SIGNIFICANCEHopefulness MattersHope involves “the anticipation of a future which is good, based on mutuality, a sense of personal competence, coping ability, psychological well-being, purpose and meaning in life, and a sense of the possible” (Miller & Powers, 1988, p. 6); Hope can also be understood as the emotional and cognitive fuel to initiate movement towards one’s goals and to sustain that movement (Stoddard et. al 2011; Callina et al, 2014).

While researchers hypothesize that the foundations of hope are established early in life through foundational relationships with caregivers, the true psychological emergence of hope does not occur until adolescence when the capacity for “a nuanced sense of past, present, and future” is developed and refined (Stoddard et al, 2011, p. 279). A hopeful future orientation is particularly significant for adolescents, as they are beginning to exercise their emergent future-oriented cognition to identify goals and make decisions that shape their academics, career, and interpersonal prospects (Nurmi, 1991). The emergence of future thinking plays a vital role in identity development through “the exploration and commitment to future-oriented interests” (Nurmi, 1991). Hopeful thinking empowers youth to identify and move towards positive personal and community goals. Hopeful youth are more likely to translate these goals into action by excelling academically (Valle et. al, 2006) and contributing to their communities in positive ways (Callina et al. 2014). Hopeful youth simultaneously benefit from indicators of psychological health including greater self-esteem, generalized life satisfaction, and adaptive coping that is activated in the face of significant stress and adversity (Valle et al, 2006). For urban, African-American youth living in Detroit, factors of persistent poverty, institutionalized racism, neighborhood violence, and poor economic prospects can severely compromise the sense that a personal tomorrow exists and restrict the development of hope (Lorion & Saltzman, 1993; Reece & Rogers, 2008). Due to the wide-reaching benefits of hopefulness and the particular capacity for hope to buffer adolescents from significant stressors, it is vital to understand how we may encourage and sustain the psychological resource of hope for urban, African American adolescents living in Detroit. It is a mistake, however, to conceptualize hope as a static trait inherent in the adolescent. Rather, hope is developed in concert with the adolescent’s environment through interactions with diverse ecological contexts (Stoddard et al. 2011; Callina et al. 2014) and is dynamic and changeable during adolescence (Valle et al. 2006; Hinds, 1988). Adolescent hopefulness can therefore be understood as a trajectory that is shaped by environments, relationships and significant experiences. This trajectory provides important opportunities for intervention, particularly during early adolescence when the capacity for future thinking is first emerging. While a significant body of research documents the positive benefits associated with hopefulness (Valle et al. 2006; Snyder et al. 1997, Callina et al, 2014), few researchers have examined the specific environmental contextual factors that explain variation in hopefulness (Callina et al, 2014). What research exists has investigated the influence of family relationships and neighborhood conditions on trajectories of hopelessness (Stoddard et al. 2011). In contrast, the potentially rich roles of school environments and teacher-student relationships in shaping adolescent trajectories of hopefulness have been left largely unexamined. School environments are socializing forces; youth spend significant time at school and form influential relationships with teachers. The degree to which students bond with their school and teachers has been shown to affect a broad array of positive outcomes, including academic success and buffering from neighborhood poverty and violence (Fite, Rubens, & Cooley, 2014; Goodenow, 1993, Hanneke et al. 2012). These findings point to the potential role of school level variables in bolstering adolescent hopefulness. To extend previous research, the proposed study will

1

examine the role of interpersonal relationships between students and teachers as predictors of hopefulness. It is particularly critical to assess how strengthening student teacher relationships and providing teacher-driven instructional support for student motivation may predict motivational style and trajectories of hopefulness.

Self Determination Theory, Academic Motivation and Hypothesized Links to HopefulnessSelf-Determination Theory (SDT) posits that students have an innate curiosity, love of learning, and a fundamental drive to master new skills (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The degree to which this inherent, adaptive motivation flourishes in school settings depends on school-level supports for three basic motivational resources: autonomy, competence and relatedness; that is, in order to experience adaptive intrinsic motivation, students must perceive that their learning is volitional and self-authored (Ryan & Deci, 2000), that they are capable of overcoming challenges and achieving tasks (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009), and that school personnel are trustworthy, caring and understanding (Reeve & Jang, 2006).

When student motivational resources of autonomy, competence and relatedness are cultivated in concert with classroom contexts, students exhibit an intrinsic motivational style characterized by enjoyment of the learning process itself (Reeve, Nix, & Hamm, 2003; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation is turn associated with an impressive array of academic and psychological benefits including deeper information processing (Grolnick & Ryan,1987), higher conceptual learning scores (Benware & Deci, 1984) psychological well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Burton et al. 2006) enhanced perceived self-worth, cognitive competence, and motivational mastery (Ryan & Grolnick, 1986).

