Cambio de Colores (2013 : 12th : St. Louis, Mo.)
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Latinos in the Heartland: Positive Steps Toward a Pluralist Society : Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, June 12-14, 2013. Columbia, MO. : University of Missouri.
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Item Cambio de Colores : Latinos in the heartland : proceedings of the 12th annual conference : Positive steps toward a pluralist society, St. Louis, Missouri, June 12-14, 2013(Cambio Center, 2014) Cambio de Colores (12th : 2013 : St. Louis, MO)Item Meanings and Strategies for Good Health: The Perspectives of Latina Immigrant Mothers in Rural Iowa(Cambio Center, 2014) Reina, Angelica; Greder, Kimberly; Lee, Tania; Cambio de Colores (12th : 2013 : St. Louis, MO)Limited research has examined the variety of strategies Latino immigrants, especially those living in rural communities, use to maintain or improve their health. This study identified Latina immigrant mothers? conceptualizations of good health and their strategies to maintain or improve their health. Data from 19 semi-structured interviews with Latina immigrant mothers living in a rural Midwestern community were coded and analyzed using qualitative methods. Results reveal that mothers define being healthy as the absence of illness (i.e., "not being sick") and interpreted health in terms of being physically, mentally, and emotionally well. Mothers identified four primary strategies they implement to maintain or improve their health a) eating healthy food, b) participating in moderate and vigorous physical activities, c) monitoring intake of unhealthy foods, and d) visiting the doctor for preventative care (e.g., checkups). Religious beliefs were also noted as sources of strength to tackle their emotional problems. Understanding how Latina immigrant mothers perceive "being healthy" and perceive the status of their own health, as well as being knowledgeable of the strategies they employ to maintain or improve their health, can assist researchers and practitioners interested in improving health outcomes among Latino immigrant families.Item Building Community with a Farmers Market, Commercial Kitchen and Community Garden The Sprouts and Roots Program at Lincoln University(Cambio Center, 2014) Navarrete-Tindall, Nadia E.; Aruguete, Mara; Matthews, Yvonne; Hopper, Margaret; Taylor, Veronica; Hargrove, Jeff; Channer, Robert; Cambio de Colores (12th : 2013 : St. Louis, MO)The overall objective of the Lincoln University Cooperative Extension (LUCE) Sprouts and Roots Program (SRP) is to improve the well-being of minorities and other underserved communities through gardening and to promote intergenerational activities in Jefferson City and elsewhere in Missouri. To meet this objective, training is offered on nutrition, wellness, and gardening. The effects of gardening and healthy habits on the physical and psychological health of seniors and youth are being evaluated in an ongoing research study. Recruitment was done in schools, senior centers, Boys and Girls clubs, churches, and other locations with the assistance of the LUCE Paula Carter Center on Minority Health and Aging. Flyers, emails, calls, and personal visits were used to contact potential participants. Children and seniors attended indoor and outdoor classes in spring and fall, and pretests and posttests were provided to determine their change in knowledge of particular topics. Participants practiced their new knowledge to grow their own food at the community garden located on campus. Sixteen adult seniors and 16 children participated in 2012. The farmers market, also located on campus and adjacent to the garden, is offering the opportunity to SRP participants and area farmers to sell produce, baked goods, and other value-added products. An average of 14 vendors, and a total of 43, attended the market in 2012 where fresh or value-added products were sold on Thursdays and Saturdays during the growing season. Some vendors continued selling their products during the winter months. More than 4,000 people of different ethnicities, ages, and genders attended the market on Saturdays in 2012, compared to 1,305 in 2011. The SRP is providing communities the opportunity to develop their own value-added products by facilitating their access to a commercial kitchen recently opened to the public, located next to the market and community garden. www.cambio.missouri.edu/Library/ Keywords: urban agriculture, gardening, immigrant healthItem On Being a Mexican American: An Autoethnographic Analysis of Identity Construction(Cambio Center, 2014) Christ, Stephen; Cambio de Colores (12th : 2013 : St. Louis, MO)This article uses autoethnography to frame a larger conceptual/theoretical discussion of the identity categories based in the intersections of race/ethnicity, nationality, and immigration for the immigrant third generation and beyond, as they negotiate integration with mainstream United States culture and within their families. Drawing on a lifetime of experiences with identity management, the author interrogates dominant theoretical explanations of Mexican assimilation in an attempt to trouble the notion of immigrant generations as monolithic groupings. Particular emphasis is placed on the everyday experiences of Mexican immigrants and their descendants that contribute to Mexican American identity formation. More specifically, the author explores how Mexican Americans experience daily life at home, at work, and in public life, and how these experiences impact their sense of personal identity, their relationships with natives, their interactions with their families and community, and the identity work that goes into producing those categories and social worlds.Item Dimensions of Acculturative Stress and Mexican American Emerging Adults Prosocial Behaviors(Cambio Center, 2014) Davis, Alexandra N.; Carlo, Gustavo; Streit, Cara; Cambio de Colores (12th : 2013 : St. Louis, MO)Stressful experiences are demanding and can weaken coping mechanisms and lead to maladjustment (Conger et al., 1993; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Mexican Americans face unique forms of stressors, including acculturative stress. Acculturative stress is defined as demands placed on the individual that result from adapting to a new culture (Alegria & Woo, 2009). Acculturative stress is multidimensional and can be conceptualized in different ways. Language is a salient component of everyday life and may contribute to acculturative stress among Mexican Americans. Specifically, language can be potentially stressful for emerging adults who speak English as a second language and have difficulty communicating with others. Additionally, emerging adults may feel that they have access to fewer opportunities than their European American peers because of their ethnicity. Emerging adults who believe that society excludes them based on their ethnicity may experience environmental stress, another dimension of acculturative stress. Acculturative stress has been linked to a variety of behavioral outcomes, including prosocial behaviors, which are positive actions intended to benefit others. Prior research has demonstrated that acculturative stress is positively associated with specific forms of prosocial behaviors but is negatively associated with other forms (McGinley et al., 2010). Furthermore, while researchers have examined different components of acculturative stress, it is unclear if these dimensions differentially impact different types of prosocial behaviors. The current study examined the relations between two dimensions of acculturative stress (language stress and environmental stress) and Mexican American emerging adults' prosocial behaviors (dire, emotional, compliant, altruistic, anonymous, and public). Data was collected from Mexican American emerging adults in California and Texas. Participants were Mexican American college students (mean age=23.05 years, range 18-30 years; 66.9% female). Participants completed measures of their acculturative stress (Social, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale; Mena, Padilla, & Maldonado, 1987). For the current study, the existing environmental stress subscale (10 items; alpha=.85) was used to assess stress associated with perceptions of limited opportunities and social exclusion. A language stress subscale (3 items; alpha=.73) was created to assess stress associated with communication. Regressions were conducted to examine the associations among language and environmental stress and six types of prosocial behaviors. The results demonstrated that language stress positively predicted anonymous prosocial behaviors and negatively predicted altruistic prosocial behaviors. Environmental stress positively predicted emotional, dire, compliant, and anonymous prosocial behaviors and negatively predicted altruistic prosocial behaviors. Discussion will focus on the differential relations among language stress, environmental stress and specific prosocial behaviors and the implications of these findings for measurement and future research.