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

这个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为他们的教育愿望和未来目标获得社会支持。在这样做的过程中，这个项目提供了一个更好的理解支持性的做法，引导青少年走向他们可能是谁，和他们希望过的生活。除了为人类学研究生的经验，科学数据收集和分析方法的培训提供资金外，该项目还扩大了我们对拉丁美洲人/a/x社区，青年教育轨迹的科学知识，以及在不利条件下希望的人类能力。本研究亦会与项目所在社区分享研究结果，以确定和改善学校政策和社会支持措施。本研究透过采用混合方法收集数据，从多个持份者的角度，比较青少年在不同文化和人种的差异：1）青少年在其社会环境中如何获得社会支持（家庭、学校、社区）以及促进青年人这种经历的主体间性; 2）青少年在学校、家庭、和当地社区告知他们对未来可能性和机会的希望和方向。研究人员采用以人为本的访谈、参与者观察以及青少年版本的焦虑和抑郁筛查量表。数据将按主题进行编码和分析，以研究青少年的支持经验如何为未来的教育动机和愿望提供信息。在全球不平等日益加剧的时代，该项目的发现将为改进科学方法提供蓝图，以实现社会支持在希望研究中的作用，以及结构性暴力对生活经验的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.