Susan Pick

Functional relationships in the nuclear and extended family: A 16-culture study

This study investigated the relationship between culture, structural aspects of the nuclear and extended family, and functional aspects of the family, that is, emotional distance, social interaction, and communication, as well as geographical proximity. The focus was on the functional aspects of family, defined as members of the nuclear family (mother, father, and their children) and the extended family (grandmother/grandfather, aunt/uncle, cousins). Sixteen cultures participated in this study, with a total number of 2587 participants. The first hypothesis, that the pattern of scores on the psychological measures and the behavioral outcomes are similar across cultures, an indication of cultural universality, was supported. The second hypothesis, that functional relations between members of the nuclear family and their kin are maintained in high-affluent and low-affluent cultures, and that differences in functional relationships in high- and low-affluent cultures are a matter of degree, was also supported ...

Changing community responses to wife abuse: A research and demonstration project in Iztacalco, Mexico.

This article describes the process of designing a multifaceted community-based intervention to change community responses to wife abuse in Iztacalco a low-income community on the outskirts of Mexico City. The goal of the intervention is to encourage women to recognize and disclose abuse and to encourage more constructive less victim-blaming attitudes among family members friends and the community at large. The intervention is based on the belief that the response that a woman first gets upon disclosing her situation will be critical in setting the course of her future actions. The intervention includes small-scale media (e.g. buttons posters events) and a 12-session workshop to train women as community change agents. The design is based on insights derived from formative research and from the transtheoretical model of behavior change as elaborated by J.O. Prochaska and C.C. DiClemente (1982) and adapted to the special case of domestic violence by J. Brown (1997). The article also illustrates the utility of adapting popular education techniques to the research setting in order facilitate more honest disclosure of prevailing norms and attitudes about abuse. (authors)

Longitudinal study of a School based HIV/AIDS early prevention program for Mexican Adolescents

Abstract A quasi-experimental study is reported with four measurement occasions to evaluate longer-term effects of a life-skills and HIV/AIDS school-based prevention program. Trained teachers administered the program promoting precursors of safer sex behavior to 2064 Mexican high-school students at an age before most were sexually active. The variables included in the study (knowledge about HIV/AIDS prevention, attitudes towards use of condoms, subjective norms, intentions to use condoms and life skills as decision-making skills, partner communication and individual responsibility) have been reported as precursors of protective sexual behavior. The results demonstrate the stability of training effects and a positive impact on these precursors over 1 year of follow-up.

Integrating Intervention Theory and Strategy in Culture-Sensitive Health Promotion Programs

One of the tasks of psychology is to promote positive changes in individual health behavior. Interventions to bring about these changes should be directed at skills knowledge, and beliefs pertinent to specific situations.Maintenance of change is facilitated by a conducive context. A conceptual framework is presented that reflects these concerns A systematic strategy is also outlined that includes needs analysis, development and piloting of programs, as well as advocacy and dissemination for large-scale implementation. A program aimed at enhancing the role of pharmacy sales staff in HIV/AIDS prevention in Mexico is presented to illustrate how the framework and strategy are used.

Health education and agency: A comprehensive program for young women in the Mixteca region of Mexico

Abstract The Si yo estoy bien, mi familia también (“If I am OK then so is my family”) is a health and agency education program that was provided over a period of 3 years to 39,000 rural women in Oaxaca, Mexico. The purpose of the article is to describe the development, implementation and evaluation of the program. The theoretical rationale and strategy of this intervention are described, as well as the construction of the program and the implementation. Moreover, an evaluation of the various stages of the program is provided, to enable an assessment of its efficacy, and the scope for dissemination and scaling up.

Children left behind: how to mitigate the effects and facilitate emotional and psychosocial development: supportive community networks can diminish the negative effects of parental migration.

he migration of parents affects their children in many ways. Often, parents migrate at a stage in their children’s development when they are especially in need of a stable environment. Indeed, parental migration can affect a child’s poverty level and sense of abandonment. Additionally, particularly when mothers migrate, their older children may have to spend more time doing housework and taking care of other family Similarly, if men migrate, women may be required to spend more time engaged in paid work, which reduces the time mothers have to spend with their children. Other potential consequences for children left behind when parents migrate include inadequate family bonding, inconsistencies in parental roles, emotional vulnerability, and exposure to violence. In addition, parental migration can lead to difficulties with cultural identity, given the fremembers and therefore may pay less attention to school activities.

