Culture, Context and Mexican American Mental Health

描述(由申请人提供)：墨西哥裔美国青年比包括其他拉丁裔群体在内的其他族裔青年更容易出现一些适应问题，包括精神健康问题、药物滥用、监禁、学业失败和辍学以及少女怀孕。尽管墨西哥裔美国人是美国规模最大、增长最快的种族群体之一，但对于为什么一些墨西哥裔美国人适应不良的风险非常高，而另一些墨西哥裔美国人适应能力很强的原因，很少有人进行研究。从人与环境匹配的角度出发，研究墨西哥裔美国儿童的文化取向(即文化适应和文化适应)及其家庭、社区和学校的文化背景如何解释墨西哥裔美国儿童在适应方面的差异。我们开发和试点测试的墨西哥传统价值观(即文化适应)和美国主流价值观(文化适应)的多维测量将使我们能够为墨西哥裔美国年轻人提供比之前研究更敏感的人与环境适配角度的测试。我们将重点关注三个方面 具体目标：(1)考察儿童的文化取向和文化背景(即家庭、社区、学校)之间的相互作用，作为适应的预测因素；(2)确定儿童的文化取向对适应的影响的中介变量，并考察这些关系是否依赖于文化与语境的互动；以及(3)考察儿童的文化取向和文化背景作为共同风险和保护因素(过渡到初中、青春期、家庭自尊、家庭环境质量、社区质量)影响其适应的调节因素所起的作用。建议进行一项纵向研究，跟踪700名墨西哥裔美国儿童到初中的整个过渡过程。样本选择将从凤凰城大都市区的25-30个学校社区开始，这些社区代表了从非常高的墨西哥裔美国人人口密度和文化嵌入性到非常低的连续体。家庭将通过这些社区的学校招募。我们将使用多个记者的方法，包括来自母亲、父亲、目标儿童、教师、学校记录和人口普查数据的相关数据。大多数分析将使用结构方程建模和多层次分析来完成。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mexican American youth are at higher risk for a number of adaptation problems, including mental health problems, drug abuse, incarceration, school failure and drop out, and teenage pregnancy, than youth from other ethnic groups including other Latino groups. Although Mexican Americans are one of the largest and most rapidly growing ethnic groups in the U.S., very little research has been done to improve understanding of why some Mexican Americans are at very high risk for poor adaptation while others are quite resilient. A person-environment fit perspective is proposed to guide an investigation into how Mexican American children's cultural orientations (i.e., enculturation and acculturation) and the cultural contexts of their family, community, and school account for variation in adaptation within this population. A multi-dimensional measure of both traditional Mexican values (i.e., enculturation) and mainstream U.S. values (acculturation) which we developed and pilot tested will allow us to provide more sensitive tests of the person-environment fit perspective to Mexican American youth than was possible in previous research. We will focus on three Specific Aims: (1) examine interactions between children's cultural orientation and cultural contexts (i.e., family, community, school) as predictors of adaptation; (2) identify mediators of the influences of children's cultural orientation on adjustment and examine whether these relationships depend upon culture x context interactions; and (3) examine the role of children's cultural orientations and cultural contexts as moderators of influences of common risk and protective factors (transition to junior high, puberty, family SES, quality of home environment, quality of community) on their adjustment. A longitudinal study is proposed that will follow 700 Mexican American children through the transition to junior high. Sample selection will begin with the selection of 25-30 school communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area that represent the continuum from very high Mexican American population density and cultural embeddedness to very low. Families will be recruited through schools in these communities. We will use a multiple reporter approach including relevant data from mothers, fathers, target children, teachers, school records, and census data. Most analyses will be accomplished using structural equation modeling and multi-level analysis.