White Middle-class Population Research Articles

Reflections on co-production: Developing a dementia research funding application with a diverse lived experience group.

Introduction and Background to Study: Published work on dementia research co-production focuses on developing health and social care interventions. Less is written about practicalities and experiences of co-producing dementia research funding applications. UK public contributors are typically from white middle class populations. Widening involvement is essential for co-produced research that meaningfully addresses health inequalities. We provide an example of a diverse lived experience group co-producing a dementia research funding application. An NIHR Dementia Career Development award funded PPIE work to develop a broad research idea. A culturally diverse lived experience group consisted of one person living with dementia, four carers and one former carer. Virtual group sessions drew on each person's unique experiences and expertise. Two co-leads collaborated closely with the researcher. Methods: We reflected on our experiences of diversity and inclusion within the group, based on a coproduced set of questions to guide reflection. Written records of reflections were captured and refined by the group. Results: We structured reflections into three overarching categories: Diversity and inclusion, Benefits to group members and Challenges. The group felt empowered, heard, and like equals in the process. Members valued diversity and mutual learning within the group. Involvement of co-leads was seen as democratic and inclusive. Some members felt Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) discussions were challenging. Discussion and Conclusions: We share valuable lessons learned in the process, including suggestions for facilitating EDI discussions, building in funding for time and travel to support relationship building, and ensuring PPIE remuneration processes are accessible and streamlined.

Gentrifying Neighborhoods, Gentrifying Schools? An Emerging Typology of School Changes in a Gentrifying Urban School District

An increasing number of central cities across the U.S. are experiencing a growth in white middle-class population, which is associated with gentrification in historically disinvested and racially segregated urban neighborhoods. These changing neighborhood dynamics are starting to shift the context of urban schooling in some districts across the nation. While we know that racial and socioeconomic demographic shifts are associated with neighborhood and school gentrification, there is little conceptual clarity about how school gentrification unfolds over time and the varying conditions of schools in gentrified neighborhoods. To advance scholarship on the topic, researchers need an organizing framework. This study addresses this gap by drawing on existing research, 16 years of Census and American Community Survey data, and 6 years of district data in Austin, Texas. Highlighting Austin, an urban city with growing neighborhood gentrification, we put forth a typology to explain the experiences of schools in the district. We conclude with implications for future research.

Race as a Ghost Variable in (White) Opioid Research

This paper traces the unspoken, implicit white racial logic of the brain disease model of addiction, which is based on seemingly universal, disembodied brains devoid of social or environmental influences. In the United States, this implicit white logic led to “context-free” neuroscience that made the social hierarchies of addiction and its consequences invisible to, and thus exacerbated by, national policies on opioids. The brain disease model of addiction was selectively deployed among the white middle-class population that had long accessed narcotics and pharmaceutical treatments for narcotics disorders from biomedical clinics, as opposed to from illegal sources subject to law enforcement. In turn, new treatments for opioid addiction were racially marketed to the same white clientele to which newly patented opioid analgesics were marketed, tapping into a circumscribed but highly lucrative consumer base that has long benefited from a legally protected, racially segregated safe space for white narcotics consumption. The connecting thread for the contemporary white opioid “crisis,” therefore, is white race as a ghost variable in addiction neuroscience and in its pharmaceutical and biotechnological translation.

Parenting Under Pressure: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Impact of COVID-19 on Family Life

