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We investigated the relationship of self-sexualization to self-objectification, weight concerns, self-efficacy, academic outcomes, and career aspirations among preadolescent girls. Participants were 89 six- to nine-year-old girls; parental reports were also obtained. Two thirds of girls showed signs of self-sexualization by choosing a sexualized doll over a nonsexualized doll as who they preferred to look like and/or who they currently look like. Girls who self-sexualized reported higher self-objectification and weight concerns than girls who did not self-sexualize. Self-sexualization was unrelated to social, emotional, and academic self-efficacy and to girls' career confidence and interest. However, parents of girls who self-sexualized reported their daughters had lower academic performance and enjoyed school less compared to girls who did not self-sexualize. Additionally, parents of girls who self-sexualized had lower academic expectations for their daughters. It is possible that in preadolescence self-sexualization affects girls' body cognitions and parental expectations without (yet) affecting self-efficacy or academic goals.

Quynh (pseudonym), a Vietnamese-American female, was an honor student in her K-12 education in Vietnam four decades ago. April 30, 1975, abruptly signaled the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. Many military personnel from the former regime found themselves and their loved ones in danger of being persecuted by the victorious new government. Nearly a decade later, Quynh and her family were permitted to enter the United States as political asylees; Southern California became their adopted home. There she resumed her education and pursued teaching as a career. Quynh soon completed her undergraduate and post-baccalaureate college education in the U.S. In addition to becoming a teacher, Quynh was also raising a school-aged daughter, Sheryl (pseudonym). Quynh often felt perplexed by her daughter's multi-tasking activities and observed that Sheryl seemed totally oblivious to her environment. She struggled with understanding her child's complex thought processes, viewpoints on matters, and responses to internal and external stimuli. Though Quynh repeatedly tried to connect to her daughter, she felt as though her efforts were frequently in vain: they seemed to be living in separate worlds. This article is a narrative of Quynh's journey toward better understanding aspects of giftedness in Sheryl and how it became manifested in cross-cultural contexts in order to fully support her daughter's academic and social needs. The purpose of this article is to: (1) Shed light on the experience of a Vietnamese American parent of a child with giftedness which could be of value to other parents; (2) Emphasize the importance of teachers and parents working together to ensure positive learning experiences for students with giftedness from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds; and (3) Offer practical suggestions and recommendations for educators to implement in their school settings.

Disparities in cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination persist among Vietnamese and Latina women. Through a partnership with Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties (PPOSBC) in Southern California, we conducted in-depth interviews with young adult Latina (n = 24) and Vietnamese (n = 24) women, and PPOSBC staff (n = 2). We purposively sampled vaccinated women to elicit HPV vaccine decision narratives to uncover rich data on motivators, cultural values, and implicit vaccine attitudes. Unvaccinated women were interviewed to identify barriers. Women were also asked to discuss their observations of men's HPV vaccine attitudes. Narrative engagement theory guided the study privileging the meaning women ascribed to their experiences and conversations related to vaccine decision making. Vaccine decision narratives included (a) mother-daughter narratives, (b) practitioner recommendation of HPV vaccination, (c) independence narratives among Vietnamese women, (d) HPV (un)awareness narratives, and (d) school exposure to HPV knowledge. Barriers to vaccinating included trust in partner HPV status, and family silence and stigma about sexual health. Participants conveyed the importance of including messages aimed at reaching men. Practitioners described insurance barriers to offering same day vaccination at PPOSBC health center visits. Narrative communication theory and methodology address health equity by privileging how Vietnamese and Latina women ascribe meaning to their lived experiences and conversations about HPV vaccination. Identifying authentic and relatable vaccine decision narratives will be necessary to effectively engage Vietnamese and Latina women. These findings will guide the process of adapting an existing National Cancer Institute research-tested HPV vaccine intervention.

Relations between paternal autonomy support and four aspects of adolescent social competence and responsibility at age 16 were examined using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. With controls on maternal autonomy support, significant relations were observed between paternal autonomy support and three of the four aspects of social behavior examined for daughters (but not sons). For daughters, the influence of paternal autonomy support was moderated by family conflict for both resistance to peer pressure and responsible behavior. The temperament of daughters moderated the relation between paternal autonomy support and resistance to peer pressure, as well. Findings were interpreted with respect to the dynamics of parent-child relationships and increasing individuation during adolescence.

