Health literacy (HL) plays a significant role in health care communication and patient compliance. Low health literacy leads to noncompliance with health instructions, poor health choices, failure to participate in recommended health screenings, frequent hospitalizations, and higher health care costs. Using the health belief model (HBM) as the conceptual framework, this quantitative, cross-sectional study addresses a gap in the literature related to the research questions of this study. The research questions are: (a) Is there a relationship between HL and the level of hypertension (HTN) in hypertensive urban Latinos?, and (b) Will HL predict the level of control of HTN in these participants? Purposive sampling resulted in 136 hypertensive Latino adults, English, Spanish, or both, consenting to participate. They completed the health literacy test (STOFHLA) in Spanish or English. Information regarding participants' demographics, hypertensive history, and status came from the emergency department (ED) visit intake form and participant medical records. The data were analyzed using the complementary log-log model of ordinal logistic regression and multiple regression. Although a statistically significant relationship (p< .05) was found between at least one of the independent variables and the level of HTN (Ï? 2 (8) = 20.498, p = .009) in hypertensive Latinos seeking health care in an urban ED, a statistically significant relationship between HL and HTN was not. The social change implication is that the findings of this study can be used in health education programs to inform individuals that increasing age, and smoking can increase the level of HTN.

This study includes two papers that aimed to provide insights into the experiences of high-achieving Latinx and Native American college students studying science. We wanted to better understand factors that influence these students’ ability to develop a sense of identity that weaves together their hoped-for careers as scientists as well as their cultural identities. We looked at how they feel about working with mentors in science fields who were like them in a variety of ways. We found that many students (especially those with a stronger sense of cultural identity) valued working with mentors who were similar to them in demographic characteristics; but overall, the whole group of students agreed that the most important areas of similarity in their opinions were their values and thoughts about how to interact with other people. Students who felt they were similar to their mentors on demographic characteristics were also more likely to believe they were similar in values and ways of interacting. We also examined identity development in three different aspects: ethnic identity, scientist identity, and combining the two into one identity that incorporates being a Native American scientist or a Latinx scientist. We found that the students in this study may find it difficult at times to develop a strong sense of their identity that weaves together both parts of themselves without favoring one over the other, and without seeing the two identities as separate or conflicting. At the same time, we found that when mentors do behave in ways that are more similar with students’ ways of interacting, those students develop a stronger sense of themselves as scientists, and when students have a stronger sense of themselves as scientists, they are more likely to commit to their education. We suggest that people working with Native American and Latinx college students studying science should work on understanding those students’ cultural backgrounds and find ways to relate with them, in order to make it more likely that those students will finish school and choose to continue with a career in science.

This study examined relationships between acculturation and acculturative stress, as well as links to self-esteem, depression, and substance use related problems of Latina/o adolescents. Self-report data were collected from 206 Latina/o adolescents in three public high schools in a small city in the Western United States. Different patterns were observed for Latino males and females in their acculturation processes and experiences of acculturative stress as they relate to psychosocial functioning. Experiences of acculturative stress are found to be the driving force that predicts the psychosocial functioning for these Latina/o adolescents, especially for Latino males. For Latino males, experiences of acculturative stress were related to lower self-esteem and higher depression. For Latinas, experiences of acculturative stress were related to higher depression scores. Tests of moderation and mediation suggested that pathways to psychosocial outcomes may be best understood in Latino youth by examining the interplay between acculturation levels and acculturative stress experiences. (114 pages)

There is an extensive amount of research on career development, but most of the constructs studied have focused on content-oriented variables rather than process-oriented variables. While some of the studies have examined samples from ethnic minority populations, the majority of studies use ethnic minority populations as comparison groups, studying between-group differences as opposed to within-group differences. The literature is especially deficient in the are of Latino career development. The current study will examine how family and culture influence the career development of Latino emerging adults. This study will explore the influence of socioeconomic status and acculturation on the career salience and career maturity of Latino emerging adults. The quality of the parent-emerging adult relationship will also be explored for its influence on career development outcomes in this population. One hundred fifty Latino undergraduate students ages 18-24 will be recruited for participation in this study. The participants will complete questionnaires regarding demographic information, acculturation, the quality of the parent-emerging adult relationship, career salience, and career maturity.

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The purpose of this research investigation was to explore the experiences of eighth-grade Latina/o students in a large, urban school in the Southeastern United States. Overall, the study uncovered the essence of the Latino/a student experience in social studies and furthermore revealed that social studies is not meeting the needs of Latino students. Using phenomenology as a method of research, two interviews were conducted with twelve research participants who were selected through purposive sampling. In addition to the interviews, students wrote narratives and drew images as a form of data triangulation. The goal was to give students various methods for relaying their experiences. Data were analyzed using suggested methods of analysis by Moustakas (1994) and Creswell (2007). Using Critical Race Theory and Latino Critical Race Theory as a framework, results revealed that students experienced middle school social studies through the lens of race. Students felt oppressed by the curriculum and textbook due to the fact that culturally responsive teaching practices were primarily absent, diversity was presented only through a Black-White dichotomy, and the social studies curriculum was dominated by notions of White supremacy. Latina/o students experienced a curriculum that was boring as a result of teachers who were boring. Students validated the use of Critical Race Theory and Latino Critical Race Theory as a framework for educational research at the middle school level. In all, this research investigation fills a void in social studies research. The voices and experiences of Latino learners in social studies have been absent in social studies research. iv Educators can use this research study to alter the approaches to the social studies curriculum for the betterment of our culturally diverse learners.

This dissertation examines the lives of Latin American immigrants in two enforcement landscapes of the US South, revealing the entanglement of religion with everyday social experiences and their geographies. It supposes that local places and their politics have the potential to structure action, but that these realities do not go uncontested by strategic actors. As federal-local enforcement agreements proliferate, local neighborhoods are increasingly perceived and mapped by immigrants in relation to insecurity and risks they pose. I find that Latinos strategically resist precarity and the local immigration conditions by engaging both communal and individual forms of religion in their neighborhood spaces. They make spaces safe through the enactment of religion where danger is perceived and redefine local geographies that threaten their existence through practical decisions with their religious networks. The research employs ethnographic, visual, and spatial methods, including in-depth interviews with 60 participants. Situated in a practice approach, the research follows these religious actors from their institutional spaces of religion into the multiple and varied locations of their lives. It interrogates the practices in institutions and spaces of the neighborhood, including the immigrant religious congregations that remain a focal point in Latino lives. By attending to the micro interactions and practices that occur in these geographies, the dissertation uncovers how spaces within places are battlegrounds of power where hiddenness and visibility are situationally and strategically employed. The research findings are developed in three empirical chapters, as I map the role of religion in these negative policy contexts. In the first, I consider the place of Latino congregations in relation to the US religious landscape and the logics of congregational geography. Then, I investigate the communal practices of religion at these Latino churches given the everyday experiences of immigrants, documenting the practical ways immigrant congregations assisted members with the local conditions of enforcement. Last, I turn to locate religion in the broader spaces of social life. Participants’ stories reveal that religion is transportable to all kinds of spaces, and they creatively invoke their traditions to claim space and redefine themselves around the neighborhood. Not every practice in everyday life should be counted as religious, but this dissertation reveals that religion remains entangled in the local immigration experience. / 2029-02-28T00:00:00Z

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