Test of a cultural framework of parenting with Latino families of young children

This study examined the mental health and academic functioning of 442 4- and 5-year old children of Mexican (MA) and Dominican (DA) immigrant mothers using a cultural framework of Latino parenting. Data were collected on mothers' self-reported acculturative status, parenting practices and cultural socialization, and on children's behavioral functioning (mother- and teacher-report) and school readiness (child test). Results provide partial support for the validity of the framework in which mothers' acculturative status and socialization of respeto (a Latino cultural value of respect) and independence (a U.S. American cultural value) predict parenting practices. For both groups, English language competence was related to less socialization of respeto, and other domains of acculturative status (i.e., U.S. American/ethnic identity, and U.S. American/ethnic cultural competence) were related to more socialization of respeto and independence. Socialization of respeto was related to the use of authoritarian practices and socialization of independence was related to the use of authoritative practices. Socialization of respeto was also related to lower school readiness for DA children, whereas socialization of independence was related to higher school readiness for MA children. Independence was also related to higher teacher-rated externalizing problems for MA children. For both groups, authoritarian parenting was associated with more parent-reported internalizing and externalizing problems. The discussion focuses on ethnic subgroup differences and similarities to further understanding of Latino parenting from a cultural perspective.     

Help‐Seeking Behavior Prior to Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts

T he association between help‐seeking and nearly lethal suicide attempts was evaluated using data from a population‐based, case‐control study of 153 13‐ to 34‐year‐old suicide attempt case‐patients treated at emergency departments in Houston, Texas, and a random sample of 513 control‐subjects. Measures of help‐seeking included whether the participant sought help for health/emotional problems in the past month, type of consultant contacted, and whether suicide was discussed during the interaction. Overall, friends/family were consulted most frequently (48%). After controlling for potential confounders, case‐patients were less likely than control‐subjects to seek help from any consultant (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3–0.8) or a professional (e.g., physician, counselor) consultant (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.29–0.8). Among those who sought help, case‐patients were more likely than to discuss suicide (OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.2–5.4), particularly with professionals (OR = 11.8, 95% CI = 3.2–43.2). Our findings suggest that efforts to better understand the role of help‐seeking in suicide prevention, including help sought from family and friends, deserves further attention.     

Historical changes in cigarette smoking and smoking-related beliefs after 2 decades in a midwestern community.

Rates of cigarette smoking and smoking-related beliefs in 1980 and 2001 among 7th-11th graders in a midwestern community were compared. Smoking was less prevalent in 2001 than in 1980, with the greatest declines in experimental smoking and a smaller drop in regular smoking. Beliefs about smoking generally became more negative. Adolescents (particularly nonsmokers) viewed smoking as more addictive and as having more negative social consequences in 2001 than in 1980 and had more negative attitudes toward smoking in 2001. These results were replicated among parent-child pairs in which parents were measured when they were adolescents between 1980 and 1983 and their children were measured in 2001. These beliefs and attitudes partially mediated the effects of time on smoking.     

The Cross versus the Crescent: Karl Kumm’s Missiology

ABSTRACT

This article surveys the missiology promoted in the writings of the Protestant missionary Karl Kumm during the first decades of the twentieth century. Kumm was famous as a missionary explorer. He was the first European to successfully cross the region known as the Sudan, from the Niger bend to the Nile. He was also notable because he founded two different missions in two different places in Africa, both aimed at evangelizing the peoples of the Sudan. Lastly, Kumm was significant for having constructed in his various writings a highly influential case against the evangelization of Muslims and for the evangelization of traditionalist people. Kumm, his ideas and actions helped shape government policy towards Christian missions and Christian–Muslim relations in colonial Northern Nigeria.     

‘Pissed Off and Confused’/‘Grateful and (Re)Moved’: Affect,Privilege and National Commemoration in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article explores affect, colonial privilege, and the cultural politics of national commemoration in Aotearoa New Zealand. Based on focus-group interviews around two major national days, we examine means through which feelings and emotions are deployed in ways that enable the reproduction of social advantage. Situating affect within patterns of relationship, four interrelated affective-discursive practices are explored. In relation to Waitangi Day, agents tend to work under the rubric of anger and confusion. For Anzac Day, being grateful and moved shapes the interaction, although participants often indicate preferences towards “having a day off.” Given the colonial context in which these practices circulate, analysis observes the associated freedom and ease by which affective-discursive privilege is (re)produced. Often incongruent and rarely challenged, privilege allows associated actors to do what they want, when they want, however they want. This affective climate authorizes the ongoing reproduction of, and justification for, membership to a higher-status ethnic group of which unearned opportunities and entitlements remain its everyday, expected currency.     

