Parent Conflict as a Mediator Between Marianismo Beliefs and Depressive Symptoms for Mexican American College Women

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine how marianismo is related to the depressive symptoms of Mexican American women with family conflict as a mediator. Participants: During January of 2010, 170 Mexican American women college students in a southern, Hispanic-serving institution were sampled. Methods: A mediation analysis was conducted to determine if parent conflict mediates the relationship between marianismo values and depressive symptoms. Results: Results from Barron and Kenny's¹ mediation analysis method, in conjunction with a Sobel² test indicated that parent conflict significantly mediated the relation between marianismo and depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Findings and implications of the mediation will be discussed for the mental health and treatment of Mexican American women college students.     

Perception of Sexual Violence Against Women in Asian American Communities

Abstract

The study was a cross-sectional survey using a convenient sample of 186 respondents to examine the perception of sexual violence against women and help-seeking responses to sexual victimization among four Asian groups; Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian (Cambodian, Laotians, and Vietnamese). The authors examined respondents' perception of the severity of the problem of sexual violence against women for Asian American populations, the perceived relationships between perpetrators and victims, the preferred preventive measures, and help-seeking responses. Findings indicated a split opinion among the four Asian groups regarding the perceived severity of the problem. There was a perceived insignificant role of family members in inflicting sexual violence, a general tendency of not choosing an immediate, confrontative stance against the perpetrator to stop sexual violence, and a preference to utilize help from the private domain in situations of sexual victimization. In addition, findings of the study supported the role of shame in deterring individuals from seeking outside professional help and demonstrated the existence of inter-group differences among various ethnic groups. At the same time, findings of the study raise important questions pertaining to the role of family members in sexual victimization of women, changing perceptions, inter-group differences, and the importance of localized knowledge in generating intervention efforts. In addition, findings of the study challenge a simplistic view of the reluctance of Asian American populations to utilize outside professional help. Implications for developing culturally relevant interventions for prevention and treatment as well as future research are discussed.     

“How Do I View My Sister?”

Abstract

Little research to date has focused on what factors interfere with the process of African American women and men developing and maintaining healthy relationships. A better understanding of these factors can help to improve relationships between these individuals and create stronger families within the African American community. Research has documented that prevailing stereotypes of African American women impact the lives of African American women and that stereotypes have the potential to impact interpersonal relationships. The purpose of the current study was to assess whether African American men endorsed stereotypic views of African American women, and to discuss the potential of these views to negatively impact the quality of relationships between African American women and men. Results indicate that 71% of men surveyed endorsed stereotypic views of African American women. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are presented.     

Tolerance of Elder Abuse and Attitudes Toward Third-Party Intervention Among African American,Korean American,and White Elderly

SUMMARY

Studies have found that professionals and the lay public differ consistently from one another in the ways in which they perceive elder abuse. A potential variable that may explain this observed difference is cultural norms among ethnic groups. Using 18 statements, this study examined similarities and differences among elderly from three ethnic groups in their tolerance for potential elder abuse, perceptions regarding perpetrators and the causes of elder abuse, and attitudes toward third-party intervention and reporting of elder abuse to the authorities. Results suggest that while African American and White elderly are remarkably similar in their responses to most statements, Korean American elderly differed significantly from the other two groups in their tolerance for medical mistreatment, financial exploitation and neglect, perceptions of causes, and attitudes toward reporting elder abuse. These findings have implications for understanding potential barriers to preventive outreach efforts, investigation, and intervention in cases of elder abuse in a culturally diverse community.     

Validation of the Postpartum Social Support Questionnaire in low-income,African American women

ABSTRACT

This study applied a previously developed Postpartum Social Support Questionnaire to low-income, African American women. The 33-question survey was administered to 95 African American women between 4- and 8-weeks postpartum. The survey was readministered 2 weeks later. All women were of low socioeconomic status based on their qualification for public insurance. The questionnaire addresses subscales of partner, parent, in-law, and other friend/relative support. Responses were used to evaluate internal reliability of each subscale, test–retest correlation, and factor loading. Results were compared between women with and without a positive postpartum depression screen. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for each subscale ranged from .90 to .96. Test-retest correlation coefficients ranged from .72 to .87. Exploratory factor analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation was consistent with previously studied samples. Those women with positive postpartum depression screens had significantly lower social support scores (M = 122, SD = 36) than women with negative postpartum depression screens (M = 149, SD = 38), t(79) = ?2.62, p = .01. The Postpartum Social Support Questionnaire is a useful assessment in low-income, African American mothers.     

