Urban Girls, published in 1996, was one of the first volumes to showcase the lives of girls growing up in contexts of urban poverty and sometimes racism and violence. It spoke directly to young women who, often for the first time, were seeing their own stories and those of their friends explained in the materials they were asked to read. The volume has helped to shape the way in which we study girls and understand their development over the past decade. Urban Girls Revisited explores the diversity of urban adolescent girls' development and the sources of support and resilience that help them to build the foundations of strength that they need as they enter adulthood. Urban girls are frequently marginalized by poverty, ethnic discrimination, and stereotypes suggesting that they have deficits compared to their peers. In fact, urban girls do often“grow up fast,” taking on multiple adult roles and responsibilities in contexts of high levels of adversities. Yet a majority of these girls show remarkable strengths in the face of challenges, and their families and communities provide many assets to support their development. This new volume showcases these strengths. Contributors:Amy Alberts, Natasha Alexander, Murray Anderson, Elizabeth Banister, Cecilia Benoit, Kristen Boelcke-Stennes, Ana Mari Cauce, Elise D. Christiansen, Brianna Coffino, Catherine L. Costigan, Karin Coyle, Anita Davis, Jill Denner, Sumru Erkut, Kenyaatta Etchison, Michelle Fine, Yulika Forman, Emily Genao, Mikael Jansson, Chalene Lechuga, Stacey J. Lee, Richard M. Lerner, Nancy Lopez, Ann S. Masten, Jennifer McCormick, Jennifer Pastor, Erin Phelps, Leslie Prescott, Jean E. Rhodes, Ritch C. Savin-Williams, Anne Shaffer, Renee Spencer, Pamela R. Smith, Carl S. Taylor, Jill McLean Taylor, Virgil A. Taylor, Maria Elena Torre, Allison J. Tracy, Carmen N. Veloria, Martina C. Verba, and Janie Victoria Ward.

Contributors present a portrait of low-income, urban American adolescent girls based on fact rather than stereotype, aiming to fill the gap in research about adolescent girls. They explore girls' attitudes and alternatives in areas such as identity, family and peer relationships, sexuality, health, and career development, often allowing the girls to speak for themselves. For undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, sociology, economics, and women's studies, as well as policymakers. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This work serves to celebrate the strengths of women of color, identify unique opportunities, and examine the specific challenges and issues of this group. Psychological Health of Women of Color: Intersections, Challenges, and Opportunities is an anthology that examines core issues of women of color's emotional health and well-being. Organized by subject, the work comprises contributions from noted experts on the psychological health of women of color. The book analyzes the life stages of women of color: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. It serves to address the challenges women of color face in the forms of physical health, violence, substance abuse, psychopharmacology, and legal/forensic issues as well as to highlight diverse identity intersections and opportunities for women of color. The section on intersections of identity discusses the psychological health of lesbians of color, multiracial women, female immigrants of color, women with disabilities, and working mid-career women, while high achievers, leaders, mentors, athletes, artists, and spiritual individuals among women of color are addressed in the section on opportunities.

By 2040, more than 30 percent of students in the United States will be immigrants or the children of immigrants. What factors can help these young people thrive in school, despite the many obstacles they face? And how can school staff best support immigrant students’ academic and personal success? In Portraits of Promise, educators hear from the ultimate experts—successful newcomer students. Drawing on the students’ own stories, the book highlights the kinds of support and resources that help students engage positively with school culture, establish supportive peer networks, form strong bonds with teachers, manage competing expectations from home and school, and navigate the challenges of high-stakes testing and the college application process.

Introduces new conceptual frameworks for girls’ studies. Presenting cutting-edge research from transnational scholars and activists, Difficult Dialogues about Twenty-First-Century Girls introduces original methodologies and girl-centered program design to the field of girls’ studies. The editors pair progressive girls’ studies research on topics such as differential privilege, voice, cultural values, and access to material resources, with provocative questions in order to further the thinking about issues that are often marginalized or overlooked in feminist domains. In addition, the book serves as a manual for educators and activists, designed to promote critical discussions that are accessible and includes a final dialogue with contemporary scholars about their work and the current direction of the field.

In The Lived Experience of African American Women Mentors: Community Pedagogues, Wyletta Gamble-Lomax explores the lived experiences of six African American female mentors working with African American female youth. The works of philosophers Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Edward Casey are intertwined with the writings of Black feminist scholars such as Patricia Hill Collins and Audre Lorde, while Max van Manen guides the phenomenological process with pedagogical insights and reminders. Through individual conversations with each muse, the power in care and the importance of listening in mentoring relationships is uncovered as essential components. The significance of place, the complexities of Black femininity, and the benefits of genuine dialogue are all explored in ways that bring new understanding to African American female experiences and how they connect to today’s educational climate. This study concludes with phenomenological recommendations for educational stakeholders to pursue partnerships with school, family and community.

Teens in America’s inner cities grow up and construct identities amidst a landscape of relationships and violence, support and discrimination, games and gangs. In such contexts, local environments such as after-school programs may help youth to mediate between social stereotypes and daily experience, or provide space for them to consider themselves as contributing members of a community. Based on four years of field work with both the adolescent members and staff of an inner-city youth organization in a large Midwestern city, Pride in the Projects examines the construction of identity as it occurs within this local context, emphasizing the relationships within which identities are formed. Drawing on research in psychology, sociology, education, and race and gender studies, the volume highlights the inadequacies in current identity development theories, expanding our understanding of the lives of urban teens and the ways in which interpersonal connections serve as powerful contexts for self-construction. The adolescents’ stories illuminate how they find ways to discover who they are, and who they would like to be — in positive and healthy ways — in the face of very real obstacles. The book closes with implications for practice, alerting scholars, educators, practitioners, and concerned citizens of the positive developmental possibilities inherent in youth settings when we pay attention to the voices of youth.