VIII. Sexual Pleasure as a Key Component of Integral Sexual Health

Latin American politicians, educators, and policy makers are finally recognizing the need for sexuality education. Within the past 10 years, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico have passed laws making sexuality education mandatory. These laws are a response to social and public health crises stemming from sexual behaviour: large numbers of teenage pregnancies, the spread of HIV and AIDS, and high incidence of other sexually transmitted diseases. In Mexico, where patriarchal social norms have traditionally blocked the dissemination of information about sex, negotiation with opposition groups and key authorities at different levels in the education structure has been important for the implementation of sexuality education nationwide (Pick et al., 2000). This article focuses on Mexico, concentrating on research and educational projects carried out by our organization, IMIFAP (Instituto Mexicano de Investigación en Familia y Población, i.e. Mexican Institute for Research on Family and Population). Many studies analyzing discourses of sexuality in Mexico and other parts of Latin America suggest that sexual pleasure and empowerment have often been understood to be male prerogatives, while social norms have discouraged female agency or autonomy, especially with regard to women’s sexuality. Much of the education that is imparted to girls within their homes reinforces gender stereotypes, urging girls to be ‘good’, loyal, and chaste and telling them that their ‘body is for others’ (Sayavedra and Flores, 1997). For example, a woman should sit with her legs close together, be very discreet in matters related to sexuality, and be resigned to the man that God/fate sends her (‘que te toca’), as he will be the father of her children and her only sexual partner (Givaudan et al., 1994). A man, on the other hand, is expected to make decisions, have as many sexual partners and children as possible and have

Enhancement of underused cervical cancer prevention services in rural Oaxaca, Mexico

En este trabajo se analizan los resultados de la aplicacion del programa educacional Porque me quiero, me cuido, denominado actualmente Yo quiero, yo puedo. . . prevenir el cancer, en poblaciones rurales e indigenas de Valles Centrales, estado de Oaxaca, una de las regiones mas pobres de Mexico. Este programa esta dirigido a promover el uso de servicios de tamizaje y la prevencion del cancer cervicouterino mediante el cambio de conducta de las personas y la comunidad. Para ello se realizaron talleres interactivos enfocados al desarrollo de habilidades y conocimientos en las mujeres de 15 a 64 anos de edad. Estos talleres se complementaron con campanas en la comunidad y talleres para hombres con el fin de conseguir su apoyo. Se cuantificaron las pruebas de Papanicolau realizadas en las 10 poblaciones intervenidas y en 6 poblaciones con caracteristicas similares empleadas como control. Ademas se evaluo mediante un cuestionario los cambios en la conducta, los conocimientos y las actitudes. Se observo un numero significativamente mayor de pruebas de Papanicolau realizadas en las poblaciones intervenidas con respecto a las de control (P = 0,02). Se comprobaron cambios positivos en el nivel de conocimientos de las mujeres respecto a las causas del cancer cervical y las medidas para prevenirlo.

Effectiveness of a Mexican Health Education Program in a Poverty-Stricken Rural Area of Guatemala

In this article, the authors discuss the transfer to Guatemala of an integral health education program, originally developed for indigenous women in southern Mexico. The program was implemented with some 400 indigenous women in rural Guatemala living under dire poverty, and was carried out through a closely supervised cascade process in which specially trained local women conducted workshops to their fellow countrywomen. The program aimed at imparting knowledge as well as enabling changes in behavior with respect to everyday life issues, including nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, and sexual and reproductive health. Evaluation of the impact through questionnaires and direct observations showed significant increases in knowledge and actual behaviors.

NGO–government partnerships for scaling up: sexuality education in Mexico

Governments in developing countries need effective programmes to advance public policies and improve social welfare. NGOs often have well-tested programmes and research outcomes that are relevant to such needs, yet the scaling up of pilot programmes to national level is difficult to achieve and frequently unsuccessful. This article presents a case of successful scaling up for an adolescent sexual-health and psychosocial-competencies programme in Mexico, through an NGO–government partnership involving IMIFAP, a Mexican NGO. The case illustrates how an NGO can create a successful partnership with government to scale up effective programmes, in ways that meet key needs of the target population while protecting the NGOs core values.