In this article, the author shares how her daughter, who was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss when she was a year old, taught her to teach, and demonstrates the importance of active communication. Teaching her daughter English as her second language has posed many challenges, but has also revealed successful strategies that the author has been able to bring to the classroom. The most important lesson she learned is that teaching involves the assurance that what she is saying is being understood. Her background with her daughter, taking additional second language acquisition and multicultural courses for the Cross-cultural, Language and Academic Development credential (CLAD) from the State of California, and knowing some Spanish assisted in her preparation of teaching English language learners (ELLs).

This study investigated differences between residential and non-residential fathers on topics discussed during father-child sex communication and factors associated with child sexual socialisation. Young people (N = 159, 53% female) provided self-reports using computer surveys on the role of their fathers on father-child sex communication, general communication, parental monitoring, father social support and topics discussed during father-child sex communication. The analysis revealed differences in topics discussed between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. Independent group t-tests revealed significant differences between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers on social support and parental monitoring for sons and parental monitoring for daughters. Sons and daughters with residential fathers had higher scores on these variables. Discriminant function analyses, chi-square tests and hierarchical linear regression analyses were carried out to determine whether there were meaningful distinctions between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. The analysis revealed social support and parental monitoring provided the most meaningful distinction between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. These results highlight the importance of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of their young people through parent-child sex communication. Discussion focuses on the need for development of interventions to promote the inclusion of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of African American youth.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the existing transactional associations between mother-child conflict and the child's internalising and externalising problems. To this end, longitudinal data were used, covering ages 7-15. The sample consisted of 1,136 mothers and their children who participated in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development longitudinal study. The current analysis employs the Autoregressive Latent Trajectory (ALT) model that enables the simultaneous investigation of (1) the developmental stability, (2) the developmental change, (3) the longitudinal inter-relations, (4) the time-specific associations and (5) the directionality of the relations among the variables under examination. It was found that mother-child conflict increased across time and externalising problems decreased from childhood to adolescence, while internalising problems showed intra-individual stability. Further, mother-daughter conflict increased at a higher rate than mother-son conflict. The cross-lagged regressions suggested that the association between conflict and externalising problems is bi-directional from age 7 to age 9. However, a child effect was found from age 9 to age 15, in that the child's externalising problems continually influenced mother-child conflict but not the other way around. In contrast, the association between internalising problems and conflict was limited to cross-sectional and overtime associations suggesting that the association between internalising problems and conflict is mostly due to the co-variation between them.

We examined approaches used by African-American mothers and mothers of Latino descent for informal sex-related discussions with their children to inform sexually transmitted infection (STI)/HIV intervention development efforts. We recruited mothers (of children aged 12-15) from youth service agencies and a university in southern California. Fourteen focus groups were conducted: eight with African-American mothers (n = 31) and six with mothers of Latino descent (n = 24). Data were transcribed, coded for most common themes by four of the authors and reviewed for differences by gender of child. Four key themes emerged when focusing on parent-child discussions about sex: (1) sexual activity discussions took place for both sons and daughters; (2) protection from STI/HIV and pregnancy was a key topic; (3) the use of a direct, honest approach was preferred by mothers; and (4) seizing the moment was important for discussion opportunities. These data help broaden our understanding about the strategies used by African-American mothers and mothers of Latino descent for sexual health discussions with their sons and daughters. Evaluations of these for their potential impact on youth sexual health outcomes are warranted. The data can also contribute to the development of new culturally tailored parent-child communication strategies and HIV prevention interventions for young people of colour.