We hypothesize that an intervention providing classroom supports for autonomy, competence, and relatedness will similarly bolster youth hopefulness and this change will be mediated by increased intrinsic motivation. When intrinsic motivation flourishes in the classroom, students have opportunities for meaningful exploration of their unique goals and personal purpose. We expect that opportunities to practice mobilizing internal and external resources towards a meaningful, self-articulated purpose in a supportive environment will enhance well-being and the sense that environment is trustworthy, goals are achievable, and a hopeful future is possible.

SDT Interventions & The Urban School ContextSDT posits a dialectical relationship between academic motivation and student context: when classroom activities and resources work in concert with student motivational resources, a positive synergy occurs that contributes to enhanced student psychological functioning and adaptive motivation (Reeve & Jang, 2006; Hanneke et al. 2012; Ryan & Deci, 2000). In contrast, highly controlling, restrictive environments can impede autonomous engagement and disrupt positive synergy, resulting in diminished academic performance, lack of engagement and maladaptive, extrinsic forms of motivation (Reeve & Jang, 2006, p. 226).

Recognition of this fundamental dialectical relationship has spurred an array of school-level, classroom context interventions to promote student autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Reeve & Jang, 2006; Ryan & Deci, 2000;Hanneke et. al, 2012). Yet SDT interventions to encourage intrinsic motivation in urban, classroom settings serving students of color remain underexplored (Grolnick et al. 2007). This gap in practice is worrisome as urban school environments are particularly susceptible to undermining student autonomy, competence and relatedness, at the detriment of student motivation and wellbeing. A confluence of controlling environments, top-down discipline, rote work, and a heightened emphasis on testing in urban public schools minimizes opportunities for student-authored learning, limits higher order thinking

2

(Means & Knapp, 1991), and trains students to respond to extrinsic sources of punishment and reward (Haberman, 2010; Niemiec & Ryan, 2009). The denial of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness that underlie healthy, adaptive motivation in urban schools is broadly associated with diminished academic performance and psychological distress (Hanneke, Nuland, Taris, Boekaerts, & Martens, 2012; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Significant threats to adaptive motivation in high-poverty urban public schools highlight the urgent need for context-driven interventions that can encourage adaptive intrinsic motivation to flourish. We hypothesize that such interventions may in turn establish the psychological and environmental conditions for hopefulness to take root.

Relatedness Matters in Urban School Contexts: New Directions for SDT interventionsExisting SDT interventions underscore the primacy of the teacher-student relationship in encouraging the expression of adaptive, intrinsic motivation. Teachers play a vital role in ensuring a dynamic alignment of classroom learning resources and students’ motivational resources (Reeve & Jang, 2006). A balance of a structured agenda and tailoring to address students’ autonomous interests encourages intrinsic motivation to flourish. Teacher-context intervention strategies are direly needed in urban school settings to promote the expression of adaptive intrinsic motivation. These interventions require a high degree of teacher attunement to student needs, yet teacher-student relatedness is often undermined in urban public schools by the over-privileging of middle class values and inattention to the social capital that urban students possess (Lareau, 2015).

Social capital is defined as “values, beliefs and expectations that are maintained and transmitted within a group by social structures’” (Vorhaus, 2014, p. 30). One form of social capital is cultural knowledge, or the “facts, information, skills, and familiarity with social processes” necessary to navigate social institutions, such as schools, appropriately” (Lareau, 2015). In urban public school settings such as Detroit, there is high risk for cultural disconnects between students and teachers. Teachers approach the school setting with biases as to what constitutes appropriate behavior and student advocacy, while students and their families approach learning and advocacy in personal ways (Lareau, 2015). People from different social networks are socialized according their backgrounds. For example, a white teacher from a middle class background is likely to have a different set of rules to guide their in-school interactions than urban, low-income African-American youth (Lareau, 2015). Because of the segregation and poverty in urban areas, students often suffer from a dearth of social capital and cultural knowledge that are necessary to successfully navigate school-settings in ways that teachers and administrators expect and reward (Lareau & Weininger, 2003; Vorhaus, 2014). Cultural disconnects can undermine student-teacher relatedness and thwart a positive synergy of student motivational resources and classroom context. Bridges between teacher values and expectations and student values must be built.

Social capital, with its emphasis on the methods for starting and maintaining social relationships, is a key link needed in urban classroom settings (Lareau, 2015). Social capital extends into established institutions like schools, revealing a deeper rigidity of expectations cultivated by middle-class values than teachers may be consciously aware of (Lareau & Weininger, 2003). Low-income and minority students are often stifled by the unknown or opaque ‘rules’ of educational settings, as most of these settings were not created to help them flourish (Farkas et al., 1990). Students can be shaken by feelings of being trapped in a system that cannot and does not want to understand them, thus lowering their motivation for academic success and their outlook for a hopeful life that formal education can facilitate (Gehrke, 2005).

3

An SDT intervention supplemented by social capital theory components is therefore needed to address the unique relatedness challenges facing teacher-student relationships in urban school settings. Prior research has indicated that trusting familial relationships are key predictors of hopefulness. We hypothesize that providing a teacher-context intervention to increase key forms of social capital in forms of bridging cultural knowledge and values will increase students’ intrinsic motivation and this change will be mediated by enhanced relatedness between students and teachers.