African American Informal Support Networks

Abstract

This study examined African American informal support network functioning utilizing Vaux's (1998) reciprocal exchange model. Ten African American caregivers of relatives with severe mental illness and their main informal helpers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. In 8 of the 10 African American families interviewed, one close relative, called a “main supporter,” assumed major responsibility, comparable to that of the primary caregiver, for care and supervision of the family member with mental illness. Main supporters felt that their family helper role, although stressful at times, gave meaning and purpose to their lives. Five main supporter-primary caregiver pairs formed 'joint households' to share economic and human resources and to facilitate caregiving duties. Social work intervention for caregiving families should provide assistance to both primary caregivers and their informal supporters, particularly main supporters.     

Self-Esteem Among Vietnamese American Adolescents

Abstract

This prospective study examined whether interdependent self-construal (collectivism), independent self-construal (individualism), family cohesion, and social support would predict levels of self-esteem among Vietnamese American adolescents. Standardized self-report measures of family cohesion, social support, and self-esteem, as well as a measure of self-construal, were administered to 152 Vietnamese American adolescents. The results indicated that independent self-construal, family cohesion, and social support were significantly related to self-esteem. Interdependent self-construal was also found to positively affect self-esteem via family cohesion and social support. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Chapter 5 Lonesome in the Saddle

Abstract

Older people create a sense of self through the decisions they make about their sense of place in the world. Through a series of ethnographic life-stories, drawn from the lives of retired people in an upstate New York community, consideration is given to the meanings that mature men and women attach: to leaving work; to choosing to stay in or leave the home or residence that they have been living in; and to weighing the options of remaining in or moving from their community. The meaningfulness of family, home, possessions, travel, community, and ties to the land, all emerge from these accounts. In negotiating these issues, people also have to deal with a number of conflicting American values, including the tensions between freedom and responsibility, autonomy and rootedness, and adventure and security. The classic American images of the “settler” and the “cowboy” help to convey some of these contradictions.     

Agenda Setting and African American Women in State Legislatures

SUMMARY

Political scientists have, in recent years, uncovered substantial evidence that political representation in the United States is influenced by gender and race, yet generally examine the effects of gender entirely separate from the effects of race. In this article, we explore the agenda-setting behavior of African American female state legislators. We find that African American women do respond to both women's interests and black interests. We also find that while the sponsorship of black interest measures by African American women (or other legislators) is not influenced by the proportion of African Americans within the chamber, African American women are less likely to sponsor women's interest measures in legislatures with a relatively high proportion of women present. We conclude that because of their focus on multiple groups, black women occupy a unique place in representation, and that their choices are influenced by the institutional context in which they work.     

Between Two Worlds: Slovak Language and American Identity in Out of This Furnace

Abstract

Thomas Bell’s 1941 novel Out of This Furnace, a fictionalized account of his family’s immigration from eastern Slovakia to industrial Pittsburgh, is a significant example of the use of ‘mixed languages’ in ethnic American literature. It was translated from English into Slovak in 1949 as Dva svety (Two Worlds). The novel has bridged the gap between Slovak and American culture in the three ways explored here: Bell’s use of Slovak dialect, the Slovak translation, and two dramatic adaptations from the 1970s (an American play and a Slovak televised film). This case illuminates the complex relationship between ethnic American writers and their lands of origin, particularly in the case of less commonly spoken languages.     

The Resilience of Transracial Korean American Adoptees: Cultural Identity Crisis within the Family and the Mediating Effects of Family Conflict and Cohesiveness during Adversity

This study used a mixed-methods approach to examine the family practices that are fundamental for fostering resilience among 34 transracially adopted Korean American youths living with White American parents in the United States. The results demonstrate that in addition to experiencing stress related to their education and occupation, Korean American adoptees may encounter cultural identity crises. The negative effects of life stress on adoptees' mental health, however, were diminished once family cohesiveness and conflict were taken into account. Study findings have important implications for various stakeholders who seek to cultivate a healthy living environment for society's children (i.e., orphans).     

Overlooking African American Males

ABSTRACT

This study describes a group of seven, urban African American grandmother caregivers' perceptions of family resources. Data for this ethnography design were collected through participant observation, field notes, taped interviews and a genogram to capture those who were available and unavailable to provide support. The identification of themes yielded that grandmothers could only depend upon family members with resources; sons were viewed as most reliable and dependable; and family members were unable to contribute when managing their own problems. The study results suggest intergenerational programs aimed at the family system is important for meeting the needs of grandmother caregivers.     

