Judith L. Gibbons

Gender-based violence is a threat to the well-being of Guatemalan women and girls. A holistic family-based intervention that included healing and empowerment workshops and therapy for survivors was enacted for 30 families (mothers, fathers, and children) of an Indigenous Guatemalan community. Quantitative measures revealed more egalitarian gender role attitudes and less emotional dysregulation after the program than on pretests. Self-efficacy, self-esteem, emotional regulation, and psychological well-being decreased during this period. Focus groups revealed themes of mutual respect, better gender relations, women's and girls’ use of voice, joyfulness in the workshops, better family communication, a focus on children's future well-being, and recognition of women's rights. The findings imply that a family-centered, multifaceted, and culturally grounded intervention can foster safety and harmonious relationships within families and communities.

Adolescents in today’s globalized world construct their identities within complex and intersecting ecologies. In majority world countries, such as Guatemala, adolescents are exposed to external influences through international media, travel, and visitors from other cultures. In this study, 131 middle and high school adolescents (53% girls, M_age = 14.5, range = 11–19) attending a bilingual school in Guatemala completed two quantitative measures (concerning local and remote acculturation and identity domain importance) and two qualitative measures (open-ended responses to the prompt “I am” and an autophotography exercise). The quantitative results showed that cultural affiliation with Guatemala was associated with a collective identity. Qualitative findings provided a deep and complex view of identity in the context of collectivism and global influences. In response to the prompt “I am,” adolescents described themselves as profoundly social, embedded in networks of nuclear and extended family and friends. They reported personal qualities that foster and maintain social bonds, including friendliness, kindness, sincerity, and a sense of humor. Reflexive thematic analysis of the text from the autophotography activity revealed participants’ interdependent self-construals and their developmental model of growth strategies and aspirations. Integration of traditional and global influences was creative and seamless for these adolescents who saw themselves as firmly embedded in family, Guatemala and its culture, while confidently growing and exploring the world. A mixed-methods approach can provide complementary findings that are more meaningful and expansive than either quantitative or qualitative methods alone.

Knowledge from the Global South, including Latin America, has enriched our understanding of developmental science. Despite underrepresentation in the published literature, research from Latin America has advanced the psychology of parenting and child and adolescent development. An ecological approach is valuable in adding meaning and specificity to general cultural clusters and has revealed how responsibility, lovingness, and respect are enacted in the everyday lives of families and children. Although the evidence is not exclusive to the Global South, research from Latin America has broadened and challenged theories and accepted practices from the Global North. Examples include countering attachment theory with respect to multiple caregivers and sensitive responsiveness and problematization of children's work in terms of family responsibilities. Research from Latin America has also challenged the notion of optimal parenting styles and revealed how the cultural values of familism and respect are evidenced in the daily practices of parents and children. Latin America boasts a psychology that acknowledges the importance of the political and social context and seeks to apply psychology to addressing social problems. To fully recognize and take advantage of knowledge from the Global South, the science of psychology should refrain from promoting "best practices" and sidelining research from Latin America and other regions of the majority world; it needs to fully document autochthonous parental ethnotheories, socialization goals, and practices and promote the implementation of the goals of local communities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Parenting beliefs and practices are deeply embedded in cultural values, ideologies, and norms. The cultural ecologies of Guatemala, a Central American country, highlight familism, religiosity, and collectivism. To understand the parenting goals, parental ethnotheories, and parenting practices of a group of highly educated, economically advantaged Guatemalan mothers of school-age children, we conducted a qualitative study about their goals for their children and ways of inculcating desired qualities. The nine mothers had been nominated by school staff as outstanding mothers. After asking open-ended questions about desired goals and parenting strategies, we posed dilemmas adapted from the United States National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Spanish-language booklet, “¿Qué significa ser padres?” (“What does it mean to be parents?”). Interviews took place in an unoccupied school classroom and lasted an average of 37 minutes; they were recorded and transcribed in the original Spanish. Coding according to reflexive thematic analysis was conducted in Spanish by two members of the research team. Interpersonal relatedness, kindness, and prosocial behavior were foremost among the mothers’ socialization goals. Ethnotheories included the importance of providing both love and limits, recognizing individual differences among children, and promoting children’s autonomy. Mothers’ parenting strategies emphasized preserving emotional intimacy, taking children’s perspectives, and rejecting permissiveness. These goals and practices derive from Guatemalan cultural values of collectivism, familism, and religiosity, in which interpersonal relationships are prioritized. Well-educated, economically advantaged Guatemalan mothers endorsed socialization goals and parenting practices that differed from Western prescriptions. The findings imply that cultural values should inform parenting interventions.

Our world faces potentially catastrophic climate change that can damage human health in multiple ways. The impact of climate change is uneven, disproportionately affecting the lives and livelihoods of women and girls. This conceptual article compiles evidence for a model that argues that climate change has more detrimental consequences for women than men because of women's precarity (unequal power) and corporal (physical) vulnerability. Climate change challenges the human rights of women and girls, triggering displacement, interrupted education, food and water scarcity, economic instability, mental and physical health challenges, reproductive injustice, gender‐based violence, exploitation and human trafficking. Women are effective and essential change agents; their empowerment can directly contravene or mitigate climate change and also break the links between climate change and its negative consequences for women and girls. Gender‐sensitive responses to the effects of climate change are imperative. Women's empowerment will further human rights and achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.