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Hispanic youth currently constitute the largest and fastest growing of all ethnic and racial groups in the United States. In addition to normal developmental life stressors, Hispanic youth also face minority status and acculturation related stress. Few studies have examined the acculturation process from the perspective of youth development, nor have there been studies of age or grade variation in the experience of acculturation stress among Hispanic adolescents. This study examined the psychosocial and acculturative stressors of Hispanic youth (n=170) residing in the northeast and southwest United States through the use of focus group methodology. Findings are presented within a developmental perspective and suggest that Hispanic youth experience stressors broadly categorized across six domains, namely: (a) immigration, (b) communication and language, (c) school and academic, (d) peer, (e) family, and (f) social and economic. Implications for future research on stress and clinical practice for Hispanic youth are discussed.
A 2-phase study was conducted to develop a culturally informed measure of psychosocial stress for adolescents, the Hispanic Stress Inventory-Adolescent Version (HSI-A). Phase I involved item development through the collection of open-ended focus group interview data (n=170) from a heterogeneous sample of Hispanic youth residing in the southwest and northeast United States. Phase 2 examined the psychometric properties of the HSI-A (n=1637) involving the use of factor analytic procedures to determine the underlying scale structure of the HSI-A, for foreign-born and U.S.-born participants in an aggregated analytic approach. Criterion related validity estimates were calculated to determine relationships between HSI-A and other measures of child psychopathology, behavioral and emotional disturbances. Reliability estimates for the HSI-A were conducted and yielded high reliability coefficients.
The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate a promising program model, the Joven Nobel curriculum, for Latino adolescent males that promotes positive youth development and addresses prevention of a number of risk related sexual behaviors within a cultural context. A quasi experimental design was used that included a pre and post test assessment of n=683 adolescent males. About two thirds of the participants came from middle and high school while the other at risk youth were recruited from probation and community-based programs. Results revealed that youth exposed to the 10 week curriculum had significant increases in knowledge and decrease in behavior related to high risk sexual behaviors. Out of eight subscale measures (ATSS, Perceived Risk, HIV Knowledge, CAPS: Talk, CAPS: Comfort Talk, CAPS: Cool Sex, ATA, Cultural Esteem, and Hombres Con Palabra) seven yielded a significant and positive outcome results. The curriculum appears effective in shaping youth�s attitudes and beliefs about high risk sexual behaviors.
