Juan José Sánchez-Sosa

Parenting Style of Mexican, Mexican American, and Caucasian-Non-Hispanic Families: Social Context and Cultural Influences

To begin accounting for cultural and contextual factors related to child rearing in Mexican-descent (MD; Mexican American and Mexican immigrant) families in the United States, the current study examined parenting practices in 2-parent families of Mexican, MD, and Caucasian-non-Hispanic (CNH) parents. Parents in all groups reported using authoritative practices more often than authoritarian strategies. MD parents reported greater use of authoritarian practices than Mexican and CNH parents. Results suggest that previously found cultural variations in parenting between MD parents and CNH parents may be more related to the ecological context of MD families than to an affiliation with Mexican culture. Clinicians should explore the positive qualities of authoritative parenting in MD families along with the potential motivations for using authoritarian strategies.

Anxiety Reporting and Culturally Associated Interpretation Biases and Cognitive Schemas: A Comparison of Mexican, Mexican American, and European American Families.

This study examined whether Mexican (n = 53), Mexican American (n = 50), and European American (n = 51) children differed in their reporting of anxiety symptoms and whether parental influence and specific cognitive schemas associated with Mexican culture were related to differences in anxiety reporting. As expected, Mexican and Mexican American children reported significantly more physiological and worry symptoms than the European American children. Mexican and Mexican American children endorsed collectivism as a cultural value more strongly than European American children, and the Mexican children evidenced greatest use of social strategies reflecting simpatia. In family discussions of ambiguous, potentially anxiety-arousing situations, Mexican and Mexican American parents verbalized a greater percentage of somatic interpretations than the European American parents. Results indicate potential linkages between cultural values, socialization practices, and anxiety reporting.

Parenting strategies and socio-cultural influences in childhood anxiety: Mexican, Latin American descent, and European American families

This study examined the relationship between anxiety in Latin American children and Latino cultural schemas, parenting strategies, being an ethnic minority, and assimilation. Latin American (n=72; LA) and white European-American (n=46; EA) children living in the U.S., Mexican children living in Mexico (n=99; M), and at least one parent per family (n=283) were administered measures assessing anxiety, parenting strategies, collectivism, family cohesion, simpatia, parent-child communication, and assimilation. M and LA children expressed more anxiety symptoms than EA children. More mother control and less father acceptance were associated with childhood anxiety across all three groups. However, father control was associated with more anxiety for the EA group but not the MA group, and mother acceptance was associated with more anxiety for the EA and MA groups but with less anxiety for the M group. Family cohesion was negatively associated with childrens anxiety independent of ethnic group. Finally, differing from parents in assimilation did not influence LA childrens anxiety.

Asociación entre los niveles de estrés y depresión y la adhesión al tratamiento en personas seropositivas al VIH en Hermosillo, México

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the association between variables related to stress, reasons, and depression, and adherence to treatment in HIV-positive individuals, and to analyze the robustness according to a theoretical psychology model. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of 25 female and 39 male HIV-positive participants receiving services at the Outpatient Center for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS and Sexually-transmitted Diseases (Centro Ambulatorio para la Prevención y Atención del VIH/Sida e Infecciones de Transmisión Sexual) in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. The psychological variables, the degree of treatment adherence, stress-related circumstances, and the severity of depression were examined. Rates were calculated for the key variables associated with stress, reasons, and depression. The associations among variables were determined by multiple regression. RESULTS During the month preceding the study, 65.6% of the 64 participants reported having faithfully followed the prescribed treatment, while 34.4% had failed, in some way, to follow the treatment (chi(2) = 6.250; P = 0.012). Regression analysis found that there was only one combination, an intermediate level of stress linked to tolerance of uncertainty and low levels of depression, that was significantly associated (F [3.58] = 3.298; P = 0.027) with adherence to treatment; the combination of these two variables explained 38.2% of the total variance found. CONCLUSIONS The combination of stress levels with tolerance of uncertainty and depression could be used as a predictor for true compliance with prescribed treatment plans. These results should be taken into account when designing intervention and treatment-adherence campaigns in HIV-positive individuals.

An International Perspective on Behavioral Science Education in Medical Schools

The behavioral sciences are taught in medical curricula around the world. In the current paper psychologists teaching in medical schools in Australia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States share their experience and reflections. Whilst direct comparisons between countries are not made, the themes that are evident within and between accounts are instructive. As behavioral scientists around the globe are struggling to maintain a presence in medical education many of the reasons behind this are shared, regardless of the country. Challenges discussed include those related to the impact of unrealized potential contributions of psychologists as health care professionals, teaching of behavioral sciences by other professions, domination of the biomedical model without a corresponding recognition of psychology as science, and modern medical pedagogies such as problem-based learning, which favor biomedicine. Systemic and political barriers over which we as a discipline may have little control are also highlighted.

Variables Psicológicas y Adhesión en Personas con VIH: Evaluación en función del Tiempo de Infección

Resumen es: Se realizo un estudio transversal con el objetivo de evaluar la influencia de un conjunto de variables psicologicas sobre los comportamientos de adhesion...

Un procedimiento de autoregistro en el manejo de cancer de mama: Un estudio de campo con sujetos desaventajados

Breast cancer prevalence in many developing nations such as those in Latin America continues to grow at a pace that deserves serious attention, since cancer accounts for high morbidity and mortality rates among relatively young women (LaVecchia & Bosetti, 2005). From a clinical standpoint, breast cancer patients suffer not only from the symptoms of cancer itself but from side-effects of invasive treatments (Burish, Shartner & Lyles, 1981; Donovan, Small, Andrykowski, Munster & Jacobsen, 2007; Falleti, Sanfilippo, Maruff, Weih, & Phillips, 2005). In addition to dealing with distress, the home-care component of breast cancer treatment demands complex routines and behaviors which patients with little or no schooling and other socioeconomic disadvantages have serious difficulty implementing. The purpose of the present study was to field test a behavioral self recording procedure with the first six patients who completed treatment, and to probe preliminary effects of a behavioral intervention to support healthcare and reduce distress. Results point toward a reliable, low-cost and practical recording system; as well as improvement in most behavioral and emotional categories for practically all participants.