Background: ​Development and implementation of effective family-based psychosocial intervention and treatment strategies during COVID-19 will require a detailed understanding of how the virus has impacted the lives of parents, children, and families.Methods: ​Written reports on the life impacts of COVID-19 for parents (n=56) and their children (n=43), and a questionnaire assessing parent positive and negative affect, were collected between April and May 2020. An inductive approach was used to identify themes in parents’ and children’s written reports, followed by statistical analysis to explore associations between themes and changes in parent positive and negative affect pre- and post-writing.Findings: ​Parents and children reported both positive and negative psychosocial impacts of the virus, though parents expressed a greater diversity of positive themes than children. Common themes reported by parents included concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on their children (particularly their social development), health concerns for others (particularly elderly family members), and the stressful balancing act of parenting, assisting with children’s school work, and working from home. Many parents reported gratitude for what they had, and reflected on the upsides of the pandemic for family relationships and parent-child bonding. Parents who expressed gratitude in their writing also reported a decrease in negative affect pre- to post-writing. Common themes reported by children included yearning to return to school, pandemic-related fears and difficulties, and longing for social connection.Interpretation: ​Within a largely White middle-class population, both parents and children reported reduced wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research and policy should focus on identifying how to fulfill children’s social needs and lessen caregivers’ burdens during this time.Funding: ​NoneDeclaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.Ethics Approval Statement: The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of California, Los Angeles.

De-centring the psychology curriculum: Diversity, social justice, and psychological knowledge

The psychology curriculum has close ties to the histories and cultural traditions of industrialised societies’ white middle-class populations, so it is unclear how it may reflect the interests and values of students from a variety of ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds in contemporary higher education settings. To address this question, we established an innovative research project of de-centring the psychology curriculum, so that BA students from diverse backgrounds could familiarise themselves with cultural-historical, postcolonial, feminist, and other critical psychological approaches as well as reflect on the histories, contexts, and epistemologies of classic developmental psychological theories and research. We conducted focus group discussions with the students to explore their views on the introduced contents and approaches. The findings of our research form the basis for critical reflection on the possibilities and challenges of de-centring the psychology curriculum in contemporary university settings.

Profitable portfolios: capital that counts in higher education

Under-representation in UK higher education of students from less privileged social backgrounds is an enduring problem. While there are examples of productive participation, the pattern of collective trajectories of this group differs sharply from that of traditional entrants. The onus falls largely on students to adapt to established practices that remain strongly oriented towards traditional white middle-class populations. Bourdieu's theory of practice informed the analysis of data emerging from a longitudinal case study, and empirical insights are offered into how students with non-traditional academic backgrounds experienced and negotiated the demands of studying in one of the UK's research-intensive universities. A new conceptual framework identifies academic, linguistic, social and professionally-oriented capital as underpinning the logic of practice of this sub-field of higher education, and their influence on the positional tendencies and trajectories of the students operating within it are highlighted.

Providing Evidence-Based Practice to Ethnically Diverse Youths: Examples From the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) Program

At first glance, implementing evidence-based treatments for ethnically diverse youths may seem to raise some concerns. Do manual-based treatments work for the diverse youths whom we see in our communities? Should clinicians only use culturally specific treatments? Unfortunately, the literature is not definitive. Several studies have found that tailoring interventions for specific populations can increase their effectiveness 1 Bernal G Intervention development and cultural adaptation research with diverse families. Fam Process. 2006; 45: 143-151 Crossref PubMed Scopus (92) Google Scholar , 2 Botvin GJ Baker E Dusenbury L Botvin EM Diaz T Long-term follow-up results of a randomized drug abuse prevention trial in a white middle-class population. JAMA. 1995; 273: 1106-1112 Crossref PubMed Scopus (714) Google Scholar , 3 Hirachi TW Catalano RF Hawkins JD Effective recruitment for parenting programs within ethnic minority communities. Child Adalesc Soc Work J. 1997; 14: 23-29 Crossref Scopus (91) Google Scholar , 4 Szapocznik J Kurtines WM Foote FH Perez-Vidal A Hervis OE Conjoint versus one-person family therapy: further evidence for the effectiveness of conducting family therapy through one person with drug-abusing adolescents. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1986; 54: 395-397 Crossref PubMed Scopus (127) Google Scholar , 5 Rossello J Bernal G The efficacy of cognitive-behavioral and interpersonal treatments for depression in Puerto Rican adolescents. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1999; 67: 734-745 Crossref PubMed Scopus (398) Google Scholar , whereas others have found that cultural adaptations of an intervention may actually dilute the effectiveness of the original treatment even though retention is improved. 6 Kumpfer KL Alvarado R Tait C Turner C Effectiveness of school-based family and children's skills training for substance abuse prevention among 6-8-year-old rural children. Psychol Addict Behav. 2002; 16: S65-S71 Crossref PubMed Google Scholar What seems to be important is to strike a balance between fidelity to evidence-based treatment and culturally informed care.

