Cynthia Garcia Coll

Psychological Acculturation: Development of A New Measure for Puerto Ricans on the U.S. Mainland

Most instruments designed to measure acculturation have relied on specific cultural behaviors and preferences as primary indicators of acculturation. In contrast, feelings of belonging and emotional attachment to cultural communities have not been widely used. The Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS) was developed to assess acculturation from a phenomenological perspective, with items pertaining to the individual’s sense of psychological attachment to and belonging within the Anglo-American and Latino/Hispanic cultures. Responses from samples of bilingual individuals and Puerto Rican adolescents and adults are used to establish a high degree of measurement equivalence across the Spanish and English versions of the scale along with high levels of internal consistency and construct validity. The usefulness of the PAS and the importance of studying acculturation from a phenomenological perspective are discussed.

Parental Involvement in Children's Education: Lessons from Three Immigrant Groups

Objective. This study explores immigrant group and individual differences within groups in parental reports of involvement in their childrens education as a function of both sociodemographic and cultural variables. Design. Over 300 parents from three different immigrant groups - Portuguese, Dominican and Cambodian - were interviewed when their children were in either second or fifth grade. Results. Language comfort and immigrant group membership were the most frequent variables associated with group differences in the various aspects of parental involvement. Cambodian parents showed the lowest levels of parent involvement as expressed in measures of attitudes, contact with schools, home-based control over childrens behavior, and provisions of material support for homework. Ethnographic data suggest that differing forms of group migration, the educational systems differing responses to the groups, and group differences in cultural values explain the above findings. Within the Portuguese and Cambodian groups, language comfort was also the variable most frequently associated with individual differences in the dimensions of parents involvement. Finally, the different dimensions of parental involvement are highly correlated amongst each other within the Portuguese and Cambodian families, but not so for Dominicans. Conclusions. These findings suggest both similarities and differences in the processes of parental involvement in childrens education across three quite different immigrant groups.

Racism and Child Health: A Review of the Literature and Future Directions

Objective: Racism is a mechanism through which racial/ethnic disparities occur in child health. To assess the present state of research into the effects of racism on child health, a review of the literature was undertaken. Methods: A MEDLINE review of the literature was conducted between October and November 2007. Studies reporting on empirical research relating to racism or racial discrimination as a predictor or contributor to a child health outcome were included in this review. The definition of “child health” was broad and included behavioral, mental, and physical health. Results: Forty articles describing empirical research on racism and child health were found. Most studies (65%) reported on research performed on behavioral and mental health outcomes. Other areas studied included birth outcomes, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and satisfaction with care. Most research has been conducted on African-American samples (70%), on adolescents and on older children, and without a uniformly standardized approach to measuring racism. Furthermore, many studies used measures that were created for adult populations. Conclusions: There are a limited number of studies evaluating the relationship between racism and child health. Most studies, to date, show relationships between perceived racism and behavioral and mental health. Future studies need to include more ethnically diverse minority groups and needs to consider studying the effects of racism in younger children. Instruments need to be developed that measure perceptions of racism in children and youth that take into account the unique contexts and developmental levels of children, as well as differences in the perception of racism in different ethnocultural groups. Furthermore, studies incorporating racism as a specific psychosocial stressor that can potentially have biophysiologic sequelae need to be conducted to understand the processes and mechanisms through which racism may contribute to child health disparities.

The Dual-Focus Approach to Creating Bilingual Measures

The dual-focus approach to creating bilingual research protocols requires a bilingual/bicultural research team, including indigenous researchers from the cultures being studied. The presence of indigenous researchers as full and equal members of the research team can guard against an unexamined exportation of ideas and methods developed in one culture to other cultural/linguistic communities. The team develops the research plan and a research protocol that express a given concept with equal clarity, affect, and level of usage simultaneously in two languages. The dual-focus method employs a concept-driven rather than a translation-driven approach to attain conceptual and linguistic equivalence. Examples of the application of this approach to creating new measures in Spanish and English, adapting existing measures, revising instructions to research participants, and correcting official translations are provided.

The social ecology and early parenting of caucasian adolescent mothers.

Social characteristics, maternal behaviors, and the home environments of Caucasian adolescent and nonadolescent mothers were investigated in a sample of 50 primiparous low- and middle-class women and their 4-month-old infants. The mothers were interviewed about their child-care network and about stressful life events that may have occurred since the infants birth. The HOME inventory was completed and videotapes of 2 hours of home observations were coded to assess maternal proximity, verbalizations, activity, and physical contact with the infant. Interview data indicated that adolescent mothers relied more frequently on other teenagers and other network members for help in child care than nonadolescent mothers. In addition, they also received more frequent support from their mothers and less frequent help from their partners and partners mother and siblings than nonadolescent mothers. During the home visit, they were less verbal with their infants and scored significantly lower on the Responsiveness and Maternal Involvement subscales as well as on the total HOME inventory; these results were replicated on subgroups matched for socioeconomic status, emphasizing the unique social context and parenting practices of teenage mothers.

