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The Mexican Revolution and WWI spurred the first large wave of Mexican migration to the United States. As a result, the 1920s and 1930s witnessed the largest cohort of children of Mexican migrants of the twentieth century. A significant percentage of these children were U.S. citizens by birth and were also granted Mexican citizenship through their parents, who generally did not seek to become U.S. citizens through naturalization. Using archival collections in Mexico and the United States, this dissertation examines the formal practices and strategies that these migrant families used to engage both U.S. and Mexican citizenship and navigate their place in both nations. It shows that the practice of citizenship was a multi-sited and transnational historical process as evidenced by an examination of two key areas in which it occurred. First, this dissertation uses education to show that Mexican parents and youth practiced Mexican citizenship from the United States. From 1924 to 1939, migrant parents and organizations, Mexican consuls, and the Secretary of Public Education established schools for migrant children in the United States. In addition, Mexicans in the United States pushed the Mexican government to create scholarships for U.S.-born youth at two Mexican universities in 1939 and 1945. Second, this dissertation provides new interpretations of repatriation by focusing on the relationship between repatriates and Mexican state, the role of the family during the Great Depression, and efforts by U.S.-born youth to claim and benefit from their status as U.S. citizens. By following migrant families across the U.S.-Mexico border, this dissertation is able to compare the ways in which migrants and U.S.-born youth engaged both the U.S. and Mexican state. Indeed, they deployed a similar set of strategies and language. For example, in both Mexico and the United States, Mexicans visited the consuls. While the consuls did not always provide Mexicans with the resources they needed, they were often important intermediaries between migrants and the state and between migrants and family members in either Mexico and the United States. In addition to visiting consul, Mexicans wrote to government officials, especially the presidents of both the Mexican and U.S. nation. Their countless letters, I show, emphasized their citizenship status, their affinity to the nation, their “Americanness” or “Mexicanness,” and their commitment to contribute to the nation. Moreover, in their letters, Mexicans echoed the nation’s patriarchal values and metaphor of the family. In constructing a transnational history of citizenship, this dissertation bridges and contributes to Chicano/a historiography, scholarship on Mexican nation building, and works on Mexican repatriation during the Great Depression. By including migrant families into the process of Mexican nation-building after the Mexican Revolution, I integrate a set of historical actors that have generally been excluded from Mexican historiography. Placing migrants and migrant children within this context contributes to Chicano/a historiography by demonstrating not only that Mexican citizenship mattered for these families, but that it was a negotiated process that included migrants and the Mexican state.

Backgroud: Drinking to a level that causes harm to oneself or others is characterized by several terms in the alcohol literature. These include: alcohol abuse, alcoholism, excessive drinking, heavy drinking, and problem drinking. The latter is the term used throughout the dissertation. Findings across various alcohol measures and across time show that Blacks have lower prevalence rates of problem drinking than Whites. These results appear paradoxical. First Blacks have poorer health status than Whites for many health outcomes such as diabetes, hypertension, and cirrhosis of the liver--a chronic condition attributed to heavy alcohol use. Blacks lower problem drinking than Whites seem contrary to the way social determinants and tension-reduction theories are thought to influence health. According those theories and frameworks, exposure to poor economic and social circumstances are considered socioeconomic status-related stressors, which are risk factors for problem drinking. Blacks therefore would be expected to have higher prevalence rates of problem drinking because they are exposed to a greater number and frequency of poor socioeconomic status conditions, and greater frequency of stressors relative to Whites. Quite often, the typical investigation of Black-White differences in health aims to understand why Blacks have poorer health than Whites. I investigated problem drinking for my dissertation because I thought it was equally important to understand health and behavioral outcomes for which Blacks do better than Whites and to learn about what contributes to that better health. Levels of religious involvement, the salience of religion among groups, and the potential strength of religion to regulate the lives of individuals differ across social statuses such as race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. That rationale is discussed through historical evolution of religion among Blacks, beginning slavery, through theories attributed to Max Weber and Karl Marx, and through analysis of a passage within the Holy Bible. Given that measures of religion differ across social status, it is plausible then that religion's protective effect on health too is expected to be different across social statuses. My second hypothesis is that the protective benefits of religion on problem drinking will be stronger among Blacks than Whites. My third hypothesis is that lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher levels of religious involvement. My fourth hypothesis is that the protective benefits of religion on problem drinking are stronger among persons with low compared to high socioeconomic status. Finally, I argue that the dual social location of low socioeconomic status and Black race creates an opportunity where the protective effects of religious involvement on problem drinking become compounded. My fifth hypothesis is that the protective effects of religious involvement on problem drinking among Black low socioeconomic status would explain their lower prevalence rates of drinking compared to Whites. Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted using Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) among a sample of Non-Hispanic Blacks (n=6, 587) and Non-Hispanic Whites (n=20,161). The main dependent variable was DSM-IV alcohol abuse. A second variable, heavy drinking, which was used for sensitivity analyses, was derived from two variables (1) frequency of consuming 5+ drinks in a single day and (2) largest number of drinks in a single day. The exposure variables were four measures of religious involvement: (1) currently attending religious services, (2) frequency of religious service attendance, (3) count of the number of religious members one interacted with on a social basis, and (4) importance of spirituality in one's daily life. Education and income were the socioeconomic status (SES) variables. Race/ethnicity was a binary variable indicating Non-Hispanic Blacks versus Non-Hispanic Whites. Results: Detailed results of this analysis are presented in this dissertation. Conclusions: Overall, religion measures had a protective effect on problem drinking, but service attendance had the most robust association. It appears that religion and socioeconomic status are not competing factors that potentially explain race-differences, in fact, they work together. There appears to be some support for the perspective that Black-White differences are explained, or at least better understood, when socioeconomic status and religion operate in an interaction model framework. The lack of finding of Black-White differences across all combinations of religion and socioeconomic status, and those differences being dependent on the type of problem drinking measure used limits the ability to generalize to an overall hypothesis. There are some noteworthy contributions this dissertation that advances the state of knowledge on this topic. It appears that the effect of religion on DSM-IV alcohol abuse for Blacks operates under different model assumptions than for Whites. Therefore, statistical comparisons may not tell the full story of Black-White differences and I recommend a renewed focus on race-specific analyses. Two main theoretical contributions emerge from this study. First, these findings suggest that individual religiosity plays an important protective role on problem drinking for equally for Blacks and Whites. The study adds more evidence as to which dimensions of religiosity most salient for protecting against problem are drinking, which is lacking in the research literature. Second, sensitivity analyses showed that the type of alcohol measure one uses to characterize problem drinking has potential implications racial disparities in alcohol research.

