A vast literature documents a host of advantages conferred upon middle class European American children whose parents employ an authoritative style of parenting, including enhanced academic achievement and positive behavioral outcomes. The literature is much less clear about the relationship between parental authority style and child outcomes in…

The use of depression scales as screening tools at university and college centers is increasing and thus, the question of whether scales are culturally valid for different student groups is increasingly more relevant with increased severity of depression for students and changing student demographics. As such, this study examined the reliability…

This article reports on a study using qualitative methods to investigate intracultural bullying, specifically, bullying between Mexican American (MA) and Mexican immigrant (MI) high school students. Previous research has reported specific cultural conflicts and discrimination within ethnic groups due to differences in acculturation. The purpose of…

The authors examined the contributions of economic status (ES) and citizenship status to health differences between European Americans, Latino Americans, and noncitizen Latinos. The investigation was framed using social identity and comparison theories. Southern California residents (N = 2,164) were randomly selected to complete a telephone…

Confirmatory factor analyses for ordered-categorical measures probed for differential item functioning on a standardized measure of alcohol dependence across Hispanics (n = 834) and non-Hispanic Caucasians (n = 14,001) in a nationally representative survey of alcohol use in the United States conducted in 1992. Analyses investigated whether 30…

Recent evidence suggests that culture is a dynamic construct activated in response to cues encountered in a given situation. Research on acculturation indicates that this is a complex construct that might be domain specific. Two studies were undertaken to investigate the effect of two ways of priming culture on acculturation and enculturation…

Very little research exists on self-harm in Hispanic populations, although there is a strong literature that addresses suicidality in Hispanics. This study compares self-reported rates of self-harm in 255 non-Hispanic White (NHW) and 187 Hispanic (predominantly Mexican American) undergraduate students. Results indicated that self-harm is…

The use of standardized testing to evaluate academic achievement is a widely debated topic. Despite controversies, standardized testing is used in all educational levels from elementary school to college entrance examinations. One of the ethnic groups particularly affected by this is the Mexican-origin population. An integrated model (individual,…

This project analyzed multimodel student archival data to address the relationship between academic achievement, acculturative stress, and coping factors. Participants were 126 children between 8 and 11 years of age (59 White and 67 Latino). Measurements included demographics, SAFE-C, A-COPE, Self-Perception Profile for Children, and Harter…

Maternal health behaviors such as substance use and sexual promiscuity can put the health of mothers and their offspring at risk. Sociodemographic factors including low socioeconomic status are also found to correlate with health risks for childbearing women. Hispanic women--particularly those less acculturated--often have sociodemographic risk…

This article provides a profile of a range of important variables for assessing diversity among different Latino groups from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is a nationally representative study of the mental health needs and mental health services use of the Latino population of the United States. The NLAAS employs…

Latino men who have sex with men are a group at high risk for HIV infection. Much of the research addressing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV among Latinos in the United States has overlooked differences based on nationality. Brazilian immigrants, in particular, are an understudied subgroup of Latinos. This study compared HIV-positive…

This research examines variations in parenting and its effects on child cognitive outcomes across Latino subgroups from a national sampling that utilized a subset of 995 former Head Start Latino parents and children. Comparisons of the Parenting Dimension Inventory scaled scores revealed Latino subgroup differences on nurturance and consistency.…

The metric equivalence of translated scales is often in question but seldom examined. This study presents test-retest data that support the metric equivalence of the Spanish and English language versions of three measures: the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Self-Construal Scale. Participants were…

In 2002, the National Center for Health Statistics conducted Cycle 6 of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), surveying a nationally representative sample of 12,500 women and men from 15 to 44 years of age, including more than 2,700 Hispanics. The process for developing the Spanish version of the NSFG included modified committee…