A Comparison of Acculturation Measures Among Hispanic/Latino Adolescents

Acculturation has been associated with numerous health and social outcomes among Hispanic/Latino adolescents. Various self-report scales have been used to measure acculturation, making comparisons of results across studies difficult. This study administered several commonly-used acculturation scales to 221 Hispanic/Latino 9th grade students in Los Angeles. Although all of these scales purport to measure acculturation, the correlations among the scales, and their correlations with language usage measures, were modest. As expected, higher scores on Hispanic/Latino orientation scales (or lower scores on U.S./White orientation scales) were associated with higher levels of ethnic identity formation. Results indicate that these acculturation scales may measure different aspects of the complex phenomenon of acculturation. For example, purely language-based measures shared only small amounts of variance with more comprehensive measures. Additional research is needed to create and validate acculturation measures for adolescents. Jennifer B. Unger, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. She is the principal investigator of Project RED, which is examining parent-child acculturation patterns and substance use among Hispanic adolescents. Anamara Ritt-Olson, Ph.D. is a Research Associate in Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Karla Wagner, MA is a predoctoral student and research assistant in Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Daniel Soto, BA is the project manager on Project RED. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and a co-investigator on Project RED.     

An Approach to Measuring the Affordability of State Debt

Affordability is one important and widely accepted element of state and local debt policy. However, there is no well-established measure of affordability and no clear standard for making normative judgments about what amount of debt is affordable for a specific jurisdiction. This article suggests a six-step method for measuring affordability of state debt that provides a useful guideline for determining when a state may be entering a "danger zone" by having debt that exceeds norms of affordability.     

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps recruit training deaths in San Diego, California, 1973-1985; a review of 31 cases.

The deaths of military recruits associated with training activities nearly always fall under close scrutiny from relatives of the deceased recruit and the media. The literature contains isolated case reports of recruit deaths but no comprehensive reviews of all deaths at a single training facility. The purpose of this study is to describe the circumstances and causes of all recruit deaths occurring at the Naval Training Command and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California, from 1973 through 1985. Thirty-one male recruits died in training during this period; eight died from medical conditions not detected by preenlistment questioning or examination. In five of these cases, the conditions were probably known to the recruit but were not listed on a medical history form. Seven recruits died in incidents related to training, and there were six cases of "sudden cardiac death," as well as eight deaths caused by infectious diseases.     

Recreating Cities as Bodies of Power,Knowledge and Space

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -