This dissertation is a mixed methods analysis investigating postpartum depression as it is experienced by self-reported depressed Mexican American adolescent and adult mothers. The qualitative portion of this study explores pregnancy and motherhood to better understand meanings attached to depression. Six adolescent and six adult mothers, were recruited from the Dallas/Fort-Worth area. Each was interviewed twice, using semi-structured interview guides. The quantitative phase utilizes a national sample of self-reported depressed Hispanic mothers to identify breastfeeding behavior and mothers' perceptions of the physical health of their babies. Specifically, a secondary analysis of the National Survey of Children's Health, 2003 was used to supplement the qualitative data. This study provides a theoretical framework of fragmented identity to explain socio-cultural factors contributing to postpartum depression among Mexican American adolescent and adult mothers. Common themes leading to a fragmented identify were indentified. Contributors to postpartum depression include: unplanned pregnancy, internal struggle between cultures, body image and family conflict. Stigma associated with teen motherhood also contributed to depression among adolescent mothers while the medicalization of childbirth was a contributing factor of depression among the adult mothers. Additionally, the duration of breastfeeding and mothers' perceptions of their babies' physical health were impacted by depression, but breastfeeding initiation was not.

Given the growing racial and ethnic disproportionality amongst young Latinxs and early childhood teachers against the established benefits of racial and ethnic matching between students and teachers, in this study I aimed to gain insight into the often ignored trajectories and experiences of Latinx early childhood educators. In this study, I endeavored to address the need for more Latinx early childhood teachers to teach the growing majority of Latinx young children. I situated my study in Los Angeles, California, given the growing presence of Latinxs in Los Angeles County’s population and in its public-school system. It is in such a context that I sought to document and learn from the counter-stories of five Latinx early childhood teachers teaching Latinx young children.Utilizing Latinx Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) as a guiding theoretical framework and a project in humanization orientation, I posed the following research questions: 1. How do Latinx early childhood teachers in the County of Los Angeles, California (where Latinxs are the growing demographic majority) verbally portray their stories of becoming early educators? 2. How do Latinx early childhood teachers verbally portray their stories as early childhood educators in a community where Latinxs are the growing demographic majority? 3. As they reflect on becoming and being Latinx early childhood teachers, what consejos do they have for the field of early childhood education if it is serious about supporting the growth of Latinx early childhood teachers? This study involved a FotoHistorias methodology, which entailed utilizing participatory photography and pláticas (conversational interviews) to elicit lived experiences to “counter” deficit-oriented majoritarian stories of Latinx teachers, families, communities, and young children. Data were comprised of participatory photography, pláticas, and researcher memos. Findings, presented as counter-stories, shed light on necessary transformations in the field of early childhood teaching and teacher education. Implications point toward the importance of listening to and learning from Latinx early childhood teachers’ memoried experiences and stories, as they stand to inform the recruitment and retention of Latinx teachers within the field of early childhood education.

An extensive literature has linked off-time pubertal maturation to adverse health outcomes among adults. Childhood adversities are also linked to both pubertal development and cardiometabolic disease. Despite the racial and ethnic disparities in pubertal timing and cardiometabolic health in midlife, few studies have investigated if off-time pubertal maturation is associated with Latino individuals' metabolic syndrome. Furthermore, there exists limited data assessing early life risk factors affecting the association between timing of pubertal maturation and metabolic syndrome by sex and in young adults. This dissertation used a life course perspective to test developmental hypotheses of stress on reproductive strategies and cardiometabolic health to address these limitations. The three primary aims of this dissertation research were to 1) estimate the association between family dysfunction and timing of pubertal maturation in Latino boys and girls, 2) systematically review the impact of the timing of pubertal maturation on metabolic syndrome in young adults age 18-40 years, and 3) estimate the association between timing of pubertal maturation and metabolic syndrome in young adult Latino men and women. The analytic aims were explored using data from two population-based cohorts that include different age groups: the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCSH/SOL) Youth Ancillary Study (cross-sectional design) (8-16 years), and the Boricua Youth Study Health Assessment Ancillary Study (prospective design) (5-10 years and 18-23 years). The first empirical study, using HCHS/SOL Youth data, found that the presence of family dysfunction may be associated with delayed pubertal maturation in Latino children and adolescents. The systematic review highlighted the lack of diversity by sex, measurements, and racial/ethnic representation in this area of research, but also suggested that childhood BMI may account for much of the association between pubertal timing and metabolic syndrome. The second empirical study, based on the BYS HA study, did not find meaningful associations between timing of pubertal maturation and metabolic syndrome and cardiometabolic traits in young adults. These results do not support the prevailing hypotheses nor quantitative evidence linking off-time pubertal maturation to poorer cardiometabolic health. Overall, this dissertation utilized a life course perspective to advance understanding and support of the origins of adulthood cardiovascular risk that may begin in childhood. Future investigations should be designed to be longitudinal and include measures characterizing childhood body size, health behaviors, and environmental exposures. Future studies should also explore the specific mechanisms explaining the observed associations, particularly the complex interaction between hormonal and metabolic factors that appear to affect adult health among individuals with off-time pubertal maturation adversely.

