TOPIC NETWORKS
Topic Network Update: New Anti-Racism and Social Justice TN
The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have marked
2020 as the year when social injustices, inequities, white supremacy, and racism
can no longer be denied or ignored. The disproportionate deaths of Blacks and
other people of color due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis have underscored that
our society is founded on oppressive systems that lead to discrimination,
marginalization, repression, and death. For those of us who have studied these
issues and advocated on behalf of the communities that have been historically
subjected to - and harmed by - systemic injustice, we welcome all members of the
SSEA to join us in the fight for equity and social justice. As Chairs of this
newly created Anti-Racism and Social Justice Topic Network, we are thrilled to
help the SSEA launch this working group.
Our objective is to increase the awareness, knowledge and skill-set of the
membership on matters of race, social justice, and anti-racism. Specifically,
understanding the impact of white supremacy, systemic racism, and oppression on
both those who are privileged and those who are marginalized. One major goal as
it relates to the SSEA membership is to highlight the importance of cultural
competency - and cultural humility - of those who are working with emerging
adults. Cultural humility refers to recognizing our positionality in terms of
our personal identities and lived experiences (such as privilege) and how these
influence our perceptions and treatment of the communities with whom we
interact.
While we have ambitious aims, we also want to be realistic as to the objectives
we hope to achieve during our inaugural term. These objectives include the
following:
-Create a listserv to share news about meetings, webinars, and other relevant,
social
justice related events and tools
-Host a webinar on racism, social justice and emerging adulthood
-Organize a pre conference meeting for the 2021 Annual Meeting (hopefully we'll
all
meet in person in San Diego!)
-Develop a hub of relevant materials that can be shared group-wide
Via these activities, we hope to not only provide the membership with valuable
resources, but establish an open, nurturing community of scholars as well. We
understand that for some, speaking about white supremacy, racism, and the
oppressive systems that have been created to support these constructs is a very
uncomfortable endeavor. Further, we acknowledge that there might be a reticence
on behalf of some to engage in these dialectical exercises. We strongly
encourage everyone to embrace this discomfort - to push themselves to have
difficult conversations. We can do this together!
If you would like to join us in our fight for equity and social justice, and
you'd like to be part of the newly created Anti-Racism and Social Justice Topic
Network, please log into your membership portal and under your "Membership" tab,
click on "Group Participation" and check off the groups you'd like to be
involved in.
In solidarity,
Shirley Leyro, Ph.D., and Kameelah M. Mu'Min, Psy.D
Chair and Co-Chair, Anti-Racist and Social Justice Topic Network
Dr. Shirley Leyro is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Borough
of Manhattan Community College-CUNY (“BMCC”). She was awarded the 2020
Teaching Award by the American Society of Criminology's Division of People
of Color and Crime - the first time the award was given since 2016. A
critical criminologist, Dr. Leyro’s primary research focus is on immigration
enforcement and the effects of deportation on non-citizens and their
communities. In particular, she studies the impact of fear resulting from
the vulnerability to deportation. Her research interests include
immigration, deportation, social disorganization, crimmigration, and the
impact of all the above on mental health. Professor Leyro is currently
working on publishing the results from her (funded) research project
exploring the impact of deportability on belonging and membership of CUNY
noncitizen students (“CUNY Belonging Study”).
As a professor in the Criminal Justice Program at BMCC, Dr. Leyro has also
conducted scholarly research and published on the roles victimization and
contact with the criminal justice system plays as motivations for becoming a
criminal justice major and choosing criminal justice as a career. She has a
blog: The Accidental Académica: A Blog About This Latinx’s Struggles as I
Navigate the Halls of the Ivory Tower, and is also a member of the
Leadership Team for the Latina Researchers Network. Dr. Leyro is a certified
Mental Health First Aid instructor and is also part of the social media
campaign: #thisiswhataprofessorlookslike. She is a co-editor of the book,
“Outside Justice: Immigration and the Criminalizing Impact of Changing
Policy and Practice.”
Kameelah Mu’Min Rashad, PsyD, is the Founder and President of Muslim Wellness Foundation (MWF), which promotes healing and emotional well-being in the American Muslim community through dialogue, education and training; through it, she established the annual Black Muslim Psychology Conference and the Deeply Rooted Emerging Leaders Fellowship for Black Muslim young adults. She is the founding co-Director of the National Black Muslim COVID Coalition, an initiative launched in collaboration with Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative to address need for effective planning, preparedness and organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Rashad, who previously served as University of Pennsylvania’s Muslim chaplain, now serves as the Fellow for Spirituality, Wellness and Social Justice and advises the Black Muslim student organization. Dr. Rashad’s clinical and research areas of interest include: diversity, religious identity and multicultural issues in counseling, healing justice and faith based activism, racial trauma and healing, psychological impact of anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Blackness, and Black Muslim intersectional invisibility. Dr. Rashad earned her BA and MEd from the University of Pennsylvania, MRP in Restorative Practices & Youth Counseling from the International Institute for Restorative Practices, and earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA.
Topic Network Research Summary: Aging Out of Care
The Aging Out of Care Topic Network (TN) provides a community of support for scholars, researchers, practitioners, and advocates investigating and promoting best practice for youth aging out of foster care. During the past year, our TN grew from just 4 members to 24 members, half of whom joined after the October 2015 SSEA Conference. We want to extend thanks to all of the TN members who presented at the 2015 SSEA Conference and joined together to strategize the purpose and functionality of our group moving forward. One of the outcomes of this that we are especially excited to share is that older youth in care and those formerly in care are welcome to join the TN! If you are interested in finding out more about our TN or would like to join, please email the TN co-chair, Allison Thompson (thompa@sp2.upenn.edu).
During the SSEA Conference in October, members of our TN gathered for an
interactive discussion panel designed to facilitate dialogue around the role of
social support for EAs transitioning out of foster care. Panelist Johanna
Greeson from the University of Pennsylvania presented her work related to Caring
Adults ‘R’ Everywhere (C.A.R.E.), a novel intervention designed to support
naturally occurring mentoring relationships among aging out youth (see
https://vimeo.com/115837436). Panelist
Varda Mann-Feder from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada discussed her
recent research, which sheds light on the importance of and challenges
associated with securing and fostering peer relationships for young people in
care.
In addition to the panelists, Steve Rios, from Rios Research & Evaluation,
shared about his collaborative research with Educate Tomorrow, a specialized
mentoring program headquartered in Miami, FL that supports young people with
histories of foster care in successfully attaining their educational goals.
Emerging adults from Educate Tomorrow participated in several of the SSEA
Conference sessions and met with conference presenters and participants.
Following these rich interactions between the youth from Educate Tomorrow and
the members of our TN, as well as in response to the field’s charge to involve
EAs as our partners, co-researchers, or as consultants (Forenza & Happonen,
2015) , we invited several emerging adults who are foster care alumni to join
our TN. Engaging these young people as part of the TN provides a forum for
authentic EA involvement, input, and support so that we can continue to better
understand and work to improve factors related to the well-being of former
foster youth.
This past fall also marked the release of the 2016 Oxford Handbook of
Emerging Adulthood, which includes a chapter entitled, “Aging Out of Care
During Emerging Adulthood.” The chapter describes the challenges that a
vulnerable subpopulation of emerging adults across continents encounter when
they are forced to exit foster care and adopt adult roles and responsibilities
without the family support afforded to the majority of their non-foster peers.
The chapter describes the approaches of various countries in attempting to
address this social problem, highlighting research and practice recommendations
aimed at promoting better social support networks and relationships with caring
adults for youth in and aging out of foster care.
*Forenza, B., & Happonen, R.G. (2015). A critical analysis of foster youth advisory boards in the United States. Child & Youth Care Forum. DOI: 10.1007/s10566-015-9321-2
October, 2015 Latin America
This month is the second installment of our spotlight on the Topic Networks,
in which we showcase the activities of specific TNs. This month, the focus is on
Latin America.
Chair: Alicia Facio, Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos (Argentina)
Co-Chair: Luciana Dutra-Thomé, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
(Brazil)
The Topic Network (TN) on Latin America aims to build a more integrated and
consistent picture of the phenomenon of emerging adulthood in Latin America. We
invite all scholars to join us in our meeting during the SSEA Conference, open
to all colleagues who are studying emerging adulthood in Latin America. If you
are interested, send an e-mail to
luciana.thome@ufrgs.br. The goal of the meeting is to plan future activities
and publications together.
Currently, our TN counts on 16 members from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and United States. The plurality of countries and thematic within the TN on Latin America are challenging and exciting. Challenging because we still have a lack of investigations with representative samples in different countries within Latin America, and we are working hard to gather data on this topic. It is exciting because we enrich the possibility of not just exchanging with members of our TN, but also share ideas with other TNs of SSEA, such as Work and Career, Prevention and Intervention, Study Abroad, and Romantic Relationships.
Our current themes of investigation are:
• Love relationships, residential status, and with the Five-factor Model of
Personality in emerging adults (Argentina)
• Socioeconomic status, Social skills, Protective and Risk factors, Future
Goals, and Friendship (Brazil)
• Migration (Mexico)
Upcoming book in 2016: Luciana Dutra-Thomé, Susana Nuñez,
Anderson Siqueira-Pereira and Silvia Helena Koller are organizing a book about
emerging adulthood in Brazil. We count on investigations in both urban and rural
areas, and we access the reality of medium high and low income emerging adults
living in protected or vulnerable conditions. We consider important bringing
this contextualization, taking into account that emerging adulthood is a
non-universal phenomenon, affected by the variability within and between
countries.