Adelina Anthony Interview with Aimee Carrillo Rowe

ABSTRACT

This interview explores how performing artist, activist, writer, director, performer Adelina Anthony stages queer women of color affects as a complex terrain to mobilize a decolonial imaginary. Anthony's characters are complex, contradictory, surly, and resilient with whom audience members connect and feel deeply. Especially for queer women of color, who rarely get to see their own experiences on film or on stage, Anthony's work provides a critical forum for discussing, imagining, naming, and envisioning the connections between our personal struggles and broader forces of imperialism, heterosexual capitalism, and settler colonialism. Through the “medicina” of gritty truth-telling and side-splitting laughter, Anthony discusses her own positionality as a coyote curandera. Through the exploratory genre of the interview, Anthony helps readers palpably engage a queer woman of color “theory in the flesh” to imagine their own creative potentialities through a compassionate lens of humility and humor.     

Korean American Pastors' Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Child Abuse

Abstract

More than 80 percent of Korean immigrants in the United States attend church on a regular basis. Churches, as informal community organizations, can play a very significant role in protecting children from abuse. This study examines Korean American clerics' knowledge of child abuse, their definition of child abuse, and their familiarity with mandatory child-abuse reporting laws. The study also examines how culture, demographic variables, and individual theological orientation affect their attitudes toward child abuse, mandated child abuse reporting by clergy, and preference of intervention strategies. Major findings include that more than 50 percent of respondents have seen child abuse and neglect among their church members, but the majority who have witnessed child abuse prefer to provide pastoral counseling to the family instead of reporting the case to a child protective agency.     

“Brown girls can’t be gay”: Racism experienced by queer South Asian women in the Toronto LGBTQ community

Abstract

The absence of scholarship on South Asian discrimination in Western queer discourse contributes to a narrative that South Asians are not subjected to racially charged forms of discrimination in the LGBTQ community, which is fundamentally untrue. This article presents narrative-based accounts of nine queer South Asian women in Toronto, Canada, to examine the ways in which they experience racial discrimination in the LGBTQ community, and the impact that this mistreatment has on identity formation and connectivity to queer spheres. It finds that queer South Asian women experience racial discrimination in the form of racially charged microaggressions, which are evidenced through expectations of assimilation to Western-normative performances of queer identity and erasure of South Asian culture in the LGBTQ community. Further, it reveals that Toronto’s LGBTQ community perpetuates a culture of White privilege that discredits the intersectional identity of queer South Asian women, and consequently invisibilizes, alienates, and revokes agency from these women who do not fit the majority’s conceptualizations about what a queer woman looks like.     

The Co-Evolution of Marriage and Parental Rights of Gays and Lesbians

ABSTRACT

Historically, federal and state legislation placed different conditions on same- and opposite-sex couples' ability to marry, adopt, or exercise their parental rights. Given the historical intertwining of marriage and parenting, legal issues remain hinged on differing conceptions of marriage and what constitutes a legal family in the United States, especially for same-sex partners compared to their different-sexed couple counterparts. This article provides a historical review of decisions that serve as the foundation for queer parenting rights in the United States. A key focus is on the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) marriage decision on queer parenting and its relevance to researchers and practitioners whose work involves queer families. State discrepancies continue to exist for the treatment of parental rights in spite of the legalization of same-sex marriage. Finally, suggestions are provided for future directions for the field.     

Black Edens,country Eves: Listening,performance, and black queer longing in country music

ABSTRACT

This article explores Black queer country music listening, performance, and fandom as a source of pleasure, nostalgia, and longing for Black listeners. Country music can be a space for alliance and community, as well as a way of accessing sometimes repressed cultural and personal histories of violence: lynching and other forms of racial terror, gender surveillance and disciplining, and continued racial and economic segregation. For many Black country music listeners and performers, the experience of being a closeted fan also fosters an experience of ideological hailing, as well as queer world-making. Royster suggests that through Black queer country music fandom and performance, fans construct risky and soulful identities. The article uses Tina Turner's solo album, Tina Turns the Country On! (1974) as an example of country music's power as a tool for resistance to racial, sexual, and class disciplining.     

Race‐Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fertility: A Focus on Mexican American Women

We use the National Survey of Family Growth to identify race‐ethnic differences in nonmarital fertility, paying particular attention to Mexican American women. On the basis of a sample of 9,054 White, Black, and Mexican American women, we use event history methods to explore the role of family background, a woman’s own employment and school enrollment, and cohabitation on nonmarital fertility. We additionally determine whether these relationships vary by socioeconomic background. The above factors are all significantly related to the risk of a nonmarital birth and reduce Mexican American–White differentials. Interestingly, higher fertility within cohabiting unions among Mexican American women, despite lower levels of cohabitation, contributes to their higher nonmarital fertility relative to White women.     

Translation

ABSTRACT

I offer a personal story, seen through contemporary queer theory, to turn positivity on its head and imagine how the “queer art of failure” disrupts the reproduction of compulsory ways of loving and making family.