INNOVATION

This research endeavor adopts a unique, strengths-based approach to enhancing the learning experiences of urban African American youth. While some studies have examined variation in hopelessness (Stoddard et al. 2011; Bolland, Lian, & Formichella, 2005), few researchers have explored the possibility of facilitating youth hopefulness by increasing a multitude of motivational and relational supports for youth in the education setting. We aim to build on the collective strengths and assets of the school community as a whole, rather than focusing exclusively on ameliorating risk factors in students. Our program emphasizes shifting the ideology of school community actors from using authority to using support as the primary mode of engagement and motivational development of students.

SDT interventions to enhance intrinsic motivation for urban African American populations are understudied and underutilized (Grolnick et al. 2007). The use of social capital theory in tandem with SDT is a novel approach for addressing the specific relational needs of this at-risk population. SDT theory ensures that student learning is an empowering experience by encouraging student engagement with the learning process and minimizing controlling environments that thwart intrinsic motivation. Social capital theory in turn allows for a collaborative approach that embraces differences and diversity and builds strong relationships between educators and youth in need (Gehrke, 2005). This intervention will expand our knowledge of effective SDT-based interventions for this underserved and understudied population.

While social capital has been explored in a variety of ethnographic studies (Lareau, 1993; Lareau, 2015), few studies have used social capital as a leveraging point for an experimental intervention. Social capital theory, with a focus on cultural knowledge, has been theoretically examined as a means to address gaps in understanding between urban students and teachers, yet there is little evidence for the quantitative implications of applying social capital theory to a classroom intervention (Lareau, 2015). By using quantitative measures that elicit student voice, our study highlights student perspectives within their specific classroom environments (Corbett & Wilson, 2002). Our program emphasizes the importance of students’ needs, voices, and circumstances.

Our research approach recognizes that teacher classroom behaviors are critically influenced by contextual and administrative factors. We will facilitate our intervention in schools where administrators are vocally supportive of promoting strong relationships between teachers and students, especially related to autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The inclusion of schools with expressed support from administration is a unique contribution to school SDT interventions.

Finally, we expect this study to fill a gap in the literature by furthering our understanding of the roles of teacher-student relationships and motivational supports in explaining variability in hopefulness. The results of the study will provide insight into establishing evidence-based

4

interventions that maximize the psychological resource of hopefulness in African American adolescents attending public schools in Detroit. The results of these findings may inform policy and practice interventions.

APPROACH

Conceptual Model

Our conceptual model illustrates a comprehensive approach to engaging the role of the school setting in increasing hopefulness among urban, African American adolescents. Our intervention is informed by Social Determination Theory and targets increasing teacher-context support to engage three fundamental student motivational resources: autonomy, competence and relatedness. We expect that enhancing these motivational resources will mediate an increase in the expression of adaptive intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000). We further hypothesize that increasing student preference for intrinsic motivation will mediate a positive effect on trajectories of hopefulness among urban, African American adolescents attending 9th grade in DPS.

The intervention is infused with a social capital theory to enhance culturally congruent supports for teacher-student relatedness in high poverty, urban public schools. Social Capital, including cultural knowledge and cultural capital, is hypothesized to directly influence relatedness in a positive direction and indirectly affect intrinsic motivation, mediated through enhanced student-teacher relatedness. We hypothesize that the reflective activities encouraging positive, understanding relationships with students and the contextualization of the broader community and teachers’ roles will cause a cascade of positive influences on youth autonomy, competence and relatedness so that intrinsic motivation and trajectories of hopefulness are increased.

Figure 1. Conceptual model of Connections, a Social Capital & SDT based Intervention in Urban Schools

5

Intervention Condition:

While the proposed intervention will assess outcomes for 9th grade students, intervention components will be delivered exclusively to 9th grade teachers. All 9th grade teachers at schools assigned to the intervention will engage in 11 one and one half hour interactive group trainings to be held on school grounds after school hours. Seasoned teacher and administrator teams will co-lead group trainings to enhance credibility, while instructional methodologies will emphasize experiential learning to promote teacher engagement. Teachers will first participate in modules informed by social capital theory to encourage foundational relatedness and promote the success of an SDT intervention in an urban school setting. Subsequent SDT-informed trainings will empower teachers with the theoretical understanding, practical skills, and tools necessary to align instructional practices and classroom resources with the three core student motivational resources: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Relatedness sessions will be informed by Social Capital Theory and include workshops that use consciousness raising activities to explore Detroit contextual history, personal biases and socializations, and thematic analysis of personal and collective experiences in the school context. A total of 3 expandable modules will be offered to build social capital supports for relatedness: 1) Self Awareness and Self Reflection: Encouraging teachers to reflect on their lives and personal biases, expectations and beliefs about urban students and schools, for example, the idea that most schools operate from a middle class set of values, differing from low-income student values; 2) Building Community Knowledge: Upon thematic analysis of issues that African American youth face in Detroit, teachers will engage in research activities about the history and current plight of Detroit in context; 3) Are we listening to our students?: Teachers will reflect on what effective engagement in the classroom has looked and felt like, incorporating self-reflection on student voices and experiences (Gehrke, 2005; Corbett & Wilson, 2002; Willard-Holt, 2002; Heard 2011).

