Overweight and obesity are a growing national concern, particularly among women and selected minority populations (Ayala, Elder, Campbell, Slymen, Roy, Engelberg, et al., 2004; NHANES, 2003). Pregnant women bear a disproportionate risk of becoming overweight or obese (Greene, Smickikias-Wright, Scholl, & Karp, 1988; Gunderson et al., 2000; Rossner, 1999). Although...
The purpose of this qualitative study was to research the experience of six Hispanic students who were interviewed in depth regarding their persistence in school and success at a community college. The students reported on their educational experiences prior to college and how that related to attendance at the college;...
The evolving United States demographics, evident from the most recent census, show a steady population growth for Hispanics. Research suggests that after immigrating to the United States, first-generation Hispanic populations seem vulnerable to weight gain and development of chronic disease. Many health professionals recognize the increased need for Spanish language...
The purpose of this study is to examine significant and persistent problems within the Salem-Keizer School District, particularly when comparing Douglas McKay High School to West Salem High School. Douglas McKay High School is one of the physically smallest schools in the district, with over 2000 students and has the...
Little research has been done in the area of adult Hispanics' transition to college, a complex and challenging process which marks a critical period in their lives. Research suggests adaptation difficulty may cause them to drop out of school usually before completion of the first terms. There is a lack...
Two studies investigated the characteristics of high-risk Hispanic parents with young children who were enrolled in a primary prevention home visitation program targeting first birth families. In the first study, more and less acculturated high-risk Hispanic families were compared to high-risk non-Hispanic White families on differences in demographic characteristics, risk...
Latinos are the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. and are expected to be 25% of the population by the year 2050. Latinos also are more vulnerable and at higher risk for poor health outcomes including diabetes and other chronic health ailments than Anglos. Many of the serious effects...
This study sought to examine food choice motives and influences among Oregon Latinos to gain a greater understanding of their dietary acculturation. Previous studies relying principally on quantitative methods to assess the relationship between acculturation and diet have reported inconsistent results, though a general decline in diet quality is reported...
This study used a mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative) to examine the commonalities and differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic participants of the Even Start Family Literacy Program. Using a life course perspective, this study examined the educational background and life history of Hispanic and non-Hispanic participants, their reasons and...
Latino students are among the fastest growing demographic groups in the nation, particularly in California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Within California in 2014, over 70,000 students are involved in Agricultural Education programs, and Latino students now account for over 50% of the total enrollment - and the percentage of...
Latinos are the largest and most rapidly growing ethnic minority in the United States, and they have the highest dropout rates of any major ethnic group in the country (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003). Latinos' educational attainment is consistently lower than that of other students (Gandara, 2008). The majority of...
Men are frequently left out of the picture in the study of family planning and sexual risk behavior. This approach means few programs and policies address men's family planning and sexual health issues. There is also a lack of understanding of the role fatherhood plays in men's development and in...
This research focused on the experiences of 15 low income Mexican women immigrants participating in MAS and Superando, two family literacy programs at the center of these women's sociocultural change. This research sought to understand the extent to which participation in these two programs empowers women to create change in...
Hispanics in Hood River County, Oregon account for roughly 25% of the population, with many employed in agriculture. A community health survey was carried out in Hood River County during the winter months of 2001 with the purpose of evaluating the health conditions, needs, and barriers to access of needed...
The purpose of this study was to learn about the experiences of Generation 1.5 Hispanics in developmental English in community college. A qualitative comparative case study design was used for this social critical study. The key findings fell into three categories: road blocks, motivators, and actions. The road blocks included:...
Changes in lifestyle over the last century have resulted in a dramatic increase in the incidence of diabetes in the United States (U.S.). Mexican-Americans, the largest Hispanic/Latino subgroup in the U.S., are 1.7x’s as likely to have diabetes as non- Hispanic Whites. Culturally appropriate approaches for treating diabetes in minority...
