Doctoral Dissertation Research: Adolescent Experiences of Social Support in Educational Trajectories

这一博士论文研究项目调查了生活在重大社会挑战中的青少年如何经历对他们的教育抱负和未来目标的社会支持。通过这样做，这个项目提供了对支持性做法的更多了解，这些做法引导青少年走向他们可能成为的人，以及他们希望过的生活类型。除了资助对人类学研究生进行实证、科学数据收集和分析方法的培训外，该项目还扩大了我们对拉丁裔/a/x社区、青年教育轨迹以及人类在不利条件下抱有希望的能力的科学知识。这一研究项目的结果也将与该项目所在的社区分享，以确定和加强学校的政策和社会支持实践。通过使用混合的数据收集方法，该项目从跨文化和民族志的角度对多个利益相关者进行比较：1)青少年如何在其社会环境(家庭、学校、社区)中体验社会支持，以及促进青少年这种体验的主体间品质；2)青少年在各自的学校、家庭和当地社区中对社会支持的生活经历或缺乏的方式，告知他们对未来的可能性和机会的希望和取向。研究人员采用了以人为中心的访谈、参与者观察和青少年版的焦虑和抑郁筛查量表。将对数据进行主题编码和分析，以考察青少年的支持经历如何影响教育动机和对未来的渴望。在全球不平等日益加剧的时代，这个项目的发现将为改进科学方法提供蓝图，以改善社会支持在希望研究中的作用，以及结构性暴力对生活体验的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation research project investigates how adolescents living with significant social challenges experience social support for their educational aspirations and future goals. In so doing, this project provides a greater understanding of supportive practices that guide adolescents toward who they could be, and kinds of the lives they hope to lead. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, this project broadens our scientific knowledge of Latino/a/x communities, youth educational trajectories, and the human capacity for hope in adverse conditions. Findings from this research project will also be shared with the communities in which this project takes place, to identify and enhance school policies and social support practices.Through the use of mixed methods for data collection, this project cross-culturally and ethnographically compares from multiple stakeholders 1) how adolescents experience social support within their social environment (home, school, community) and the intersubjective qualities that facilitate this experience for youth; and 2) the ways adolescents’ lived experiences of social support, or lack thereof, in their respective schools, homes, and local communities inform their hopes and orientations toward future possibilities and opportunities. The researcher employs person-centered interviews, participant observation, and adolescent versions of anxiety and depression screening scales. Data will be thematically coded and analyzed to examine how adolescent experiences of support inform educational motivation and aspirations for the future. In a time of increasing global inequities, findings from this project will provide a blueprint for improved scientific approaches toward the role of social support in studies of hope, and of the impress of structural violence on lived experience.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.