Father absence in low-income Mexican-American families: Children's social adjustment and conceptual differentiation of sex role attributes.

Investigated the effects of paternal deprivation on 248 4th-grade Mexican-American students. Drawings of the human figure--1 male and 1 female--were obtained from each S, following the procedures of the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test. Ss were also administered Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices and the Bender Gestalt Test. Each S was rated on degree of personal adjustment by his/her classroom teacher on a 4-point scale, ranging from well adjusted, no problems in relating to others, to serious maladjustment. Results show that father-present Ss obtained significantly higher Goodenough-Harris scores than father-absent Ss on both the male and the female figures drawn. The female figures drawn by the father-absent Ss had significantly fewer feminine attributes than those drawn by father-present Ss. Whereas teachers found father-present males and females and father-absent females fairly well adjusted, father-absent males were found to show significantly more signs of social and emotional maladjustment than all the other 3 groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilingualism in three United States Hispanic groups: Contextual use of language by children and adults in their families.

Studied the use of language pattern in different social contexts among Central Texas Mexican-American, Miami Cuban-American, and New York Puerto Rican children and adults in their families through structured interviews, by trained indigenous interviewers, for a total of 295 families. Children were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders, approximately equally divided by sex. Results indicate that even within subcultural communities there was significant variability in the language patterns used in various social contexts. The Central Texas Mexican-Americans evidenced the greatest degree of displacement of mother tongue. There were significant child-adult differences in language use among the Mexican-American and Cuban-American families. Results are discussed in light of factors that may affect language maintenance. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School, occupation, culture, and family: The impact of parental schooling on the parent–child relationship.

Hypothesized that among the enduring effects of schooling on the individual are certain behavioral dispositions that determine how he/she will behave as a parent. As a result, parental behavior will have important consequences for a child's development of specific cognitive skills, learning strategies, and personality characteristics. In several studies, attempts were made to determine whether parental schooling, parental occupational status, and maternal employment each had a distinct pattern of influences on educationally related aspects of the parent–child relationship. The inquiry was conducted in the context of issues regarding ethnic diversity, individual variability within ethnic groups, and educational and occupational equity, giving particular attention to Chicano families. The findings regarding linkages between parental schooling and the parent–child relationship suggest plausible explanations of the frequent scholastic failure observed among the members of certain ethnic minorities in the US. A broad theoretical model is presented that causally links parental schooling, family interaction processes, and children's scholastic performance. (78 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The forensic psychology section in a state hospital.

A psychology section functioning in a forensic services center is described. The legal questions that must be dealt with in such a setting are explained, and psychology's role in answering these questions is explored. The goals of treatment in a forensic unit, which focus on educating a defendant to competency for trial, are discussed, and an example of a treatment program is presented. The functions of a psychologist in a forensic setting are compared and contrasted with those of a psychologist in the general mental health field. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal teaching strategies and cognitive styles in Chicano families.

Hypotheses derived from field-dependence theory were tested for (a) the role that cognitive styles play in determining maternal teaching strategies, (b) the role of these strategies in children's development of cognitive style, and (c) the emergence of cognitive styles in Chicano children. 43 Chicano mothers were observed teaching their own 5-yr-old children. As measures of field dependence/independence, mothers were given the Embedded Figures Test and the Block Design subtest of the WAIS; children were tested with the Children's Embedded Figures Test and the Block Design subtest of the WISC. Relatively field-independent mothers used inquiry and praise as teaching strategies, and field-dependent mothers used modeling. Trends suggest that the teaching strategies to which the child is exposed may influence which cognitive style the child develops. The data provide evidence of construct validity for Chicano women and suggest that at age 5, field dependence/field independence begins to emerge as a coherent construct in Chicano children. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathognomic verbalizations, anxiety and hostility in normal Mexican and United States Anglo-American children's fantasies: A longitudinal study.