The purpose of this study is to determine factors that encourage second
generation Latina/os to obtain a community college education. A critical qualitative
ethnography focused on "Testimonio" was used in conducting this study. The key
findings were formulated around three critical research questions. In relation to each
research question, three...
The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences, events, and circumstances that provided Latino educators the opportunity for ascendancy to the presidency of a California community college. This study aimed to recapture the individual experiences of current Latino community college presidents from working class, immigrant family backgrounds as...
Acculturation, defined as the process of adopting the behaviors and beliefs of the dominant host culture, is often associated with dietary change and negative health outcomes, such as increased risk for obesity and diet-related diseases. The large and rising immigrant population in the U.S. necessitates a better understanding of the...
This study helps to answer the broader question of why Latino students
across the U.S. persistently drop out of school at the highest rates compared to
students of other racial groups by focusing on the institutional workings of the
various levels of the Oregon school system. Latino students have the...
Objective. To examine the relationship between wealth and cardiovascular disease risk factors among Hispanic/Latinos of diverse backgrounds.
Design. This cross-sectional study used data from 4,971 Hispanic/Latinos, 18 to 74 years, who participated in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) baseline exam and the HCHS/SOL Sociocultural Ancillary Study. Three...
The purpose of this study is to examine the learning that occurs in Latina students
who enroll in learning communities designed for underprepared community college
students. The research question guiding this study is: What are the experiences of Latina
students enrolled in developmental learning community courses which have the greatest...
A social issue of great importance in contemporary society is the involvement of youth in gangs. Youth involvement in gang activity has dominated the national media and the minds of public policy makers in contemporary society. In this thesis I examine how Latino and Chicano youth sub-culture, language, dress, and...
This ethnography looks at the processes a rural Oregon community is undergoing as some members attempt to re-animate the community by creating a community center after the loss of its school and market, two vital services that provided venues for social interaction and engagement.
The methodology for this research includes...
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2.1 Changes in Rural Communities and Their Roles in American Life ....................... 11
White women’s experiences with major institutions, the church included, often are generalized to other women’s experiences, much like how the experience of men in often represented as the experience of all humankind. In 2001 Elaine Howard Ecklund studied white lay women in the Catholic Church and explored two questions: What...
In the contemporary United States, the process of "coming out of the closet," or public disclosure of one's non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity, is ongoing and performative. Particularly within the context of dominant contemporary U.S. society, popular media favors a hegemonic set of defining characteristics, which thereby forces the...
Student engagement with faculty is positively associated with increases in the retention and graduation rates of students enrolled in institutions of higher education. Although a considerable amount of research has focused on understanding the engagement experiences of students enrolled at four-year colleges and universities, little emphasis has been placed on...
This study investigated how a minority population of Latino/a immigrant children attending a middle school in the Pacific Northwest made sense of engaging with school and school mathematics. A cross disciplinary theoretical framework was used to examine how individual student motivation is impacted by the social context in which the...
The transition to kindergarten can be challenging for many children who do not have the necessary skills to meet the demands of classroom settings such as paying attention, remembering instructions, and demonstrating self-control. Children who lack the necessary behavioral regulation skills to meet the demands in the classroom environment are...
This interpretive research sought to understand how eight Hispanic students who
mastered English as a Second Language (ESL) matriculated at a rural community college,
and what motivating factors encouraged or encumbered their academic persistence and
success. Particularly the study focused on student backgrounds, motivations, and
persistence factors influencing their success....
Latina/o student enrollments in community colleges in the United States are rapidly growing, yet Latina/o student success rates have not matched this growth. There is a need for community college programs that serve Latina/o student populations more effectively and that incorporate multicultural educational practices into college programs. The purpose of...
From February to September of 2001, a significant body of qualitive data was collected to investigate barriers for Hispanic participation in Oregon's managed care Medicaid program. As a means to investigate this topic, comments were solicited from physicians, hospital administrators, social service agencies, and low-income Hispanics through semi-structured focus groups...
This thesis presents the steps that were taken to develop thematic findings using data from a qualitative study. Using a grounded approach, the study focused on qualitatively exploring Mexican origin caregivers' conceptualizations of elder caregiving in terms of role functioning, social norms, cultural beliefs, and familial obligations. Data collected from...
