Chapman, Smokowski Receive Grant to Study Biculturalism Among Latino Youth

Posted: October 23, 2002

Assistant professors Paul Smokowski and Mimi Chapman have been awarded a three-year grant of approximately $830,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop an innovative prevention program that will target aggression, violence, and substance abuse among Latino youth in North Carolina. Entitled "Promoting Biculturalism to Prevent Youth Violence," Chapman and Smokowski hope that the program will be used in many North Carolina schools to help Latino students and
their families adapt to a new culture.

Currently, North Carolina has the fastest-growing Latino population in the nation and is faced with unique issues related to acculturation. Acculturation is a process that occurs when one cultural group takes on the language, laws, religions, and behaviors of another, often dominant, culture. The process poses particular risks for adolescents.

According to studies conducted by the CDC and the Department of Education, higher percentages of male Latino youths carry weapons to school, engage in physical fights on school property, and skip school because of feeling unsafe, as compared to their African American and non-Latino white classmates. In a 1999 Department of Education report, twelve percent of Latino students reported being targets of hate-related words, and thirty-six percent of Latino students were exposed to hate-related graffiti. Young Latino males were also reported to have the highest exposure to street gangs.

Latino females, on the other hand, are at high risk for turning their aggression inward. A CDC study found that more than one quarter of young Latino women reported seriously considering suicide, double the percentage reported by boys and girls of any other racial or ethnic group. Alcohol abuse also is a concern for Latino adolescents.

“The change has been so rapid, but we have not fully anticipated what supports need to be in place to cope with it,” said Smokowski. “We hope this work will help North Carolina schools to effectively address the needs of their Latino students.”

The project will involve three phases. The first will be to conduct in-depth life history interviews with Latino adolescents and their families to learn how risk and protective factors in the acculturation process impact youth violence and suicide. The second phase will be to use the information generated during the interviews to create a violence and suicide prevention program for Latino adolescents. The final phase will be to collaborate with schools to pilot the new program among Latino adolescents from rural and urban counties in North Carolina. Martica Bacallao, a doctoral student at the School, will be the project’s clinical supervisor and will be involved in each phase of the project. Phase one will be launched during the 2003-2004 academic year.

Chapman, Smokowski, and Bacallao will enlist the help of bilingual MSW students throughout the project. “Research on bicultural prevention programs showed encouraging results during the 1980s, but these programs weren't extended and disseminated,” said Smokowski. “Today, supporting Latino youth has grown to be more important and more challenging. We believe that this prevention approach has great promise and we are optimistic that we can intervene in the acculturation process to really help these families.”

To learn more about the project, contact Paul Smokowski at 919-843-8281 or smokowsk@email.unc.edu.

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