SSEA Conference 2015: members of our TN will present one
symposium and four posters about emerging adulthood in Brazil, more specifically
about Socioeconomic status, Social skills, Protective and Risk factors, Future
Goals, and Friendship. We will also present two open papers Argentineans
emerging adults about Change and Stability in Global and Domain-specific
Self-evaluations and the Five-factor Model of Personality.
We definitely expect to expand the study of emerging adulthood in Latin America
and share our results with the scientific community. We count on you!
July, 2015 Work and Career
This month is the first installment of a spotlight on the Topic Networks.
Each newsletter, we will showcase the activities of a Topic Network, beginning
this month with the Work and Career TN.
The Work and Career TN is a diverse international group of academics,
professionals, and practitioners who are interested in emerging adult work and
educational experiences and in the multiple transitions related to these
important choices. The Network Chair is Anne Marshall, Professor of Counseling
Psychology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Co-Chair
is Tammy Halstead, Director of Alumni Advising and Development at Franklin and
Marshall College in Pennsylvania, USA. Tammy’s dissertation study is featured
below. Check out our blog and join us!
TN members are presenting symposia, papers, and posters at the Miami conference,
for example the international Road to Happiness symposium chaired by Jennifer
Symonds that is focused on career transitions of emerging adults in Finland and
England. It queries how their mental health, life satisfaction and work
engagement are related to experiences of studying, training, working, being
unemployed or taking a gap year, and to previous school factors. Researchers
from Finland, Germany, the US and Australia applied theories of lifespan
control, stage-environment fit and job demands and resources.
Last year, TN Co-Chair Tammy Halsted defended her dissertation, entitled, “An
exploration of career transition self-efficacy in emerging adult college
graduates.” (The full text is available at
https://dspace.iup.edu/handle/2069/2297!) Tammy’s mixed-method study sought
to better understand the college to career transition experience of emerging
adults and to explore the relationship between perceived adulthood and career
transition self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an important factor in college
transition because it has been shown to be a predictor of workforce success.
Participants were 1,252 emerging adult college graduates, aged 18 - 29 at the
time of graduation, who completed undergraduate degrees at one of four public or
private colleges and universities in Pennsylvania. Participants completed the
Career Transition Preparedness Scale. This measure’s Self-Efficacy sub-scale
includes items related to Navigating Work Responsibilities, Developing a Support
Network, Progressing in a Chosen Career Path, and Understanding Workplace
Culture. A Perceived Adulthood sub-scale includes items such as “Do you feel
like you have reached adulthood?” and “Do you feel like you have a clear concept
of your personal identity?” Ten participants were also interviewed in depth
about their college to career transition experience.
Significant predictors of higher career transition self-efficacy included
reported feelings of “being adult” and attendance at a public (compared to
private) college or university. In addition, starting college at a later age was
suggested to have a positive impact on the transition from college to career.
Analysis also yielded specific suggestions for how colleges and universities can
support graduates through the transition process: encouraging mindful
interactions between faculty/staff and students, having more internship,
externship, and career training program options in the curriculum, utilizing
self-efficacy assessments to identify students and graduates in need of
additional support, and providing specific information about job titles and
career requirements.
Other recent articles of interest include the following:
Cox, G. R., et al. (2014). Practical considerations community context in a
declining rural economy and emerging adults’ educational and occupational
aspirations. Emerging Adulthood, 2(3), 173-183. Qualitative interviews and
survey data show that social and familial connections, attachment to place, and
economic environment are linked to rural EA educational and occupational
experiences and aspirations.
Fan, W., et al. (2014). Contributions of family factors to career readiness: A
cross‐cultural comparison. The Career Development Quarterly, 62(3), 194-209. An
examination of perceived family intrusiveness to career decision-making
difficulties among Hong Kong and US students.
Konstam, V., et al. (2015). Career adaptability and subjective well-being in
unemployed emerging adults. A promising and cautionary tale. Journal of Career
Development, 1-15. Unemployed EA emerging adults with higher levels of control
and confidence had higher life satisfaction.
Olson, J. S. (2014). Opportunities, obstacles, and options: First-generation
college graduates and social cognitive career theory. Journal of Career
Development, 41(3), 199-217. SCCT considers the influence of contextual supports
and barriers relating to the ongoing career development of FGC students after
they graduate.
Seiffge-Krenke, I., et al. (2014). Work and love during emerging adulthood.
Introduction to the special issue. Emerging Adulthood, 2(1), 3-5. This special
issue includes five studies examining work and love transitions simultaneously
using longitudinal designs.
