Monitor on Psychology - October 2011 - (Page 35)

4.5 million children who have unauthorized parents, SuarezOrozco added. Because these parents may fear getting caught by authorities, their children don’t have reliable access to services and as a result, face negative developmental, cognitive and health outcomes, Suarez-Orozco said. “That is something we should all be thinking about.” the researchers they otherwise didn’t have a chance to talk with people older than themselves who understood their situation and could help them navigate the system. “They wanted the older immigrants, the college and graduate students, to come back and help,” she said. More research needed School and education issues Good research could help improve the quality of interventions Besides the challenge of navigating two cultures, children of immigrants receive, but it remains underdeveloped as well, immigrants — now about a quarter of all school-age children said task force member Dina Birman, PhD, of the University in the United States — face challenges specific to the school of Illinois at Chicago. Researchers fail to cite each other’s work environment, said task force member Usha Tummala-Narra, and use different terms for the same constructs, she said, which PhD, of Boston College. results in a lack of integration of findings and of accumulated Language proficiency undergirds young people’s ability to knowledge in the field. succeed in school, yet language training is often insufficient In addition, studies of immigration and of attitudes toward to meet their needs, Tummala-Narra said. On the most basic immigrants often use convenience samples such as college level, children are often students, and they’re more expected to transition often cross-sectional than out of second-language longitudinal, providing programs within three snapshots rather than years. “But we know from a more comprehensive research that academic or picture of the complex languages skills can’t be acculturation process, taught or internalized well Birman noted. Many for at least four to seven studies also use proxy years,” she said. measures to describe acculturation, such as What’s more, Englishthe length of time a language teachers tend person has been in the to receive little support country and his or her from colleagues and immigration status. But administration, and these, too, offer only school personnel overall a shallow picture of are often ill-equipped to immigrants’ experiences. deal appropriately with CAROLA SUAREZ-OROZCO A better way to capture these youngsters’ religious, New York University them would be to measure cultural and linguistic acculturation in ways that diversity, Tummala-Narra allow researchers to examine the different dimensions of the added. immigrant experience that unfold over time, such as language, First- and second-generation children may also face behavior, identity and values, for example, she said. significant social challenges, said Tummala-Narra, who is Given the complexity of these issues, the task force conducting a longitudinal study of immigrant high school thinks psychologists should take an ecological perspective students. Besides facing discrimination and social isolation on new Americans’ acculturative development, employing at school, they tend to live in neighborhoods segregated from the perspective of late Cornell University psychologist Urie the larger communities they live in, adding to their sense of Bronfenbrenner, PhD. His model states that you should not “otherness,” she said. study a child without looking at his or her context, including One way to help these kids is to build ongoing emotional school, home and peers. and instructional support for students and families, she said. “We’re different people depending on the different Another is developing good mentoring programs — something microsystem or context we’re in,” said Birman. “For immigrants, that her work and research in general suggest may greatly that’s even more complex, because the microsystems that benefit these young people. immigrants occupy differ culturally.” n In focus groups she is running as part of her study, for instance, “the students repeatedly told me and my students Tori DeAngelis is a writer in Syracuse, N.Y. that they’d like to see these groups continue,” she said, telling “As in other times in our nation’s history, today’s recession is a catalyst for making immigration a divisive social and political issue.” OCTOBER 2011 • MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY 35

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - October 2011

Monitor on Psychology - October 2011
President’s Column
Subtle and stunning slights
Contents
From the CEO
Live science on the showroom floor
Zimbardo re-examines his landmark study
Ready, set, mentor
Attention students and ECPs: Self-care is an ‘ethical imperative’
Suicide risk is high among war veterans in college, study finds
Psychotherapy is effective and here’s why
From toilet to tap: getting people to drink recycled water
What’s ahead for psychology practice?
A push for more accountability is changing the accreditation process
Peer, parental support prove key to fighting childhood obesity
Popular media’s message to girls
Bullying may contribute to lower test scores
A consequence of cuckoldry: More (and better) sex?
Manatees’ exquisite sense of touch may lead them into dangerous waters
Building a better tomato
How will China’s only children care for their aging parents?
‘Spice’ and ‘K2’: New drugs of abuse now on the market
Many suspects don’t understand their right to remain silent
In Brief
Boosting minority achievement
Where’s the progress?
And social justice for all
Helping new Americans find their way
Segregation’s ongoing legacy
A new way to combat prejudice
Retraining the biased brain
Suppressing the ‘white bears’
How to eat better — mindlessly
Protect your aging brain
Must babies always breed marital discontent?
Outing addiction
Flourish 2051
The danger of stimulants
Keys to making integrated care work
Is technology ruining our kids?
Facebook: Friend or foe?
The promise of Web 3.0
NIMH invests in IT enhanced interventions
Science Directions
Science Directions
PsycAdvocates work to safeguard key programs
The psychology of spending cuts
APA’s strategic plan goes live
Visionary leaders
Bravo!
Vote on bylaws amendments

Monitor on Psychology - October 2011

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