This ethnographic study combines qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine the relationship between culture and language disability. Nine Cree and nine non-Cree couples, all parents of a language-disabled child, were interviewed. The parental responses from the two cultural groups were compared. Comparisons of interest included language socialization patterns, the influence of culture on the concept of language disability and perceptions of speech-language pathology service delivery. Few crosscultural differences in parental responses about caregiver-child interaction and about language disability were identified. It is hypothesized that a process of cultural blending may account for these findings. However, differences relating to the perception of speech-language pathology service delivery were found. While both groups described poor access to services, long waiting periods for intervention and insufficient quantity of service, there were differences in degree reported between the Cree and non-Cree families. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Objectives. The prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Manitoba North American Indians (NAI) is hypothesized to be increased above that of Caucasians (CAUC), but little studied. To evaluate this we studied the prevalence rate of SLE in a population of 1.1 million. / Methods. The provincial arthritis center database and the medical records of all rheumatologists, hematologists, nephrologists, and general internists with ≥1 SLE patients were searched for cases of SLE diagnosed between 1980 and 1996. A subset of 175 medical records was reviewed for demographics, SLEDAI scores, SLICC/ACR damage indices, clinical manifestations and therapy. A random survey of 15% of family physicians serving this population suggested that >85% of all SLE cases were identified. / Conclusions. The prevalence of S:E was increased twofold in this NAI population. NAI patients had higher SLEDAI scores at diagnosis, more frequent vasculitis and renal involvement, required more treatment later in the disease course, accumulated more damage following diagnosis, and increased fatality. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis introduces a conceptual framework centered around the idea of social anchorage, which is viewed as a component of the psychosocial adjustment of refugees as it enables them to recapture or redefine their social identity and, thus, to regain some control over their life. The main objective of this thesis is to estimate the effect of premigratory exposure to political violence on the social anchorage of refugees in the host country. / The sample is made up of 270 Southeast Asian and Central American refugees with school-aged children who had been living in Canada for a mean of 7 years at the time of interview. Social anchorage is measured by five types of social anchor (i.e., political, professional, religious, academic and community) and by two indices of the diversity of social anchorage. Three measures of exposure to political violence are investigated personal acute (i.e., threat and torture), personal chronic (i.e., imprisonment, reeducation camp, forced labor), and family exposure (i.e., acute and chronic). In addition to the analyses focusing on the estimation of the effect of exposure to political violence, exploratory analyses are also carried out to identify other factors such as transferable skills and socio-demographic characteristics that may affect social anchorage once exposure to political violence and ethnicity are taken into account. Approximated risk ratios are calculated from the odds ratios obtained by binary and ordinal regression analyses. / Data analysis shows that specific forms of political violence may act differently on the social anchorage of refugees from Southeast Asia and Central America and across ethnic groups. Overall, personal acute exposure tends to foster their social anchorage whereas personal chronic exposure tends to prevent it. Personal acute exposure appears to foster the probability of a wider range of social anchors in Southeast Asian refugees but to inhibit it in Central Americans whereas personal chronic exposure tends to have the opposite effect as it may be a driving force for Central Americans and a brake for Southeast Asians. Finally, when controlling for exposure to political violence and ethnicity, transferable skills (such as premigratory work experience compatible with an urban setting and level of schooling) and socio-demographic characteristics (in particular number of years spent in Canada, income category and age) contribute to the social anchorage of Southeast Asian and Central American refugees. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis is a study of narratives by eighteen children 10 to 13 years old who live in an Algonquin community of Quebec. The narratives, primarily of children's personal experiences, were collected in peer groups, and were told in English, the children's second language. The specific contributions of children to each other's narratives were investigated and are described. The structural properties of a subset of the narratives were also examined using high point analysis (Peterson & McCabe, 1983). Findings resembled those reported for non-Aboriginal children with respect to the inclusion of the narrative elements of orientation, actions, and evaluation. However, the positioning of these elements and the low incidence of others resulted in differences in the structure of the narratives. Other aspects of the narratives considered include theme, narrator role, and the use of reported speech. The characteristics of the narratives are discussed as means by which the children in the study constructed and co-constructed narrative meaning. / Information on the functional dimensions of narratives in the community and on the sociocultural context in which the children live is also provided in order to facilitate the reader's appreciation of factors that influence children's narrative production.

The aims of the study were to examine substance abuse and physical and mental health in an urban Aboriginal population. Data was collected through structured interviews (n = 202) with Aboriginals in the greater Montreal area. The majority were single, unemployed, and lived in the urban area for a long time (mean of 9.96 +/- .76 years). One third reported having a current substance abuse problem. Results indicated high levels of psychological distress augmented by substance abuse. Substance abusers were also more likely to have been the victims of abuse. / Ethnographic interviews with urban Aboriginals and community workers were also conducted (n = 30). One third were victims of abuse and 6 reported having a current substance abuse problem. Psychological and biological understructures were used in defining addiction and explaining substance use among Aboriginal peoples. Cultural traditions were viewed as integral components of substance abuse treatment and the need for outpatient treatment facilities and aftercare programs were indicated.

