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Latino youth experience unique stressors as they navigate two cultural contexts. While a substantial amount of research has been conducted investigating Latino youths' experiences of acculturation, most have been conducted in cities with a substantial Latino community, with less research focusing on emerging communities, or areas with small, but growing cultural communities. The aim of this study was to understand Latino youths' experiences of acculturation stressors when living in an emerging Latino community. To achieve this aim, 30 youth (ages 7–16) living in an emerging Latino community were recruited to participate in a creative-arts based research method in which they were placed in groups based on developmental stage and participated in six dialogue sessions. During sessions, youth were asked to paint a picture based on prompts and then discuss the topics that emerged in their paintings in small groups. Prompts were designed to illicit youths' experiences with acculturation stress and Latino identity. Thematic analysis of qualitative data indicated that the role of language was featured prominently in youths' experiences. In this paper, we discuss the role of bilingualism in multiple contexts in Latino youth experience of acculturation when living in an emerging Latino community. The results suggest that bilingualism is central to the identity of Latino youth in this context and may be essential to incorporate into interventions that aim to facilitate positive youth development among Latino youth living in emerging Latino communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used qualitative interviews to look at the experiences of undocumented youth's journey to the United States. We examined challenges faced upon arrival, trauma at home and on the journey, and the impact on their life in the U.S. Our findings indicate that all participants had traumatic experiences that impacted family, education, and daily functioning. School social workers are well-placed to assist undocumented youth in addressing these traumatic experiences and can be paramount to increasing their emotional stability by creating safe spaces to learn and to use healthy coping strategies while adjusting to a new culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Examine acculturation and psychological, lifestyle, and physiological factors based on gender and country of origin (U.S. vs. Mexico). Methods: Baseline data from the Starr County diabetes prevention study (N = 300) were analyzed – acculturation (language), psychological factors (depression), lifestyle factors (sedentary behaviors), and diabetes-related physiological outcomes (insulin resistance). MANOVA and linear regression were used to examine variable relationships based on gender and country of origin and identify predictors of depression and insulin resistance. Results: Participants were: predominantly female (73%); 51 years of age, on average; born in Mexico (71%); and Spanish-speaking. Individuals spent 11 of their waking hours (range = 0–18 h) in sedentary activities. Compared to females, more males spoke English and reported fewer hours in sedentary activities. Compared to participants born in Mexico, those born in the U.S. were more likely to: speak English; report depressive symptoms; and exhibit elevated BMI and insulin resistance rates. Two distinct models significantly predicted depression (R2 = 14.5%) and insulin resistance (R2 = 26.8%), with acculturation-language entering into both models. Discussion: Significant gender and country-of-origin differences were found. Future research on diabetes prevention should examine other Hispanic subgroups and strategies for addressing individual differences, while employing cost-effective group interventions that incorporate these differences and reach more at-risk individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study aimed to provide preliminary evidence on the psychometric properties of a measure of prospective memory in Spanish speakers, the Memory for Intentions Test (MIST) Spanish translation. Methods: In addition, this study investigated whether acculturation influenced performance on the MIST. Finally, we measured other cognitive factors that might be impacting the relationship between culture and prospective memory performance. These factors were working memory, autobiographical memory, and episodic future thought. Results: Overall, the psychometric properties of the Spanish MIST appear to be similar to the English language MIST, but our sample size was too small to allow for the creation of a normative database. The MIST recognition item was significantly related to years of education and years of speaking either Spanish or English. Discussion: This suggests a need to investigate ways to improve the test to eliminate these effects. In addition, acculturation was related to the measure of episodic future thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hispanic/Latino youth are disproportionately burdened by obesity and have a high prevalence of prediabetes and dyslipidemia. Differences in parent and child acculturation related to language use and preference (i.e., language acculturation) are associated with adverse cardiometabolic health behaviors, but no study has examined associations with cardiometabolic markers.Purpose: To determine whether discordance in parent-child language acculturation (parent-child acculturation gap) was associated with poor youth cardiometabolic health.Methods: Hispanic/Latino 8-16-year-olds (n = 1,466) and parents from the Hispanic Community Children's Health Study/Study of Latino Youth (SOL Youth) were examined. Mean scores for the Brief ARSMA-II's Anglo (AOS) and Latino (LOS) Orientation Scales represented language acculturation. Cardiometabolic markers included youth body mass index (BMI) percentile, blood pressure percentiles, and dysglycemia and hyperlipidemia measures. Missing data were imputed. Survey-weighted multivariable linear regression examined the association of youth, parent, and youth × parent (the acculturation gap) AOS and LOS scores separately with each cardiometabolic marker.Results: Youth reported greater English and lower Spanish use than parents. Greater discordance in AOS scores was associated with elevated BMI percentile only (p-for-interaction < .01). The LOS acculturation gap was not associated with any outcome. Adjustment for acculturative stress, family functioning and closeness, parenting style, and youth's diet and physical activity did not alter findings. Removal of nonsignificant acculturation gaps did not indicate an association between individual youth or parent AOS or LOS scores and any cardiometabolic marker.Conclusions: Discordance in Hispanic/Latino parent-child dyads' English use may relate to increased risk for childhood obesity. Future studies should identify mediators of this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Childhood obesity is a major public health challenge across Latin America and the United States. Addressing childhood obesity depends on valid, reliable, and culturally sensitive measurements. Such progress within and between countries of the Americas could be enhanced through better measurement across different age groups, different countries, and in sending and receiving communities. Additionally, better and more comparable measurements could accelerate cross‐border collaboration and learning. Here, we present (1) frameworks that influenced our perspectives on childhood obesity and measurement needs across the Americas; (2) a summary of resources and guidance available concerning measurement and adaptation of measures for childhood obesity research; and (3) three major areas that present challenges and opportunities for measurement advances related to childhood obesity, including parental behavior, acculturation, and the potential to incorporate ethnographic methods to identify critical factors related to economics and globalization. Progress to reduce childhood obesity across the Americas could be accelerated by further transnational collaboration aimed at improving measurement for better surveillance, intervention development and evaluation, implementation research, and evaluation of natural experiments. Additionally, there is a need to improve training related to measurement and for improving access to valid and reliable measures in Spanish and other languages common in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican Americans interviewed in Spanish (vs. English) tend to have worse self-rated health despite their low morbidity and mortality. This project tests whether this language-of-interview effect also exists in the realm of mental health, and whether this pattern is due to Spanish-language interviewees' lower acculturation to the United States. Analyses rely on secondary data from 865 Mexican Americans from the National Latino and Asian Americans Study. Multinomial logistic regressions are conducted to test whether language of interview is associated with dissonance between self-rated mental health (SRMH) and diagnostic criteria for any of the most common psychiatric disorders. Acculturation measures are added to the model to explore its role. Results show that respondents interviewed in Spanish have higher risk of worse SRMH despite not having psychiatric disorders. Acculturation measures explain the association between interview language and SRMH without psychiatric disorders. Specifically, language proficiency and ethnic identity (acculturation measures) appear to be the main drivers of this change. Consistent with the physical health literature, Spanish-language interviewees tend to have worse SRMH without psychiatric disorders (dissonant outcomes), compared to English-language interviewees. Results also suggest that lower acculturation to the United States among Spanish-language interviewees explains these patterns. Research on the relationship between acculturation measures and understandings of mental health among Mexican Americans can provide insights about their help-seeking behaviors and treatment. Implications for other cases of international migration are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, we extend the notion of cultural threat posed by immigrants beyond its current conceptualization as symbolic, collective-level threats to American culture and identity. Instead, we argue that routine encounters with non-English-speaking immigrants cause many individuals to feel threatened because of real barriers to interpersonal communication and exchange. We draw upon survey and experimental data to demonstrate that local contact with immigrants who speak little to no English, as well as incidental exposure to the Spanish language, heighten feelings of cultural threat, which increases anti-immigrant sentiment and policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates how television use by Hispanic women in the United States relates to the process of acculturation. Viewing of and identification with various types of English-language television genres are compared with acculturation level and acculturation stress. The study also explores the use of television to learn English and Spanish-language television consumption. Results indicate that women who identified most with talk shows had the lowest levels of acculturation stress, and women who identified most with comedies, the highest. Women with the lowest levels were most likely to use television to learn English. The data suggest that Latin American women's television use varies, as does Anglo-American women's, and that demographic variables provide only part of the explanation for differences in acculturation. Results indicate that English-language television in the United States can play a positive role in its audience members' selective acculturation to mainstream society and that television has a part in fulfilling some Latinas' learning needs. This information lends support to media function typologies and adds to the body of knowledge about stress-related gratifications of television use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]