MEDIATING ROLE OF MATERNAL SENSITIVITY: ENHANCING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN AT‐RISK FAMILIES

Home‐visiting programs have gained increasing importance in family‐centered prevention and intervention. However, few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying early intervention treatment effects. The goal of this study is to analyze the mediating role of maternal sensitivity in enhancing language development with the home‐visiting program Parents as Teachers (PAT). Data were collected and analyzed within the ongoing, long‐term ZEPPELIN study, a randomized controlled trial with 251 participating at‐risk families. Via longitudinal mediation analysis, we examined whether effects of the PAT on receptive and expressive language outcomes at 24 and 36 months were mediated by maternal sensitivity at 12 months. Within a moderated mediation framework, we investigated whether the level of family psychosocial stress affects this mediation. Results showed that intervention effects on language outcomes are mediated by maternal sensitivity—weakly and through specific pathways. Moderation and moderated mediation analyses indicated that effects of the PAT and also specific mediation effects increase with the level of psychosocial stress. Implications of the results for practice are discussed.     

Korean transracial and international adoptees: Ethnic identity and sense of belonging and exclusion in relation to birth and adoptive groups

Past quantitative ethnic identity research on transracial and international adoptees (TRIAs) has focused on their birth culture. Given that adoptees may also identify with their adoptive family’s culture, we examined Korean and White European American ethnic identities in Korean American adoptees. Identity exploration and commitment were significantly positively correlated within each referent group. Results also indicated relatively higher levels of birth group identity exploration and higher adoptive group identity commitment. In addition, we used cluster analysis to create ethnic identity profiles and investigated the relations between identity profiles and sense of belonging and exclusion. Our findings signal a need to support TRIAs to develop inclusive flexible ethnic identities and suggest future research should examine multiple referent groups and the intersection of these identities.     

Am I ‘Chinese’ or ‘Scottish’? children’s perceptions of the adaptive nature of Chinese Scottish children’s dual identities

Chinese Scottish children (children who are born and live in Scotland with Chinese parents) face challenges in establishing their identity. However, there is lack of research that investigates ethnic minority Chinese children’s identity and associated feelings about the dual social context in which they live. The study introduced a social identity vignettes task to examine Chinese Scottish and White Scottish children’s perceptions of Chinese ethnic identity and Scottish national identity of a Scottish born Chinese character within two contrasting socio-cultural contexts (Scottish vs. Chinese). This study examines whether children’s ethnic and national identity and feelings of positivity are adaptive and sensitive to social context. In addition it explored age-related changes in perceptions of ethnic and national identification in the vignettes. The sample comprised of 161 children (8, 11, and 14 years). The results found Chinese Scottish children and White Scottish children’s judgments of the characters’ ethnic identity changed with the cultural context. Both groups of children had a similar perception of vignette characters’ feeling of positivity. Both Chinese and White Scottish children judged that the character would feel more positive about him/herself in the Chinese context. There was no main effect of age.     

Lifecourse Social Conditions and Racial and Ethnic Patterns of Cognitive Aging

A lifecourse perspective is key for understanding and interpreting racial and ethnic patterns in neuropsychological test performance. In this article, we discuss contextual factors that shape the environmental conditions encountered by racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, in particular African-Americans. These conditions include geographic segregation at the level of regions, metropolitan areas, and neighborhoods; intra- and inter-national migration patterns; socioeconomic position, including financial resources, and occupational and educational opportunities; discrimination; and group resources. Each of these exposures sets in course a cascade of individual mediators that ultimately manifest in neuropsychological outcomes. The physiological and behavioral consequences of these pathways likely accumulate across the lifecourse. We focus on cognitive aging, although the processes discussed here begin in infancy and likely influence cognitive outcomes throughout life from childhood into old age. A lifecourse framework can help inform clinical encounters, neuropsychological research, and surveillance regarding the population prevalence of cognitive impairments.     

西南少数民族教育价值观的调查研究

在文献综述、开放式问卷和个别访谈的基础上,提出了西南少数民族教育价值观的理论构想,自编了西南少数民族教育价值观量表。约1,500名西南地区少数民族被试接受了测试。研究表明,该量表具有良好的信度和效度,西南少数民族的教育价值观包括教育效用、家族荣誉、个人发展、民族传承等四个维度,西南少数民族群众的教育价值观在性别和年龄不存在显著性差异,在民族和文化程度上存在着显著性差异。     

Cultural Threat and Anti‐immigrant Prejudice: The Case of Protestants in Northern Ireland

Cultural threat has emerged as a consistent predictor of anti‐immigrant and anti‐minority attitudes across many different national contexts. We examine this issue in the context of Northern Ireland using representative survey data, suggesting that Protestant and unionist communities experience a higher level of cultural threat than Catholic and nationalist communities on account of the ‘parity of esteem’ principle that has informed changes in the province since the Belfast Agreement of 1998. Our analyses confirm that, although there is evidence for some level of anti‐immigrant sentiment across all groups, Protestants and unionists do indeed report relatively more negative attitudes towards a range of immigrant and ethnic target groups compared with Catholics, nationalists or respondents who do not identify with any political category. The analyses further suggest that their higher level of perceived cultural threat partially accounts for this difference. We argue that cultural threat can be interpreted as a response to changes in Northern Ireland that have challenged the dominant status enjoyed by Protestants and unionists in the past. More generally, we argue that a politicised characterisation of cultural threat needs to be elaborated through future work. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlates of African American and Latino parents' messages to children about ethnicity and race: a comparative study of racial socialization

Recently, social scientists have become increasingly interested in the nature of communications from parents to children regarding ethnicity and race. Termed racial socialization, race-related messages to children may have important consequences for children's identity development and well-being. This study examined the frequency and correlates of two dimensions of racial socialization—messages about ethnic pride, history, and heritage (Cultural Socialization) and messages about discrimination and racial bias (Preparation for Bias)—among 273 urban African American, Puerto Rican, and Dominican parents. Parents reported more frequent Cultural Socialization than Preparation for Bias. There were no significant ethnic group differences in the frequency of Cultural Socialization. However, African American parents reported more frequent Preparation for Bias than did Dominican parents who, in turn, reported more frequent messages of this sort than did Puerto Rican parents. Ethnic identity was a stronger predictor of Cultural Socialization among Puerto Rican and Dominican parents than among their African American counterparts. In contrast, perceived discrimination experiences was a stronger predictor of Preparation for Bias among African American and Dominican parents than among Puerto Rican parents. Finally, race-related phenomenon accounted for more variance in both Cultural Socialization and Preparation for Bias among parents reporting on their behaviors with children 10–17 years old as compared to parents reporting on their behaviors with children 6–9 years old.     

An Ecosystemic Approach to Improving Mother-Infant Attachment in a Caribbean Matrifocal Society

Within an ecosystemic framework integrating a cultural-family approach and Bowlby's attachment theory, this paper describes a mother-infant therapeutic program focusing on a high-risk population of infants from dysfunctional extended matrifocal families in the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Some of the factors involved in the disturbed mother-child attachment relationships were identified, and a multisystemic approach for remodeling both internal family processes and interactions between the family and the larger social system were described. The authors stress the importance of using a combination of specialized and non-specialized services which draw upon, and remain embedded in, the family's ecological context and argue for a conceptualization of extended matrifocal family organizations as being resourceful and resilient systems.