NEURODEVELOPMENTAL AND MEDICAL STATUS OF LOW‐BIRTHWEIGHT SURVIVORS OF BRONCHOPULMONARY DYSPLASIA AT 10 TO 12 YEARS OF AGE

Thirty low‐birthweight (<1500g) infants (15 with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and 15 controls 5 days O2) and 15 fullterm controls were evaluated at 10 to 12 years of age. BPD children weighed less than fullterm children and had smaller head circumferences than either preterm or fullterm controls. They also had significantly more neurological abnormality than both control groups. BPD children and preterm controls had lower WISC‐R arithmetic scores and lower Beery VMI scores, as well as greater need of resources and special education compared with fullterm controls. BPD survivors at 10 to 12 years of age continue to manifest sequelae related to their early pulmonary disease.

Effects of intraventricular hemorrhage and socioeconomic status on perceptual, cognitive, and neurologic status of low birth weight infants at 5 years of age

A prospective longitudinal study assessed the effects of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and socioeconomic status on the perceptual, cognitive, and neurologic status of preterm infants at 5 years of age. The preterm group consisted of infants with no IVH, grade I to II IVH, and grade III to IV IVH; a control group of normal term infants was also studied. Outcome was evaluated at 3, 4, and 5 years of age. Twenty-four percent of infants with grade III to IV IVH had abnormal neurologic diagnoses at 5 years of age. Correlations of predictor variables including IVH status, latency of visual evoked response, days of hospitalization, and socioeconomic status with 5-year neurologic outcome indicated that IVH status and visual evoked response at 1, 2, and 3 years continued to have an effect on neurologic outcome, but socioeconomic status and days of hospitalization did not; socioeconomic status did have a significant effect on the McCarthy cognitive scores but not on the perceptual scores at 5 years. Multiple regression analyses revealed that duration of hospitalization (reflecting neonatal morbidity), visual evoked response, and socioeconomic status all have independent effects on the cognitive index, whereas only duration of hospitalization has an independent effect on the perceptual index. These data support the concept that a complex interaction of biologic and environmental risk factors determines the degree of recovery from IVH by high-risk preterm infants.

Mothering against the Odds: Diverse Voices of Contemporary Mothers

Inevitably, reading is one of the requirements to be undergone. To improve the performance and quality, someone needs to have something new every day. It will suggest you to have more inspirations, then. However, the needs of inspirations will make you searching for some sources. Even from the other people experience, internet, and many books. Books and internet are the recommended media to help you improving your quality and performance.

Maternal and Environmental Factors Affecting Developmental Outcome of Infants of Adolescent Mothers

The effect of maternal and environmental factors on the developmental outcome of infants with low medical risk born to adolescent and non-adolescent, primiparous, Caucasian mothers was studied. Twentyone were adolescent mothers ( ≤ 17 years of age) and 21 were non-adolescent (21-29 years of age). Assessment of child care support, life stress, and home environment were carried out at 4 months. Infants were examined at 8 months, and child care support and life stress were reassessed. Adolescent mothers reported less child care support at both 4 and 8 months and more life stress at 8 months than non-adolescent mothers. Adolescent mothers were also found to be less responsive, used restriction and punishment more often, and were less involved with their infants during the home observation. Infants of adolescent mothers had lower Bayley Mental Development Indices at 8 months. A theoretical model, whereby the mothers age, education, and socioeconomic status (SES) were conducive to less optimal child care support and life stress, which in turn affected the infants cognitive status, was supported by this data. Thus, within a low medical risk population, we have documented the significant role of maternal and environmental factors in determining the infants cognitive status. J Dev Behav Pediatr 7:230-236, 1986.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF LOW-BIRTHWEIGHT INFANTS AT TWO YEARS

Fifty low‐birth weight (LBW) and 18 fullterm normal infants were prospectively evaluated at eight months and two years of age for language development and neurodevelopmental status. The LBW cohort was divided into those who were appropriate for gestational age (AGA) (N = 35) and small for gestational age (SGA) (N= 15) to assess the effect of intra‐uterine growth retardation on language development within a premature population. LBW SGA infants lagged significantly behind term infants in both receptive and expressive language, but to a lesser degree than LBW AGA infants. Multiple regression analyses of gestational age, Hollingshead socio‐economic status score, and eight‐month neurological score as independent variables, and the receptive and expressive language scores as dependent variables, indicated that these three predictor variables had a significant cumulative effect on language development. Language was delayed in 28 per cent of the LBW children at two years.