Prevention and Intervention Research With Latino Families: A Translational Approach

The present paper takes a translational approach in applying the themes of the current special section to prevention and intervention science in Latino families. The paper reviews the current literature on cultural processes in prevention and intervention research with Latino families. Overall, many prevention and intervention programs have either been developed specifically for Latino families or have been modified for Latino families with great attention paid to the socio‐cultural needs of these families. Nevertheless, few studies have tested the role of cultural values or acculturation processes on outcomes. We make recommendations based on findings within basic science and in particular this special section on the incorporation of these values and processes into prevention and intervention science with Latino families.     

Cultural Differences in Visual Search for Geometric Figures

While some studies suggest cultural differences in visual processing, others do not, possibly because the complexity of their tasks draws upon high‐level factors that could obscure such effects. To control for this, we examined cultural differences in visual search for geometric figures, a relatively simple task for which the underlying mechanisms are reasonably well known. We replicated earlier results showing that North Americans had a reliable search asymmetry for line length: Search for long among short lines was faster than vice versa. In contrast, Japanese participants showed no asymmetry. This difference did not appear to be affected by stimulus density. Other kinds of stimuli resulted in other patterns of asymmetry differences, suggesting that these are not due to factors such as analytic/holistic processing but are based instead on the target‐detection process. In particular, our results indicate that at least some cultural differences reflect different ways of processing early‐level features, possibly in response to environmental factors.     

Critical reflections on second-generation mindfulness-based interventions

ObjectivesThe purpose of this paper is to provide a critical introduction on Second-Generation Mindfulness-Based Interventions (SG-MBIs) to sport and performance psychology scholars and practitioners.MethodThis essay is written as a commentary on Roychowdhury et al.’s, (2021, this issue) article in this issue. Specifically, I apply theoretical insights from Roychowdhury et al., (2021, this issue) to the practical model of SG-MBIs.ResultsI find that SG-MBIs attempt to respond to ethical concerns with the ways that mindfulness has been commodified, secularized, and universalized through appeals to cultural authenticity.DiscussionWhile acknowledging the cultural contexts from which practices like mindfulness have been taken is important, appeals to cultural authenticity often reproduce fixed and essentializing constructions of culture and are easily coopted by neoliberal multiculturalism.ConclusionAs sport and performance psychology professionals reflect on the next generation of mindfulness-based interventions, it will be important to attend to the contextual flexibility of neoliberalism to universalize and essentialize.     

A Balancing Act: Integrating Evidence‐Based Knowledge and Cultural Relevance in a Program of Prevention Parenting Research with Latino/a Immigrants

Family therapists have a unique opportunity to contribute toward the reduction of widespread mental health disparities impacting diverse populations by developing applied lines of research focused on cultural adaptation. For example, although evidence‐based prevention parent training (PT) interventions have been found to be efficacious with various Euro‐American populations, there is a pressing need to understand which specific components of PT interventions are perceived by ethnic minority parents as having the highest impact on their parenting practices. Equally important is to examine the perceived cultural relevance of adapted PT interventions. This qualitative investigation had the primary objective of comparing and contrasting the perceived relevance of two culturally adapted versions of the efficacious parenting intervention known as Parent Management Training, the Oregon Model (PMTO). According to feasibility indicators provided by 112 Latino/a immigrant parents, as well as findings from a qualitative thematic analysis, the core parenting components across both adapted interventions were identified by the majority of research participants as relevant to their parenting practices. Participants exposed to the culturally enhanced intervention, which included culture‐specific sessions, also reported high satisfaction with components exclusively focused on cultural issues that directly impact their parenting practices (e.g., immigration challenges, biculturalism). This investigation illustrates the relevant contributions that family therapy scholars can offer toward addressing mental health disparities, particularly as it refers to developing community‐based prevention interventions that achieve a balance between evidence‐based knowledge and cultural relevance.     

A Community‐Responsive Adaptation to Reach and Engage Latino Families Affected by Maternal Depression

As family researchers and practitioners seek to improve the quality and accessibility of mental health services for immigrant families, they have turned to culturally adapted interventions. Although many advancements have been made in adapting interventions for such families, we have yet to understand how the adaptation can ensure that the intervention is reaching families identified to be in greatest need within a local system of care and community. We argue that reaching, engaging, and understanding the needs of families entails a collaborative approach with multiple community partners to ensure that adaptations to intervention content and delivery are responsive to the sociocultural trajectory of families within a community. We describe a cultural adaptation framework that is responsive to the unique opportunities and challenges of identifying and recruiting vulnerable families through community partnerships, and of addressing the needs of families by incorporating multiple community perspectives. Specifically, we apply these principles to the cultural adaptation of an intervention originally developed for low‐income African American and White families facing maternal depression. The new intervention, Fortalezas Familiares (Family Strengths), was targeted to Latino immigrant families whose mothers were in treatment for depression in mental health and primary care clinics. We conclude with key recommendations and directions for how family researchers and practitioners can design the cultural adaptation of interventions to be responsive to the practices, preferences, and needs of underserved communities, including families and service providers.     