Validation of the Framingham coronary heart disease prediction scores: results of a multiple ethnic groups investigation.

The Framingham Heart Study produced sex-specific coronary heart disease (CHD) prediction functions for assessing risk of developing incident CHD in a white middle-class population. Concern exists regarding whether these functions can be generalized to other populations. To test the validity and transportability of the Framingham CHD prediction functions per a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute workshop organized for this purpose. Sex-specific CHD functions were derived from Framingham data for prediction of coronary death and myocardial infarction. These functions were applied to 6 prospectively studied, ethnically diverse cohorts (n = 23 424), including whites, blacks, Native Americans, Japanese American men, and Hispanic men: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (1987-1988), Physicians' Health Study (1982), Honolulu Heart Program (1980-1982), Puerto Rico Heart Health Program (1965-1968), Strong Heart Study (1989-1991), and Cardiovascular Health Study (1989-1990). The performance, or ability to accurately predict CHD risk, of the Framingham functions compared with the performance of risk functions developed specifically from the individual cohorts' data. Comparisons included evaluation of the equality of relative risks for standard CHD risk factors, discrimination, and calibration. For white men and women and for black men and women the Framingham functions performed reasonably well for prediction of CHD events within 5 years of follow-up. Among Japanese American and Hispanic men and Native American women, the Framingham functions systematically overestimated the risk of 5-year CHD events. After recalibration, taking into account different prevalences of risk factors and underlying rates of developing CHD, the Framingham functions worked well in these populations. The sex-specific Framingham CHD prediction functions perform well among whites and blacks in different settings and can be applied to other ethnic groups after recalibration for differing prevalences of risk factors and underlying rates of CHD events.

INTRAMETROPOLITAN LOCATIONS OF KOREAN BUSINESSES: THE CASE OF CHICAGO

Intrametropolitan locations of Korean businesses in the Chicago area are examined in terms of the ethnicity of their major customers: ethnic customers, inner-city minority customers, and White middle-class customers. The study reveals that Korean-owned stores providing important ethnic goods or services are spatially concentrated in Koreatown along Lawrence and Lincoln Avenues and in the northwestern suburbs. Korean businesses that serve inner-city minority customers are located mainly in southside Chicago, providing important necessities such as clothing, shoes, beauty supplies, and general merchandise. Uniquely, Korean entrepreneurs overwhelmingly dominate the dry cleaning business, which serves the White middle-class population and is thus scattered around the entire metropolitan area. Korean entrepreneurs' unusual market diversity comes from their effective utilization of ethnic resources and their unique linkage with the export-oriented home-country economy in the 1970s and 1980s. As a whole, their entrepreneurship has demonstrated the dynamic and complex nature of immigrant businesses in major American cities.

Training to meet the needs of the communicatively impaired population of South Africa: a project of the University of the Witwatersrand.

At a time when South Africa is in the throes of transition, ideologies in the educational, medical, economic and social spheres are being redefined and redirected. The field of speech pathology and audiology is no exception. The Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of the Witwatersrand has acknowledged an urgent need to address the requirements of a multilingual and multicultural South Africa and extend training beyond the white middle-class population. It is the responsibility of the training institutions to redirect the objectives of their curricula in order to meet these needs. This paper describes the changes introduced by the Department. These include teaching of community work principles and primary health care to the speech and hearing therapist, and the training of personnel for an alternative form of service, such as the community speech and hearing worker (CSHW) and the community-based rehabilitation worker (CBRW).

