While an abundance of literature addresses undergraduate students’ lack of success in engineering programs, fewer studies examine the persistence of minority females, especially of Latinas in such a male-dominated discipline. This study employed a qualitative method of inquiry to gain insight into the perceptions of social support networks and climate in the persistence of eleven Latinas pursuing an undergraduate engineering degree at two research-extensive universities. The study, ultimately, concluded that participants utilized various systems of support (e.g., fathers and family, peers, and student organizations) to aid in their sense of belonging, which essentially influenced their decision to persist. Additionally, the study found that Latinas encountered various levels of hostile climates (e.g., institutional, departmental, classroom, student organizations, and internships) throughout their undergraduate experience. Lastly, the study concluded that several participants had to grapple with the idea of gender and what that means within a male-dominated discipline. While the findings from this study added to the literature on the perceptions of social support networks and climate in the persistence of Latinas pursuing an undergraduate engineering degree, further qualitative studies that examine the role of fathers, the conceptualization of gender by female engineers, the coping mechanisms employed to mediate gender discrimination, and the reasons for the lack of entry to the STEM workforce are warranted.

Thesis advisor: David Karp / This thesis focuses on the lived experiences of adolescent Puerto Rican American girls who were born and raised in the United States. In the midst of the social problems and the attention given to these problems, the resilient nature of these young women is often overlooked. The sample consist of 18 young ladies between the ages of 11-15 (M = 12.2 yrs). The data for this research project were collected through two main methods – the Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire (BIQ) and semi-structured interviews. First I utilize social identity theory and the concept of social stigma to detail certain social problems and explain their reactions towards them. I then describe the coping strategies used by these young ladies to survive the social inequality they face on a daily basis. I have used the existing research on the colonialism of Puerto Rico, race/ethnicity, and cultural gender expectations as the foundation for my exploration on the effects of the interconnectedness of all three social processes on the lives of these young girls, and to gain a better understanding on the coping strategies these young women use to deal with these social problems. Although these girls express many ways of dealing with difficult situations, I write on four of the main strategies they utilize. The four coping strategies include: making use of their social capital, distinguishing themselves from others, promoting and preserving cultural pride, and understanding the differences in various social contexts. What has remained virtually unwritten, until now, are the ways young puertorriqueñas have learned to cope with the problems of an oppressive history, race/ethnicity, and gender expectations. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Explanations for Latinas high fertility levels have been centered in terms of current or actual fertility, as measured by children ever born (CEB). However, studies of this nature have failed to utilize methods appropriate for evaluating a count variable, such as CEB. Even fewer analyses have incorporated "ideal" fertility as an explanatory factor of actual fertility, particularly in the case of Latinas. In this thesis, multiple Poisson and zero-inflated Poisson regression models are used to assess the impact of independent factors on ideal and actual fertility among Latinas, as compared to white women. In the comparative analyses of ideal and actual fertility (CEB), the independent variables in demographic composition (marital status), socialization factors (mother's CEB and church attendance), socioeconomic and employment status (education and employment) and fertility history and intentions (abortions) are found to be consistently, significantly related to both ideal and actual fertility. More importantly, women have higher intended than actual fertility. The fact that Mexican women have been able to realize their fertility intentions provides a better understanding of the fertility behavior of Latinas. This means that Latinas actually want the larger numbers of children that they are having.

Explanations for Latinas high fertility levels have been centered in terms of current or actual fertility, as measured by children ever born (CEB). However, studies of this nature have failed to utilize methods appropriate for evaluating a count variable, such as CEB. Even fewer analyses have incorporated "ideal" fertility as an explanatory factor of actual fertility, particularly in the case of Latinas. In this thesis, multiple Poisson and zero-inflated Poisson regression models are used to assess the impact of independent factors on ideal and actual fertility among Latinas, as compared to white women. In the comparative analyses of ideal and actual fertility (CEB), the independent variables in demographic composition (marital status), socialization factors (mother's CEB and church attendance), socioeconomic and employment status (education and employment) and fertility history and intentions (abortions) are found to be consistently, significantly related to both ideal and actual fertility. More importantly, women have higher intended than actual fertility. The fact that Mexican women have been able to realize their fertility intentions provides a better understanding of the fertility behavior of Latinas. This means that Latinas actually want the larger numbers of children that they are having.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of culture on coping with child sexual abuse (CSA). Specifically, I assessed whether the perpetrators’ familial membership (intrafamilial vs extrafamilial) moderated the relations (a) between traditional Latin@ values (familismo, respeto, traditional gender roles, and personalismo) and survivors’ perceived family support effectiveness and (b) between Latin@ values and current trauma interference. I also examined the relationships (a) between trauma resolution and family’s support effectiveness and (b) between trauma resolution and current trauma interference. In total, 83 Latina survivors participated in this online study. Results indicated that the relation between respeto and current trauma interference was moderated by the perpetrators’ familial membership. Survivors who highly valued personalismo, regardless of the perpetrators’ familial membership, reported that the trauma interfered less with their lives. The participants who reported that the trauma interfered more with their lives also reported that the trauma was more resolved. In addition, those who reported greater current trauma interference were more likely to have sought counseling for their CSA, and those who were older tended to feel their trauma was less resolved. Finally, survivors of intrafamilial CSA tended to be younger when the abuse occurred and older at the time of participation in the study. In sum, these findings highlight the complex relationship between culture and coping among Latina survivors of CSA. Findings can contribute to the development of culturally informed services for Latina survivors of CSA by helping counselors and researchers assist Latinas to understand how CSA survivors’ coping efficacy and recovery outcomes are related to their cultural contexts.