SDT-driven sessions are informed by best practices for school-level SDT interventions (Grolnick, Farkas, Sohmer, Michaels, & Valsiner, 2007; Reeve & Jang, 2006) and will incorporate the following eight modules: 1) Relationship is Foundational: Developing autonomy-supportive student-teacher relationships through the practices of attunement, relatedness, supportiveness, and gentle discipline 2) Understanding Student Motivational Resources: Recognizing the three core motivational resources innate to students that underlie intrinsic motivation, well-being and academic success 3) Synergy Matters: Aligning classroom lessons and learning materials with demonstrated student interests and learning goals 4) Autonomy Supports & Autonomy Thwarts: Identifying instructional behaviors that bolster autonomy and those that undermine autonomy 5) Structure Versus Control: Differentiating structure from control and understanding their relative effects on student autonomy, competence and motivation 6) Autonomy in Structure: Understanding the positive synergistic relationship between classroom structure and autonomy and engaging strategies to introduce autonomy supports into structured classroom agendas 7) Re-Thinking Discipline: Responding Versus Reacting to Negative Affect: Adapting lessons and explaining practical rationales for tasks rather than exerting control 8) Rethinking Evaluation: Providing informational and affirming feedback to enhance student competence (Reeve & Jang, 2006). In summary, group training modules will provide a supportive context for teachers to learn through active participation in role-plays, group discussion, diagnostic self-assessments, short and long-term goal setting, and hands-on exercises integrating SDT best practices into existing structured lesson plans.

In addition to group training sessions, each teacher will match with a trained peer leader teacher for bi-weekly, one-to-one coaching sessions for 6 months: participating in a total of 12 sessions.

6

These sessions will occur in a simultaneous, parallel process with group trainings and provide meaningful support and troubleshooting to translate theory to practice. Twice monthly one-to-one coaching sessions will facilitate integration of training concepts in the classroom while promoting enduring, active engagement with training concepts.

Community Comparison Condition:

Standard care will be offered to schools allocated to the community control conditions. These schools will receive standard district teaching methodologies.

Research Design

The proposed study design features a 2 (condition) X 4 (time point) random comparison group design with random allocation of Detroit Public Schools meeting inclusion criteria to 2 conditions: 1) Experimental Intervention for Student Autonomy, Competence & Relatedness informed by SDT and Social Capital Theories and 2) Standard Care/Standard Instruction Comparison Group.

01 X 02 03 04

R

05 06 07 08

While the intervention will be delivered to teachers, outcome measures will be assessed for ninth grade students. Adolescent trajectories of hopefulness are dynamic and subject to developmental changes over time (Valle et al, 2006). We will therefore include a comparison group and 4 repeated measurement to examine hopefulness trends over time while controlling for maturation and history threats. The design addresses selection threats through a multi-site control group determined through random assignment. Intervention and control schools will be distinct to prevent cross-group contamination and compensatory rivalry or resignation.

In year 1, 3 schools will be randomly assigned to the experimental condition and 3 schools will be assigned as community controls. In year 2, a total of 6 additional schools will be assigned (3 to each respective condition) to provide sufficient power to detect intervention effects.

Sample

We will draw our sample from Detroit Public Schools listed on the DPS website that agree to participate and meet criteria for inclusion. An intervention to enhance teacher student relationships and build teacher-context supports for student motivation are only viable in administrative environments that are supportive of autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Roth, Assar Kanat-Maymon, & Kaplan, 2007; Pelletier, Séguin-Lévesque, & Legault, 2002). We will therefore administer a telephone screening to school principals to assess their levels of support for teacher and student autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Schools with principals scoring above a predetermined threshold of supportive attitudes will be eligible for inclusion. Schools must additionally meet the following criteria for inclusion: at least 75% of the student body are eligible to receive free and reduced lunch, a minimum of 80% of the study body are African American, and a minimum of 100 incoming ninth grade students are enrolled. Charter schools, private schools and those schools outside of the Wayne County/Detroit catchment areas will be excluded from our sample. Inclusion and exclusion criteria reflect the purpose of the study to better understand the hopefulness trajectories of African American adolescents attending high poverty, public schools in the urban center of Detroit. Inclusion and exclusion criteria will help to control for factors of SES, geographic location and context, school type (public schools only), and school size.

