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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
Culture informs ideas about healthy and acceptable body types. Through globalization the U.S.-European body model has become increasingly significant in local contexts, influencing local body models. While Puerto Ricans have historically valued plump bodies - a biocultural legacy of a historically food scarce environment - this dissertation investigated shifts in these ideals across generations to a stronger preference for thinness. A sample of 23 intergenerational family triads of women, and one close male relative or friend per woman, were administered quantitative questionnaires. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of women from 16 triads and 1 quintet. Questions about weight history and body sizes were used to address cultural changes in body models. Findings indicate the general trend for all generations has been a reduction in the spectrum of acceptable bodies to an almost singular idealized thin body. Female weight gain during puberty and influence of media produced varied responses across age groups. Overall, Puerto Ricans find it acceptable to gain weight with ageing, during a divorce, and postpartum. Thin bodies are associated with beauty and health, but healthy women that do not resemble the thin ideal, submit themselves to dangerous weight loss practices to achieve self and social acceptance. Further research and direct interventions need to be conducted to alter perceptions that conflate beauty with health in order to address the `normative discontent' women of all ages experience. Weight discrimination and concern with being overweight were evident in Puerto Rican everyday life, indicated by the role of media and acculturation in this study. Anti-fat attitudes were stronger for individuals that identified closely with United States culture. Exposure to drama and personal transformation television programs are associated with increased body image dissatisfaction, and increased exposure to variety shows and celebrity news shows is associated with increased anti-fat attitudes and body dissatisfaction. In sum, the positive valuation of fat in the Puerto Rican cultural body size model in the 1970s has shifted toward a negative valuation of fat and a preference for thin body size.
ContributorsRodriguez-Soto, Isa (Author) / Maupin, Jonathan (Thesis advisor) / Wutich, Amber (Committee member) / Walters-Pacheco, Kattia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Native American communities face an ongoing challenge of effectively addressing cancer health disparities, as well as environmental racism issues that may compound these inequities. This dissertation identified the shared cultural knowledge and beliefs about cancer in a southwest American Indian community utilizing a cultural consensus method, an approach that combines qualitative and quantitative data. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was applied at all stages of the study. The three phases of research that were undertaken included: 1) ethnographic interviews - to identifying the themes or the content of the participants' cultural model, 2A) ranking of themes - to provide an understanding of the relative importance of the content of the cultural model, 2B) pile sorts - identify the organization of items within specific domains, and 3) a community survey - access whether the model is shared in the greater community. The cultural consensus method has not been utilized to date in identifying the collective cultural beliefs about cancer prevention, treatment or survivorship in a Native American community. Its use represents a methodological step forward in two areas: 1) the traditional ethnographic inferences used in identifying and defining cultural meaning as it relates to health can be tested more rigorously than in the past, and 2) it addresses the challenge of providing reliable results based on a small number of community informants. This is especially significant when working with smaller tribal/cultural groups where the small sample size has led to questions concerning the reliability and validity of health-related research. Results showed that the key consultants shared strong agreement or consensus on a cultural model regarding the importance of environmental and lifestyle causes of cancer. However, there was no consensus found among the key consultants on the prevention and treatment of cancer. The results of the community survey indicated agreement or consensus in the sub-domains of descriptions of cancer, risk/cause, prevention, treatment, remission/cure and living with cancer. Identifying cultural beliefs and models regarding cancer could contribute to the effective development of culturally responsive cancer prevention education and treatment programs.
ContributorsClaus, Cynthia (Author) / Koss, Joan (Thesis advisor) / Brandt, Elizabeth, (Thesis advisor) / Joe, Jennie (Committee member) / Maupin, Jonathan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study considered three main aims of (1) developing and validating a tool to measure parental perceived child mental health (MH) stigma, (2) determining whether perceived stigma levels corresponded in any way to parental identities, and (3) producing a decision-making process flow identifying where barriers such as perceived child MH stigma may affect families dealing with child MH issues. Recruitment of parents/guardians (18 years or older) with children (under the age of 18 years) was done through convenience and respondent-driven sampling in Phoenix, Arizona. A 44-prompt MH stigma tool was developed and validated (N=65, Cronbach's alpha 0.89) prior to utilizing (N=623) it to measure levels of perceived child MH stigma in the community. Analysis of variance showed potential significant (p<.005) interactions among education, income, and race/ethnicity (white, non-Hispanic/Latinx and Hispanic/Latinx) and levels of stigma. Specifically, higher education and lower income among the Hispanic/Latinx population in Phoenix showed a greater likelihood for higher levels of perceived child MH stigma. Factor analysis yielded three underlying factors of this stigma: interaction with MH, discrimination, and positive aspects. Content and thematic analysis of free response questions in the survey conveyed parents talk about MH diagnoses differently between general MH and child MH (e.g., child MH included ADD/ADHD while general MH included anxiety and schizophrenia). Fifteen, one hour-long, semi-structured interviews were completed, transcribed, and analyzed using narrative analysis to develop a parental decision-making process flow. The resulting flow showed parents went through informal methods of accessing MH care (e.g., research, awareness of MH issue) prior to formal methods such as seeking medical experts or school support. While the study was able to address these three aims, a significant shift in the landscape of MH occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing child MH risk and decreasing care access. This study developed a tool and set of methods that may be applied to identify changes in perceived child MH stigma and in how parents make decisions to access child MH care.
ContributorsIvanova, Julia Ilkova (Author) / Maupin, Jonathan (Thesis advisor) / Jehn, Megan (Committee member) / Wadhera, Devina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Evolutionary and economic theories of fertility variation argue that novel subsistence opportunities associated with market economies shape reproduction in ways that both increase parental investment per child and lower overall fertility. I use demographic and ethnographic data from Guatemala as a case study to illustrate how ethnic inequalities in accessing market opportunities have shaped demographic variation and the perceptions of parental investments. I then discuss two projects that use secondary data sets to address issues of conceptualizing and operationalizing market opportunities in national and cross-population comparative work. The first argues that social relationships are critical means of accessing market opportunities, and uses Guatemala household stocks of certain forms of relational wealth are associated with greater parental investments in education. The second focuses on a methodological issue in how common measures of wealth in comparative demographic studies conflate economic capacity with market opportunities, and how this conceptual confusion biases our interpretations of the observed links between wealth and fertility over the course of the demographic transition.
ContributorsHackman, Joseph Victor (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel J (Thesis advisor) / Maupin, Jonathan (Committee member) / Hill, Kim (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019