Elizabeth Kiehne

Collections of policies in the United States have produced and perpetuated ubiquitous social disadvantage. To overcome this reality, policymaking must be more democratic and participatory with active allyship in support of social justice. By deepening contextual understanding of systemic barriers and promoting macro perspective taking, social empathy may foster allyship from socially advantaged group members. However, research on the promise of social empathy and understanding of how to advance it remain nascent. Drawing on the intergroup contact theory (ICT) and using a sample of white U.S. college students (N = 329), this study explores the relationship between cross-group friendships, social empathy, and political engagement. Having close friends of color was indirectly related to more political engagement through a serial pathway of greater sociopolitical discussions and social empathy. The theoretical significance of these findings to the ICT and social empathy framework are discussed, as well as implications for intergroup contact interventions, social policy, and social work education.

Anti-immigrant policymaking in the U.S. is a critical social determinant of health compromising the wellbeing of immigrants and, by extension, communities of color. It is imperative that social work, public health, and other allied professions unite to address anti-immigrant policymaking by improving intergroup attitudes and building broader public support for immigrant integration. This study fills a gap in the literature by psychometrically developing and initially validating a measure of attitudes toward integrationist immigration policymaking. A three-stage study was conducted to explore, calibrate, and validate the factor structure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Findings suggest there are two distinct but interrelated dimensions of attitudes toward integrationist immigration policies: support for the (a) extension of pathways to legal status and (b) expansion of eligibility for social rights and benefits. Initial evidence of criterion validity for the scale is offered. The utility of the measure for intergroup intervention testing is discussed.

This paper argues that social workers must combat historical misinformation, ethnic-racial bias, and narratives of immigrants as threats to advance integrationist immigration policies and immigrant well-being. First, we draw on aLatinx critical theoretical perspective (LatCrit) to expose the role of U.S. immigration policy in the social construction of a large and oppressed Mexican immigrant population that is partially integrated but not legally recognized. Then, we analyze how restrictionist immigration policies violate social work values and human rights and contrast this with an integrationist approach. We conclude with implications for advocacy for integrationist policies and responses to restrictionist policies.

Lic versus privately managed tuition-free middle schools in a low-income district of Montevideo, Uruguay. Methods: Participants were 353 7th grade students from 2 public and 2 privately man- aged schools. Data come from pre-surveys of students participating in a substance use preven- tion program. A mediation path model tested the relationship between school type and alcohol use as mediated through school connectedness, educational aspirations, and academic perfor- mance. Results: Main findings showed students attending privately managed schools reported stronger school connectedness and higher educational aspirations, which is associated with a lower frequency of alcohol use. Academic performance was not associated with school type or alcohol use. Conclusions: The findings lead to specific practice, policy, and research implications for communities in Uruguay and other similar contexts.

This article presents the effects of a synchronized Latino youth/parent intervention on adolescent inhalant use. The analytic sample included only Latino adolescents (n = 487) between the ages of 12 and 14. Randomized at the school-level, the design included three possible conditions: (1) child and parent received the prevention interventions, (2) only the parent received the prevention intervention, (3) neither child or parent received the prevention interventions. Drawing from the eco-developmental perspective, the overall hypothesis was that youth randomly assigned to the condition with both interventions will report the strongest inhalant use prevention outcomes. Descriptive statistics and regression tests of significant group differences by treatment condition confirmed the overall hypothesis. Children receiving the youth intervention and whose parents received the synchronized parenting intervention reported the strongest desired inhalant prevention effects. The findings are interpreted from an eco-developmental perspective and implications for practice, policy, and future research are discussed.

Although substance use and violent behaviors often emerge together in adolescence, and both have similar widely cited causes and negative consequences for development, it remains unclear whether and how they may be linked causally. This study of early adolescents in Mexico’s three largest cities tested whether alcohol use and violence perpetration are temporally related, whether their relationship is unidirectional or reciprocal, and whether the relationship differs by gender and the type of violence. The study employed longitudinal data from seventh grade students (N = 4830; M age = 12.0, range 11–15; 49% female) in 18 public middle schools in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Students completed questionnaires at the beginning, middle, and end of the 2014–2015 academic year. Students’ responses to a multi-dimensional violence assessment emerged in two distinct patterns: criminally violent acts, and bullying/aggression. Although males engaged in both types of violence more frequently than females at all three time points, they used alcohol more frequently than females only at the first survey, after which the gender gap disappeared. Cross-lagged multi-group path models showed that, for both males and females, more frequent alcohol use predicted subsequent increases in criminally violent behavior, and bullying/aggression predicted later increases in alcohol use. Reciprocal associations varied by gender and type of violence: Alcohol use was reciprocally linked to criminally violent behavior among males only, and reciprocally linked to bullying-aggression among females alone. The results are interpreted in the context of sharply increasing rates of violence in Mexico and changing gender norms, with implications for youth prevention programs.

This article describes a feasibility pilot of the linguistically adapted keepin’ it REAL (kiR) substance-use prevention curriculum in Uruguay within the context of marijuana legalization. Originally developed for middle school students in the USA, kiR teaches life skills, risk assessment, and decision-making. Two tuition-free privately managed schools in Montevideo were randomly assigned into intervention and comparison conditions. Trained teachers in the intervention condition delivered kiR to two cohorts of 7th grade students. Before implementation, all students (N = 316) completed pretests; posttests (88% completion) were completed six weeks after the final lesson. We assessed the kiR intervention relative to the comparison group using paired t-tests, baseline adjusted general linear models, and Cohen’s d estimates of effect sizes. The intervention group reported the desired changes in four of six last 30-day substance-use outcomes: relatively smaller increases or actual reductions in frequency of alcohol and marijuana use and in amounts of cigarette and marijuana use. Following an eco-developmental perspective, analysis of the findings considered changing substance-use attitudes, behaviors, and policies in Uruguay. Based on this first evaluation of an evidence-based youth intervention, recommendations for substance-use prevention in the context of drug policy change in Uruguay are offered.

Acculturation and accompanying acculturative stress affects the parenting practices of Latino immigrants. We (a) examine acculturation profiles based on heritage culture orientation, mainstream culture orientation, familismo, and acculturative stress; (b) describe how social support informs Latinos’ acculturation profiles; and (c) test how these acculturation profiles are associated with parenting behaviors (including parental involvement, monitoring, agency, and discipline self-efficacy) and family conflict. A three-step latent profile analysis revealed five profiles of acculturation: Cultural Individualism (n = 168, 15%), Cultural Engagement (n = 810, 71.3%), Cultural Assimilation (n = 47, 4.3%), Cultural Disengagement (n = 23, 2.1%), and Cultural Stress (n = 77, 7.3%). Social support predicted the Cultural Engagement profile, which was associated with positive parenting behaviors and family functioning. The Cultural Stress profile was associated with detrimental parenting behaviors and family conflict. Recommendations include family interventions that effectively support and strengthen culturally competent coping strategies in response to acculturative stress as a means to promote positive parenting practices.