Indigenous and Latinx communities have always used storytelling to pass along ancestral histories and memories, whether it be through the act of speaking, performing or other types of artwork. This thesis examines the ways that queer Latinx artists are retelling the stories that have been mistold to erase, repress and...
Communities across the United States are becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse. Indeed, demographers predict that by 2030 most of America’s school-age children will be from a minority group and by 2050, so will most Americans. This increasing diversity changes the nature of the population served by volunteer-based organizations, and...
This study was designed to investigate a phenomenon, retention of Hispanic adult second language learners in Washington State's community colleges, from a qualitative paradigm and phenomenological approach. The focus of this study was to capture eight foreign-born Hispanic ESL non-continuators' voices and experiences, in their native language of Spanish, who...
There is an ever growing number of Latinas/os who reside and have settled permanently in rural America. Unbeknownst to most, rural Latinas/os face adversities unfamiliar to those living outside of this scope. As it stands, the barriers urban Latinas/os students face when transitioning to college has been well documented. However,...
Latinos are less likely to be civically involved in their community than any other minority group, despite the fact that they are the biggest minority in the United States. A great concern exists over ways to effectively promote and improve this group’s participation in their community’s decision-making process [or civic...
A historical overview of Latino enrollment in the community college is resented. Thirty Latino occupational, transfer, and non-credit students attending
an Oregon college were interviewed, examining
educational and familial background, and
college services as indicators of their
decision to pursue postsecondary studies at
the two-year institution. Results are
analyzed, supplemented...
For much of history, U.S. schools have employed ideologies of assimilation and nationhood - involving an exchange of immigrants' ways of life for a homogenous American identity - as frameworks for their curriculum and language education programs. However, a new ideology of multiculturalism has gained popularity in recent decades. Multicultural...
This study involved the development of two bilingual and inquiry-based forest education programs within the Central Willamette Valley of Oregon. The first program used the participatory research (PR) process to engage 7th and 8th grade Latino students as participatory researchers to interview members of their community to learn their perspectives...
English Language Learners (ELLs) represent a culturally and linguistically diverse population in US schools. ELLs enter kindergarten with a range of academic and self-regulation skills, but can face multiple challenges navigating the school context (Zwiers, 2013). Previous research documents that low-income ELLs lagged behind in academic achievement, self-regulation, and English...
Previous reports on the state of the Latino/a-focused mental health literature suggest that the quantity of Latino/a-focused articles within the mental health field continued to be disproportionate to the growing percentage of Latino/as in the United States (Liang, Salcedo, Rivera, & Lopez, 2009). As such, Latino/a mental health experiences, needs,...
The goal of this study is to elucidate the similarities between the grammar of oral folk music and oral language grammar through field examples from Grupo Kultura, a group of neo-Latin American musicians in the mid-Willamette Valley area of Oregon. The linguistic analysis of oral folk music explores textual and...
This qualitative study explores the experiences of Latina/o transfer students from a two-year to a four-year institution. Six Latina/o transfer student from the Pacific Northwest participated in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. The researcher utilized Critical Race Theory, LatCrit, Validation Theory, and Chicana Feminist Epistemology to bring forth the narratives of the...
The environmental movement needs people from communities of color and the differing perspectives they provide. Latinas/os are one of the largest communities of color in the US, and their numbers continue to grow. However, mainstream environmental organizations have failed to engage this community in authentic ways. The lack of meaningful...
The purpose of this is study is to investigate the experiences of students in Latino/Latina fraternities and sororities. Five students were selected to take part of the study and were interviewed using a qualitative case study methodology grounded in critical race theory. Five themes were identified: the support system that...
Community colleges have become a practical educational option for undocumented students seeking an associate degree; thus reflecting the community college's very mission and purpose by providing access and affordability for these students. Specifically, undocumented Latino students are known to select community colleges due to their low tuition cost, proximity to...