Perceived Family Support, Acculturation, and Life Satisfaction in Mexican American Youth: A Mixed-Methods Exploration

In this article, the authors describe a mixed-methods study designed to explore perceived family support, acculturation, and life satisfaction among 266 Mexican American adolescents. Specifically, the authors conducted a thematic analysis of open-ended responses to a question about life satisfaction to understand participants’ perceptions of factors that contributed to their overall satisfaction with life. The authors also conducted hierarchical regression analyses to investigate the independent and interactive contributions of perceived support from family and Mexican and Anglo acculturation orientations on life satisfaction. Convergence of mixed-methods findings demonstrated that perceived family support and Mexican orientation were significant predictors of life satisfaction in these adolescents. Implications, limitations, and directions for further research are discussed

Working With Multiracial Clients in Therapy: Bridging Theory, Research, and Practice

The growing multiracial population has resulted in a need for professional psychologists to become knowledgeable about unique identity issues that may influence therapy with multiracial clients. The overarching goal of this article is to provide clinicians with current theory and research, as well as particular therapeutic strategies that will be useful in their work with multiracial clients. Specifically, this article (a) provides a brief review of some prevalent models of multiracial identity; (b) discusses several common themes derived from theory and research about multiracial identity, which should be taken into account when working with this population; and (c) offers some specific techniques and strategies that may be used in therapy to develop more accurate conceptualizations of multiracial clients

Promoting Hope: Suggestions for School Counselors

School counselors need multiple resources to assist today\u27s students in developing to their fullest potential. This development might often be measured outwardly by academic success; however, psychological and emotional well-being of students is a large part of this success. The construct of hope is defined as a bidimensional characteristic consisting of an agency component (willpower to move toward one\u27s goals) and a pathways component (ability to develop multiple routes to one\u27s goals) and has been linked to academic success, athletic performance, psychological adjustment, and physical health in students (Snyder et al., 1991). Helping school counselors to enhance individual strengths through the promotion of characteristics such as hope may result in multiple benefits for students and their school environments at large. Studies involving hope and its correlates are discussed and suggestions for appropriate and feasible interventions in this area are given

Hope Measurement in Mexican American Youth

Hope is a motivational construct that has been associated with many positive outcomes in children, adolescents, and adults. Although research with the Children’s Hope Scale (CHS) has demonstrated support for the reliability and validity of the CHS with various samples of youth, there is little empirical evidence for its use with Latino youth. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the six-item CHS in a sample of 135 Mexican American youth. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a hierarchical representation of the CHS with two underlying factors (pathways and agency). CHS scores were found to be positively correlated with measures of positive affect, life satisfaction, support from family and friends, and optimism. Additional analyses provided evidence supporting convergent validity and measurement invariance across gender. Implications and directions for future research are discussed

Positive Psychology Within a Cultural Context

As our capacity for communication with nations across the globe increases through the advances of technology, our interactions with others with different worldviews also become more frequent. This exposure to diversity on so many levels requires a better understanding of the multiple contexts in which people from different cultural backgrounds live and the strengths they possess that help them experience well-being. In order to define the characteristics that my be viewed as strengths in different groups, we must make efforts to remember that cultural rules and norms often dictate what can be called a strength versus a weakness. It is imperative that we are able to recognize that strengths may look very different in different contexts and that these diverse manifestations may come from a variety of worldviews. More work must be done in order to develop a better understanding of the way that cultural context plays a role in the operationalization, manifestation, and measurement of strengths in diverse groups. The following chapter provides a history of the connections between culture and positive psychology and discusses current issues regarding the link between cultural context and various personal characteristics. Examples from culturally sensitive positive psychology theory and research are also given in order to illustrate how researchers are better exploring positive psychology within a cultural context

Understanding Hope: A Review of Measurement and Construct Validity Research

Hope has been discussed by philosophers, theologians, educators, and scientists, to name but a few groups of people, over the preceding two millennia. During the last 15 years, C. R. Snyder and his colleagues at the University of Kansas have developed a theory and associated measures of the hope construct that have received extensive, detailed attention both within and outside the field of psychology. In this chapter, we describe Snyder\u27s hope model and some of the research findings that have supported the validity of this construct. Beginning with a conceptual definition of hope, we move to relevant findings about the usefulness of hope in the lives of individuals in various life arenas. We describe measures developed for assessing hope in children and adults, as well as current issues associated with the validity of hope measurement. Finally, we discuss future directions for further investigation of hope

Culture Counts: Examinations of Recent Applications of the Penn Resiliency Program or, Toward a Rubric for Examining Cultural Appropriateness of Prevention Programming

It is imperative that researchers pay close attention to the influences of culture on mental health, and acknowledge a cultural context of illness and change when designing prevention programming. Researchers E. V. Cardemil, K. J. Reivich, and M. E. P. Seligman (2002) and D. L. Yu and M. E. P. Seligman (2002) have made attempts at adapting the existing Penn Resiliency Program (PRP) for culturally appropriate use cross-culturally and interculturally. The success of these modifications is discussed within a framework of guidelines designed to remind scientists how much culture counts. Finally, informative resources and a rubric are shared with prevention scientists for use in future development of culturally appropriate prevention programming

Note on Comparability of MicroCog Test Forms

This study investigated the differences between the Standard and Short forms of MicroCog by comparing Domain scores for a clinical sample of 351 substance abusers which gave a significant difference between scores on the Spatial Processing Domain. Implications for research and clinical use are discussed

Beyond the DSM-IV: Assumptions, Alternatives, and Alterations

Current diagnostic processes reflect the limitations and utility of the framework of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Clinical information in the DSM-IV\u27s 5-axis system almost exclusively focuses on weaknesses and pathology and is summarized in a flawed categorical system. Hence, the authors describe 3 adjunctive, or alternative, means of conceptualizing behavior; several means of altering the current DSM-IV system; and 2 future directions in the diagnosis of strengths

Rice Phenology Monitoring by means of SAR Polarimetry at X-Band

The feasibility of retrieving the phenological stage of rice fields at a particular date by employing coherent copolar dual-pol X-band radar images acquired by the TerraSAR-X sensor has been investigated in this paper. A set of polarimetric observables that can be derived from this data type has been studied by using a time series of images gathered during the whole cultivation period of rice. Among the analyzed parameters, besides backscattering coefficients and ratios, we have observed clear signatures in the correlation (in magnitude and phase) between channels in both the linear and Pauli bases, as well as in parameters provided by target decomposition techniques, like entropy and alpha from the eigenvector decomposition. A new model-based decomposition providing estimates of a random volume component plus a polarized contribution has been proposed and employed in interpreting the radar response of rice. By exploiting the signatures of these observables in terms of the phenology of rice, a simple approach to estimate the phenological stage from a single pass has been devised. This approach has been tested with the available data acquired over a site in Spain, where rice is cultivated, ensuring ground is flooded for the whole cultivation cycle, and sowing is carried out by randomly spreading the seeds on the flooded ground. Results are in good agreement with the available ground measurements despite some limitations that exist due to the reduced swath coverage of the dual-pol HHVV mode and the high noise floor of the TerraSAR-X system.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) and EU FEDER under Projects TEC2008-06764-C02-02 and TEC2011-28201-C02-02, by the National Program of Human Resources Movability under Grant PR2009-0364, by the University of Alicante under Project GRE08J01, and by Generalitat Valenciana under Projects GV/2009/079 and ACOMP/2010/082