A study in a multiethnic, urban population found that being of Hispanic ethnicity more than doubled the odds of depression during pregnancy. Given that Latinas make up such a significant and sizable population, mental health professionals must work towards learning to serve them more appropriately and effectively. The following research is of significance to intervention and treatment of depressed Latina women. The study was conducted utilizing a qualitative phenomenology method. Five social workers with past or current experience in working with the topic population were recruited and in-depth interviews were audio-recorded. Information gathered was broken into major themes and subthemes to be later discussed. The main themes identified were: low literacy rates, female roles in Latino culture, additional barriers to consider, acceptance of mental health services and effectiveness of treatment. Research conducted has significance for social work practice in micro settings with treatment and intervention for pregnant depressed Latina women as well as policy-making procedures for macro social work.

This study explored the relationship between perceived racism and stress symptoms in a sample of Latina/o women and men. One hundred and fifty-one female and male Latina/o college students participated in this study. Resting blood pressure, weight, and height measurements were taken after which participants completed 6 questionnaires measuring experience of perceived racism, coping strategies, neuroticism, negative affectivity, symptoms of distress, and perceived stress. Questionnaires employed included the Perceived Racism Scale for Latinos (PRSL), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO PI-R, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-21 (HSCL-21), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). It was hypothesized that neuroticism, negative affectivity, and emotion-focused coping would be positively correlated with self-reports of perceived racism while avoidance coping would be negatively correlated with perceived racism. Perceived racism was hypothesized to predict increased blood pressure, symptoms of distress, and perceived stress. Other predictors included in these regression models included, task-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping strategies, neuroticism, negative affectivity, Body Mass Index, age, and gender. Emotion-focused coping, task-focused coping, and BMI were positively correlated with increased self-reports of perceived racism. Hypotheses that perceived racism would significantly predict increased blood pressure, symptoms of distress, and perceived stress were not supported. Notably, perceived racism significantly predicted frequency of visits to a physician over the past two months after controlling for variance associated with neuroticism, negative affectivity, coping strategies, BMI, age, and gender. Avoidant coping negatively predicted both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, while neuroticism negatively predicted diastolic blood pressure. Argument is presented to suggest that items measuring social support rather than maladaptive avoidant coping are responsible for the significant prediction of blood pressure from avoidance coping. BMI also predicted higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Male gender was predictive of higher systolic blood pressure while age predicted higher diastolic blood pressure. Neuroticism and negative affectivity were predictive of symptoms of distress. Perceived stress was predicted by emotion-focused coping, neuroticism, negative affectivity, and BMI. Potential explanations for these results are offered as well as implications and suggestions for future research. / text