Racial inequalities in health are well documented in the literature, specifically with respect to Blacks and Whites in the United States (U.S.) These stark racial differences in health may be explained by the weathering hypothesis, whereby Blacks experience earlier deterioration of health resulting from cumulative stress from living in a race-conscious society. Despite the abundance of research on the weathering hypothesis to account for racial disparities, few research studies have attempted to empirically test this theory as it relates to cardio-metabolic disease disparities. Using nationally representative data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) and the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), the weathering hypothesis was examined in the context of cardio-metabolic disease disparities among a U.S. sample of Whites, African-Americans and Caribbean Blacks. This dissertation was organized into three main papers: The first paper (“Application of the Weathering Hypothesis: A Systematic Review of the Research”) is a systematic review of the existing literature that empirically tests the weathering hypothesis, which informed the methods in papers 2 and 3 of this dissertation. The second paper (“Cardio-Metabolic Disease Disparities: Comparisons between Caribbean Blacks, African-Americans and Whites to Test the Weathering Hypothesis”) tests the weathering hypothesis as an explanation for health disparities compared with other potential explanations (e.g. minority stress, socioeconomic status, health behaviors and genetics). The third paper (“Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Cardio-metabolic Disease: The Role of Racial Group Identification and Discrimination-Specific Coping”) assesses whether and to what extent racial socialization factors (racial identity and coping strategies) affect racial disparities in cardio-metabolic disease, as well as influence the effect of racial discrimination on cardio-metabolic disease. The systematic review informs future studies of the weathering hypothesis as a comprehensive framework for understanding racial disparities in health outcomes, but highlights the need for additional studies examining the impact of weathering on health outcomes other than birth outcomes. In paper 2, the results showed some support for the weathering hypothesis, but the patterns were not fully consistent with the predictions of this hypothesis. The results in paper 3 revealed racial differences in racial socialization factors (racial identity and coping strategies), but these factors did not explain racial/ethnic disparities in cardio-metabolic disease. Future studies should examine the effect of structural racism on racial disparities in cardio-metabolic disease as another test of the weathering hypothesis.

Parental participation supports students' academic success and increases positive peer interactions. Prior to the 1980s, parental participation was viewed as a unidimensional construct; however, it has since been understood as a multidimensional one. Studies from Epstein have demonstrated that culture, community, and family structures are some of the many factors that affect parental participation. In addition, Huntsinger and Jose have demonstrated that Asian-American parents participate in their children's education differently than do European Americans, yet research has not examined the specificities of South-Asian Americans' (SAAs) and Asian-Indian Americans' (AIAs) parental involvement. There are 6 recognized methods that parents can use to participate in their child's education. Assuming that the methods of participation used by parents can affect their children's academic performance and social development, the purpose of this study was to examine these methods of parental participation with respect to AIAs and SAAs. Using Epstein's questionnaire, 308 AIA/SAA parents were recruited who had a child born in the United States and who was attending a U.S. school between kindergarten and Grade 2 at the time of the study. MANOVA and ANOVA tests were used to calculate whether a significant difference existed amongst the 6 methods of parental participation, based on the gender of the parent or the gender of the child. There was no significant preference among the 6 methods of parental participation, nor was any difference found that related to the gender of the child. However, the results indicated that mothers were more involved than fathers in their child's education, although there was no preference among the 6 methods. Given the lack of clear direction emergent in these findings, implications for future research to further the understanding of parental participation of SAA/AIA are discussed.

