A secondary analysis of data from 1,039 Latino adolescents who participated in a study of a sex education program was conducted to examine the impact of comfortable communication about sex on intended and actual sexual behavior. Results indicate that Latino adolescents have a broad communicative network, including friends, dating partners, and extended family members, with whom they talk about sex. Regression analyses suggest comfortable sexual communication is predictive of less likelihood of being sexually active, older at first intercourse, and increased intentions to delay intercourse.

Academic achievement was studied in 78 children with epilepsy, ages 5 to 13 years, to determine how seizures, treatment of seizures, and sociocultural factors influence academic achievement. Cognitive abilities were assessed with either the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised. Achievement was measured with the Peabody Individual Achievement Tests. Achievement scores were corrected for cognitive ability (IQ), and underachievement was defined as achievement score 1/2 standard deviation or more below IQ. Information regarding seizure history (severity, duration) and treatment with anticonvulsant drugs was obtained. In addition, the family was extensively interviewed regarding the child's environment, behavior, and demographic background. The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scale was completed on a home visit. Underachievement was frequent, ranging from 16% (Reading Recognition) to 50% (General Knowledge), but there was no relationship between severity or duration of seizure disorder or total exposure to anticonvulsant medications and achievement. Major determinants of achievement included subscales of the HOME scale, age (older children more likely to be underachieving), and parental education. An equal proportion of newly diagnosed and/or untreated subjects were underachieving compared to those with longstanding epilepsy and anticonvulsant drug treatment.

Growth of Latino students in postsecondary education merits an examination of their resources/challenges. A community cultural wealth model provided a framework to examine unacknowledged student resources and challenges. A mixed method approach found that first-and second-generation college students report equal numbers of sources of support/challenges. Understanding student needs can assist with program development to increasing college completion rates. ResumenEl aumento de estudiantes latinos en educación post-secundaria amerita examinar sus recursos/oportunidades. Un modelo de Riqueza Comunitaria Cultural proveyó el marco para examinar los recursos y oportunidades no reconocidos. Un método de aproximación mixta encontró que estudiantes universitarios de primera y segunda generación reportan un numero igual de oportunidades y apoyo. Entender las necesidades de los estudiantes puede apoyar el desarrollo de programas para incrementar la taza de graduación.

Highlights • Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework is used to highlight Latinas organizing for health equity. • Three CBPR case studies highlight the power of Latinas organizing in their local communities. • An ethical and culturally appropriate framework for working with Latinas is discussed.

No abstract

At the time of this special issue, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is the leading cause of death in the United States and has contributed to millions of deaths worldwide. The world had no idea how the pandemic was going to impact our lives. COVID‐19 exposed the inequities in our world and the individuals that were most impacted by it: vulnerable populations. Vulnerable populations may be defined as those living in poverty, living with disability, and racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender minorities. Additionally, as community psychologists we understand that the impact of inequities do not appear singlehandedly since as human beings we do not exist in a vacuum and there are multiple factors that create our level of health and well‐being. Therefore, the idea of examining COVID‐19 in a syndemic framework allows us to explore how a synergistic epidemic (i.e., the aggregation of two or more concurrent or sequential epidemics or disease clusters in a population with biological interactions) exacerbates the prognosis and burden of disease, which can impact vulnerable populations simultaneously. The main goal of this special issue concentrates on how COVID‐19 had a synergistic impact on vulnerable populations and how these populations reacted and coped with these events.

Maturation of sustained attention was studied in a group of 52 hyperactive elementary school children and 152 controls using a microcomputer-based test formatted to resemble a video game. In nonhyperactive children, both simple and complex reaction time decreased with age, as did variability of response time. Omission errors were extremely infrequent on simple reaction time and decreased with age on the more complex tasks. Commission errors had an inconsistent relationship with age. Hyperactive children were slower, more variable, and made more errors on all segments of the game than did controls. Both motor speed and calculated mental speed were slower in hyperactive children, with greater discrepancy for responses directed to the nondominant hand, suggesting that a selective right hemisphere deficit may be present in hyperactives. A summary score (number of individual game scores above the 95th percentile) of 4 or more detected 60% of hyperactive subjects with a false positive rate of 5%. Agreement with the Matching Familiar Figures Test was 75% in the hyperactive group.

The primary goal of this study was to describe the development and assessment of the Community Awareness Motivation Partnership (CAMP) Teen Theatre intervention. Based on the behavioural ecological model, CAMP addressed the role of contraceptive use in safe sex behaviour through a brief informative, entertaining, and culturally responsive dramatization programme. Adolescents (N ¼ 1613) between the ages of 11 and 18 (M ¼ 13.31, SD ¼ 0.76) received the intervention, and 961 participants completed both pre-and post-tests. The majority of participants were Latino (78.5%, n ¼ 1039), many of whom were first generation immigrants. Results indicated that the intervention increased participants' reported intentions to delay sex and use contraceptives. The intervention produced short-term changes in safe-sex behavioural intentions and knowledge. Suggestions for producing long-term changes were discussed.