Doctororal Dissertation Research: Transition Out of School and Into Young Adulthood: The Role of Neighborhoods in Education and Work Outcomes of Mexican American Youth

提案标题：博士论文研究：过渡出学校和进入年轻的成年人：邻里在教育和墨西哥裔美国青年的工作成果中的作用。主要研究者：玛丽沃茨，哈佛大学提案编号：0703221这项研究调查了第二代墨西哥裔青年的学校和工作前景和决定是如何被他们的邻里环境塑造的。它比较了洛杉矶两个同样处于不利地位的社区中17-22岁的青年/年轻成年男性，这两个社区的民族/种族构成和移民集中程度不同。一个主要是墨西哥和移民，另一个是黑人和墨西哥人的混合社区。 通过社区观察和对青年及其父母的反复深入访谈，本研究分析了这些高度贫困的背景如何影响青年的生活及其决策过程，因为他们过渡到成年和从学校到工作。 通过关注社会关系和调查其他邻里机制，认为有助于他们的学校和工作模式，这项研究桥梁宏观层面的论点如何邻里关系的问题与微观层面的论点如何社会关系，特别是美国出生的本土少数民族和移民，影响第二代的前景和结果有关的学校和工作在年轻的成年人。 从理论上讲，这项研究是进行发言的分割同化论文认为，移民的孩子更有可能经历“向下同化”的邻里背景下，大量的美国出生的少数民族，和一些研究的论点，移民集中可能会削弱贫困集中的影响。 本研究重新认识了关于移民和城市社会学的疏远的文献，试图阐明当代城市背景下的同化过程。 合并这些文献的必要性反映在对第二代人，特别是那些在市中心长大的人的前景越来越关注，以及需要了解新的城市环境，更多的移民和拉丁美洲人，如何促进或抑制流动性。 这项研究不仅与整个美国拉丁美洲人的增加有关，而且考虑到最近的趋势显示拉丁美洲男性在追求高等教育方面落后于女性同种族，对男性的关注尤为重要。这项研究将揭示男性青年对学校和工作的看法和决策过程，以及导致他们走向积极或消极方向的背景因素。因此，这项研究应吸引从业人员，如教育工作者或为这一高危人群服务的人，以及有兴趣了解城市环境的哪些方面可以改变以改善青年人的成果的决策者。

Proposal Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transition Out of School and Into Young Adulthood: The Role of Neighborhoods in Education and Work Outcomes of Mexican American Youth.Principal Investigator: Mary Waters, Harvard UniversityProposal Number: 0703221This study investigates how school and work outlooks and decisions of second-generation Mexican-origin youth are shaped by their neighborhood context. It compares youth/young adult males, ages 17-22, in two equally disadvantaged neighborhoods in Los Angeles that differ in their ethnic/racial composition and immigrant concentration. One is predominantly Mexican and immigrant and the other is a mixed Black and Mexican neighborhood. Through neighborhood observations and repeated in-depth interviews with youth and their parents, this study analyzes how these high poverty contexts matter in the lives of youth and their decision-making process as they transition into adulthood and from school to work. By focusing on social ties and investigating other neighborhood mechanisms believed to contribute to their school and work patterns, this study bridges macro-level arguments about how neighborhood matters with micro-level arguments about how social ties, particularly to US born native minorities and immigrants, influence second-generation outlooks and outcomes related to school and work in young adulthood. Theoretically, this study is conducted to speak to the segmented assimilation thesis which argues that children of immigrants are more at risk of experiencing "downward assimilation" in a neighborhood context with large numbers of US born minorities, and, the contention by some research that immigrant concentration may attenuate the effects of poverty concentration. This study reacquaints the estranged literatures on immigration and urban sociology by trying to shed light on the assimilation process in the contemporary urban context. The need to merge these literatures is reflected in the growing concern over the prospects of the second-generation, particularly those growing up in the inner-city, as well as, the need to understand how the new urban context, which is more immigrant and Latino, functions to promote or inhibit mobility. Not only is this study relevant given the increase of Latinos throughout the United States, but the focus on males is particularly crucial given recent trends showing Latino males are falling behind their female co-ethnics in pursuing higher education. This study will shed light on male youths' views and decision-making processes towards school and work and the contextual factors that lead them towards a positive or negative direction. As such, the study should appeal to practitioners, such as educators or those serving this at-risk population, and policy makers interested in understanding what aspects of the urban context may be changed to improve outcomes for youth.