The mediating role of cultural coping behaviours on the relationships between academic stress and positive psychosocial well‐being outcomes

While culture's effect on the coping process has long been acknowledged in the stress‐coping literature conceptually, empirical evidence and attempts to discern the specific relationship between culture and coping remain very scarce. Against this backdrop, the present study applied the Cultural Transactional Theory (Chun, Moos, & Cronkite, 2006) to examine the mediating role of cultural coping behaviours (Collective, Engagement and Avoidance Coping) on the relationship between academic stress (AS) and two positive psychosocial well‐being outcome measures: Collective Self‐esteem (CSE) and Subjective Well‐being (SWB). Responses from a sample of undergraduate students in Canada (N = 328) were analysed to test a theory‐driven, hypothesised model of coping using structural equation modelling (SEM). As hypothesised, the SEM results showed that: (a) the proposed cultural coping model fit the data well; (b) Engagement Coping and Collective Coping partially mediated the association between AS and the outcomes and (c) the path relationships among the constructs were in the hypothesised directions. A set of preliminary exploratory analyses indicated that Collective Coping was most strongly endorsed by the African/Black and the Middle Eastern cultural groups as compared to other ethnic groups. Implications of the study's findings for future research and practice concerning culture, stress, and coping are discussed.     

Suitability of published neuropsychological test norms for urban African secondary school students in South Africa

Variations in neuropsychological test performance as a function of ethnic/cultural group membership, socioeconomic and educational status are widely documented. In South Africa, issues of cultural difference, sociopolitical disadvantage, cognitive and educational limitations, are of particular relevance. Accordingly, this study investigated the performance on a neuropsychological test battery of urban African high school students. A group of 100 Soweto students in Grades 8–12, and a second group of 152 sixth grade Soweto students aged 13–15 years, scored significantly lower on most of the measures than their American counterparts, as reflected in published norms. Results also demonstrated a significant difference in test performance as a function of educational grade. The findings confirmed the need for using norms and approaches which are appropriate to a given population when interpreting and addressing neuropsychological test performance.     

The Red Road to Wellness: Cultural Reclamation in a Native First Nations Community Treatment Center

This article explores how Native American cultural practices were incorporated into the therapeutic activities of a community-controlled substance abuse treatment center on a "First Nations" reserve in the Canadian north. Analysis of open-ended interviews with nineteen staff and clients-as contextualized by participant observation, program records, and existing ethnographic resources-yielded insights concerning local therapeutic practice with outpatients and other community members. Specifically, program staff adopted and promoted a diverse array of both western and Aboriginal approaches that were formally integrated with reference to the Aboriginal symbol of the medicine wheel. Although incorporations of indigenous culture marked Lodge programs as distinctively Aboriginal in character, the subtle but profound influence of western "therapy culture" was centrally evident in healing activities as well. Nuanced explication of these activities illustrated four contributions of cultural analysis for community psychology.     

Developmental differences in working memory: Where do they come from?

Several models assume that working memory development depends on age-related increases in efficiency and speed of processing. However, age-related increases in the efficiency of the mechanisms that counteract forgetting and restore memory traces may also be important. This hypothesis was tested in three experiments by manipulating both the processing duration within a working memory task and the time available to restore memory traces. Third- and sixth-grade children performed a complex span task in which they maintained series of letters while adding numbers to series of digits. When we equated processing and restoration times between ages, the developmental difference in working memory span was reduced but remained significant. However, this residual difference was eliminated when the time available to reactivate memory traces was tailored to the processing speed of each age group. This indicates that children employ active mechanisms for maintenance and restoration of memory traces that develop with age.     

Socialization of past event talk: Cultural differences in maternal elaborative reminiscing

This study examines mother-child reminiscing conversations with respect to variation in use and function of mothers’ elaborations, the nature of children's memory elaborations, and the connections between the two, in three Western middle-class cultures where autonomy is valued over relatedness. Mothers participated with their 4-year-old children (35 dyads from Berlin, Germany, 42 dyads from Stockholm, Sweden, and 38 from Tallinn, Estonia). Mothers’ open-ended questions predicted children's memory elaborations in Estonian dyads, mothers’ statements and verbal confirmation did so in German dyads, and verbal confirmations did so in Swedish dyads. Number of children's elaborations was similar in all three groups, but Estonian mothers were less elaborative than Swedish and German mothers. These findings contrast with previous research in which number of child elaborations has been linked to number of mother elaborations. The results suggest that different aspects of elaborative style function differently. The differences are discussed in light of culturally rooted meanings and practices of talking.