Investigated the effects of culture on the development of logical thinking and degree of emotional disturbance in normal children. Mexican and US Anglo-American school children (N = 392), closely paired on sex, age, and socioeconomic status, were employed as Ss in an overlapping, longitudinal design covering a span of 12 yrs in only 6 yrs of repeated testing. Initial testing was done at ages 6.7, 9.7, and 12.7 yrs for each of 3 age groups, respectively. A complex analysis of variance design was constructed with 5 main factors: culture, socioeconomic status, sex, age group, and trial. The main effect as well as interactions involving culture were investigated on 3 dependent variables: Holtzman Inkblot Technique Pathognomic-Verbalization, Anxiety, and Hostility scores. Results showed significantly higher amounts of disturbed thinking and anxious and hostile response content in Anglo-American than in Mexican Ss. Results are interpreted in light of cultural differences in family structure and styles of coping. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing arithmetic skills among rural villagers in Ecuador through nonformal education: A field experiment.

Investigated the learning effects of a nonformal education program designed to increase the level of basic numeric and arithmetic skills among rural South Americans. Ss were 101 adult villagers in 6 isolated rural communities in Ecuador. The experimental group participated in 5 weekly nonformal education sessions led in the Ss' own villages by trained Ecuadorian nonformal educators. The sessions were centered around playing Number Bingo, a nonformal education game. Results show a significant treatment effect in measured arithmetic skill among experimental villagers. The nonformal education treatment was particularly effective among villagers with low levels of arithmetic skill and among Ss who attended the treatment sessions with greater frequency. The relationships among arithmetic skill, other measured characteristics of villagers, frequency of attendance to the nonformal education sessions, and treatment effectiveness were investigated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic, socioeconomic, and home language influences upon early performance on measures of abilities.

Administered the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities to 84 Chicano and 87 non-Hispanic White Ss (aged 2 yrs 6 mo) to examine the levels and profiles of performance in 5 ability areas (verbal, reasoning, quantitative, memory, and motor). Data on family and language characteristics were obtained by individually administered interviews of mothers (Chicano mothers' mean age 28.4 yrs, non-Hispanic mothers' mean age 30.7 yrs) in their own homes. Results show ethnic group differences in (1) the absolute levels of performance and (2) the shapes of the profiles formed by the configuration of performance across the various ability areas. Chicanos' average performance was poorer on measures of verbal and quantitative ability and short-term memory. Analyses showed that these differences can be explained on the basis of the relatively low SES level and language minority status that characterized a disproportionately large number of Chicano families. Tests of regression parallelism in MANOVA are appended. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal teaching strategies and cognitive styles in Chicano families: Correction to Laosa.

The article "Maternal Strategies and Cognitive Styles in Chicano Families" by Luis M. Laosa (Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 72, No. 1, 45-54) contains an error. On page 48 in the third sentence of the third paragraph in the right-hand column, the sentence should read "Ratio scores are computed by dividing raw frequencies by observation time." (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1980-20784-001.) Hypotheses derived from field-dependence theory were tested for (a) the role that cognitive styles play in determining maternal teaching strategies, (b) the role of these strategies in children's development of cognitive style, and (c) the emergence of cognitive styles in Chicano children. 43 Chicano mothers were observed teaching their own 5-yr-old children. As measures of field dependence/independence, mothers were given the Embedded Figures Test and the Block Design subtest of the WAIS; children were tested with the Children's Embedded Figures Test and the Block Design subtest of the WISC. Relatively field-independent mothers used inquiry and praise as teaching strategies, and field-dependent mothers used modeling. Trends suggest that the teaching strategies to which the child is exposed may influence which cognitive style the child develops. The data provide evidence of construct validity for Chicano women and suggest that at age 5, field dependence/field independence begins to emerge as a coherent construct in Chicano children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial placement of human figure drawings as an indicator of cognitive and personality characteristics among normal young adolescents.

Data from 13.7-yr-old Ss administered Sarason's Test Anxiety Scale for Children show that (a) contrary to common clinical interpretations, no relationship was found between test anxiety scores and spatial placement of human figure drawings; (b) Ss who used the upper left-hand space had lower levels of conceptual maturity, cognition inhibition ability, and accuracy in time estimates; and (c) placement of figures on the right-half or center of the sheet was related to higher levels of conceptual maturity and ability to delay time estimates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)