Father Involvement in Immigrant and Ethnically Diverse Families from the Prenatal Period to the Second Year: Prediction and Mediating Mechanisms

This longitudinal study focused on fathers’ involvement from the prenatal period through infants’ first year in Dominican immigrants (n?=?73), Mexican immigrants (n?=?65) and African Americans (n?=?66) residing in New York City. Fathers’ prenatal involvement, the quality of the mother–father relationship, fathers’ postnatal involvement with their 1- and 6 month olds and fathers’ involvement with their 14 month-olds (i.e., time spent with infant; eating meals with infant; activities with infant) were examined. Father involvement was uniformly high and stable. Fathers’ prenatal involvement predicted involvement at 14 months, and the quality of the mother–father relationship mediated these associations. Father ethnicity and residency moderated associations between the father–mother relationship, father postnatal involvement and father involvement with 14 month olds.     

Development and validation of adolescent-perceived microsystem scales: Social support,daily hassles,and involvement

Developed and validated instruments for urban and culturally diverse adolescents to assess their self-reported transactions with family, peer, school, and neighborhood microsystems for the constructs of social support, daily hassles, and involvement. The sample of 998 youth were from schools in three Eastern cities with high percentages of economically disadvantaged youth. Data were collected before and after the transition to junior high school or to senior high school. Blacks constituted 26%, whites 26%, and Latinos 37% of the sample. Factor analyses confirmed and enhanced the hypothesized four-factor microsystem factor structure for support, hassles, and involvement; internal consistency and stability coefficients were consistent with these structures. In general, the microsystem factors were common across gender, ethnicity, and age. However, when group differences did occur on these demographic variables, they tended to validate the salience of microsystem specificity. In contrast to the total scores, the microsystem-specific factors yielded more meaningful and differential information with regard to demographic differences and the mediating processes across a school transition.     

The use of ethnic minority populations in published psychological research, 1990-1999

For this study, the authors analyzed the contents of 16 psychology journals for the presence of empirical articles on African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans during the period ranging from 1990 to 1999. In 6 APA journals, there was a low percentage (4.7%) of such articles. African Americans were the most studied ethnic group. Data collected for this study also indicated that minority research has been increasing more in non-APA journals than in APA journals. In both APA and non-APA journals, counseling-oriented journals had higher percentages of minority articles than did journals of other subdisciplines. Possible explanations, consequences, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

What Front-Line CBO Staff Can Tell Us About Culturally Anchored Theories of Behavior Change in HIV Prevention for Asian/Pacific Islanders

Few rigorously tested primary prevention programs have been developed to prevent HIV infection among immigrant communities in the United States. This is in part because of the lack of culturally specific behavioral theories that can inform HIV prevention for immigrant communities in the United States. This article aims to develop such theories for a population—Asian/Pacific Islanders (A/PIs) immigrant communities—who have been overlooked in theory development and program evaluation. Frontline community-based organization (CBO) peer educators, an underutilized source of expertise regarding cultural factors specific to HIV infection among A/PI communities, are the sample of study Asian/Pacific Islander peer educators working at an urban AIDS service organization devoted to health promotion for this population; (N=35). They were interviewed to examine (1) detailed narratives describing instances of behavior change and (2) culturally anchored theories of behavior change which the narratives imply. Theories of the influence of positive cultural symbols on the taboo of HIV/AIDS, moderators of the effectiveness of social network influences on behavior change, and setting- and community-level processes predicting HIV risk behavior were implicit in the peer educators' narratives. Implications for future research, methodology and prevention practice are discussed.     

Deep processing makes stimuli more preferable over long durations

The purpose of the current study was twofold. First, we investigated whether the type of stimulus processing (e.g. levels of processing) influenced preferences for novel objects. Second, we examined whether the influence of levels of processing on preferences was long lasting (e.g. longer than a day/week). Results showed that levels of processing affected preferences whereby more deeply processed stimuli were preferred over those that were shallowly processed. This effect was more robust for stimuli that were presented multiple times. Additionally, this levels of processing effect lasted for up to 6 weeks, suggesting stability in preferences for information that was more deeply processed. We discuss these results in terms of theories predicting the role of stimulus properties and exposure on the development of preferences.     