Nonulcer Dyspepsia: A Look Into the Future

Nonulcer Dyspepsia: A Look Into the Future

Sonographic Evaluation of the Fetal Femur Length in the Chinese Population

Sonograms of 128 Chinese fetuses scanned between 16-20 weeks' gestational age, with last menstrual period and average sonographic age corresponding by ± 10 days, were evaluated retrospectively. The fetal femur length was measured longitudinally using a linear phased array transducer. The observed femur lengths were compared with the corresponding data in Hadlock's chart, which is based on a white middle class population. Results indicated that the Chinese femur length was shorter than the Hadlock values by 0.56 mm. The analysis of variance revealed that this difference was consistent throughout pregnancy. Although the findings were statistically significant, they do not indicate a need for an adjustment to the Hadlock chart, as 0.56 mm would suggest a difference of only O.3 weeks.

Culture and its influence on occupational therapy evaluation.

In the increasingly multicultural society of north America, occupational therapists have a responsibility to develop awareness and knowledge concerning different cultural groups. By accepting and understanding clients' customs, values and beliefs, clinicians have a better chance of assessing and producing more effective outcomes. Since occupational therapy has incorporated western middle-class values into its theory and practice, many evaluation tools used are based on norms developed for a white middle-class population. Using these evaluations with minority groups brings the danger of improper interpretation of test results. Consequently, increasing emphasis is being placed on the importance of culture fairness and the development of culture-fair evaluation tools for usage across different cultural groups. This paper will present a discussion concerning the importance, advantages and disadvantages of both culture-fair and culture-specific tests and evaluation tools.

Long-term Follow-up Results of a Randomized Drug Abuse Prevention Trial in a White Middle-class Population

To evaluate the long-term efficacy of a school-based approach to drug abuse prevention. Randomized trial involving 56 public schools that received the prevention program with annual provider training workshops and ongoing consultation, the prevention program with videotaped training and no consultation, or "treatment as usual" (ie, controls). Follow-up data were collected 6 years after baseline using school, telephone, and mailed surveys. A total of 3597 predominantly white, 12th-grade students who represented 60.41% of the initial seventh-grade sample. Consisted of 15 classes in seventh grade, 10 booster sessions in eighth grade, and five booster sessions in ninth grade, and taught general "life skills" and skills for resisting social influences to use drugs. Six tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use self-report scales were recorded to create nine dichotomous drug use outcome variables and eight polydrug use variables. Significant reductions in both drug and polydrug use were found for the two groups that received the prevention program relative to controls. The strongest effects were produced for individuals who received a reasonably complete version of the intervention--there were up to 44% fewer drug users and 66% fewer polydrug (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) users. Drug abuse prevention programs conducted during junior high school can produce meaningful and durable reductions in tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use if they (1) teach a combination of social resistance skills and general life skills, (2) are properly implemented, and (3) include at least 2 years of booster sessions.

Long-term follow-up results of a randomized drug abuse prevention trial in a white middle-class population

Long-term follow-up results of a randomized drug abuse prevention trial in a white middle-class population

Research On Women Of Color: From Ignorance to Awareness

Evidence that women of color are dealt with as anomalies in psychological research is discussed in order to: (a) inform researchers about the omissions, (b) stimulate interest in increased inclusion of women of color among research populations, and (c) demonstrate the need for increased diversity in research paradigms. It is noted that research paradigms directed at the study of the “universal woman” have in actuality focused on White middle class populations. This article examines the methodological and theoretical transformations that have occurred in the literature, and evaluates the extent to which researchers have successfully incorporated ethnicity into the study of gender issues. This is a call for an examination of women's experiences relative to ethnicity and a paradigmatic shift in the assumptions about what is worthy or appropriate for investigation.

The Effect of Logo on the Nonverbal Reasoning Ability of Rural and Disadvantaged Third Graders

AbstractPrior research that has attempted to assess the impact of Logo programming on the cognitive abilities of youth has utilized samples drawn primarily from white middle class populations. This study assesses the impact of Logo programming using a sample that consists of rural and disadvantaged student’s. Thirty-six third-graders were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. The Matrix Analogies Test, a test of nonverbal reasoning ability, was selected as the dependent variable. The treatment group received eight weeks of Logo programming experience. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) computed on the MAT posttest, controlling for pretest, revealed a significant group effect. The Logo group scored significantly higher than the control group.