No abstract

No abstract

Acultural context model was employed in studying self-esteem group differences within a Spanish-speaking sample of adolescents. Acculturation patterns for Spanish-speaking subgroups show differences in the way that they will fit into American society. Depression, parent-child conflict, and discrimination influenced individual self-esteem, along with school achievement and motivation. Regression analyses were employed to partition and study the variance of the above predictors. The cultural contexts of five groups, particularly the role of family in adaptation in different communities, are discussed.

The influence of various factors in immigrant students' school achievement was examined in informing broader discourses on schooling, inequaBty, and related conceptual issues. The ways in which different types of predictors of school achievement behave in context with factors related to adolescence and cultural adaptation in a sample of children of immigrants were explored. The influence of cultural background remains enigmatic and could not be disaggregated entirely by key demographic and sociopsychological factors considered fn this study. The latter explained almost 40% of the variation in studbnt achievement. The two groups found to excel in American schools (Asian and Cuban) have more established inroads in the community and may be able to provide greater social and cognitive support. The lowest achievers were from groups that have the least support, encounter language problems in school, and felt most unwelcomed by the mainstream. The cultural compatibility between each group and the school context appears to vary in systematic ways and is addressed in a model proposed in the article.PEDRO R. PORTES is a Professor of Educational Psychology, 310 School of Education, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292. His specializations are educational psychology and developmental psychology.

This article explores the psychometric properties of a newly developed Cultural Adaptation Pain Scale. This scale is designed to assess the degree of subjective pain, social distance, and discouragement that may be related to cultural adaptation. Factor analyses revealed 4 factors in the scale that had an overall Cronbach's alpha of .85. Implications for multicultural counseling are discussed.