Research on child sexual abuse (CSA), from the perspective of the perpetrator, has been conducted to better inform intervention and prevention programs. Although information from perpetrators can be beneficial for these programs, much of the research is limited by the diversity of sample populations of sex offenders. Moreover, potentially distinct variables relevant to specific populations (e.g., Latinos) have not been thoroughly studied in relation to CSA. To better understand the perpetration of CSA on variables that may be of particular concern to Latinos (i.e., relationship quality in familial supervision and acculturation strategies), the purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between supervisor relationship quality, acculturation, and adolescent group membership (i.e., juvenile sex offender - JSO and juvenile comparison - JC). It was hypothesized that Latinos who are assimilated or marginalized are more likely to belong to the JSO group than the JC group. Further, Latino adolescents characterized by an integrated or separated acculturation strategy are more likely to be affiliated with JC group than the JSO group. It was also hypothesized that participants' relationship with their familial supervisor will predict adolescent membership and that acculturation will mediate this relationship. Results for both hypotheses were inconclusive. The probability of using a specific acculturation strategy was not statistically different for either adolescent group. The relationship between supervisor relationship quality and juvenile group membership was non-significant; therefore, the meditational role of acculturation could not be assessed. Further research, using a larger sample size with more complete data is recommended. Suggestions for other design improvements are also provided.

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of some of the problems of the Latin-American schools, survey one such school in operation, and study some proposed remedies for any inequalities that might exist.

The purpose of this study is to examine Hispanic parent's beliefs and attitudes about high school Hispanic drop out rates. This study was conducted to better understand the factors that Hispanic parents believe lead to school dropout as well as prevention.

In the Catecismo Patriótico by Gonzales Vigil in 1859, written evidence was found for thefi rst time of the anonymous verses that substituted, for almost 200 years, Torre Ugarte’sfi rst stanza of Peru’s national anthem, just shortly after it was created in 1821. Arguments toexclude it appeared in the late 19th century and 20th: it was anti-Hispanic, silenced rebellionsand colonial revolutions and went against Torre Ugarte’s author rights. Comparisonis made of the themes and language of the apocrypha verses with other national HispanicAmerican songs of the period, fi nding complete similarity in all of them. The debate centeredin the original text and the one from popular tradition. The conclusion comes with the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision and complementary dispositions from 2005 to 2010, to locatethe anonymous stanza at the end, and substitute it with one by Torre Ugarte. / En el Catecismo Patriótico preparado por Francisco de Paula Gonzales Vigil en 1859, aparecela primera evidencia escrita de unos versos anónimos que poco después de creadoel himno nacional del Perú en 1821 se habían incorporado como primera estrofa, y quesustituyó a la del texto original de José de la Torre Ugarte, por casi 200 años. A fi nes del XIXy el XX comenzaron a aparecer argumentos para excluirla: su antihispanismo, el silenciosobre rebeliones y revoluciones coloniales y el derecho de autor de Torre Ugarte. Se comparanlos temas y lenguaje de la estrofa apócrifa con los de otras canciones nacionales deHispanoamérica de su tiempo, advirtiendo la completa similitud entre todos. En realidad,el debate se centró entre un texto original y otro procedente de la tradición popular. Seconcluye con la decisión del Tribunal Constitucional y las disposiciones complementariasentre 2005 y 2010 que ubicaron al fi nal la estrofa apócrifa y ordenaron sustituirla por otrade Torre Ugarte.

