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Does experience in school increase or reduce social inequality in skills? Sociologists have long debated this question. Drawing from the counterfactual account of causality, we propose that the impact of going to school on a given skill depends on the quality of the instructional regime a child will experience at school compared with the quality of the instructional regime the child would receive if not at school. Children vary in their benefit from new instruction, and current skill increases this benefit. We hypothesize that the expansion of free, universal schooling promotes social equality in part by equalizing access to school, but also because disadvantaged children benefit more from access. However, we predict that this equalizing effect will be more pronounced for younger children than for older children. To test these hypotheses, we review empirical evidence regarding the impact of (a) increasing access to universal kindergarten and preschool, (b) interrupting schooling with the summer recess, (c) extending the school day, and (d ) extending years of compulsory schooling. We consider implications for the potential of school reform to reduce educational inequality. 443 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2015.41:443-470. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Cambridge University on 08/18/15. For personal use only.

Homicide is the second leading cause of death for young people, and exposure to violence has a negative impact on youth mental health, academic performance, and relationships. We demonstrate that youth violence, including bullying, gang violence, and self-directed violence, increasingly occurs in the online space. We review the literature on violence and online social media, and show that while some forms of online violence are limited to Internet-based interactions, others are directly related to face-to-face acts of violence. Central to our purpose is uncovering the real-world consequences of these online events, and using this information to design effective prevention and intervention strategies. We discuss several limitations of the existing literature, including inconsistent definitions for some forms of online violence, and an overreliance on descriptive data. Finally, we acknowledge the constantly evolving landscape of online social media, and discuss implications for the future of social media and youth violence research. Graphical abstractYouth violence | Social media | Gang violence | Cyber-suicide | Electronic dating Article:

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Expressions of racism in the post-Civil Rights Era are expected to be more covert than overt and more unconscious than conscious. But some internet-based communication takes place in technological contexts that are not bound by the same norms as face-to-face interactions, and can structure more explicit presentations of racist ideologies. I explore the changing expressions of racism in online spaces and their effects on students of color using in-depth interviews with 27 undergraduate students of color and their reactions to and interpretations of an online, anonymous student forum. I argue that covert racism is unmasked in online environments, and that exposure to unmasked racial ideologies can challenge students’ racial worldviews, adaptive coping responses to racism, relationships to White students and institutions, and dominant racial narratives.

Recent research finds negative impacts of racial microaggressions, defined as racial slights, on a variety of outcomes. Targets of racial microaggressions often report feeling pressured to remain silent in the face of these subtle interactions, which can be coded as aracial by perpetrators or bystanders. This article explores the ways Internet-based communication can change this dynamic and structure distinct responses to racial microaggressions. Drawing on in-depth interviews with undergraduate students of Color, I find that in some online spaces, students of Color have access to unique technology-based tools that increase their perceived and actual capacity to respond critically to racial microaggressions. I discuss implications for understanding online racial discourse and resistance on college campuses and beyond.

An online experiment among a nationally representative YouGov sample of unvaccinated U.S. adults ( N = 540) leverages inoculation theory as a preliminary step in uniting the prebunking and debunking literature. By testing how prior attitudes toward Covid-19 vaccines interact with varying message interventions, the study finds that specific inoculation messages protect against misinformation, but only among those with preexisting healthy attitudes. Generic inoculation messages have wider application, offering both prophylactic and therapeutic benefits. However, the therapeutic benefits of generic inoculations disappear when debunking messages are present. Nonetheless, generic inoculations do not appear to have detrimental effects on those infected with unhealthy attitudes, unlike specific inoculation messages. Whether the messages are truly a form of inoculation by generating threat merits further research.

Youth living in violent urban neighborhoods increasingly post messages online from urban street corners. The decline of the digital divide and the proliferation of social media platforms connect youth to peer communities who may share experiences with neighborhood stress and trauma. Social media can also be used for targeted retribution when threats and insults are directed at individuals or groups. Recent research suggests that gang-involved youth may use social media to brag, post fight videos, insult, and threaten—a phenomenon termed Internet banging. In this article, we leverage “code of the digital street” to understand how and in what ways social media facilitates urban-based youth violence. We utilize qualitative interviews from 33 Black and Latino young men who frequent violence prevention programs and live in violent neighborhoods in Chicago. Emerging themes describe how and why online threats are conceptualized on social media. Implications for violence prevention and criminal investigations are discussed.