7

We will employ a random, probability sampling method. Each school in our sample frame will represent an intact unit for sampling. We will assign an identification number to each school in our sample frame. A random number generator process will be used to select 6 schools for inclusion in year 1 and an additional 6 schools for inclusion in year two. Random probability sampling enhances the external validity of our results by ensuring that each school in our sample frame has an equal probability of selection. Selected schools will be randomized to experimental and control conditions in year one, with three schools participating in each condition. The intervention will be delivered to all 9th grade teachers who interface with 9th grade students.

Independent Variables:

Student Autonomy, Original Scale

Student autonomy will be measured through a 16-item original scale designed to assess the degree of student autonomy over 4 key domains: classroom discipline, selection of topics for learning, selection of methods for learning, and independent problem solving. Each of 4 subscales has 4 items. The measure also includes items that ascertain the degree of teacher support for student autonomy. Students are asked to rate each item on a 5-point Likert scale, assessing how true each item is for them: (1=never true for me) and (5=always true for me. Sample items include “I helped to decide on our classroom’s rules for appropriate behavior,” “I have the freedom to choose topics that interest me, “ when I am learning, I can choose from different ways of completing my assignments,” “My teacher supports me to find the answer for myself” and “My teacher encourages me to learn in ways that are helpful to me.” As this scale is original, evidence of validity and reliability in the study population is not yet available.

Competence. Perceived Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1982)

This measure assesses student perceptions of their competence in a range of domains, with subscales for cognitive competence, physical competence, interpersonal competence, athletic competence, and general self-worth. For the purpose of this study, we will draw 6 items pertaining to the general self-worth subscale and 6 items from the cognitive competence subscale. This arrangement of items has been utilized effectively to measure competence in a SDT afterschool intervention for high-poverty, urban adolescents (Grolnick et al. 2007). Each item is measured on a 4-point Likert scale. Children are asked to rate each item on how closely it represents them: 1=not true for them and 4=true for them. Harter (1982) found adequate reliability, with the Cronbach alpha measured between .75 to .83 for perceived cognitive competence and .73-.83 for general self-worth in samples of 3rd through 9th grade students in California and Connecticut. Additionally, the scale demonstrated convergent validity (R=.73) with teacher rated judgments of cognitive competence for ninth grade students. Finally strong construct validity was apparent, as perceived cognitive competence scores were positively correlated with “intrinsic motivational orientation to prefer challenge” as hypothesized from prior research (Harter, 1982, p. 94). One limitation of this measure is that it has only been validated among middle and upper-middle class youth.

Relatedness; Psychological Sense of School Membership (Goodenow, 1993)

The 18-item membership scale measures student perception of psychological membership or the degree to which students feel “personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school environment” (Goodenow, 1993, p. 80). This 18-item scale has demonstrated strong inter-rater reliability, with an alpha of .80 among a sample of African American high school students attending public school in a high-poverty, medium size city in the Northeast. While the sample is demographically similar to our study population with respect to

8

age, ethnicity, poverty, and city size, regional differences between the Northeast and Midwest are one potential limitation. Sample items include “most teachers at this school are interested in me” and “people here notice when I am good at something.” Students rate items along a 5-point Likert scale format, with choices ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 2 (completely true). Goodenow (1993) found evidence of construct validity, as membership was significantly associated with self-reported motivation, teacher rated effort, and grades in cross-sectional and longitudinal validation studies.

Social/Cultural Capital; What Is Happening In this Classroom (WIHIC) Questionnaire (Dorman, 2008)

The WIHIC Questionnaire is a 56-item scale that analyzes 7 classroom environment subscales (8 items per subscale): Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Investigation, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity (Dorman, 2008). This questionnaire targets classroom environment in order for students to assess their individual role in the classroom as well as the teacher’s support and perception of students. Additionally, this scale provides an accurate view of interpersonal relationships held inside of the classroom (Dorman, 2008). For each item, a 5 point Likert scale is used for students to select how often a situation occurs, such as for Teacher Support “The teacher takes a personal interest in me,” with “almost never,” “seldom,” “sometimes,” “often,” and “almost always” as potential responses (Myint, 2001). This measure has been validated in a sample population of majority African American adolescents, ages 13-14, attending school in a high-poverty, urban center in California. Cronbach alphas for each subscale ranged from 0.81 to 0.94 (Ogbuehi & Fraser, 2007).

The Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand et al. 1992)

The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) is a 28-item scale, with 7 subscales reflecting SDT motivation continuum, from amotivation to intrinsic motivation. For the purposes of this study, we will utilize only the 4-item subscale for Intrinsic Motivation. A sample item from the Intrinsic Motivation includes “I experience pleasure and satisfaction learning new things.” Each of the 4 items is rated on a 7-point Likert scale, with 1 signifying does not correspond to me and 7 signifying corresponds exactly to me. Scores therefore range from 1-28, with a higher score indicating strong endorsement of an intrinsic motivational style (Fairchild, Horst, Finney, & Barron, 2004). Vallerand et al’s (1992) initial testing indicated strong reliability, with a Cronbach alpha coefficient ranging from .83-.86. Additional reliability testing conducted by Fairchild et al. (2004) demonstrated adequate internal consistency. This research team additionally compared AMS scores to classic and contemporary criterion measures of motivation and found strong evidence of convergent and divergent validity. One limitation of the measure is that it has predominantly been tested among college student populations.