The current study explored factors that might be related to immigrant students’ academic achievement in the United States. To be specific, this study examined the relationships among parental involvement, students’ self-esteem and students’ academic achievement in immigrant families. In this study, I focused on the ethnicities of Hispanic and Asian immigrants in the United States. Furthermore, the current study investigated the extent to which Hispanic and Asian immigrant students’ self-esteem mediated the relationships between parental involvement and students’ academic achievement. Parental involvement included four dimensions: parental expectations, parental monitoring, parent-child communication, and parental participation in school activities. Using path analysis and multi-group path analysis, data were analyzed from 1,070 immigrant students, who attended 11th and 12th grades, and their parents from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (1991-2006). After removing the variable of parental monitoring from the path analysis due to no relationship with students’ self-esteem and GPA (with other variables controlled), findings showed that, parental expectations positively predicted students’ self-esteem and their academic achievement; parent-child communication positively predicted students’ self-esteem, but negatively predicted students’ academic achievement. In addition, parental participation in school activities positively predicted students’ self-esteem; however, there was no significant relationship with students’ academic achievement. Additionally, students’ self-esteem was not related to students’ academic achievement and had no mediation effect on the relationships between parental involvement and students’ academic achievement. These findings showed no differences between Hispanic and Asian immigrant families. Keywords: parental involvement, academic achievement, self-esteem, immigrant families, CILS / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 17, 2019. / academic achievement, Asian and Hispanic immigrants, CILS, immigrant families, parental involvement, self-esteem / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeannine E. Turner, Professor Directing Thesis; Alysia Roehrig, Committee Member; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-300).

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Geography, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, 2006. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed Feb. 9, 2007). Includes abstract. "A project report and thesis submitted to the Faculty of Brite Divinity School in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Ministry." Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of the study was to develop a model for use by planners of migrant education. Attitudes and behaviors of planners and teachers relative to the academic expectations set for migrant students were assessed. The levels of task difficulty, information sources, and feedback mechanisms encouraged by planners and the evaluation standards applied by teachers were investigated. Descriptive analyses were made and reported for data collected from twenty-five teachers and fifty state and local planners attending the Eleventh Annual National Migrant Education Conference.While academic achievement was generally judged to be a priority, half the teachers and over one-third of the planners expressed lower expectations for migrant students than for the general student population. These findings were interpreted as substantiating a need for a model for setting higher academic expectations. Teachers and planners also favored assigning easier tasks for migrant students, a practive revealed in the review of literature as producing unhappiness and shame in the student.Diffuse use of warmth and friendlines was reported by-teachers of migrant students. An exception showed that teachers tended to use warmth and friendliness discriminately for purposes of classroom control. In findings of related research a relationship was established between diffuse warmth and friendliness and low academic achievement.Sources, highly susceptible to the effect of existing expectations and stereotypes were favored. Teachers used multiple sources of information, but relied most on ethnic background and communication from other teachers. Information about student past performance was used more than information comparing migrant students to national or local norms.The following were conclusions of the study:1. Migrant teachers and planners hold lower expectations for migrant students than for the general population, an attitude found to relate to low academic achievement.2. Teachers exhibit warmth and friendliness toward migrant students without regard to the quality of performance. Such use of diffuse warmth and friendliness has been found to be directly related to low academic achievement.3. Teachers and planners rely on past performance, ethnic background, and other teachers for information. All three sources promote a continuation of low expectations.4. By giving the highest grade or mark available to migrant students regardless of the quality or difficulty of work, teachers lead migrant students to believe their work is outstanding.5. Migrant students, assigned easy tasks, are thereby subjected to conditions which produce unhappiness as well as limited academic achievement.6. Migrant students, seldom provided evaluation information based on comparison with others, must rely on non-challenging past experiences in establishing future expectation for self.An interactive model involving teachers indirectly in raising Mexican-American student expectations was designed based on the findings of the study and related research. Components of the model included the existing national math and reading skill lists, a national norm-referenced achievement test or tests, systematic student career goal-setting by parents, systematic academic expectation objective-setting by students, and process evaluation of teacher use of feedback with students.Processes were identified for interstate, intrastate, and intra-project interactions. At each level peer commitments among implementers combined with implementation experiences would result in the use of increasing numbers of information sources. Ultimately teachers, parents, and students supported by local, state and federal planners would set challenging academic expectations for migrant students.