acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The purpose of this study was to examine Latino cultural values of familismo and respeto and parenting to understand their relationship to child mental health among a community sample of Spanish-speaking Latino families primarily of Mexican origin. Literature suggests that familismo and respeto are unique and important Latino values, they have the most evidence to support their existence, and they are noted to be related to parenting and child outcomes. Research indicates that child behavioral problems can be improved by focusing on cultural values within the context of parenting. Very little attention, however, has been given to Latino cultural values among family processes. While the emergent literature has brought forth useful information, lack of consistency among findings and reliance on self-report methodology lead to many unanswered questions. To address this issue, we conducted a multi-method investigation involving a parent-child behavioral observation of parenting practices that were coded (i.e., warmth, supportive demandingness, nonsupportive demandingness, and autonomy granting) and parental self-report surveys of cultural values and child mental health. Participants included 87 families primarily of Mexican origin with a child between 4 and 9 years. Participants in the study were enrolled in phase 1 of a larger study to culturally adapt a parenting intervention. Overall, research demonstrated that cultural values impact parenting, and parenting impacts child mental health. Cultural values did not predict child mental health. Latino families reported high familismo and medium high levels of respeto and they were positively correlated. Latino families were observed to engage in high supportive demandingness, medium high levels of warmth and autonomy granting, and low levels of nonsupportive demandingness. For Latina mothers, nonsupportive demandingness and familismo demonstrated a statistically significant positive relationship. Results indicated that among Latina mothers autonomy granting evidenced a significant relationship with child externalizing behavioral problems. Implications for preventative methods and clinical interventions for Latino families as well as directions for future research endeavors are discussed.

This dissertation explains the role that Haiti's leading mainstream and alternative news outlets have played in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that devastated the island nation of Haiti. The role of the media as a civic institution that acts on behalf of and in alliance with civil society in times of crisis is the central theme of this dissertation. Prior research has demonstrated that Haiti's media has been at the heart of such a role in civic society throughout the country's two hundred plus years of independent existence. This dissertation argues that this media tradition has been revitalized, strengthened and put to the test by the current crisis the country faces in physical reconstruction from natural disaster, political reconstruction from fragile early attempts at democracy, and social reconstruction from decades of economic stagnation that have exacerbated poverty and living conditions of the average Haitian. This project uses a mixed methodological approach of qualitative methods and basic quantitative methods to analyze how Haitian journalists have covered the aftermath of the disaster. This research addressed three key elements: (1) the impact of the disaster on the fractions that existed within the leading news media outlets during the nation's ongoing experiment with democracy (2) the impact of the disaster on how journalists view and practice their profession (3) the impact of the disaster on the quality of news being produced in Haiti. Findings indicate that there was an initial solidarity reborn among key Haitian news outlets that has sustained itself four years into the crisis. The solidarity born out of this most recent crisis has resulted in changes in how journalists approach their civic duty, despite commercial strains, and how they cooperate through sharing of news content and resources. These changes are seen across all media platforms. Additionally, Haitian media outlets have taken joint stances on developments in the country since the 2010 disaster that has resulted in news content that is more critical of those who hold power, and more concerned with advocacy on behalf of the Haitian people in general. At a time when the Haitian people are searching for a path forward, Haiti's media is providing a powerful platform to debate the course of the country's future. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The literature on the changing nature of fair trade suggests it is indeed evolving and changed from the grassroots movement it once was. One of the strongest arguments that comes out in this body of literature is that the message, values, and way fair trade can encourage positive socio-economic and community development is changing. What the scholarship does not address, though, is how this evolution is changing the way that fair trade is perceived? The answer to this question about the changing perceptions of fair trade can be extended to those who produce fair trade products, those who consume them, those market them, those who manage them, and those institutionally organize the movement and certification criteria. My study attempts to gain insight on how fair trade is perceived among the producers (farmers) of fair trade. Although there are many studies about the impact of fair trade on cooperatives of producers/farmers, there is one voice that seems to be missing: the voice of the producers themselves. My work with the CADO Sugar Cane Cooperative in the state of Cotopaxi, Ecuador attempts to fill this gap. I executed a three-week research project in which I interviewed administration of the cooperative as well as the sugar cane farmers themselves about their perceptions and understanding of fair trade. Broadly, I was able to conclude that majority of producers in this community were involved with fair trade because of the steady income, and the cooperative became fair trade certified with the incentive of a large contract with a buyer-a buyer that required a fair trade certified product. These two points bring up a very important question: where is the concern for the human development aspects that fair trade champions (education, economic development, health, etc.)? In this project I will address the implications that my findings have on how we understand the fair trade model in terms of social movement theory and the concept of fair trade as free trade.

