Through the use of the cultural-ecological-transactional theory of resilience, the present study seeks to determine if the cultural factors of familismo and ethnic identity have a protective effect and if bicultural stress has a risk effect on the positive psychological functioning of 191 Mexican American adolescents. Two hierarchical linear regressions were preformed to determine the direct and interaction effects of these factors on self-esteem and life satisfaction. Results indicate that familismo values and ethnic identity both significantly and positively predicted self-esteem and life satisfaction. Further, bicultural stress significantly and negatively predicted both self-esteem and life satisfaction. Additionally, there was a significant interaction effect between ethnic identity and bicultural stress on life satisfaction; however, the interaction was contrary to the hypothesis that high ethnic identity would protect against the effect of high levels of bicultural stress. Results are discussed within the cultural-ecological-transactional framework.

Background Schools have been suggested as a viable avenue to combat childhood obesity. School administrators are sometimes faced with the conflicting demands of improving the health of their students and maintaining academic performance. Dynamic furniture such as stand-biased desks may be one way to address both academic and health demands placed on schools to prevent childhood obesity. Method Classrooms with stand-biased desks were compared to classrooms using traditional seated desks in 2nd,3rd, and 4th grades. The academic engagement of 282 participants was observed in the fall and spring during one academic year. The engagement of the treatment classrooms was compared to the engagement of the control classrooms. Results Both groups showed general increases in their academic engagement over time. Stand-biased desks do not seem to result in adverse effects on academic engagement when used in elementary classrooms. Conclusion The data suggests promising results for the use of stand-biased desks in elementary school classrooms. The results suggest that stand-biased desks can be introduced in the classroom to combat childhood obesity through increasing energy expenditure without affecting academic engagement.

Latina/o youth lag behind Asian American and non-Latina/o White youth in many academic areas. Previous research has taken a deficit approach to understand the factors that affect academic outcomes for Latina/o youth often neglecting to highlight both the potential positive and negative contributions of gender role values. The present study took a holistic perspective to understand the affect of traditional Latina/o gender role values (i.e., marianismo, machismo, and caballerismo) on the academic attitudes and educational goals of Mexican descent youth. Structural equation models were tested to examine the associations of "positive" and "negative" gender role values on educational goals using 524 Mexican descent adolescents from a mid-sized city in southern Texas. We hypothesized that positive aspects of traditional Latina/o gender role values (i.e., "positive marianismo" and caballerismo) would be associated with more positive attitudes toward academics and higher educational goals. We further expected negative gender role values (i.e., "negative marianismo" and machismo) to have the opposite effect. Additionally, based on the theory of planned behavior and gender schema theory, academic attitudes were hypothesized to mediate the relation between gender role values and educational goals. An alternative model was tested in which educational goals mediated the relation between gender roles and academic attitudes. Results indicated that both models fit the data well, and recommendations are made for future longitudinal research aimed at disentangling the directionality of the relations in the model. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Research has found that Mexican American adolescents report higher levels of depressive symptoms than Whites and African Americans. For these youth, bicultural stress from navigating between their culture of origin and the mainstream U.S. culture can have negative mental health effects including higher levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. This study looks at the effects of bicultural stress and gender on depression and suicidal ideation of 516 Mexican American adolescents. Hierarchical linear and logistic regressions were performed to determine the affect of gender, bicultural stressors, and their interaction on depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Results indicate gender moderates the effect of several bicultural stressors on mental health outcomes, with boys being more affected by high levels of stress in areas when interaction effects were present. Discussion of results is framed within the intersection of ethnicity and gender role socialization.