Dependent Variable:

The Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder, Hoza et al., 1997)

The Children’s Hope Scale (CHS) is a 6-item, 6-point Likert scale designed to measure goal-focused hopeful cognition in children and adolescents ages 8-16. In the CHS, hope is operationally defined as “one’s capabilities to produce workable routes to goals (the pathways component) and the self-related beliefs about initiating and sustaining movement towards those goals (the agency component)” (Snyder et al., 1997, pg. 401). The items are divided evenly to measure these distinct components, with 3 Items measure devoted to pathways and 3 items to agency. Sample items to assess pathways include: “When I have a problem, I can come up with lots of ways to solve it” and “Even when others want to quit, I know I can find ways to solve the problem.” Sample items to assess agency include: “I think I am doing pretty well” and “I am

9

doing just as well as other kids my age.” Respondents are directed to rate how accurately a statement describes them, with responses ranging from “None of the time” to “All of the time.” CHS has acceptable reliability, with a reported Cronbach alpha coefficient ranging from .72-.86 and a significant test-retest reliability r=.71 P<.001. Valle et. al (2004) replicated these results, reporting an alpha coefficient of .83 for children ages 10-15 and .84 for children ages 15-19. Construct validity was demonstrated through tests of convergent and divergent validity. As anticipated, CHS was correlated with parent observations of children’s hopefulness and children’s assessment of their competencies (Self-Perception for Children SPP-C scale) and negatively correlated with Kazdin et al.’s (1983) Hopelessness scale. The scale has been used effectively in a study examining trajectories of hope and hopelessness in a demographically similar population of urban, African American adolescents in Flint, MI (Stoddard et al. 2011).

Data Collection

a. Obtainment of Consent & Recruitment

Autonomy supportive principals will receive an initial invitation letter incorporating an information sheet containing further study details and contact information for the research team. Members of the research team will follow-up with eligible and interested principals for face-to-face meetings to present the study aims, proposed methods, and benefits of participation and incentives for the school, teachers and students. The meetings will also provide an opportunity to present and discuss specific roles and responsibilities of school staff and teachers during recruitment and intervention phases. Finally informational meetings with principals will allow the research team to troubleshoot any potential barriers to obtaining parental consent in each specific school setting. Upon receipt of permission from principals, a preliminary notice announcing the study will be placed in school newsletters and routine communications to 9th grade parents. Ninth grade homeroom teachers will subsequently explain study incentives to students and provide all incoming 9th grade students with forms and a signed letter of endorsement from the principal to take home to parents or guardians. Students returning signed parental permission forms will be eligible for participation.

b. Questionnaire:

A baseline assessment consisting of a paper and pencil questionnaire will be administered to assess key demographic covariates (gender and poverty), independent variables (competence, relatedness, academic motivation, social capital) and our dependent variable, hopefulness. The baseline questionnaire will solicit email address and phone numbers for at least 3 different contacts per youth participant to assist in locating youth for follow-up. An identical post-test questionnaire will be administered at 6, 12, and 18 months post baseline. All assessments will be delivered in person during school hours by a trained and demographically similar member of the research team. School personnel will be asked to leave the room and students will be assured that participation is voluntary and data collection is anonymous and confidential.

b.2. Covariates

When data are collected from our sample, we will be monitoring for gender and poverty level as covariates. Combined with the questionnaires, students will be given an overview page that requests their gender and lunch status. We will ask students to anonymously report their gender as male or female. Students will report their participation in the free or reduced lunch program as an indication of poverty level. Additionally, we will securely crosscheck students’ reported responses with school records to confirm lunch status as a measure of poverty.

10

c. Monetary Incentives

We will provide graduated incentives to youth for completing each respective assessment to encourage retention: a $10 gift card will be awarded for the baseline assessment, a $15 gift card for the 6 month posttest, a $20 gift card for the 12 month post-test, and a $25 gift card for the 18 month post-test. Students who complete all assessments will be entered into a drawing for four $100 gift cards and two $50 gift cards.

Data Analysis

Quantitative Analysis:

Questionnaire responses will be collected and data will be entered anonymously and stored securely. Data analyses will occur through four steps: 1) A chi-square test will be conducted to assess any differential attrition between conditions from baseline to follow-up between conditions or associated with demographic variables of poverty or gender 2) Additional Chi-square tests and analyses of variance will be utilized to assess the success of randomization and any significant difference in demographic covariates, intrinsic motivation, and hopefulness between conditions at baseline 3) The best practice of growth curve analyses will be employed to assess trajectories of change in hopefulness and any significant differences in slope that are apparent between the experimental and intervention conditions from baseline to 6, 12, and 18 month follow-ups. Data from all time points will be utilized. The control schools trajectories will be used as a reference point to which the growth curve trajectories for the experimental condition will be compared. A benefit of growth curve analyses is that they permit missing data while utilizing all available data (Brown, 2006). 4) Structural equation modeling will be used to examine specific relationships between hypothesized mediators of autonomy, competence, relatedness, social capital and the dependent variable: hopefulness. Structural equation modeling will also be used to assess if changes in hopefulness are mediated through increased endorsement of an intrinsic motivational style.

