Neuropsychological,Cognitive, and Theoretical Considerations for Evaluation of Bilingual Individuals

As the number of bilinguals in the USA grows rapidly, it is increasingly important for neuropsychologists to be equipped and trained to address the unique challenges inherent in conducting ethical and competent neuropsychological evaluations with this population. Research on bilingualism has focused on two key cognitive mechanisms that introduce differences between bilinguals and monolinguals: (a) reduced frequency of language-specific use (weaker links), and (b) competition for selection within the language system in bilinguals (interference). Both mechanisms are needed to explain how bilingualism affects neuropsychological test performance, including the robust bilingual disadvantages found on verbal tasks, and more subtle bilingual advantages on some measures of cognitive control. These empirical results and theoretical claims can be used to derive a theoretically informed method for assessing cognitive status in bilinguals. We present specific considerations for measuring degree of bilingualism for both clients and examiners to aid in determinations of approaches to testing bilinguals, with practical guidelines for incorporating models of bilingualism and recent experimental data into neuropsychological evaluations. This integrated approach promises to provide improved clinical services for bilingual clients, and will also contribute to a program of research that will ultimately reveal the mechanisms underlying language processing and executive functioning in bilinguals and monolinguals alike.     

Multi-Level Intervention to Prevent Influenza Infections in Older Low Income and Minority Adults

In this paper we describe a successful multi-level participatory intervention grounded in principles of individual and group empowerment, and guided by social construction theory. The intervention addressed known and persistent inequities in influenza vaccination among African American and Latino older adults, and associated infections, hospitalizations and mortality. It was designed to increase resident ability to make informed decisions about vaccination, and to build internal and external infrastructure to support sustainability over time. The intervention brought a group of social scientists, vaccine researchers, geriatricians, public health nurses, elder services providers and advocates together with senior housing management and activist African American and Latino residents living in public senior housing in a small east coast city. Two buildings of equal size and similar ethnic composition were randomized as intervention and control buildings. Pre and post intervention surveys were conducted in both buildings, measuring knowledge, attitudes and peer norms. Processes and outcomes were documented at four levels: Influenza Strategic Alliance (macro and exo levels), building management (meso level), building resident committee (meso level) and individual residents. The Influenza Strategic Alliance (I.S.A.) provided ongoing resources, information and vaccine; the building management provided economic and other in-kind resources and supported residents to continue flu clinics in the building. The V.I.P. Resident Committee conducted flu campaigns with flu clinics in English and Spanish. The vaccination rate in the intervention building at post test exceeded the study goal of 70% and showed a significant improvement over the control building. The intervention achieved desired outcomes at all four levels and resulted in a significant increase in influenza vaccination, and improvements in pro-vaccination knowledge, beliefs, and understanding of health consequences.     

Black Women and White Women: Do Perceptions of Childhood Family Environment Differ?

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined racial differences in perceptions of childhood. Little is known about how Blacks perceive their own families, particularly the family environment that they experienced in childhood. METHODS: A community sample of 290 women (55% White, 45% Black) from two-parent families, heterogeneous in age and social class, was examined using a self-administered questionnaire, including the Family Environment Scale (FES), followed by a focused interview. Siblings were used as collateral informants. RESULTS: The psychometric properties of the FES showed remarkably little variation by race: The internal scale reliability, correlations between scales, and factor structures were quite similar. Although both White and Black women reported good childhood family environments, Black women when compared with White women rated their families of origin as more cohesive, organized, and expressive, and lower in conflict. Sibling responses corroborated these findings. DISCUSSION: This study addresses a gap in the research literature and provides important evidence of strengths in Black family relationships as reported by a community sample of women. The psychometric properties of the FES, found to be strong for families of both races, lends support to our findings and those of other researchers who have used this measure.     

Adverse Childhood Experiences,Trauma Symptoms,Mindfulness, and Intimate Partner Violence: Therapeutic Implications for Marginalized Men

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma symptoms have been linked with intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and victimization among men, yet the field lacks depth in several key areas hampering progress toward violence intervention. Specifically, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) dominates the field’s scope of trauma symptoms under study, limiting understanding of other manifestations of trauma especially among men. Furthermore, most research focuses exclusively on men’s physical IPV perpetration and rarely focuses on other types of IPV, severity of violence, or men’s victimization. Also, few studies examine potential protective factors grounded in the ACE framework, such as mindfulness, among clinical populations. Finally, most research has not focused on men of color, despite some racial/ethnic minority groups disproportionate rates of IPV exposure. Therefore, the relationships between IPV frequency and severity (psychological, physical, injury) and ACEs, PTSD, trauma symptomology (separate from PTSD), and mindfulness self-efficacy were examined in a sample of 67 predominantly low-income men of color in a batterer intervention program. More than half of the sample (51.5%) reported exposure to four or more ACEs, and 31.1% met the clinical cutoff for a probable PTSD diagnosis. Higher ACE scores predicted increased rates for nearly all types of self-reported IPV perpetration and victimization. PTSD symptoms and complex trauma symptom severity together explained between 13% and 40% of IPV outcomes, and each was uniquely associated with certain types of self-reported IPV victimization and perpetration frequency and severity. Mindfulness self-efficacy was associated with decreased self-report psychological IPV perpetration and victimization frequency and severity. Clinical implications relevant to marginalized men are reviewed, including screening, training, and potential therapeutic interventions.     