Moving Beyond Self‐Report: Implicit Associations about Death/Life Prospectively Predict Suicidal Behavior among Veterans

Reliance on self‐report limits clinicians' ability to accurately predict suicidal behavior. In this study the predictive validity of an objective measure, the death/suicide Implicit Association Test (d/sIAT), was tested among psychiatrically hospitalized veterans. Following acute stabilization, 176 participants completed the d/sIAT and traditional suicide risk assessments. Participants had similar d/sIAT scores regardless of whether they had recently attempted suicide. However, d/sIAT scores significantly predicted suicide attempts during the 6‐month follow‐up above and beyond other known risk factors for suicidal behavior (OR = 1.89; 95% CI: 1.15–3.12; based on 1SD increase). The d/sIAT may augment the accuracy of suicide risk assessment.     

Emergent Simple Discrimination via Transfer from Differentially Reinforced S+ Stimuli: A Further Test of the Stimulus-Response Interaction Model

This study examined emergent form discrimination through contiguity of the forms (B stimuli) with colours (A stimuli) associated with different magnitudes of reinforcement. In Experiment 1, children were trained on two colour discriminations. In both, the colour stimuli had the same form: A1B1/A2B1 and A3B1/A2B1. Responding to A1/B1 was followed by three units of reinforcement, to A3B1 by one unit of reinforcement, and to A2B1 by no reinforcement. There followed five tests in which stimuli were presented without programmed consequences. These assessed: (1) the maintenance of accurate performance on the training tasks; (2) S+ preference (A1B1/A3B1); (3) stimulus generalization (A1B2/A2B3, A3B4/A2B5); (4) S+ preference again (A1B6/A3B6); and (5) transfer from the S+ colours to the forms (A4B2/A4B4). On the final test, seven of the eight subjects selected A4B2. Experiment 2 demonstrated that a preference for A4B2 also occurred when the S+ preference tests were omitted. This preference was also found when the total amounts of reinforcement associated with the S+ colours (A1 and A3) were the same (Experiment 3). These findings: (a) indicate that children can acquire new discriminations under non-reinforced conditions through contiguity with differentially reinforced S+ stimuli; (b) support the Stimulus-Response Interaction model (Smeets, 1993) for specifying transfer.     

Establishing Arbitrary Stimulus Classes via Identity-matching Training and Non-reinforced Matching with Complex Stimuli

The present study investigated whether training on an identity match-to-sample task followed by non-reinforced matching probes with complex stimuli leads to the emergence of multiple arbitrary matching performances and arbitrary stimulus classes in preschool children. In Experiment 1, eight subjects were trained on a colour-matching task (A-A). Then they received tests with complex AB and AC colour-form stimuli (AB-A, B-AB; AC-A, C-AC). These tasks were designed to help subjects respond to both elements of each complex stimulus. Subsequent B-A, C-A, A-B, A-C, B-C, and C-B tests revealed that all subjects had acquired class-consistent colour-form and form-form relations. Experiment 2 examined whether these results could be replicated when subjects were encouraged to respond to the colour elements of some (AB) complex stimuli and to the form elements of other (AC) stimuli. The procedures were the same as in Experiment 1 except that during the first test only A-AB and C-AC tasks were used. Six of eight subjects demonstrated all tested relations.     

Reforming Marriage: A Comparative Approach

In this article, I examine the case for privatising marriage and replacing civil marriage with inclusive civil union policies. I argue against this proposal because of its likely detrimental impact on the social standing of women and girls. In order to assess the importance of civil marriage historically and cross‐culturally, I examine a contemporary debate over marriage reform in some predominantly Islamic societies in regard to temporary marriage. I also propose a policy to protect the interests of children of both married and unmarried parents, so that this issue will be less of a stumbling block to proposals for inclusive civil marriage.