Dorothy S. Mull

Injury in children of low-income Mexican, Mexican American, and non-Hispanic white mothers in the USA : a focused ethnography

Several studies indicate that rates of serious pediatric injury are higher among Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites in the USA. To investigate possible contributory factors, we interviewed 50 Mexican, 30 Mexican American, and 30 non-Hispanic white mothers in their own homes in the same low-income neighborhoods of Southern California. Mothers were identified via door-to-door canvassing in areas with high rates of pediatric injury. We observed household conditions and behaviors and obtained a detailed family history, including accounts of any occurrence of serious injury in a child under 5 years old, the highest-risk age group for pediatric injury. Results show that Mexican families were poorer, less educated, and lived in more hazardous and crowded conditions than did families in the other two groups. Nevertheless, they benefited from strong family bonds and a cultural tradition in which responsible older children typically supervise younger siblings. In contrast, a number of Mexican American and white mothers had been abused as children and were estranged from their own mothers; hence they lacked support and models of good parenting. There was much less self-reported smoking, drug use, and mental dysfunction among the Mexican mothers and their male partners as well as much less excessively active and/or aggressive behavior among their children. The nature of the injuries reported by the various groups seemed to reflect these differences. Appropriate interventions for each group are discussed. The study illustrates the importance of using ethnographic methods to examine the context of pediatric injury at the household level.

Infanticide Among the Tarahumara of the Mexican Sierra Madre

It is axiomatic to anthropology that human behavior must be understood within the context of the culture in which it occurs. For example, the extreme fear of lightning among the Tarahumara, noted as early as the 17th century (Gonzalez Rodriguez 1982: 178, 196) and today expressed in their baptismal ceremonies (Mull 1985), at first glance seems irrational—a “primitive” fear. It becomes more understandable, however, once it is realized that (a) lightning bolts are common in the region, causing considerable destruction and death, and (b) lightning, like certain other celestial phenomena such as a haze-covered sun, is interpreted by the Tarahumara as a sign of serious cosmic disruption. So too the existence of culturally-sanctioned infanticide may seem incomprehensible unless we understand the internal and external constraints at work to produce it.

Multiethnic families: an underrecognized influence on health statistics.

To the Editor. In Southern California, Agran et al1 found that Hispanic (mainly Mexican) children had much higher rates of serious injury requiring hospitalization than did non-Hispanic white children. To investigate possible reasons for this disparity, we designed an ethnographic study involving in-depth interviews and observations in homes in geographical areas where large numbers of such injuries had occurred. Our subjects consisted of Mexican mothers (born and educated in Mexico), Mexican American mothers (of Mexican ancestry but born and educated in the United States), and non-Hispanic US-born white mothers. We assumed that the children in these families would have the same racial and ethnic …