Black Lives Matter: We are in the Same Storm but we are not in the Same Boat

Black Lives Matter is a clarion call for racial equality and racial justice. With the arrival of Africans as slaves in 1619, a racial hierarchy was formed in the United States. However, slavery is commonly dismissed as that less than noble aspect of the United States’ history without really confronting the legacies of racial inequality and racial injustice left in its wake. White supremacy, based on the myths of white superiority and Black inferiority, have obscured racial inequality and racial injustice, resulting in blaming the victims. Using Black Lives Matter as a platform, we focus on some key considerations for theory, research, education, training, and practice in clinical, community, and larger systems contexts. Broadly, we focus on Black Lives Matter, literally; Black dehumanization; historical oppression; healing; and implications for the field of family therapy. More specifically, we draw attention to health disparities, mass incarceration and aggressive policing, intergenerational racial trauma, restorative justice, and antiracist work.     

To belong or not to belong: Protecting minority engagement in the face of discrimination

School belonging is pivotal in enabling sustained task engagement, yet minorities' belonging is contingent on the intergroup context. From a social identity approach, discrimination experiences elicit identity threat, undermining school belonging. Conversely, a positive diversity climate may shield belonging through protecting minority identities. This study addresses minority school belonging and task engagement from the interplay of identity threat and protection in diverse classrooms. We hypothesise that a positive diversity climate can buffer minority disengagement in response to discrimination by protecting school belonging. Drawing on Turkish and Moroccan minority samples (N = 1050) in 274 diverse classrooms in 52 Belgian secondary schools, we test multilevel models with school belonging as mediating process connecting minorities' engagement to the interplay of discrimination experiences with perceived diversity climate. Minority youth who experienced discrimination from teachers reported less school belonging, which in turn predicted lower task engagement. Conversely, minority perceptions of a positive diversity climate predicted more belonging. Moreover, perceived diversity climate buffered minority engagement against personal experiences of discrimination through protecting school belonging. Whereas discrimination experiences undermined minority school belonging and task engagement, minority perceptions of a positive diversity climate protected belonging and engagement against discrimination.     

Ethnicity as a social context for the development of African-American adolescents

Does anticipated future racial discrimination undermine African-American adolescents' academic motivation and performance? Do face-to-face experiences with racial discrimination at school undermine African-American adolescents' academic functioning? Does African-American ethnic identity buffer these relations? This paper addresses these questions using two waves of data from a longitudinal study of an economically diverse sample of African-American adolescents living near Washington D.C. The data were collected at the beginning of the 7th grade and after the completion of the 8th grade. As expected, the experiences of day-to-day racial discrimination at school from one's teachers and peers predicted declines in grades, academic ability self-concepts, and academic task values. A strong, positive connection to one's ethnic group (our measure of ethnic identity) reduced the magnitude of the association of racial discrimination experiences with declines in both academic self-concepts and school achievement. Most youth responded to anticipated future discrimination with increased academic motivation.     

The development and validation of the Self-Regulation Strategy Inventory—Self-Report

The primary purpose of this study was to develop and gather initial psychometric information regarding the Self-Regulation Strategy Inventory—Self-Report (SRSI-SR), a self-report measure of students' use of specific self-regulation strategies. Information regarding the scales' factor structure, convergent and discriminant validity, differential validity, and internal consistency was gathered using a sample of 142 ninth and tenth grade students in an urban high school. Principal component analysis of the SRSI-SR yielded a three-factor structure: (a) Seeking and Learning Information, (b) Managing Environment/Behavior, and (c) Maladaptive Regulatory Behaviors. Internal consistency for the overall SRSI-SR was high (alpha = .92), with the subscales ranging from .72 to .88. A second principal component analysis indicated that the three subscales of the SRSI-SR converged onto one higher-order factor but discriminated from two motivation beliefs (i.e., task interest, perceived instrumentality). In addition, ANOVA procedures revealed that the SRSI-SR reliably differentiated high and low achievers. The implications of the results and potential avenues for future research are presented and discussed.     

Psychosocial Correlates of Medical Mistrust Among African American Men

The current study proposed and tested a conceptual model of medical mistrust in a sample of African American men (N = 216) recruited primarily from barbershops in the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States. Potential psychosocial correlates were grouped into background factors, masculine role identity/socialization factors, recent healthcare experiences, recent socioenvironmental experiences (e.g., discrimination), and healthcare system outcome expectations (e.g., perceived racism in healthcare). Direct and mediated relationships were assessed. Results from the hierarchical regression analyses suggest that perceived racism in healthcare was the most powerful correlate of medical mistrust even after controlling for other factors. Direct effects were found for age, masculine role identity, recent patient–physician interaction quality, and discrimination experiences. Also, perceived racism in healthcare mediated the relationship between discrimination experiences and medical mistrust. These findings suggest that African American men’s mistrust of healthcare organizations is related to personal characteristics, previous negative social/healthcare experiences, and expectations of disparate treatment on the basis of race. These findings also imply that aspects of masculine role identity shape the tone of patient–physician interactions in ways that impede trust building processes.     

Examining the consequences of exposure to racism for the executive functioning of Black students

Recent research has demonstrated that interracial interactions, reminders of stigmatized identities, and exposure to ambiguous racism can deplete the self-control resources of minority group members. In the current study we examined whether hearing blatant racism expressed in an interracial context would deplete the self-control of Black participants and whether this depletion would be moderated by participants’ level of racial centrality. After listening to a Black or a White confederate express either support for racial profiling (racist condition) or increased campus parking fees (neutral condition), Black participants completed a Stroop color-naming task to assess self-control depletion. Participants experienced self-control depletion following interracial encounters, regardless of whether the views expressed were racist. As expected, however, racial centrality moderated the depletion effect when racism was involved, with participants higher in centrality showing greater depletion following an encounter with racism from a White partner.