Limitations

Limitations of the proposed study include a reliance on self-report data, which may introduce biases including social desirability bias. The study may also have some important limitations with respect to generalizability. While a key goal of the study is to adapt an SDT intervention for success in an urban setting, it is important to note that findings from a Detroit study may not be universally generalizable to schools in low-income, urban centers. Detroit, due to its history and the precipitous downfall of the auto industry, may be uniquely situated with respect to hopefulness. Therefore, caution should be exercised and regional and contextual differences should be considered when applying findings to school settings in other urban centers. Finally, the proposed does not isolate SDT and social capital intervention components into respective conditions to assess their relative effectiveness. Future studies might consider a three condition design, comparing 1) an SDT intervention 2) an intervention enhanced by social capital theory supports, and 3) a community control with standard instructional practices to isolate the relative effectiveness of intervention components for enhancing intrinsic motivation and hopefulness.

11

References

Anyon, J. (1980). Social class and the hidden curriculum of work. Journal of education, 67-92.

Benware, C. A., & Deci, E. L (1984). Quality of learning with an active versus passive

motivational set. American Educational Research Journal, 21, 755-765

Bolland, J. M., Lian, B. E., & Formichella, C. M. (2005). The origins of hopelessness among

inner-city African-American adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology,

36, 293–305.

Booker, K. C. (2006). School belonging and the African American adolescent: What do we know

and where should we go?. The High School Journal, 89(4), 1-7.

Brookhart, S. M., & Rusnak, T. G. (1993). A pedagogy of enrichment, not poverty: Successful

lessons of exemplary urban teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 44(1), 17-26.

Brown, TA. Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Applied Research. Guilford; New York: 2006.

Burton, K. D., Lydon, J. E., D’Alessandro, D.U., & Koestner, R. (2006). The differential effects of

intrinsic and identified motivation on well-being and performance: Prospective,

experimental and implicit approaches to self-determination theory. Journal of Personality

and Social Psychology, 91, 750-762.

Callina, K., Johnson, S., Buckingham, M., & Lerner, R. (2014). Hope in Context: Developmental

Profiles of Trust, Hopeful Future Expectations, and Civic Engagement Across

Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 869-883.

Corbett, D., & Wilson, B. (2002). What urban students say about good teaching. Educational

Leadership, 60(1), 18-23.

Dorman, J. P. (2008). Use of multitrait-multi method modeling to validate actual and preferred

forms of the What Is Happening In this Class?(WIHIC) questionnaire. Learning

Environments Research, 11(3), 179-193.

Fairchild, A., Horst, S., Finney, S., & Barron, K. (2004). Evaluating existing and new validity

12

evidence for the Academic Motivation Scale. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 30,

331-358.

Farkas, G., Grobe, R., Sheehan, D., & Shuan, Y. (1990). Cultural Resources and School

Success: Gender, Ethnicity, and Poverty Groups within an Urban School District.

American Sociological Review, 55(1), 127-127.

Fite, P., Rubens, S., & Cooley, J. (2014). Influence Of Contextual Factors On Academic

Performance In A Sample Of Latino Adolescents: The Moderating Role Of School

Attachment. Journal of Community Psychology J. Community Psychol., 42(8), 924-936.

Fraser, B. J. (1998). Classroom environment instruments: Development, validity and

applications. Learning environments research, 1(1), 7-34.

Gehrke, R. S. (2005). Poor schools poor students successful teachers. Kappa Delta Pi Record,

42(1), 14-17.

Myint, S. K. (2001). Using the WlHlC questionnaire to measure the learning environment.

Teaching and Learning, 22(2), 54-61.

Goodenow, C. (1993). The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents:

Scale development and educational correlates. Psychol. Schs. Psychology in the

Schools, 30, 79-90

Grolnick, W., Farkas, M., Sohmer, R., Michaels, S., & Valsiner, J. (2007). Facilitating motivation

in young adolescents: Effects of an after-school program. Journal of Applied

Developmental Psychology, 332-344.

Grolnick, W., & Ryan, R. M. (1987). Autonomy in children’s learning: An experimental and

individual difference investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52,

890-898

Haberman, M. (2010). The Pedagogy of Poverty versus Good Teaching. Phi Delta Kappan, 81-

87.

Hanneke, J.C, Nuland, H., Taris, T., Boekaerts, M., & Martens, R. (2012). Testing the

13

hierarchical SDT model: The case of performance-oriented classrooms. European

Journal of Psychology of Education Eur J Psychol Educ, 27, 467-482.