Today, groups considered Hispanic in the United States consist of populations whose complex genetic structures reflect intermixed diverse groups of people who came in contact during Spanish colonization in Latin America. After coming in contact and wiping out most of the Native Americans who occupied North and Latin America, the Spanish also introduced West African individuals for labor to begin developing crops to be shipped back to Europe, resulting in the Trans-Atlantic African slave trade. These migration events and differential gene flow among males and females that occurred throughout Latin America have led to populations that have been genetically transformed from what they were prior to Spanish arrival (Madrigal, 2006). Genetic research commonly refers to individuals considered Hispanic as "tri-hybrids" of Native American, European, and African ancestry (Bertoni et al., 2003; Gonz[aacute]lez-Andrade et al., 2007). This research focuses on populations from present-day Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, all of whom experienced various population histories as these three ancestral groups came in contact. Published genetic research demonstrates that individuals from Mexico tend to have the highest mean proportion of Native American ancestry, while Puerto Rican individuals have the highest mean proportion of European ancestry, and Cuban individuals have the highest mean proportion of African ancestry (Bonilla et al., 2005; Lisker et al., 1990; Mendizabal et al., 2008; Tang et al., 2007; Via et al., 2011). The present research utilizes craniometric data from these three groups to determine whether the cranial morphology reflects similar population relationships and mean ancestry proportions as found in genetic research through Mahalanobis distance (D2), canonical discriminant function, and normal mixture cluster analyses. Sex-biased ancestry asymmetry was also tested by separating each group by sex and running the same analyses. The results show that all three groups considered Hispanic (Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba) are significantly different from each other; however, when proxy ancestral groups are included (Guatemalan Mayan, Indigenous Caribbean, Spanish, and West African), the Mexican and Guatemalan Mayan samples are the most similar, followed by the Mexican and Indigenous Caribbean samples and the Puerto Rican and Cuban samples. The results of the normal mixture analyses indicate that Mexico has the highest mean ancestry proportion of Native American (Guatemalan Mayan) (72.9%), while the Puerto Rican and Cuban samples both have a higher mean European ancestry proportion, with 81.34% and 73.6% respectively. While the Cuban sample is not reflective of the genetic research in regards to ancestry proportion results, with the highest proportion of African ancestry over European and Native American ancestry, it does have the highest proportion of African ancestry among the three groups (18.4%). When separated by sex, the results indicate that the Mexican and Puerto Rican samples may show some evidence in sex-biased ancestry proportions, with the male individuals having a larger proportion of European ancestry and the female individuals having a larger proportion of Native American or African ancestry. Cuba, on the other hand, does not follow this trend and instead displays a higher proportion of European ancestry in females and a higher proportion of Native American and African ancestry in the males. Techniques in the field of forensic anthropology in the United States are constantly being reanalyzed and restructured based on the changing demographics of the population, especially with the arrival of individuals from Latin America (Ennis et al., 2011). Recent samples of American Black and White individuals were included in the Mahalanobis distance (D2) and canonical discriminant function analyses in place of the ancestral proxy groups to determine the craniometric relationship of the groups within the United States. The results show that the Mexico and Guatemala samples are the most similar (D2=2.624), followed by the Cuba and American Black samples (D2=3.296) and the Puerto Rico and American White samples (D2=4.317), which each cluster together in pairs. These results reflect the population histories that took place during colonialism, with the largest amount of slave trade occurring in Cuba over the other two countries. From an applied perspective, clarification is needed in the biological definition of Hispanic and the degree of heterogeneity in each social group, as well as the relationship among groups, in order to accurately develop techniques in forensic anthropology for human identification.