Language experiences and vocabulary development in Dominican and Mexican infants across the first 2 years

We longitudinally investigated parental language context and infants' language experiences in relation to Dominican American and Mexican American infants' vocabularies. Mothers provided information on parental language context, comprising measures of parents' language background (i.e., childhood language) and current language use during interviews at infants' birth. Infants' language experiences were measured at ages 14 months and 2 years through mothers' reports of mothers' and fathers' engagement in English and Spanish literacy activities with infants and mothers' English and Spanish utterances during videotaped mother-infant interactions. Infants' vocabulary development at 14 months and 2 years was examined using standardized vocabulary checklists in English and Spanish. Both parental language context and infants' language experiences predicted infants' vocabularies in each language at both ages. Furthermore, language experiences mediated associations between parental language context and infants' vocabularies. However, the specific mediation mechanisms varied by language.     

Perceived social image and life satisfaction across cultures

We studied the relationship between perceived social image and life satisfaction in four different cultural groups. One-hundred nine Indian (63 females, 46 males), 67 Pakistani/Bangladeshi (36 females, 31 males), 76 White British (43 females, 33 males), and 94 European Americans (43 females, 48 males) completed measures on the cultural importance of social image, positive and negative emotions, academic achievement, and perceived social image. Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi participants valued social image more than White British and European-American participants. Consistent with this value difference, a positive perceived social image predicted life satisfaction among Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi participants only. For these participants, perceived social image predicted life satisfaction above and beyond the effects of emotions and academic achievement. Academic achievement only predicted life satisfaction among White British and European Americans. Emotions were significant predictors of life satisfaction for all participants.     

Perceived group devaluation, depression, and HIV-risk behavior among Asian gay men.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined depressive mood and HIV-risk behavior in relation to perceived group devaluation and group identity. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of 192 Asian gay men. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Depressive mood assessed using the Centers for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and self-reported receptive or insertive unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) in the past 3 months. RESULTS: Group devaluation was positively associated with depressive mood. Among participants most attracted to Whites, group devaluation was associated with higher levels of nonprimary partner UAI; but was associated with lower levels of nonprimary partner UAI [corrected] among those most attracted to non-Whites. Among participants reporting higher levels of group devaluation, those with more positive personal evaluations of the Asian gay community had lower levels of total UAI compared to those with more negative personal evaluations of the Asian gay community. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that group devaluation is associated with higher levels of depressive mood among Asian gay men. Asian gay men most attracted to non-Whites or hold more positive evaluations of their group may be buffered from the influence of high perceived group devaluation on UAI.     

Dynamic facial expressions of emotion induce representational momentum

Two experiments were conducted to explore whether representational momentum (RM) emerges in the perception of dynamic facial expression and whether the velocity of change affects the size of the effect. Participants observed short morphing animations of facial expressions from neutral to one of the six basic emotions. Immediately afterward, they were asked to select the last images perceived. The results of the experiments revealed that the RM effect emerged for dynamic facial expressions of emotion: The last images of dynamic stimuli that an observer perceived were of a facial configuration showing stronger emotional intensity than the image actually presented. The more the velocity increased, the more the perceptual image of facial expression intensified. This perceptual enhancement suggests that dynamic information facilitates shape processing in facial expression, which leads to the efficient detection of other people's emotional changes from their faces.     

Voluntary settlement and the spirit of independence: evidence from Japan's "Northern frontier"

The authors hypothesized that economically motivated voluntary settlement in the frontier fosters independent agency. While illuminating the historical origin of American individualism, this hypothesis can be most powerfully tested in a region that is embedded in a broader culture of interdependence and yet has undergone a recent history of such settlement. The authors therefore examined residents of Japan's northern island (Hokkaido). Hokkaido was extensively settled by ethnic Japanese beginning in the 1870s and for several decades thereafter. Many of the current residents of Hokkaido are the descendents of the original settlers from this period. As predicted, Japanese socialized and/or immersed in Hokkaido were nearly as likely as European Americans in North America to associate happiness with personal achievement (Study 1), to show a personal dissonance effect wherein self-justification is motivated by a threat to personal self-images (Study 2), and to commit a dispositional bias in causal attribution (Study 3). In contrast, these marker effects of independent agency were largely absent for non-Hokkaido residents in Japan. Implications for theories of cultural change and persistence are discussed.