Objectives. To determine whether the emergency psychiatric treatment of patients with psychosis varies with immigrant status and ethnicity. Methods. Data on immigrant and ethnic status of psychotic patients admitted in 1999 were extracted from records of a general hospital in Montreal. Of the 217 subjects, 97 (44.7%) were immigrants, 125 were Euro-Canadian (57.6%),39 were Asian (18.0%), and 27 were Black (12.4%). All Asians and most Blacks (87%) were immigrants. Measures of emergency psychiatric treatment included use of seclusion, restraints, and medication in the emergency department. Multiple regression models examined the relationship of immigrant status and ethnicity to emergency psychiatric treatment controlling for age, gender, patient height and weight, and mode of emergency department admission (coercive versus non-coercive). Results. Immigrant status and Asian ethnicity were not associated with emergency treatment measures. Coercive mode of emergency department admission (i.e. by police or ambulance) predicted use of seclusion (p < .001) and restraints (p < .05), but being Black was independently and positively associated with received dose of emergency antipsychotic (p < .05). Being Black was also positively associated with police or ambulance contact prior to emergency department presentation (p < .01). Conclusion. While some aspects of the emergency treatment of psychosis seem to occur as a consequence of the mode of admission, the administration of antipsychotic medication may be motivated by patient ethnicity. These results point to the need for training of emergency department staff to reduce potential bias in treatment.

<p> Roman Catholic immigrants to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries faced multiple issues as they attempted to acculturate into their new nation. Distrusted by Protestant-Americans for both their religion and their ethnicity, they were further burdened by the biases of their own church leadership. The Catholic leadership in the United States, comprised of earlier-arrived ethnic groups like Irish and Germans, found the Catholicism of the new arrivals from Europe and Mexico to be inferior to the American style. American bishops dismissed the rural-based spirituality of the immigrants, with its reliance on community festivals and home-based religion, as "superstition" and initially looked to transform the faith of the immigrants to more closely align with the stoic, officious model of the U.S. church. Over time, however, the bishops, with guidance from the Vatican, began to sanction the formation of separate "ethnic" parishes where the immigrants could worship in their native languages, thereby both keeping them in the church and facilitating their adjustment to becoming "Americans."</p><p> Additionally, immigrants to the western frontier helped transform the Catholicism of the region, since the U.S. church had only preceded their arrival by a few decades. Catholicism had been a major presence in the region for centuries due to Spanish exploration and settlement, but American oversight of the area had only been in place since 1848. Thus, the Catholic immigrants were able to establish roots alongside the American church and leave their imprint on frontier Catholicism. As the city of Pueblo, Colorado industrialized in the 1870s and 1880s large numbers of immigrant laborers were drawn to the city's steelworks and smelters. Pueblo's position on the borderlands established its reputation as a multicultural melting pot, and the Pueblo church ultimately incorporated many of the religious practices of the immigrants while at the same time facilitating their acculturation to American society through its schools, orphanages, and social-service organizations. The story of Pueblo's Catholic immigrants and their formation of a new ethnic identity is a microcosm of the American immigrant experience.</p>

<p> Women&rsquo;s movements and feminisms in Brazil have taken various forms throughout the years, contributing significantly to socio-political actions that favor gender justice. However, Brazilian feminisms remain on the margins of American academic discourse. In the United States, conceptualizations of feminism are often complicated by epistemological practices that treat certain political actions as feminist while dismissing others. The invisibility of Brazilian feminisms within feminist scholarship in the United States, therefore, justifies the need for further research on the topic. My research focuses on feminist articles published by <i>Revista Estudos Feministas</i>, one of the oldest and most well known feminist journals in Brazil. Using postcolonial, postmodern, and critical race feminist theories as a framework of analysis, my thesis investigates the theories and works utilized by feminists in Brazil. I argue that Brazilian feminisms both challenge and emulate the social, economic, and geopolitical orders that divide the world into Global North and South. </p>

<p> This study examines how Vietnamese Americans perform identities that acknowledge their statuses as diasporic Vietnamese to construct and maintain specifically Vietnamese American communities. I argue that music, especially public forms of musical expression within mass media and locally staged cultural performances, is a crucial way for Vietnamese Americans across the diaspora to transmit markers of cultural knowledge and identity that give them information about themselves and the "imagined community" constructed through their linked discourses.</p><p> The argument is organized around two main ideas that focus on broad cultural patterns and locally situated expressions, respectively. First, music produced by the niche Vietnamese American media industry is distributed across the diaspora and models discourses of Vietnamese identity as different companies provide different visions of what it means to be Vietnamese and perform Vietnamese-ness on stage. I analyze the music variety shows by three different companies (Thuy Nga Productions, Asia Entertainment, and Van Son Productions) to argue that Vietnamese American popular media should not be seen as representing a single monolithic version of Vietnamese-ness; rather, each articulation of Vietnamese identity is slightly different and speaks to a different formulation of the Vietnamese public, producing a discursive field for diverse Vietnamese American identity politics.</p><p> Secondly, I show how identity is always performed in particular places, illustrating that Vietnamese Americans performing music in different places can have vastly different understandings of that music and its relationship to their identities. Using a Peircian semiotic framework, I articulate a theory of place-making in which places become vehicles for the clustering of signs and meaning as people experience and interpret those places and make meaning there. As people's experiences imbue places with meaning, people coming from similar cultural backgrounds may gain different attachments to those places and one another and thus different understandings of their identities as Vietnamese. I use two contrasting examples of Vietnamese American communities in Indianapolis and San Jose to show how people in each place construct entirely different discourses of identity surrounding musical performance based upon their positionality within the diaspora.</p>

While Quality of Life (QOL) among aging populations has been attracting more and more attention in the last few years, little QOL research has been carried out among the elderly Chinese minority. This is a cross sectional study aimed at estimating the Quality of Life (QOL) and exploring QOL indicators among the elderly Chinese people living in Montreal. Forty-one volunteer study participants, 65 years or older were recruited from 12 Chinese community centers in Montreal. Their QOL was measured by the Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index (1985). The study results showed that participants generally described a very high level of life satisfaction. Living arrangements, gender, education and social support were found to be important QOL indicators. This study has important implications for health service and policy and raises the need for further future research using a larger random sample.