Harter, S. (1982). The Perceived Competence Scale for Children. Child Development, 53(1), 87-

97.

Heard, K. (2011). Classroom Management for Urban Teachers: Lessons from Films and Real-

Life Experiences.

Hinds, P.S. (1988). The relationship of nurses’ caring behaviors with hopefulness and health

care outcomes in adolescents. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 2, 21–29.

Lareau, A. (2015). Cultural Knowledge and Social Inequality. American Sociological Review,

80(1), 1-27.

Lareau, A., & Horvat, E. M. (1999). Moments of social inclusion and exclusion race, class, and

cultural capital in family-school relationships. Sociology of education, 37-53.

Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2003). Cultural capital in educational research: A critical

assessment. Theory and society, 32(5-6), 567-606.

Leana, C. R., & Pil, F. K. (2006). Social capital and organizational performance: Evidence from

urban public schools. Organization Science, 17(3), 353-366.

Lorion, R. P., & Saltzman, W. (1993). Children’s exposure to community violence: Following a

path from concern to research to action. Psychiatry, 56, 55–65.

Means, B., & Knapp, M.S. (1991). Cognitive approaches to teaching advanced skills to

educationally disadvantaged students. Phi Delta Kappan, 73, 282-289

Niemiec, C., & Ryan, R. (2009). Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom:

Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. Theory and Research in

Education, 133-144.

Nurmi, J. E. (1991). How do adolescents see their future? A review of the development of future

orientation and planning. Developmental Review, 11, 1–59.

Miller, J. F., & Powers, M. J. (1988). Development of an instrument to measure hope, Nursing

14

Research, 37, 6-10

Ogbuehi, P. I., & Fraser, B. J. (2007). Learning environment, attitudes and conceptual

development associated with innovative strategies in middle-school mathematics.

Learning Environments Research, 10(2), 101-114.

Pelletier, L.G., Séguin-Lévesque, C. and Legault, L. (2002) ‘Pressure from above and pressure

from below as determinants of teachers’ motivation and teaching behaviors’, Journal of

Educational Psychology 94: 186–196.

Reece, J., and Rogers, C. (2008). ‘Opportunity for All: Inequity, Linked Fate and Social Justice

in Detroit and Michigan’. The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity.

Commissioned by the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion. July 2008.

Reeve, J., & Jang, H. S. (2006). What teachers say and do to support students’ autonomy

during a learning activity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 209–218.

Reeve, J., Nix, G., & Hamm, D. (2003). Testing models of the experience of self-determination

in intrinsic motivation and the conundrum of choice. Journal of Educational Psychology,

95(2), 375-392.

Roth, G. , Assor, A., Kanat-Maymon, Y. and Kaplan, H. (2007) ‘Autonomous motivation for

teaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning’, Journal of

Educational Psychology 99: 761–74.

Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation,

social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78.

Ryan, R. M., Grolnick, W.S. (1986). Origins and pawns in the classroom. Self-report and

projective assessments of individuals differences in children’s perceptions. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 550-558

Snyder, C. R., Cheavens, J., & Sympson, S. C. (1997). Hope: An individual motive for social

commerce. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1, 107– 118.

Snyder, C. R., Hoza, B., Pelham, W. E., Rapoff, M., Ware, L., Danovsky, M., et al. (1997). The

15

development and validation of the children’s hope scale. Journal of Pediatric

Psychology, 22, 399– 421.

Stoddard, S. A., Henly, S. J., Sieving, R. E., & Bolland, J. (2011). Social connections,

trajectories of hopelessness, and serious violence in impoverished urban youth. Journal

of Youth and Adolescence, 40, 278–295.

Tucker, C. M., Zayco, R. A., Herman, K. C., Reinke, W. M., Trujillo, M., Carraway, K., ... & Ivery,

P. D. (2002). Teacher and child variables as predictors of academic engagement among

low-income African American children. Psychology in the Schools, 39(4), 477-488.

Valle, M. F., Huebner, E. S., Suldo, S. M. (2004). Further evaluation of the Children’s Hope

Scale. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 22, 320 – 337.

Valle, M., Huebner, E., & Suldo, S. (2006). An analysis of hope as a psychological strength.

Journal of School Psychology, 44, 393-406.

Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L., Blais, M., Brier, N, N., Senecal, C., & Vallieres, E. (1992). The

Academic Motivation Scale: A Measure of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Amotivation in

Education. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52, 1003-1017

Vorhaus, J. (2014). Education, social capital and the accordion effect. Journal of Philosophy of

Education, 48(1), 28-47.

Vorhaus, J. (2014). Function and functional explanation in social capital theory: a philosophical

appraisal. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 33(2), 185-199.

Willard-Holt, C. (2000). Preparing teachers for urban settings: Changing teacher education by

changing ourselves. The Qualitative Report, 4(3), 1-18.

16