The Other in mainstream U.S. society—in this case, the Latino Other—faces oppressive forces in the journey to find belonging. Latinos are marked by stereotypes, regardless of whether such stereotypes have a factual foundation. Latinas specifically are labeled as submissive servants, maids, or nannies. On the other end of the spectrum, Latinas are exotic and enticing sexual beings that must satisfy white men’s fetishes and lechery. Through this thesis, I will explore what Latina women face as an Other that is paradoxically both rejected and desired and evokes aversion as well as awe. In this creative thesis, in creative nonfiction, poetry, and oral history interviews with Latinas in my life, I will survey and expose stereotypes of Latinas, with the goal of uplifting the voices of such women of color and helping bridge the gap of understanding between the “average American” and their “Othered” Latino neighbors. If the non-Latino American public becomes educated on topics such as xenophobia and anti-Latino discrimination, they may do their part to create a community that is more inclusive and welcomes the ethnic diversity that has always been present in America.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-07-12T15:35:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Júnior Melo da Luz_.pdf: 2758323 bytes, checksum: a7ad97dac7f363ac2e60819fd2ea332e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-12T15:35:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Júnior Melo da Luz_.pdf: 2758323 bytes, checksum: a7ad97dac7f363ac2e60819fd2ea332e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-02 / CNPQ – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo geral investigar as significações produzidas por sujeitas comunicantes mulheres para as personagens femininas narcotraficantes na série Queen of the South, destacando a presença do protagonismo das mulheres nesse cenário. Para embasar a investigação, refleti sobre os conceitos teóricos: gênero ficcional série; gênero, enquanto categoria analítica e epistemológica para pensar as mulheres; sujeitos comunicantes e processos de recepção; identidades culturais e cidadania comunicativa. A fim de compreender os entornos da problemática, realizei um movimento de contextualização que abarcou questões do narcotráfico na fronteira entre México e Estados Unidos; da narcotraficante Sandra Ávila Beltrán, que inspirou a série Queen of the South; da personagem Teresa Mendoza, a Rainha do Sul; dos processos de interlocução entre a televisão latina e a estadunidense e das migrações femininas latinas para os Estados Unidos. As estratégias metodológicas se construíram a partir da transmetodologia, que orientou a pesquisa bibliográfica, a pesquisa da pesquisa, a pesquisa de contextualização e a pesquisa teórica. O olhar transmetodológico também norteou a pesquisa empírica exploratória, realizada por meio de questionários e entrevistas nos ambientes digitais da série Queen of the South, com sujeitos que formam o público da série. Ademais, foram feitas entrevistas em profundidade com cinco mulheres que compõem a amostra da investigação na fase sistemática. A dissertação permitiu refletir sobre as potencialidades e obliterações de exercício da cidadania comunicativa na construção do gênero feminino em Queen of the South. A partir das conversas com as sujeitas da recepção, foi possível pensar em como cada trajetória de gênero gera significações para a série, abrindo discussões sobre feminismo, igualdade e luta pelos direitos das mulheres em perspectiva cidadã. / This research had as main objective to investigate the interpretations produced by women communicative subjects for the female drug dealer characters of the series Queen of the South, highlighting the presence of women main roles in this scenario. To base the investigation, I reflected about the theoretical concepts: series as fictional gender; gender, as an analytical and epistemological category to think about women; communicative subjects and reception processes; cultural identities and communicative citizenship. To understand the surroundings of the problematic, I made a contextualization movement that covered questions: of drug dealing in the border of Mexico and the United States; of the drug dealer Sandra Ávila Beltrán, who inspired the series Queen of the South; of the character Teresa Mendoza, the Queen of the South; of the processes of interlocution among the Latin and the American television; and the feminine migrations to the United States. The methodological strategies were built with basis on the transmethodology, which oriented the bibliographic research, the research of the research, the contextualization research and the theoretical research. The transmethodological perspective also guided the exploratory empirical research, accomplished with questionnaires and interviews on the digital spaces of the series Queen of the South, with subjects who form the public of the show. Furthermore, were made in-depth interviews with five women who composed the sample of the systematic phase of the investigation. The dissertation allowed me to think about the potentialities and obliterations of the communicative citizenship effectiveness on the building of a feminine gender in Queen of the South. From the dialogues with the subjects of the reception, it was possible to comprehend how each gender trajectory create significations to the series, opening discussions about feminism, equality and fight for women rights in a citizenship perspective.

Young women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico are coming of age in an era of feminicides, drug wars, impunity, and fear. This ethnographic study examines the ways in which Preparatoria Altavista, a public high school, in one of the most marginalized areas of Juárez, attempts to empower subaltern young women through its critical and social justice philosophy of education. The study draws from critical pedagogy, socio-cultural theory, and feminist scholarship to offer a unique analysis of how hegemonic ideas are resisted and/or inscribed pedagogically, politically, and institutionally at Altavista. Secondly, the study examines how the school’s constructions of democratic and social justice education interact with the current dystopic context of Juárez and discourses about Juárez women to provide a framework with which a group of young women author their identities and practice forms of resistance. The ethnographic fieldwork took place in the 2009-2010 academic year. The methods included unstructured ethnographic interviews with teachers, administrators, and numerous students, as well as semi-structured interviews and an auto-photography technique with nine girls. The study identifies three interrelated aspects that characterize the transformative pedagogy of Preparatoria Altavista: freedom and autonomy, authentic caring relationships, and the cultivation of critical discourse and activism. Together, these core values promote the school’s ultimate goal for its students – autogestión, or the ability to self-author empowered identities; read their world; and initiate and develop socially transformative projects. Considering the school’s context, as well as the many challenges inherent in the dystopic Juárez of today, the study also identifies a typology of four different paths to the girls’ identity and agency development: the Redirectors, the Reinventors, the Redefiners, and the Refugees. This typology is based on various ways and degrees to which the young women in this study authored the self as they negotiated the messages from the multiple figured worlds that they inhabit. The study seeks to counter sensationalist, criminalizing, and dooming narratives about Juárez youth, as well as stereotypical and objectifying depictions of Juárez women by offering a nuanced analysis of their experiences, perspectives, identities, and forms of agency. The study also seeks to offer a language of possibility and hope for urban schools and contexts of civil unrest through critical pedagogy. / text

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