Validating the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire Short Form for Latino Immigrant Parents Living in the United States

Title: Validating the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire Short-Form for Latino Immigrant Parents Living in the United StatesIntroduction: The development of successful programs for assisting Latino immigrant families living in the United States requires proper implementation of culturally appropriate and empirically validated measures. Unfortunately, the literature is lacking sufficient research that specifically addresses the validity of parenting measures among Latino immigrant families living in the United States. In the present study, the validity of the APQ-SF will be examined for its applicability with a group of Latino immigrant parents.Methods: Data has been collected and is currently being analyzed. Standard psychometric approaches will be used to examine factor structure. Criterion validity will be examined by regressing school-based measures on the subscales of the APQ-SF.

Objectives

1. To examine the validity of the APQ-SF for applicability with Latino immigrant parents living in the United States.2. To analyze the psychometric properties of the APQ-SF including factor structure and internal reliability.3. To regress the subscales of the APQ-SF with Latino adolescent academic and behavioral measures.

Making the Invisible Visible: Low-Income Latina Mothers and Photo Elicitation Interviewing

Photo-elicitation interviewing (PEI) is a popular methodological tool that has been used across fields. Yet, limited studies using PEI have been used in children’s early education. To the researchers’ knowledge, this study, which uses a sample of low-income Latina mothers with preschoolers, is the first study to use photo-elicitation methods to study how Latina mothers prepare their child for school entry. Using PEI and a resilience framework, findings from his study add to the limited research on using PEI among low-income, Latino families for documenting and communicating insights that mothers deem important when preparing their child for kindergarten.

Objectives

Demonstrate the importance of photo-elicitation interviewing (PEI) in making the invisible visible - particularly among low-income, Latino families. Analyze PEI from a family resilience perspective. Evaluate the effectiveness of PEI for understanding what low-income, Latina mothers, and family members are doing to support children's transition to kindergarten.

Depression Among Mexican Immigrant Mothers: The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy

The aim of this study is to examine how immigration status and neighborhood collective efficacy could shape mothers’ self-efficacy and, in turn, depression. Path analysis was conducted drawing data from 578 Mexican-American and Mexican immigrant mothers who participated in the first wave of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS). The results revealed that both neighborhood collective efficacy beliefs and undocumented status are mediated by personal self-efficacy beliefs. This suggests the importance of addressing the self-efficacy of undocumented mothers, providing implications for practice in targeting self-efficacy to reduce the risk of major depression among Mexican immigrant mothers.

Objectives

1. To examine the links between immigration status (Mexican American, documented, and undocumented) major depression among Mexican immigrant mothers. 2. To study whether undocumented immigrant mothers are less likely to have depression compared to documented mothers and Mexican American mothers despite the unique risk profile of undocumented mothers have. (Latino Health Paradox)3. To analyze the mediating role of self-effiacy on the relationship between immigration status (Mexican American, documented, and undocumented) and materal depression.

The Many Faces of Fatherlessness: Challenging Current Views on Afro-Jamaican Fathers

There has not been significant theoretical advancement in the field of fatherlessness as researchers primarily focused on family forms (e.g., single-headed households) and inaccurately labelled children as fatherless (e.g., residential fathers), especially in ethnic and minority families. To address these concerns and challenge stereotypes in Black families, we explored fatherlessness from the historical and sociocultural context of Afro-Jamaican fathers. Thematic analysis was used to analyze semi-structured interviews involving 24 Afro-Jamaican fathers with at least one child in middle childhood. The findings revealed that fatherlessness was conceptualized as multidimensional with attention to biological and social fathers.

Objectives

Objectives are to: (a) explore the phenomenon of fatherlessness in the ecological context of Afro-Jamaica families, (b) examine fathers’ own definitions of fatherlessness, and (c) theorize about fatherlessness with attention to its multidimensionality and complexities.

(In)Visible Fathers: The Case of Turkish American Fathers

This study focuses on the influences of maternal and paternal acculturation, and maternal gatekeeping on the paternal involvement of Turkish American fathers with their preschool-aged children in U.S. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Framework is utilized in order to explore the influences of cultural background (Turkish) and the host culture (American), and mother’s gatekeeping behaviors on father’s involvement. The Inventory of Father Involvement (Hawkins et al., 2002), Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Ryder, Alden, & Paulhaus, 2000) and Maternal Gatekeeping Scale (Fagan & Barnett, 2003) will be utilized to collect data on the participants. The data will be analyzed with Multiple Regression and Canonical Correlation. The findings will be helpful to close the gap in the literature and also provide insight about a minority group in United States.

Objectives

To see whether maternal acculturation and paternal acculturation has an influence on the paternal involvement.To see whether maternal gatekeeping, maternal acculturation have an influence on maternal perception on paternal involvement. To see the relationship between maternal gatekeeping, maternal acculturation, and maternal perception of paternal invovement and paternal acculturation and paternal involvement. 

The Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model and Latino Adolescent Fathers

Latino youth are vulnerable to living under poverty as well as becoming adolescent parents. Although a body of literature exists examining experiences of adolescent mothers, much less is known about adolescent fathers. To expand this body of literature, this study qualitatively adapted the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model, specifically for low-income Latino adolescent fathers. Findings indicated that not only were the support of partners important to the adaptation of new fatherhood in the context of low socioeconomic status, but helped to facilitate a positive holistic family experience, considering Latino values such as familismo. Implications for strengthening pregnant and parenting adolescent families are discussed.

Objectives

To evaluate the social and economic challenges Latino adolecent fathers face. To analyze the vulnerabilities and adaptabiliy strategies of Latino adolecent fathers To apply a theroretical model towards minority families