Western Journal of Nursing Research

Latino male youth in the United States are disproportionately affected by violence. This study explores the experiences that young Latino males in a long-term correctional treatment center have had with violence. An iterative qualitative research design was used to guide sequential periods of data collection and analysis. Data was gathered through the use of open-ended, semi-structured group and individual interviews. The information that these young men shared about their lives both in and out of the facility highlight the importance of healing wounded relationships. Long-term interventions that focus on healing, strengthening, and building the relationships that high-risk Latino youth have with caring adults will help to decrease their risk of suffering further violence-related morbidity and mortality.

Women of Mexican descent living in the United States raise children who use health care services. What do immigrant Mexican mothers expect from children's health care services? And how do their expectations for children's health services compare to acculturated Mexican American mothers' expectations? This focused ethnographic study, based on repeated interviews with 28 mothers of varying acculturation levels, describes their expectations and experiences with children's health care services in the United States. Findings support a shared core of expectations for both Mexican immigrant and Mexican American mothers, and differences in health care access and financing, time spent in health care encounters, and cultural and linguistic expectations for care. Health care providers can use this information to approach Mexican-descent mothers and children with their expectations in mind, and craft a negotiated plan of care congruent with their expectations.

African American adolescents and young adults disproportionately experience adverse sexual health outcomes, including HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancy. Despite the diversity of the African American population, many studies of sexual risk are limited to inner-city and clinic samples. The purpose was to examine the influence of parent—teen sexual risk communication on the sexual risk attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of 488 African American college students from a historically Black university and document the psychometric properties of the Parent—Teen Sexual Risk Communication Scale (PTSRC-III) when used with this population. The PTSRC-III demonstrated excellent internal reliability and construct validity across all four parent—teen communication dyad categories (e.g., mother—son, mother—daughter, father—son, father—daughter). PTSRC was associated with students' reports of more conservative sexual attitudes and beliefs and greater perceived ease of sexual communication with partners. PTSRC with mothers was also associated with fewer sexual risk behaviors and pregnancies among the female students.

Researchers attempted to increase the initiation of breastfeeding and its duration to 6 months among a group of low-income, Hispanic women through an intervention program which included prenatal education and home based postpartum support. All participants were telephoned after delivery to determine infant feeding method. Duration of breastfeeding was determined by counting the number of days from initiation to the last day the baby was put to the breast. The Bayesian approach was used for the statistical analyses. In the intervention group, the propensity to initiate breastfeeding exceeded that of the control group. Results indicate the intervention group had twice (2.31) the odds of starting breastfeeding, twice (1.84-3.15) the odds of continuing to breastfeed for 6 months, and only half (.50-.54) the tendency to quit at any one time than did the control group.

There is limited research on how aspects of Latino culture affect condom use among Latino adolescents. In this study, the authors examined the effects of familialism, gender roles, and religiosity on condom use intentions and past condom use. Results showed only religiosity predicted past condom use; no other cultural variable had either a direct or an indirect effect on condom use intentions or past condom use. These findings represent an important effort in promoting safer sex behaviors among sexually active Latino adolescents.

This exploratory study of patients in Pennsylvania (PA) and Virginia (VA) hospitals in 1998-1999 measures the segregation of care for Black patients receiving inpatient care for specific medical and surgical conditions. It also examined inpatient mortality risk for Black patients and the impact of treatment in heavily segregated hospitals on mortality for Blacks and non-Blacks. Segregation of hospital care was found across both states but was more pronounced in PA. Blacks did not experience higher mortality rates than non-Blacks either before or after controls for clinical risk factors in either state and for certain admission types had lower mortality. Both Black and non-Black surgical, heart failure, and lung disease patients treated in VA hospitals with more Black patients had poorer outcomes. Future research should examine how access, patient choice, hospital organization, processes of care, and factors related to nursing care might influence hospital outcomes for patients from different racial backgrounds.

Assessment of dietary intake is based largely on self-report or use of biomarkers. However, neither self-report nor biomarkers inform nurses of patterns in dietary intake in the context of gender, culture, and ethnicity. This article describes the relevance of visual methods focusing on the context of dietary intake in Mexican American women, illustrated by a formative study. A qualitative, descriptive, methodological design incorporating photo elicitation was used. The sample consisted of 7 Mexican American women, who took photographs of their food intake, food preparation, and context of food consumption, such as family gatherings, which were then described by the women. Data included participant photographs, the descriptions of why each image was obtained, and stories about the photographs. Visual methods were found to be a relevant and important addition to traditional dietary assessment methods, to enhance gender, cultural, and contextually relevant assessment of dietary intake in Mexican American women.