Roma Minority Youth Across Cultural Contexts: Taking a Positive Approach to Research, Policy, and Practice

265 Pages·2021·2.317 MB·English

by  Radosveta Dimitrova (editor), David Lackland Sam (editor), Laura Ferrer Wreder (editor)

Roma Minority Youth Across
Cultural Contexts
CHILD DEVELOPMENT IN CULTURAL CONTEXT
Series Editors
Cynthia Garcia Coll
Peggy Miller
Advisory Board
Jerome Kagan
Carol Worthman
Barrie Thorne
books in the series:
Perfectly Prep: Gender Extremes at a New England Prep School
Sarah A. Chase
Academic Motivation and the Culture of Schooling
Cynthia Hudley and Adele E. Gottfried
Immigrant Stories: Ethnicity and Academics in Middle Childhood
Cynthia Garcia Coll and Amy Kerivan Marks
In a Younger Voice: Doing Child- Centered Qualitative Research
Cindy Dell Clark
Developing Destinies: A Mayan Midwife and Town
Barbara Rogoff
Bridging Multiple Worlds: Cultures, Identities, and Pathways to College
Catherine R. Cooper
Literacy and Mothering: How Women’s Schooling Changes
the Lives of the World’s Children
Robert A. LeVine, Sarah E. LeVine, Beatrice Schnell-A nzola,
Meredith L. Rowe, and Emily Dexter
The Culture of Child Care: Attachment, Peers, and Quality in Diverse Communities
Edited by Kay E. Sanders and Alison Wishard Guerra
Self- Esteem in Time and Place: How American Families Imagine,
Enact, and Personalize a Cultural Ideal
Peggy J. Miller and Grace E. Cho
Roma Minority Youth Across Cultural Contexts: Taking a Positive
Approach to Research, Policy, and Practice
Edited by Radosveta Dimitrova, David L. Sam, and Laura Ferrer-W reder
Indigenous Mexican Students in U.S. Schools: Ethnicity, Multilingualism, and
Academics
William Perez and Rafael Vásquez
Disability, Stigma, and Children’s Developing Selves: Insights from Educators in Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S.
Wendy Haight, Misa Kayama, Mary May-L ee Ku, Minhae Cho, and Hee Yun Lee
Roma Minority Youth
Across Cultural
Contexts
Taking a Positive Approach to Research,
Policy, and Practice
Edited by
RADOSVETA DIMITROVA,
DAVID L. SAM, AND LAURA FERRER- WREDER
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dimitrova, Radosveta, 1977– editor. | Sam, David L., editor. | Ferrer-Wreder, Laura, editor.
Title: Roma minority youth across cultural contexts : taking a positive
approach to research, policy, and practice / edited by Radosveta
Dimitrova, David Lackland Sam, Laura Ferrer-Wreder.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021] |
Series: Child development in cultural context | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021023954 (print) | LCCN 2021023955 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190654061 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190654085 (epub) | ISBN 9780190654092
Subjects: LCSH: Youth, Romani—Europe—Social conditions. |
Romanies—Europe—Social conditions. | Minority families—Europe. |
Youth development—Europe.
Classification: LCC DX145 .R656 2021 (print) | LCC DX145 (ebook) |
DDC 305.8914/9704—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023954
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023955
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190654061.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
To Fons van de Vijver
exceptional mentor and scholar

Contents
Foreword: A Vision for Promoting Positive Development
Among Roma Youth ix
Richard M. Lerner
Contributors xiii
Introduction xv
Radosveta Dimitrova, David L. Sam, and Laura Ferrer- Wreder
PART A THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ROMA
1. The Roma Context 3
Carmen Buzea and Radosveta Dimitrova
2. How Positive Youth Development Can Support
Low- Income Roma Youth Living in the United States 16
Marija Bingulac
3. Engaging Vulnerable Romani Youth in Provision of
Early Childhood Services 29
Stanislav Daniel
PART B THEORIES ON ROMA ADAPTATION
AND WELL-B EING
4. Actualizing Change with Roma Youth and Their
Communities: Theoretical and Conceptual Considerations 45
Carolyn Cass Lorente and Laura Ferrer- Wreder
5. Roma Youth: Positive Development Despite Challenges 63
Pasquale Musso, Cristiano Inguglia, Michele Mannoia, and
Alida Lo Coco
PART C EMPIRICAL FINDINGS ON POSITIVE YOUTH
DEVELOPMENT AND WELL- BEING OF ROMA
6. Positive Youth Development: An Empirical
Study of Roma Youth 87
Nora Wiium and Fitim Uka
viii Contents
7. Reframing the Narrative: Revealing Positive Youth
Development in the Self-D escriptions of Roma Adolescents 109
Deborah J. Johnson, Barbara Thelamour, Sudha Sankar, and
Radosveta Dimitrova
8. Associations Between Social Connectedness and Academic
Achievement Among Roma Youth in Eastern Europe 133
Amina Abubakar, Radosveta Dimitrova, Delia Stefenel,
Fitim Uka, Skerdi Zahaj, Paul Murimi, and Fons van de Vijver
9. Youth Development, Education, and Identity: A Case
Study of Attitudes Toward Roma Youth in Hungary 156
Jekatyerina Dunajeva
10. How a Positive Youth Development Framework Can
Improve Lives of Excluded People: The Case of
Low- Income Roma Youth in Serbia 175
Marija Bingulac
11. Out of the Margins: Reflections on Roma and Youth
Development 197
Peter Vermeersch
12. Roma Youth Development in Context: What Next? 207
David L. Sam, Laura Ferrer- Wreder, and Radosveta Dimitrova
Index 221
Foreword
A Vision for Promoting Positive Development
Among Roma Youth
Richard M. Lerner
The study of human development is in the midst of a genuine paradigm
change. Replacing Cartesian notions that generated meta-t heories splitting
nature from nurture and that led to reductionist, essentialist, and mecha-
nist models of human behavior and development, a process- relational par-
adigm has come to the fore of developmental science. This paradigm focuses
on process (systematic changes in the developmental system), becoming
(moving from potential to actuality), holism (the meanings of entities and
events derive from the context in which they are embedded), and relational
analysis (assessment of the mutually influential relations within the devel-
opmental system) (Overton, 2015). Within the process-r elational paradigm,
the individual is seen as inherently active, self-c reating (autopoietic), self-
organizing, self- regulating (agentic), nonlinear and complex, and adaptive
(Overton, 2015).
A relational developmental systems (RDS) meta- theory is derived from
this paradigm, and it emphasizes that the integration of levels of organization
ranging from biology and physiology to culture and history is a means to
describe, explain, and optimize life span human development. Accordingly,
models derived from RDS meta- theory emphasize the course across life of
mutually influential relations between a specific individual and his or her
specific context, represented as individual ↔ context relations; these rela-
tions are the fundamental (basic) process of human development (Lerner,
2018, 2021).
Proponents of RDS-b ased theories do not deny that there may be nom-
othetic or group/ differential contributions to the variance of human