<p> This dissertation centrally explores understandings of foreign/second language and culture learning and its potential to prepare learners to participate in a globalized world. More specifically, this study explores the potential of a dynamic or complexity orientation to understand how beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions towards language and culture learning are constructed and negotiated in the relationship between learners and instructors, as complex social beings, and the learning site, as &ldquo;contestatory discursive site&rdquo; (Mckay &amp; Wong, 1996).</p><p> The site of this ethnographic study can be understood as interconnected <i> contact zones</i>. These contact zones are two Spanish language and Latino cultures classrooms situated at a university in San Diego on the border between the United States and Mexico. Primary participants include two third-semester university level Spanish instructors, Yesenia and Vicente, and their respective students.</p><p> I collected data in two learning spaces: the language learning classrooms and the sites where students from Yesenia&rsquo;s class completed community-service learning (CSL) projects; all of these latter CSL sites involved the students&rsquo; engagement with local immigrant populations. In both spaces, I employed qualitative methodology with an ethnographic focus, which involved participant observation, extensive field notes, audio- and video-recordings of classes, and collecting class-related textual artifacts and pedagogical materials. I applied discourse analysis to explore classroom interactions, teaching materials, and interviews with a focal group of students from each class, the instructors, the department chair, and personnel related to the CSL program, including staff, site coordinators, community leaders, and community participants.</p><p> My analysis suggests that the two language and culture classrooms not only reflect the larger tensions of globalization, but also produce new tensions. The instructors and the learners have differing perceptions of language and culture and the importance of their learning. These understandings are constructed in relationship to their positionings within the classroom, the university, the community, and the local context. The two instructors struggle with their conflicted positioning within the power structure of the university and in the broader relationship between the United States and Latin America, particularly as they are both Mexican immigrants. They also grapple with the instrumental approach that is imposed through the textbook in which learners accumulate grammatical forms and vocabulary while culture is consumed through superficial representations of &ldquo;Otherness&rdquo;, presented as imagined tourists visits and the accumulation of geographical and historical information.</p><p> In the first classroom, Yesenia accepts the instrumental approach, encouraging the accumulation of largely decontextualized language forms, and she participates in the construction of what I call a tourist gaze on Latin America, believing that it will facilitate learners&rsquo; appreciation of her cultural heritage. In the second classroom, Vicente rejects the instrumental approach: he wants to facilitate language and culture learning through critically understanding, reflecting on, and proposing alternatives to the social, economic, and political realities of the contact zone. In both classrooms, however, learners resent these pedagogical choices, their resistance revealing tensions in their own understandings and goals. Learners express a desire to develop cultural awareness so that they can care about the realities of Latin America yet doing so uncomfortably implicates them in larger global relationships in which they must confront their privileged positionings. This process was particularly evident in their CSL experiences in which &ldquo;putting a face on it&rdquo; reproduced problematic binaries, such as that of &ldquo;us&rdquo; and &ldquo;them&rdquo; and &ldquo;server&rdquo; and &ldquo;served&rdquo;, and in the process reinforced larger power structures and reproduced privilege. Even though the learners want to engage in more than superficial communication they also recognize the limited role of their language and culture learning in their current lives, namely to successfully complete the language requirement, to engage in tourism, and to compete in the global marketplace.</p><p> The findings of this study suggest ever increasing tensions between understandings of learning language and culture in the classroom in contrast to the potentiality of this learning as applied outside of the classroom. In both classrooms, the learners and the instructors demonstrate an awareness of the conflicting attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions that they bring to the classroom and how these interact with the teaching materials as well as the local context, yet they do not engage in critical reflection on these understandings. Doing so would require engaging with the central question of power, and how their language and culture learning experiences (re)produce social structures both in and outside of the classroom. In this regard, one of the central limitations of the dynamic or complexity orientation (Wesely, 2012) that I have employed is that it does not centrally interrogate this question of power.</p><p> This study points to the need for future research in field of second language acquisition. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is experienced by Latinas (Villavicencio, 2008; Gonz&aacute;lez-Guarda, Peragallo, Vasquez, Urrutia, &amp; Mitrani, 2009) at comparable and higher rates to women of other racial/ethnic backgrounds (Black et al., 2011; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2011). Young Latinas, in particular, appear to be disproportionately affected by IPV in comparison to young non-Latina white women (CDC, 2011). The negative outcomes associated with IPV in women, including Latinas, range from physical health issues (e.g., death, injuries including broken bones and concussions), and illnesses (e.g., gastrointestinal issues, headaches, and cardiovascular problems), to mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, and negative interpersonal relationship patterns) (Caetano &amp; Cunradi, 2003; Krishnan, Hilbert, &amp; VanLeeuwen, 2001; Brown et al., 2003). Despite these negative outcomes, women do engage in and navigate new relationships. It is unknown, however, how they approach these subsequent dating experiences. Understanding dating/relationships among Latinas following adolescent IPV is particularly important as the literature indicates adolescence marks a critical time for the initial development of interpersonal romantic relationship behaviors and dynamics, which can form lasting patterns (Makepeace, 1986; Lerner &amp; Galambos, 1998; Glass, 2003). </p><p> The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to explore how adolescent IPV influences subsequent, new dating experiences among Latinas. Grounded theory research methodology (Corbin &amp; Strauss, 2008) was utilized to examine this topic. Eleven adult Latinas participated in interviews during which they were asked to discuss their dating, partner, and relationship expectations and behaviors subsequent to adolescent IPV. </p><p> Results revealed that Latinas who experienced adolescent IPV underwent changes that led to an increased focus on self-protection, which was incorporated into subsequent partner/relationship expectations (e.g., less traditional gender roles, which also influenced other expectations including partnership; emotional support/space; self-expression/communication), relationship goals (e.g., a desire for an IPV-free relationship; monogamy; companionship) and new behaviors in dating/relationships (e.g., period of being single; cautious, slower approach to dating/relationships). Additionally, results indicated that most of the participants had entered subsequent satisfying, IPV-free relationships. Discussion of the findings, implications, and limitations of the present study are included. Directions for future research are also provided. </p>

<p> This qualitative study explores the utilization of mental health services among Latinos in the United States. The sample included 15 Latino participants of various age groups who completed an 11-question questionnaire that provided data regarding demographics, perceptions about mental illness, consequences and improvements regarding mental illness, and known resources concerning mental health. Findings revealed that older generational Latinos were less receptive to utilizing mental health services than younger Latino generations. Majority of participants (54.5%) identified alcoholism as one of the most common family dysfunctions in their households while growing up. Participants indicated that although family members would benefit from mental health services their lack of awareness and education prevented family members from utilizing mental health services. Majority of participants, (66.7%) held a college degree and belonged to a younger Latino generation and were more receptive, educated, aware and open to accept mental health services.</p>