Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families

As the population becomes increasingly diverse, family support programs must be prepared to address diversity in parenting practices. The University of California Families with Young Children Workgroup conducted a review of parenting curriculums and interviewed collaborators to determine how to best address this need. As a result, Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families was developed to supplement commonly used parenting curriculums. The guide encourages educators and practitioners to evaluate their work with families by delivering research-based information on how culture influences parenting goals and tips for educators to consider when working with diverse audiences

What Parents Really Think About Their Feeding Practices and Behaviors: Lessons Learned from the Development of a Parental Feeding Assessment Tool

Interest in the role that parenting assumes in child obesity has increased the need for valid and reliable screening tools that are specific for populations targeted by programming efforts. While low-income families comprise a large audience for Cooperative Extension obesity prevention programs, valid and reliable selfadministered parenting assessments for this population are lacking. Development of such tools requires understanding low-income parents’ interpretations of questions related to their parenting. The current paper reports on interviews conducted with low-income parents (N = 44) of 3- to 5-year-old children during the development of a tool to assess parenting in the context of feeding. Interviews revealed areas of potential discrepancy between parents’ and researchers’ interpretations of items that may affect parents’ responses and subsequent measurement validity when used in Cooperative Extension community intervention setting. Three themes emerged that may interfere with valid and reliable assessments of constructs: fear of being labeled a “harsh parent,” response bias due to previous knowledge, and discrepancy in interpretation of the intended construct. Results highlight complexities of constructing parent-report assessments of parenting for low-income audiences, and potential hazards of using research-focused tools with high respondent burden. Guidelines for educators assessing parents’ feeding behaviors are presented

An Integrative Approach to Addressing Childhood Overweight: Inclusion of Parenting Information in Nutrition Education Programs

Research indicates that child overweight stems from many sources, including parent-child interactions and parenting styles. Focus groups with nutrition educators were used to explore the need for parenting resources in nutrition education. Results revealed that both parents and educators see parenting and family interaction patterns as barriers to implementing changes in children\u27s eating behaviors. Further, nutrition educators reported feeling unprepared to guide parents when making changes in children\u27s nutrition. Discussion focuses on recommendations for providing parents and educators with researched-based information on child development and effective family interactions related to nutrition and health behaviors

Guided Goal Setting: A Feasible Obesity Prevention Behavior Change Strategy for Low-Income Parents with Young Children

To reduce the risk of pediatric obesity, behaviorally-focused parental education is needed. This study examined the feasibility of guided goal setting in a pediatric obesity prevention intervention for low-income parents of young children. Parents from Head Start participated in a six-week nutrition, activity, and parenting intervention that included guided goal setting (N = 47). At each session, data were collected on goal selection, effort, and attainment. Pre- and postintervention data were collected on nutrition, activity, and child feeding behaviors (n = 24). A subset of parents completed in-depth interviews (n = 20). Parents reported a high level of goal effort (88%) and achievement (79%) and a preference for goal personalization and a list of goals from which to choose. In general, parents did not find the goal contract or weekly tracking as motivating as goal personalization. Pre- and postintervention assessment showed significant changes in the dietary energy density (p = .008) and vegetable behavior (p = .04) subscales with a marginal change in the snacking subscale (p = .08). Guided goal setting was a feasible behavioral strategy for the parents in this study since parents engaged in the process and demonstrated changes in serving more vegetables and fewer energy-dense foods

Gender Socialization in Latino/a Families: Results from Two Retrospective Studies

In this article, we present findings from 2 studies designed to explore gender-related socialization in Latino/a families. In Study 1, 22 adult Latinas (ages 20–45) completed in-depth interviews. In Study 2, 166 Latino/a college students (58% women; M age 21.4 years) completed self-report surveys. Study 1 findings suggest that many Latino/a parents socialize their daughters in ways that are marked by “traditional” gender-related expectations and messages. Results of Study 2, which included descriptive analyses and the creation of scales to explore family correlates of gender-related socialization, support and expand these findings. Male and female respondents described different experiences of household activities, socialization of gender-typed behavior, and freedom to pursue social activities or gain access to privileges. Parental characteristics, particularly gender role attitudes, were linked to gender-related socialization. Findings are discussed in light of the developmental and cultural literature on gender-related socialization

‘She’s 16 years old and there’s boys calling over to the house’: an exploratory study of sexual socialization in Latino families

Compared to other ethnic groups in the USA, Latino populations are at high risk for negative sexual outcomes, including unplanned pregnancy and HIV/AIDS infection. The goal of this study was to explore the role of cultural beliefs and values in sexual socialization by focusing on the family socialization of adolescent romantic and sexual behavior described by 22 Latina/Hispanic women who took part in in-depth individual interviews. Four broad themes were explored: parental concerns regarding dating, family communication about sexual issues, family rules about dating, and actual dating and sexual experiences. Consistent with traditional cultural views, female romantic involvement outside of marriage was described as potentially dishonourable to the family. Because US-style dating was seen as a violation of traditional courtship styles, most of the respondents’ families placed strict boundaries on adolescent sociosexual interaction. As a result, many respondents described adolescent experiences of dating characterized by tension and conflict, and reported vulnerability in eventual sexual encounters. In order to better understand the sexual behavior of young Latina women in the USA, researchers must examine sexual socialization within the family of origin and take parents’ culturally-influenced beliefs and practises into account

Individual and social influences on ethnic identity among Latino young adults

Building on prior Latino ethnic identity research, this study had three goals: describe age-related trends in ethnic identity among young adults, examine relations among ethnic identity and individual factors, and explore the impact of family and peer socialization on ethnic identity. The participants (two hundred 19-to 30-year-olds; mean age = 22.5) completed self-report surveys sent to Latino undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in four midwestern institutions of higher education. The findings suggest individual factors are strong predictors of ethnic identity during early adulthood; respondents who were younger, high on Latino orientation, spent more time in the United States, and whose parents had more formal education reported high levels of ethnic identity achievement. In contrast, ethnic identity exploration was higher among individuals whose parents preferred they date Latinos and had less formal education. The findings contribute knowledge regarding ethnic identity and suggest directions for future research on its development among diverse populations

Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families

As the population becomes increasingly diverse, family support programs must be prepared to address diversity in parenting practices. The University of California Families with Young Children Workgroup conducted a review of parenting curriculums and interviewed collaborators to determine how to best address this need. As a result, Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families was developed to supplement commonly used parenting curriculums. The guide encourages educators and practitioners to evaluate their work with families by delivering research-based information on how culture influences parenting goals and tips for educators to consider when working with diverse audiences

The Forgotten Half of Program Evaluation: A Focus on the Translation of Rating Scales for Use with Hispanic Populations

tools have been developed and validated with English-speaking samples. There is little research and practical guidance on the cultural adaptation and translation of rating scales. The purpose of this article is to summarize the methodological work in this area as it relates to evaluation in Extension, specifically with Spanish-speaking, Hispanic populations of Mexican origin. General practices are reviewed and recommendations outlined. Inferences about program outcomes and impacts depend, in large part, on the rating scale; therefore, inattention to these issues could lead to misleading results and interpretations