Latina/o college students experience cultural stressors that negatively impact their mental health, which places them at risk for academic problems. We explored whether cultural values buffer the negative effect of cultural stressors on mental health symptoms in a sample of 198 Latina/o college students (70 % female; 43 % first generation college students). Bivariate results revealed significant positive associations between cultural stressors (i.e., acculturative stress, discrimination) and mental health symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depressive, psychological stress), and negative associations between cultural values of familismo, respeto, and religiosity and mental health symptoms. Several cultural values moderated the influence of cultural stressors on mental health symptoms. The findings highlight the importance of helping Latina/o college students remain connected to their families and cultural values as a way of promoting their mental health.

We examined whether cultural values and mother-adolescent discussions about sexual topics were associated with Latina/o adolescents' condom use attitudes and intentions. Latina/o adolescents (N ϭ 128) completed surveys that assessed Latina/o cultural values (familismo, traditional gender roles), acculturation, mother-adolescent discussions about sexual topics, and condom use attitudes and intentions. In regression analyses, we found that traditional gender roles predicted condom use attitudes and intentions, and familismo predicted condom use attitudes. Traditional gender roles also moderated the relation between mother-adolescent discussions about sexual topics and condom use attitudes. These findings suggest that adolescent sexual health prevention programs may have a different impact on Latina/o adolescents' sexual health, depending on family and cultural factors.

Most of the literature on Latinx youths’ ethnic identity development has been conducted in communities with a large Latinx population. Fewer studies have examined Latinx youths’ ethnic identity in communities with a smaller yet rapidly growing Latinx population (i.e., new Latinx destination communities). Twenty-five Latinx youth (10-15 years)living in a new Latinx destination community participated in semi-structured interviews to identify the ethnic labels they use to describe themselves (i.e., ethnic-identity self-identification) and explore their feelings about being Latinx (i.e., ethnic-identity affirmation). Using an existing coding scheme, we found that most immigrant youth used a national origin label alone, while U.S.-born youth used a pan-ethnic term alone or in combination with an American term. Results of the thematic analysis exploring youths’ ethnic identity affirmation indicated three themes among youths’ account of their ethnic affirmation: (a) pride; (b) communication difficulties; and (c) discrimination. Study findings have implications for examining Latinx youth ethnic identity development in new destination communities.

Research summarizes the construction of a Police Officer's Tacit Knowledge Inventory (Inventory), a situational judgment test comprised of knowledge gained on-the-job by experienced police officers, and examines if it can play a role in the development of expertise. Correlation and regression analysis was done to establish the Inventory's ability to predict post-Academy graduation performance. Results show that Inventory response patterns correlate with Supervisor ratings; and the Inventory responses correctly predict significant differences between novice patrol officers and experienced police officers.

Compared to their peers, Latina/o youth are at high risk of being overweight and obese and experiencing related health problems. Because of this, it is important to identify factors that may contribute to obesity among Latina/o youth. We explored the relationships among internal health locus of control (IHLOC), cultural factors (cultural orientation, ethnic identity), and Latina/o adolescents' body mass index (BMI; an index of obesity and overweight). One hundred twenty-eight Latina/o adolescents (ages 13-18 years) completed a series of questionnaires to assess ethnic identity (i.e., affirmation-belonging and participation), cultural orientation (i.e., Latina/o cultural orientation and Anglo cultural orientation), and IHLOC. We also obtained participants' reports of weight and height, which were used to calculate BMI. Results indicated that there was an inverse association between IHLOC and BMI; specifically, the greater internal control the adolescents perceived they had over their health, the lower their BMI. As expected, Latina/o cultural orientation moderated this relation, such that at moderate and high levels of Latina/o cultural orientation, IHLOC was associated with lower BMI. Contrary to expectations, ethnic identity affirmation-belonging moderated this relation in the opposite direction, such that at low and moderate levels of ethnic identity affirmation-belonging, IHLOC was associated with lower BMI. The importance of IHLOC, cultural factors, and context in obesity among Latina/o youth and the implications of these results for obesity intervention programming are discussed.