Formulations of the Hispanic Pastoral Encounter include a call for the respect of Hispanic culture in Catholic parishes and a priority for recruiting and ordaining Spanish-speaking clergy. These requests parallel those presented on behalf of German immigrants 100 years ago. They must be considered and accepted. (VM)

Describes the nature of the godparent relationship, which is prominent in Hispanic family culture. Cites results of a study of Hispanic godparents, and urges more effort by the child welfare system to explore the availability of godparents as placement resources. (SKC)

Evaluates the research conducted on sex roles and perceptions of femininity and masculinity of Hispanic women. Reviews early social and anthropological studies describing the roles of Hispanic women before the advent of the women's movement in the 1960's, continuing with more recent psychosocial studies on male-female roles and allocation of power…

A list of precollege programs that help Hispanic students stay in school and succeed in the courses necessary for educational and occupational success is presented. Early intervention programs, organization programs, and scholarship programs are discussed.

The minority presence on boards of trustees is too small to have a significant impact on redirecting policy and funding support programs for minorities. Minority trustees have a responsibility to prod members to increase the minorities on campus and to make trustees aware of the implications of new demographic projections. (MLW)

Sexual assault victims (N=1059) under age 17 were evaluated. Among findings were that 89 percent were female; that average age was 8.3 years; that Black children were 1.58 times and Latin children 0.22 times as likely to be victims; and that 58.1 percent of the perpetrators were known to the child but were not family members. (Author/DB)

Analysis of data from the High School and Beyond national survey, focusing on Hispanic language minority students, suggests that language of instruction during elementary education has a strong impact on students' subsequent educational achievement. (CB)

Standardized methodology was used to help identify item characteristics explaining differential item functioning among Hispanics on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), in two studies with 284,359 and 292,725 Whites, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto Ricans. Results indicate true cognates, or words with a common root in English and Spanish; and content of…

Minority-student retention efforts at Boston College, California State University at Fresno, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Purdue University are analyzed. Key factors common to all four institutions' retention efforts are identified: well-defined policy, high level of commitment, comprehensive student services, and dedicated…

Presents results of a study which examined a hypothesis relating low self-esteem to high frequency of delinquent behavior in three ethnic groups: Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics. Reports that the hypothesis may hold for the White sample but not for the other groups. Although Whites and Blacks reported similar self-esteem levels, the Hispanics…

The study investigated such educational characteristics as course taking behavior, educational/occupational aspirations, and educational/occupational outcomes of learning disabled Hispanic (N=197), learning disabled Anglo (N=337), and nonhandicapped Anglo (N=204) high school students. Results indicated significant differences between handicapped…

Provides descriptive data on mother/infant interaction in two ethnic and maternal age groups. Participants were 32 lower-income Black and Cuban-American, teenage and adult mothers and their 12-month-old infants. Cuban-American mothers demonstrated a task with verbalization significantly more often than did Black mothers. Adult mothers showed a…

Why U.S. bilingual education programs have failed to gain legitimacy is examined. A brief discussion of bilingual education in Wales supports the argument that the legitimacy of bilingual teaching within the education system itself and support from local parents and teachers are more important for its survival than public support. (RM)

Evaluated the receptive vocabulary ability and nonverbal cognitive ability of 20 Spanish-speaking and 11 bilingual Mexican-American preschool children. The children obtained significantly lower scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised than on the Perceptual Performance Scale of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities. Bilingual…

Compared cognitive appraisals and incident ratings of urban American Indians (N=50), Anglo-Americans (N=50), and Hispanics (N=47) on revised version of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Results indicated no overall significant differences among groups. On individual life events items, groups differed significantly on cognitive appraisal of 8…