Family psychology and cultural diversity: Opportunities for theory, research, and application.

Builds on the authors' work with troubled Hispanic youth and their families to extend the concept of contextualism. First, the article discusses family and culture as literatures that have emerged from a contextualist perspective but are separate from each other. Second, it integrates these literatures by introducing the concept of the embeddedness of the individual within the context of the family within the context of culture. Finally, this concept of the embeddedness of contexts is extended to encompass a view of families embedded within culturally diverse contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How selective is acculturation? Broadening our perspective.

Responds to the comments by C. Killian (see record 2011-02175-013) on the current authors' original article, "Rethinking the concept of acculturation: Implications for theory and research" (see record 2010-08987-001). Killian has focused on issues of selective acculturation—specifically, the ability of individuals and families to direct their own (and their children’s) acculturative trajectories. Let us start by saying that we fully agree with Killian that some dimensions of acculturation are selective in some contexts. Yes, parents do encourage adolescents to gravitate toward specific aspects of their cultural heritage and to avoid specific aspects of the receiving cultural context, and vice versa, with respect to these cultural domains. Uma?a-Taylor, Bhanot, and Shin (2006) referred to this phenomenon as familial ethnic socialization. Uma?a-Taylor et al. have found familial ethnic socialization to promote identifications with one’s heritage culture—and we have found in our own research (Schwartz, Zamboanga, Rodriguez, & Wang, 2007) that parental socialization is closely related to all three dimensions of heritage- cultural identity. However, in our research, parents’ socialization attempts appear less effective in shaping youths’ acquisition or rejection of American cultural practices, values, and identifications. Why this is the case is a matter of debate, but the presence of the heritage culture in the home does help to increase the likelihood that children and adolescents will retain or adopt it. However, this is not necessarily a guarantee, as we note immediately below. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cuban value structure: Treatment implications.

Discusses the relationship between cultural variables and psychosocial treatment. It is assumed that in order for psychosocial treatment to be acceptable and effective with a client population, it must be sensitive to the cultural characteristics of that population. The paradigm of planning therapy according to the cultural characteristics of a population is illustrated for Cuban immigrant adolescents. To investigate cultural variables, a Value Orientations Scale was developed based on the work of F. R. Kluckhohn and F. L. Strodtbeck (1961) using 220 Cuban immigrant, 65 White American, 28 Black American, and 12 non-Cuban Latin 15–77 yr old Ss. Four factorially derived subscales were obtained. When 56 Cuban immigrant and 152 Anglo-American adolescents were compared along the Value Orientations Scale, the Cubans tended to prefer lineality, subjugation to nature, present time, and not to endorse idealized humanistic values, whereas the Americans tended to prefer individuality, mastery over nature, future time, and to endorse idealized humanistic values. The implications of these value differences for the delivery of mental health treatment are discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interplay of advances between theory, research, and application in treatment interventions aimed at behavior problem children and adolescents.

This article examines the important role that the interplay between theory, research, and application has in fostering breakthroughs in the treatment of clinical problems. This issue is presented in the context of an ongoing program of psychotherapy research that targets for intervention of Hispanic behavior problem youth and their families. Findings and breakthroughs in structural family therapy, the measurement of family and child psychodynamic functioning, the development of culturally appropriate interventions, the role of attrition as a measure of outcome, and the investigation of theoretically postulated mechanisms in behavior change are discussed. Recommendations for future research directions are made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)