Submitted by Fernanda Rodrigues de Lima (fernanda.rlima@ufpe.br) on 2018-08-29T22:51:07Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) TESE Larissa de Pinho Cavalcanti.pdf: 6568406 bytes, checksum: b44dc49669a2f5ddd18ea88b864e6bc6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alice Araujo (alice.caraujo@ufpe.br) on 2018-09-10T23:18:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) TESE Larissa de Pinho Cavalcanti.pdf: 6568406 bytes, checksum: b44dc49669a2f5ddd18ea88b864e6bc6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-10T23:18:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) TESE Larissa de Pinho Cavalcanti.pdf: 6568406 bytes, checksum: b44dc49669a2f5ddd18ea88b864e6bc6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-04 / CAPES / Nossa investigação se dedica à análise das representações sociais sobre mulheres latinas reproduzidas pela Lifetime através da série Devious Maids, lançada em 2013. De modo geral, questionamos se a natureza das representações sociais (re)produzidas na série rompe com a história de papéis secundários, baseados em estereotipias, e com a projeção de inferioridade social e a opressão cultural das mulheres latinas. Nosso estudo é desenvolvido em uma perspectiva multimodal e voltado para os planos contextuais e constitutivos e semióticodiscursivos da narrativa. No que diz respeito ao plano contextual e constitutivo, distinguimos como macrocategoria de análise os processos de produção, recepção e transmissão, por um lado, e universo diegético, por outro. Para a primeira macrocategoria deste plano, tomamos como microcategorias a escolha de diretores, elenco, índices de audiência; enquanto para a segunda, consideramos microcategorias a composição do título, o slogan da série, a vinheta e os títulos de cada episódio. O estudo do plano semiótico-discursivo, por sua vez, tomou como macrocategoria os modos visual, sonoro e verbal, analisados através dos vetores de representação do modo orquestrador de filmagem (ângulo, enquadramento e iluminação) e visual (cenário e figurino) e dos modos contribuintes de som (trilha sonora e fala em aspectos fonológicos), de ação dramática (movimentos e gestos) e de ação verbal (falas, discursos). A investigação do universo diegético da série permitiu compreender como o tempo e o espaço, ancorados em aspectos do mundo real, sugeriram verossimilhança de ações entre a ficção e a não ficção, ao passo que as biografias das personagens latinas deixaram em evidência temas de suas representações sociais na série. A partir desses temas, constatamos que o macrotema étnico (central para a representação social sobre as protagonistas latinas) é realizado por uma série de microtemas (estereotipia, sotaque, maternidade, sexualidade, religiosidade e liberdade financeira) usados para análise semiótico-discursiva das cenas. Ao final dessa análise, afirmamos que a Lifetime reproduz representações sociais sobre as mulheres latinas na série Devious Maids as quais, ao mesmo tempo em que as posicionam como protagonistas de suas narrativas, não as libertam de expectativas culturais esterotípicas, tanto em função da cultura americana quanto de suas próprias culturas. Nesse sentido, a Lifetime retoma e dá continuidade a representações construídas a partir da inferioridade econômica e social, bem como da vulnerabilidade sexual dessas mulheres. Em contrapartida, quando tais mulheres reclamam, narrativamente, poder de agência, são caracterizadas como diabólicas e manipuladoras. É possível, portanto, afirmar que as representações são fruto de posicionamentos ideológicos muitas vezes contraditórios e sempre implícitos, orientados para empoderar ou subjulgar grupos sociais e seus membros – o que torna urgente seu estudo em produtos midiáticos, cujo publico consumidor se torna cada vez mais intangível no mundo globalizado. / Our investigation focuses on social representations of latinas (re)produced by Lifetime through the series Devious Maids, released in 2013. Generally, we investigate whether the nature of such representations distances itself from the history of secondary roles based on stereotypes and the projection of social inferiority and cultural oppression for latina women. As a multimodal perspective is adopted in the research, we concentrate our analysis on both contextual and constitutive and semiotic-discursive dimensions of the series. Regarding the contextual and constitutive dimension, the macrocategory of analysis processes of production, reception and transmission was devised on one hand, and of diegetic universe on the other. The microcategories that compose the former are the choice of directors, script writers and actors, and the latter, the visual composition of the title of the series, its slogan, opening and episode title. On the semiotic-discursive dimension, visual, auditory and verbal modes were macrocategories of analysis realized by the vectors of representation orchestrating mode of filming (angle, framing, light) and visual (setting and figurine) and the contributing modes of sound (soundtrack and speech), dramatic action (movements and gesture) and verbal action (character’s lines and discourses). By looking at the narrative, we realized how time and space, anchored in aspects of the real world, suggested convergence of fiction and non-fiction; while the biographies for the latina protagonists made evident the use of certain themes to compose their social representations in the series. Through these themes, it was noted that ethnicity as a macrotheme was realized through a series of microthemes (stereotypes, accent, motherhood, sexuality, religion and financial independence) which were used in the semioticdiscursive analysis of the scenes. As a result, it was possible to observe that Lifetime produces social representations of Latinas that albeit protagonists are still grounded on stereotypical expectations both in their own cultures and in relation to the American culture. Lifetime then (re)produces previous representations for these women built on the notion of social/economic inferiority and sexual vulnerability, and that project them as manipulative and diabolic when they assume narrative agency. Therefore, it is possible to affirm that social representations derive from ideological positioning often contradictory and implicit, oriented towards empowering or subjugating social groupos and their members – which is enough to stress the relevance of studies focused on midiatic products that are consumed by increasingly untangible globalized audiences.

