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Teaching the components of health advocacy is straightforward, but fostering young people’s self-efficacy to be health advocates for themselves, others, and their community is more complex. This complexity sometimes renders advocating for health, the basis of National Health Education Standard (NHES) #8, challenging to teach. We utilized a pedagogical approach called biblioguidance to teach this skill to 10th-grade students. The premise of biblioguidance, also called bibliotherapy, is that information, guidance, and even solace can be found through reading and vicariously living story events. To implement this approach, we consulted the literature and created a six-step framework to guide the design, development, and evaluation of a health advocacy curriculum, including young adult novels, guided reading prompts, electronic journals, and small group discussions. Our pre/post-assessment, rooted in NHES #8, evaluated the impact on students’ (N= 168) self-efficacy to health advocate for themselves, others, and the community. Results revealed a significant change (p< .001), particularly in advocating for community health. Further, the teachers found that the curriculum facilitated the discussion of health-related topics in subsequent units. We will continue using the curriculum but expand it to include opportunities for authentic application and qualitative data evaluation techniques.

ABSTRACTWith the rise in minority candidates, particularly women of color in US politics, it is now crucial to identify the ways in which voters use intersectional identity to evaluate elected officials. Previous research has commonly found that voters employ gender or race-based trait stereotypes when evaluating female and minority candidates, however, which trait evaluations prevail when voters are faced with candidates who are both female and non-White? Existing scholarship indicates that women of color – by virtue of their identities – may experience either “strategic advantage” or “double disadvantage” at the polls. We explore these competing theories through a unique experiment designed to understand the role of race and gender-based trait evaluation in shaping voter support for minority women running for office in the US.

ABSTRACTThis contribution highlights the need and benefits of a mixed methodological approach in intersectional studies of symbolic representation. Existing research concerning symbolic representation among traditionally marginalized groups such as women, racial and ethnic minorities focuses on the role either gender or race/ethnic identity plays in shaping symbolic forms of representation such as communication or presentation of self. However, extant literature tells us very little about the experiences of elected officials who are both women and racial and/or ethnic minorities, which are substantively different from those of either Anglo women or minority men. We will first argue for the benefits of an intersectional approach to studying symbolic representation in the U.S. that uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. Through the use of quantitative and qualitative content analysis in our own work, we were able to offer a more nuanced picture of how identity informs symbolic representation. As scholars with very different methodological training and different identities, we will detail the ways in which the practice of working together expanded our own understanding of how to identify and measure symbolic representation among diverse members of Congress.

The inauguration of the United States first Black President has prompted mass discussions of race relations in America. It is often articulated that America is now in a post-racial society. However, the question still remains: does the election of a Black president demonstrate that America is now a “color-blind” society? To answer this question, we rely on data collected by PEW (2007). Our results suggest that white and African Americans differ significantly in the extent to which they express post-racial attitudes. Specifically, we find that whites more commonly express post-racial attitudes, claiming that racism and discrimination are rare, in opposition to African American views. On the other hand, blacks are more likely to believe that discrimination still occurs. We further find that whites' post-racial beliefs are significant determinants of their attitudes towards race-related policies, such as affirmative action.