and weaknesses. The model can also be useful as a guiding structure for tenure and promotion.

Numerous researchers have investigated risk factors for adolescent antisocial behavior (ASB) using social learning theory. Less attention has been directed to how these factors interact across time and context. Using this framework as well as social contextual theory, we examined 1,196 respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to investigate the relations among parenting, peer, and community risk factors of youth ASB. We found that community violence exposure was a strong, direct predictor, and parental monitoring moderated the relation between community violence and ASB. Results suggested that social contextual theory provides a useful framework for predicting ASB.

Social justice education involves promoting critical awareness of social inequalities and developing skills that work against these inequalities. This article describes a general theoretical framework for social justice education, describes general strategies for facilitating students' social justice awareness and engagement, identifies challenges to social education, and highlights articles in the special issue that address these themes.

The author integrates research and theory to suggest that caring is an important dimension of effective college teaching. Despite the fact that students are acutely aware of whether their professors care about them, professors do not necessarily prioritize this aspect of teaching to the same extent. This article provides concrete suggestions about how professors can develop such rapport with their students, addresses common criticisms and concerns about professors expressing care, and offer avenues for future inquiry.

Service-learning can be used as a teaching tool to promote social justice, and its implementation can encourage both students’ personal development and social engagement. In this article, I illustrate how service-learning can help students become more self-aware, appreciative of diversity, and agents of social change. This process involves students reaching out to marginalized populations through community placements, reaching in through detailed reflection and introspection about their attitudes and experiences, and reaching around their communities through advocacy and activism to address social problems that are evident at field sites. I include supporting qualitative data that document how these experiences impacted students’ personal growth and civic participation.

any professors want to promote students’ critical thinking, foster self-examination, and facilitate civic engagement; however, these professors may be uncertain about how they can accomplish these objectives. The paradigm of transformative pedagogy (Mezirow and Associates 2000; Taylor 2000) can provide faculty with a useful theoretical perspective to guide their efforts. Descriptions of transformative pedagogy originated in the adult education literature. Mezirow (1991) argued that students experience personal and intellectual growth when they grapple with disorienting dilemmas because they examine their assumptions related to the contradictory information, seek out additional perspectives, and ultimately acquire new knowledge, attitudes, and skills in light of these reflections. Transformative learning also helps students examine their experiences in consideration of social issues and then take action to effect broader change (Cummins and Sayers 1997). In this article, I contribute to the literature on transformative pedagogy by describing how faculty members who teach online courses can use this approach effectively. Extending transformative pedagogy into the area of online instruction is critical because an increasing number of college faculty members supplement their face-to-face courses with an Internet component or teach entirely online (Young 2005). Moreover, online courses attract a greater number of students each year. In 2004, approximately 2.3 million students in the United States enrolled in a collegeor university-level online class (Allen and Seaman 2005). Professors may find it paradoxical that Internet courses are well suited to transformative pedagogy. However, online class discussions often seem more collegial and informal than those that occur in person and thereby challenge conventional notions of power and authority in the college classroom. This relatively egalitarian environment is appropriate for teaching approaches that critically examine societal patterns of power and dominance (McAuliffe and Lovell 2000). Also, students often feel a greater willingness to disclose information (e.g., personal experiences, beliefs) online, perhaps because of the level of anonymity afforded by the Internet. This sharing and sense of community are also important for transformative pedagogy M Abstract. Transformative pedagogy encourages students to critically examine their assumptions, grapple with social issues, and engage in social action. The author extends literature in this area by describing ways faculty members who teach online courses can effectively use transformative pedagogy, including (1) creating a safe environment; (2) encouraging students to think about their experiences, beliefs, and biases; (3) using teaching strategies that promote student engagement and participation; (4) posing real-world problems that address societal inequalities; and (5) helping students implement action-oriented solutions.