Arming themselves with "manifest destiny" rhetoric, which claimed divine Anglo-Saxon superiority as justification for the conquest of Indigenous and Mexican peoples and the land they occupied, white settlers forcefully pushed into California territory. The two-year-long Mexican-American War resulted in the acquisition of the present-day states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. However, Native tribes and landed Mexicans continued to stand in the way of not only "civilized progress" but the vast riches that gold and the California soil offered the ever-growing numbers of US citizens. Relationships with the Paiute Nation became key to movement into the area as their lands stood directly in the path of settlers and miners moving toward California through the Sierra Nevada. Paiutes were subject to various methods of removal and attempts at assimilating or civilizing the Indian, then became wards of the state through the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871. Daughter to the chief, Sarah Winnemucca witnessed and engaged in her tribe's struggles to remain in their ancestral lands and maintain sovereignty while attempting to build balanced relationships with their white relatives according to her cultural traditions. Her "Life among the Piutes, Their Wrongs and Claims" (1883) is the first autobiographical account written by a Native woman and reveals valuable information regarding this history and conflict. However, her autobiography focuses less on her life and more on the trials and tribulations of her tribe's relationship with the United States. In this article, the author explores how Winnemucca's choice in formal structure complements her content. The author first looks at the impact that traditional stories and history have on Winnemucca's developing literacy of language, ideology, and culture as well as Winnemucca's own identity as a Paiute leader. She then looks at how Winnemucca acknowledges both Paiute male and female experiences with colonial gender violence and parallel Christian moral discourse and how Winnemucca responds to these experiences through her textual performance of gender and Indigenous feminism that reinforces Paiute cultural and political sovereignty. (Contains 40 notes.)

Situating parental involvement in education within a sociohistorical context, this case study of a Nicaraguan immigrant household in California contrasts the perspectives of two sisters-in-law who shared a home and whose daughters attended the same urban elementary school. Although the two women were involved in their daughters' schooling in different ways, the article illustrates how both women drew on a variety of personal, family, and community resources to support the girls' academic success.

We investigated whether in utero exposure to maternal pregravid obesity and/or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was associated with early puberty in girls. We used data from a longitudinal study of 421 mother-daughter pairs enrolled in an integrated health services organization, Kaiser Permanente Northern California (2005-2012). Girls aged 6-8 years were followed annually through ages 12-14 years. Onset of puberty was assessed using study clinic-based Tanner staging. We examined associations of self-reported pregravid obesity and maternal GDM with timing of the daughter's transition to pubertal maturation stage 2 or above for development of breasts and pubic hair, using accelerated failure time regression models with interval censoring to estimate time ratios and hazard ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals. Maternal obesity (pregravid body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/ height (m)²) ≥30) was associated with a daughter's earlier transition to breast and pubic hair stage 2+ in comparison with girls whose mothers had pregravid BMI <25. These associations were attenuated and not statistically significant after adjustment for covariates. Girls whose mothers had both pregravid BMI ≥25 and GDM were at higher risk of an earlier transition to pubic hair stage 2+ than those whose mothers had neither condition (adjusted time ratio = 0.89, 95% confidence interval: 0.83, 0.96; hazard ratio = 2.97, 95% confidence interval: 1.52, 5.83). These findings suggest that exposure to maternal obesity and hyperglycemia places girls at higher risk of earlier pubarche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by structural family systems theory, this study explored the relationship between parentification and adolescent daughters' sexual risk engagement and substance use. We also explored how adolescent reports of parental monitoring moderated the relationship between parentification and adolescent risk. Data were from a cross-sectional, cross-generational study of 176 mother-daughter dyads from low-income, inner-city, ethnic minority families. In this sample, which included a subset of mothers with HIV, parental physical symptoms were associated with slightly higher levels of parentification. Parentification was associated with adolescent daughters' intention to have sex (but not substance use) in a direction opposite to prediction. Higher parentification was associated with lower intention to have sex. Parental monitoring did not moderate relationships between parentification and adolescent risk. These findings highlight that despite the negative influence hypothesized in structural family systems theory, parentification was not associated with risk engagement of high-risk adolescent daughters in ethnic minority families with low income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unidas por la Vida, a behavioral weight-loss program, was developed for use among low-income, Mexican-American women with diabetes and their overweight/obese adult daughters. The program leverages community resources in a partnership between primary care and community-based organizations. This paper describes the program's implementation, lessons learned, and implications for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes whether frequency and quality of father-daughter contact during adolescent pregnancy differ by ethnicity, whether this contact affects health behavior, and how ethnicity conditions the relationship between contact and behavior. Health behavior is defined as timing of pregnancy test and first prenatal visit. Data were gathered from a sample of 105 Anglo, Mexican-American, and Mexican adolescents interviewed at mid-pregnancy. Almost twice as many Mexicans (64%) as Mexican-Americans never saw their fathers (p less than 0.03). Girls living with their fathers obtained pregnancy tests significantly later (p less than 0.01) than those living independently. This relationship was maintained when ethnicity was held constant (p less than 0.01). When quality of contact was included, the relationship between residency with father and timing of pregnancy test became even stronger (p less than 0.003).