Health and development among Mexican, black and white preschool children: An integrative approach using latent class analysis

PROBLEMAS DE COMPORTAMENTO E RECURSO PRÓ-SOCIAL NA AVALIAÇÃO DE MÃES E PROFESSORAS

RESUMO Os problemas de comportamento das crianças podem ser internalizantes ou externalizantes, sendo os últimos mais comumente mencionados pelos pais e professores como fator de incômodo. Tem-se como objetivo comparar a avaliação de indicadores de problemas de comportamento e de recurso pró-social de escolares, a partir do relato de mães e professoras, considerando como variáveis o sexo e a escolaridade. Participaram do estudo 100 professoras, 200 alunos e 200 mães. Para a coleta de dados utilizou-se um questionário de caracterização e o Questionário de Capacidades e Dificuldades - (SDQ). Verificaram-se diferenças estatísticas significativas na avaliação dos recursos adaptativos e problemas de comportamento, por mães e professoras, em todas as escalas e escore total do SDQ. As mães identificaram mais problemas que as professoras, para os meninos, mais recursos de socialização para meninas, e mais sintomas emocionais nos anos iniciais de escolarização. A avaliação simultânea de recursos adaptativos e problemas favorece práticas preventivas.

Práticas Parentais: Conjugalidade, Depressão Materna, Comportamento das Crianças e Variáveis Demográficas

Resumo As interfaces das práticas educativas maternas e problemas de comportamento são reconhecidas, contudo, carecem de estudos que abordem variáveis contextuais e pessoais específicas que podem interferir no uso de práticas positivas e negativas. Objetiva-se comparar as práticas parentais relatadas pelas mães de crianças pré-escolares e escolares considerando variáveis: demográficas, práticas educativas, relacionamento conjugal, depressão materna, problemas de comportamento e habilidades sociais. Foram participantes 151 mães biológicas e suas crianças. Estas informaram sobre práticas parentais, comportamentos dos filhos, depressão materna e variáveis demográficas. Com significância estatística identificou-se que: as habilidades sociais infantis, problemas de comportamento, relacionamento conjugal, escolaridade e renda familiar diferenciaram os grupos no que refere ao uso de práticas educativas; práticas positivas foram associadas às habilidades sociais infantis, e as negativas, aos problemas de comportamento; o uso das práticas positivas foi influenciado, para os escolares, pela depressão, renda familiar e escolaridade materna e, para os pré-escolares, pela escolaridade materna.

Experiencing discrimination in Los Angeles: Latinos at the intersection of legal status and socioeconomic status

Despite its recent slowdown, immigration from Latin America continues to be a controversial issue. Some scholars argue that the social climate is increasingly inhospitable to Latinos, potentially fueling discriminatory attitudes and behaviors. However, little research has examined Latinos' experiences with discrimination, especially variation by nativity and legal status. We address this issue with research on perceived discrimination among Mexican and Central American residents of Los Angeles County, a major destination for Latin American immigrants. Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and the American Community Survey, the analyses consider immigrants' legal status, intersectionality, and competing perspectives on assimilation. The results show that undocumented immigrants do not report especially high levels of discrimination. Instead, young U.S.-born Latinos are the most likely to report mistreatment in interpersonal and institutional domains. Neighborhood ethnoracial and income diversity also have implications for perceived exposure to different types of discrimination.

Simultaneous assessement of social skills and behavior problems: Education and gender

Abstract The aim was to compare the social skills of preschool and school-age children, considering groups differentiated by behavior problem indicators, according to the assessment performed by parents and teachers. Children of both genders participated in this study. Parents/primary caregivers assessed 194 children and 294 children were assessed by their teachers. The results indicated that, for the parents and teachers, the children without problems were more socially skilled. The gender of the children distinguished the repertoire of social skills, according to their parents, mainly the school-age children. For the teachers, considering both school periods, girls were more socially skilled and, for both parents and teachers, boys presented more behavior problems. These data have implications for assessment and intervention procedures.

Latent Class Analysis for Developmental Research

In this article, we consider the broad applicability of latent class analysis (LCA) and related approaches to advance research on child development. First, we describe the role of person-centered methods such as LCA in developmental research, and review prior applications of LCA to the study of development and related areas of research. Then we present practical considerations when applying LCA in developmental research, including model selection and statistical power. Finally, we introduce several recent methodological innovations in LCA, including causal inference in LCA, predicting a distal outcome from latent class membership, and latent class moderation (in which LCA quantifies multidimensional moderators of effects in observational and experimental studies), and we discuss their potential to advance developmental science. We conclude with suggestions for ongoing developmental research using LCA.

Latent Class Analysis for Developmental Research

In this article, we consider the broad applicability of latent class analysis (LCA) and related approaches to advance research on child development. First, we describe the role of person-centered methods such as LCA in developmental research, and review prior applications of LCA to the study of development and related areas of research. Then we present practical considerations when applying LCA in developmental research, including model selection and statistical power. Finally, we introduce several recent methodological innovations in LCA, including causal inference in LCA, predicting a distal outcome from latent class membership, and latent class moderation (in which LCA quantifies multidimensional moderators of effects in observational and experimental studies), and we discuss their potential to advance developmental science. We conclude with suggestions for ongoing developmental research using LCA.

Epidemiological Paradox or Immigrant Vulnerability? Obesity Among Young Children of Immigrants

According to the "immigrant epidemiological paradox," immigrants and their children enjoy health advantages over their U.S.-born peers--advantages that diminish with greater acculturation. We investigated child obesity as a potentially significant deviation from this paradox for second-generation immigrant children. We evaluated two alternate measures of mother's acculturation: age at arrival in the United States and English language proficiency. To obtain sufficient numbers of second-generation immigrant children, we pooled samples across two related, nationally representative surveys. Each included measured (not parent-reported) height and weight of kindergartners. We also estimated models that alternately included and excluded mother's pre-pregnancy weight status as a predictor. Our findings are opposite to those predicted by the immigrant epidemiological paradox: children of U.S.-born mothers were less likely to be obese than otherwise similar children of foreign-born mothers; and the children of the least-acculturated immigrant mothers, as measured by low English language proficiency, were the most likely to be obese. Foreign-born mothers had lower (healthier) pre-pregnancy weight than U.S.-born mothers, and this was protective against their second-generation children's obesity. This protection, however, was not sufficiently strong to outweigh factors associated or correlated with the mothers' linguistic isolation and marginal status as immigrants.