In the present study, we used a top-down approach to examine perfectionism and loneliness as additive sociocognitive predictors of depressive and anxious symptoms in a sample of 121 Latina college students. Consistent with expectations, we found perfectionism and loneliness to be associated with both depressive and anxious symptoms. In addition, results of conducting hierarchical regression analyses indicated that certain dimensions of perfectionism, especially doubts about actions, accounted for significant variance in both depressive and anxious symptoms. Moreover, the inclusion of loneliness as a predictor was found to predict additional unique variance in both depressive and anxious symptoms beyond what was accounted for by perfectionism. Implications of the present findings for future research on negative affective conditions in Latinas are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

Background: Latinas experience a greater number of symptoms and are at an elevated risk for depression and anxiety following a diagnosis of breast cancer compared to Non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans. Cancer-related symptom clusters are frequently reported in women with breast cancer and research suggests these women follow distinct trajectories for depression and anxiety. However, little is known about the trajectories of anxiety and depression or cancer-related symptom clusters in Latinas with breast cancer. Methods: 296 Latinas previously recruited and diagnosed with breast cancer comprised this sample. Questionnaires for depression (the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression) and Anxiety (Speilberger State-Trait Inventory and PROMIS Anxiety) were administered at baseline, 2 and 4 months post enrollment. To identify classes of Latina breast cancer survivors based on patterns of symptom occurrence, symptoms latent class analysis was used to describe symptom clusters. Group-based growth mixture modeling was utilized to identify classes of women who followed distinct trajectories of depression and anxiety. Results: On average women reported 4.2±3 symptoms with an overall symptom distress score of 6.4±2.5 (out of a scale of 10). Three symptom classes were identified: Weary and Sleepy (class 1), Weary (class 2) and Weary, Sleepy and Hurting (class 3). Women were most likely to cluster in class 1, followed by class 2 and 3 with fatigue (labeled weary) being the most prevalent symptom for all three classes. Three trajectories emerged for both depression and anxiety. For depression, the majority of women (79.6%) fell in the high then reducing trajectory for depression followed by the low and remaining low (17%) and the high and increasing (worsening) trajectories of depression (3%). For anxiety the majority (78% of women) followed the moderate to increasing (worsening) trajectory of anxiety followed by 14% in the moderate to declining (improving) and 8% in the low to slightly increasing (worsening) trajectories for anxiety. Conclusion: This study suggests Latina breast cancer survivors experience burdensome cancer-related symptom clusters and distinct trajectories for depression and anxiety. Further research is needed in minority women with breast cancer to adequately understand and treat cancer-related symptom clusters as well as depression and anxiety.