The study tested the hypothesis that field dependence may be a significant cognitive variable when comparing Anglo, Central and South American, Mexican American, and Black adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Findings failed to differentiate these ethnic groups although significant differences were noted between sexes and certain…

Compares the relative contribution of perceived family and friend support to psychological well-being and distress and examined whether family or friend support moderated the effects of stress on psychological adjustment in 338 Latino college students. Results showed that friend support made a slightly greater contribution to well-being than…

Examined demographic and academic differences between Mexican-American (n=141) and Hispanic non-Mexican-American (n=45) college students. Found larger proportion of non-Mexican-American students were born in the United States. Mexican Americans reported considerably lower levels of parental socioeconomic and educational attainment. Groups were…

Explores intercultural communication in one multinational organization in Quito, Ecuador where United States and South American personnel developed documentation and instructional texts. Finds that communication of South Americans was usually oral, contextual, concrete, personal, and narrative; and that of U.S. personnel was written, acontextual,…

Examines student perceptions and actions when short skits were incorporated into the English as a second language curriculum in a school for adults and adolescents in Central America. Describes how the skits focused on initial and final consonant sounds. Finds that students overcame their fear of speaking and improved their teamwork skills and…

Focuses on the career self-efficacy of the large Latino population in the United States. Acculturation and English language-use predicted career self-efficacy, unlike years of U. S. residency, age, and educational level. Implications for career counseling for Latinos are discussed. (EMK)

This study tested the effect of embedded clauses on recall for 48 English-speaking high school students reading Spanish historical texts. It found that the complexity of sentence structure seemed to cancel the advantage of previous exposure to the content domain. Contains 39 references. (MDM)

Analyzes educational decentralization trends and policies in Argentina and Brazil during 1990s, includes case studies. Discusses historical background and rationales behind "provinicialization" in Argentina and "municipalization" in Brazil; identifies commonalities, including centralization of curriculum and evaluation…

This study tested a theoretical model concerning religious, passive, and active coping; pain; and psychological adjustment among a sample of 200 Latinos with arthritis. Respondents reported using high levels of religious coping. A path analysis indicated that religious coping was correlated with active but not with passive coping. Religious coping…

The present study evaluates the discriminating ability and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Draw-A-Person Questionnaire (DAPQ). The DAPQ is an instrument that uses both free-response and fixed-response methodologies and has been recently translated into Spanish. A group of 60 psychiatric patients of Latin American origin is…

Immigrant (Japanese and South Americans in the United States) families' play was compared to play in families in their countries of origin (Japan and Argentina, respectively) and in a common country of destination (European Americans in the United States). Two hundred and forty 20-month-old children and their mothers participated. Generally, the…

Few studies on teaching culture have empirically investigated the significance between the teaching methodology and the results. To investigate the influence of specificity of cultural information and mode of presentation on attitudes toward South Americans, 113 college students in introductory Spanish classes (21 male, 92 female) participated in…

Contrary to common wisdom, the authorities of Colonial Mexico (1521-1600) were vitally concerned with the teaching of reading to the indigenous people. Alphabetic literacy was introduced in Mexico with the coming of the Franciscan friars, who brought with them many innovations and heartily set about the task of education. Some of the friars'…

Fitting educational research to Latin America's developmental needs is a political issue involving differences in perspectives of Latin American and United States researchers, Latin American governments, and agencies concerned with development outside Latin America. A comparison of ERIC's "Current Index to Journals in Education" with the…

Hospitality patterns of the Bororo Indians are illustrated in two examples: the etiquette due to a visiting chief from another Bororo village, and the etiquette due any common visitor from another Bororo village. Formal hospitality differs greatly from the usual etiquette. At a visiting chief's arrival, he enters as the last of his group and waits…