Gender-based rejection sensitivity and academic self-silencing in women.

Building on prior work on rejection sensitivity, we propose a social-cognitive model of gender-based rejection sensitivity (Gender RS) to account for individual differences in how women perceive and cope with gender-based evaluative threats in competitive, historically male institutions. Study 1 develops a measure of Gender RS, defined as anxious expectations of gender-based rejection. Studies 2-5 support the central predictions of the model: Gender RS is associated with increased perceptions of gender-based threats and increased coping by self-silencing--responses that reinforce feelings of alienation and diminished motivation.

A method for evaluating research syntheses: The quality, conclusions, and consensus of 12 syntheses of the effects of after-school programs.

Like all forms of empirical inquiry, research syntheses can be carried out in ways that lead to more or less valid inferences about the phenomenon under study. This synthesis of syntheses (a) examined the methods employed in the syntheses of the effects of after-school programs (ASPs) and determined how closely they conformed to what is defined as best practice for research synthesis, (b) compared the inferences drawn from the ASP research literature by each synthesis with the inferences that plausibly could be made from the data they covered, and (c) determined the points of consistency across the syntheses with regard to both potentially valid and potentially invalid conclusions. It was found that the 12 syntheses used highly divergent methods, varying in problem definitions, search strategies, inclusion criteria for individual studies, and techniques for drawing conclusions about the cumulative evidence.

Parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement.

Early adolescence is often marked by changes in school context, family relationships, and developmental processes. In the context of these changes, academic performance often declines, while at the same time the long-term implications of academic performance increase. In promoting achievement across elementary and secondary school levels, the significant role of families, family-school relations, and parental involvement in education has been highlighted.

Developmental commentary: ecological perspectives on parental influences during adolescence.

Adolescence is marked by change and renegotiation in almost every arena -- biological, social, and cognitive development; identity development; changes in peer relations and friendships; a renegotiation of family relationships, especially the parent-adolescent relationship; and school transitions. Further, for African Americans, adolescence is also marked by the exploration of ethnic or racial identity, which is shaped by parents' ethnic socialization and interactions with an increasingly diverse peer group. This article provides a developmental, cultural, and contextual framework for understanding changes in parenting and parental influences vis-a-vis peers.