Minority youth unemployment is an enduring economic and social concern. This book evaluates two new initiatives for minority high school students that seek to cultivate marketable job skills. The first is an after-school program that provides experiences similar to apprenticeships, and the second emphasizes new approaches to improving job interview performance. The evaluation research has several distinct strengths. It involves a randomized controlled trial, uncommon in assessments of this issue and age group. Marketable job skills are assessed through a mock job interview developed for this research and administered by experienced human resource professionals. Mixed methods are utilized, with qualitative data shedding light on what actually happens inside the programs, and a developmental science approach situating the findings in terms of adolescent development. Beneficial for policy makers and practitioners as well as scholars, Job Skills and Minority Youth focuses on identifying the most promising tactics and addressing likely implementation issues.

Minority youth unemployment is an enduring economic and social concern. This book evaluates two new initiatives for minority high school students that seek to cultivate marketable job skills. The first is an after-school program that provides experiences similar to apprenticeships, and the second emphasizes new approaches to improving job interview performance. The evaluation research has several distinct strengths. It involves a randomized controlled trial, uncommon in assessments of this issue and age group. Marketable job skills are assessed through a mock job interview developed for this research and administered by experienced human resource professionals. Mixed methods are utilized, with qualitative data shedding light on what actually happens inside the programs, and a developmental science approach situating the findings in terms of adolescent development. Beneficial for policy makers and practitioners as well as scholars, Job Skills and Minority Youth focuses on identifying the most promising tactics and addressing likely implementation issues.

Minority youth unemployment is an enduring economic and social concern. This book evaluates two new initiatives for minority high school students that seek to cultivate marketable job skills. The first is an after-school program that provides experiences similar to apprenticeships, and the second emphasizes new approaches to improving job interview performance. The evaluation research has several distinct strengths. It involves a randomized controlled trial, uncommon in assessments of this issue and age group. Marketable job skills are assessed through a mock job interview developed for this research and administered by experienced human resource professionals. Mixed methods are utilized, with qualitative data shedding light on what actually happens inside the programs, and a developmental science approach situating the findings in terms of adolescent development. Beneficial for policy makers and practitioners as well as scholars, Job Skills and Minority Youth focuses on identifying the most promising tactics and addressing likely implementation issues.

In Massachusetts, a 12-year-old girl delivering newspapers is killed when a car strikes her bicycle. In Los Angeles, a 14-year-old boy repeatedly falls asleep in class, exhausted from his evening job. Although children and adolescents may benefit from working, there may also be negative social effects and sometimes danger in their jobs. Protecting Youth at Work looks at what is known about work done by children and adolescents and the effects of that work on their physical and emotional health and social functioning. The committee recommends specific initiatives for legislators, regulators, researchers, and employers. This book provides historical perspective on working children and adolescents in America and explores the framework of child labor laws that govern that work. The committee presents a wide range of data and analysis on the scope of youth employment, factors that put children and adolescents at risk in the workplace, and the positive and negative effects of employment, including data on educational attainment and lifestyle choices. Protecting Youth at Work also includes discussions of special issues for minority and disadvantaged youth, young workers in agriculture, and children who work in family-owned businesses.

The persistent high level of unemployment among young people has become an issue of national concern. This study examines nationwide attitudes, practices, and policies of private employers toward hiring youth. A survey was conducted in 1981-82 among a random cross-sample of 535 private employers taken from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Employer Information Report list (EEO-1). The major findings and recommendations were as follows: (1) strategies are needed to facilitate young workers' moving into long-term, higher-paying occupations; (2) private industry should adopt more flexible guidelines to increase teenagers' securing full-time, entry-level positions; (3) advancement opportunities for young workers must increase, especially in service firms and medium-sized and large businesses; (4) most employers surveyed believe that young people perform as well as adults in most areas; (5) the number of private industry-initiated job programs for minority youth should increase; (6) employers need to be made more aware of government programs designed to increase employment opportunities for youth; (7) studies should be done to find out why nearly half of the employers surveyed do not think that a subminimum wage differential will increase young people's job opportunities; (8) employers' willingness to hire minority youths is based on their commitment to helping disadvantaged young people more than on the level of wage subsidy offered; (9) and teaching basic skills in school and skills training on the job must be emphasized to increase youth employability. A description of the EEO-1 list, the sampling plan, the questionnaire, 17 tables, and a 37-item bibliography are appended. (CJS)

In recent years, the earnings of young blacks have risen substantially relative to those of young whites, but their rates of joblessness have also risen to crisis levels. The papers in this volume, drawing on the results of a groundbreaking survey conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research, analyze the history, causes, and features of this crisis. The findings they report and conclusions they reach revise accepted explanations of black youth unemployment. The contributors identify primary determinants on both the demand and supply sides of the market and provide new information on important aspects of the problem, such as drug use, crime, economic incentives, and attitudes among the unemployed. Their studies reveal that, contrary to popular assumptions, no single factor is the predominant cause of black youth employment problems. They show, among other significant factors, that where female employment is high, black youth employment is low; that even in areas where there are many jobs, black youths get relatively few of them; that the perceived risks and rewards of crime affect decisions to work or to engage in illegal activity; and that churchgoing and aspirations affect the success of black youths in finding employment. Altogether, these papers illuminate a broad range of economic and social factors which must be understood by policymakers before the black youth employment crisis can be successfully addressed.

Explore the cultural, familial, and community resilience and protective factors that are available to different youth populations in the U.S.! The face of American youth is changing. In 2000, ethnic minority youth constituted one third of the adolescent population; by mid-century, the combined ethnic minority youth population will exceed the white adolescent population. This vital book illustrates the diversity within the adolescent population, examines the factors that serve as barriers and as facilitators to development, and identifies strengths and protective factors contributing to resilience as well as needs and risk factors. Social Work with Multicultural Youth presents accurate conceptual frameworks for understanding the experiences of ethnic youth to help you create culturally relevant interventions to promote their well-being. Here is a sample of what you'll find in this important and informative book: a comprehensive epidemiological profile of adolescent populations—with current data on issues that contribute to adolescents' health and well-being cultural strengths models and resilience models that meet the developmental needs of Latino and African-American youth an overview of the academic disparities between Latina adolescents and their cohorts in other ethnic groups an important chapter that employs conflict theory to place the disadvantaged status and position of African-American youth in its proper context specific recommendations for modifying the process of preparing Latino and African-American youth in foster care for emancipation information on factors that differentially impact academic achievement between African-American youth and their European-American cohorts real-world data about the “who” and “where” of adolescent fighting—identified by race/ethnicity, gender, and age new information about substance use in Asian/Pacific Islander populations in America, with important implications for substance abuse interventions resilience and protective factors that emerge from a qualitative study of seventh grade Latina adolescents a look at the differences in sexual behavior and attitudes between Latina adolescents born in the United States and those born outside the U.S. an evaluation of a unique, five-hour intensive intervention aimed at changing the knowledge and attitudes of Latino youth in regard to pregnancy and STDs