Parental involvement practices in education have traditionally referred to overt forms of involvement such as attending school meetings, parent teacher conferences, and volunteering at the school. Research suggests that Latinx parents do not utilize these approaches as much as they do subtler practices. These practices are manifested in parents’ communication with their children, their parenting styles, and the academic expectations they place on their children. The current study intended to recognize the parental practices used by Latinx parents that contribute to educational attainment and combat fixed beliefs regarding their lack of involvement in their children’s education. The data collection was completed via Qualtrics panel and funded by the CEHS Graduate Student Research Award grant. The final sample consisted of 252 Latinx parents (age 18 or older) nationwide who had a child or children in kindergarten through sixth grades. Respondents reported being more involved in their children’s education than their parents. Each parenting variable was significantly associated with respondents’ academic outcomes with the exception of parental pressure. Results suggest intergenerational transmission of parenting practices regardless of acculturation level and support for a nuanced examination of predictors of academic achievement for Latinxs. Results also reflect vi Latinx parents’ involvement in their children’s education in meaningful ways. Parents’ level of acculturation played a role in the relationship between their self-reports and what they recalled about how they were parented. Specifically, the relationship between self-report and retrospective report of authoritarian parenting and parental pressure was strongest for respondents at the highest levels of Latinx acculturation and lowest at the lowest levels of Latinx acculturation. Overall, Latinx respondents appear to be following their parents’ parenting practices regardless of their level of acculturation, and these practices predict Latinxs’ educational attainment. Understanding how Latinx parents involve themselves in their children’s education debunks the myth that they are not involved and opens pathways to collaboration and support between these parents and the U.S. education system

Past research has provided evidence for cultural differences in episodic memory when comparing European American and East Asian samples. However, cultural cognitive neuroscience has become over-dependent on European American vs. East Asian samples, which has left very little research into groups outside of this dichotomy. The aim of this dissertation was to address the need of more diverse samples in cultural cognitive neuroscience and to address the lack of research on Latinx biculturals. In this dissertation I explored how language could serve as a priming method to activate specific cultural systems, how bicultural Latinxs may switch cultural frames through language priming, and how priming of cultural systems affects their perception and recognition memory for certain visual information. The present study was designed to include a specific technique to investigate the potential cross-modal effect of cultural priming through language on visual cognition in bicultural and bilingual Latinxs. Results suggest that language did prime bicultural Latinxs to perform differently in a behavioral task, where images encoded in Spanish were more likely to be identified as incorrect and images encoded in English were more likely to be identified as correct. Additionally, we found that Cultural Blendedness directly predicted recognition accuracy, where higher identification led to more incorrect answers, and lower identification led to more correct answers. Implications, limitations, and areas of future study are discussed.

Latinx, or Hispanic/Latino, minoritized groups experience a broad spectrum of mental health challenges, disparities, and risks at a disproportionate rate compared to both their non-White counterparts and compared to other minorized groups in the U.S. (SAMHSA, 2015). They also experience a number of cultural and individual strengths associated with their values, practices, and resiliencies (Leyva et al, 2022; Gennetian et al, 2021; Calzada et al, 2020). However, given the substantial percentage of Latinxs who live in the United States (18.7%), the mental health needs of this minoritized group are not sufficiently addressed in social science literature, as a number of systemic factors limit the inclusion of Latinxs in participant pools (Roberts et al, 2020; DeJesus et al, 2019). Across 13 high-impact journals and three clinical disciplines, a mere 2.5% of all scholarship published focused on Latinxs. Through qualitative content-analysis of key topics, methodology, funding sources, and sample characteristics across 20 years of literature (n = 7, 061), this paper seeks to highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of Latinx representation in the current literature with the hope to better prepare policy makers, program interventionists, and clinical practitioners to competently serve this marginalized population.

A focus on racial and ethnic minority youth is crucial considering the projections of growth for these populations in the United States. The Journal of American Academy of Child/Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America were coded for level of focus on minority youth group focus, article topic, and journal trends over time. Latinxs represented 3.2% of published articles (versus 17.8% of the U. S. population), African Americans 3.0% (versus 13.3%), Asian Americans 0.1% (versus 5.9%) and Native Americans 0.9% (versus 1.3%). The top research topics for all minority groups are discussed.

Associations between greater perceived racial discrimination and both higher levels of depressive symptomology and higher blood pressure have been established in the literature. Research has found that depression is often comorbid with diabetes and individuals with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk for depression as the prevalence of depression is 2 to 3 times higher in people with diabetes when compared to the general population. Additionally, individuals with type 2 diabetes are also at an increased risk for high blood pressure. Although these associations are present in the literature, no studies have been found that examine all of these variables in conjunction. The current study used data from the 2014 Health and Retirement Study to examine the associations among perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, depression symptoms, and blood pressure for older Latinx adults (ages 50+) with type 2 diabetes (n = 303) and without type 2 diabetes (n = 521), while controlling for sex, age, partner status, and education. Findings indicated diabetes status was positively associated with both depression symptoms (t(790) = 5.32, p < .001) and systolic blood pressure (t(703) = 2.74, p = .006). Racial/ethnic discrimination was positively associated with depression (r(206) = .14, p = .045); however, it was not associated with blood pressure. No statistically significant interactions were found. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for the research findings, future directions, and clinical implications.