Spencer, Margaret Beale

Email Address
ORCID
Disciplines
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Position
Introduction
Research Interests

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    Psychosocial Development in Racially and Ethnically Diverse Youth: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in the 21st Century
    (2003-08-01) Swanson, Dena Phillips; Spencer, Margaret Beale; Harpalani, Vinay; Dupree, Davido; Noll, Elizabeth; Ginzburg, Sofia; Seaton, Gregory
    As the US population becomes more diverse in the 21st century, researchers face many conceptual and methodological challenges in working with diverse populations. We discuss these issues for racially and ethnically diverse youth, using Spencer’s phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) as a guiding framework. We present a brief historical background and discuss recurring conceptual flaws in research on diverse youth, presenting PVEST as a corrective to these flaws. We highlight the interaction of race, culture, socioeconomic status, and various contexts of development with identity formation and other salient developmental processes. Challenges in research design and interpretation of data are also covered with regard to both assessment of contexts and developmental processes. We draw upon examples from neighborhood assessments, ethnic identity development, and attachment research to illustrate conceptual and methodological challenges, and we discuss strategies to address these challenges. The policy implications of our analysis are also considered.
  • Publication
    A Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST): A self-organization perspective in context
    (1997-12-01) Spencer, Margaret Beale; Dupree, Davido; Hartmann, Tracey
    A framework that emphasizes and integrates individuals’ intersubjective experiences with Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (PVEST) is introduced and compared with self-organizational perspectives. Similarities, differences and advantages of each framework are described. In a demonstration of PVEST’s utility, a subset of data from the 3rd year of a longitudinal study (14-to 16-year-old middle adolescent African–Americans) is used for examining an achievement variable: negative learning attitude. Explored separately by gender, a regression model that contained risk, stress, and a reactive coping variable for the prediction of negative learning attitudes was investigated. For boys, stress was an independent stressor across steps independent of the other variables entered; social support was particularly important for males. For girls, not only was stress not important but it was also only the social support variable, perceived unpopularity with peers, that was a significant predictor of girls’ negative learning attitude. Particularly for boys, the findings suggest critically important roles for teachers and peers in the negative learning attitude of midadolescent economically disadvantaged African–American students.