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

本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。通过这样做，这个项目提供了一个更好的理解支持性做法，引导青少年走向他们可能成为的人，以及他们希望过的那种生活。除了提供资金培训一名人类学研究生，学习经验、科学数据收集和分析的方法外，该项目还拓宽了我们在拉丁裔/非裔/非裔社区、青年教育轨迹以及人类在不利条件下寻求希望的能力方面的科学知识。该研究项目的研究结果也将与项目所在的社区分享，以确定和加强学校政策和社会支持实践。通过使用混合方法收集数据，本项目跨文化和民族志比较来自多个利益相关者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性品质；2)青少年在各自的学校、家庭和当地社区中获得或缺乏社会支持的生活经历，会影响他们对未来可能性和机会的希望和取向。研究人员采用以人为中心的访谈，参与者观察，和青少年版本的焦虑和抑郁筛选量表。数据将按主题进行编码和分析，以研究青少年获得支持的经历如何影响教育动机和对未来的期望。在全球不平等日益加剧的时代，该项目的研究结果将为改进科学方法提供蓝图，以研究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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.