Papers by Sara Buckingham
Educational Action Research, Aug 6, 2023
American Journal of Community Psychology, Apr 20, 2023
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, May 29, 2023
Transcultural Psychiatry
Cultural identity is associated with positive emotional and behavioral health. However, coloniali... more Cultural identity is associated with positive emotional and behavioral health. However, colonialism and its forces, past and present, have led to cultural loss in many Indigenous communities, contributing to health disparities. And yet, Indigenous peoples actively resist colonialism and work to maintain and revitalize their cultures around the globe. This study sought to understand how Alaska Native university students from diverse cultural backgrounds are presently developing and constructing their cultural identities. Transformational grounded theory methods were used to analyze seven focus groups with 20 Alaska Native university students from diverse cultural regions, now living in an urban center. Results revealed that identity was constructed as a series of nested and intersecting identities that centered on relations, place, and time across cultural groups. Cultural practices and values were often drawn upon to understand identity. Cultural identity was developed through story...
Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 2022
This randomized controlled trial tested the Vermont Family Based Approach (VFBA) in primary care ... more This randomized controlled trial tested the Vermont Family Based Approach (VFBA) in primary care pediatrics. The VFBA is a model of healthcare delivery that shifts the focus from the individual to the family, emphasizes emotional and behavioral health, and uses evidence-based health promotion/prevention along with the treatment of emotional and behavioral problems. Participants were 81 families of 3-15-year-olds. For children, the VFBA was associated with greater reductions than the Control condition on the Child Behavior Checklist Emotionally Reactive, Withdrawn, Sleep Problems, Aggressive Behavior and Total Problems scales. For parents, the VFBA was associated with greater reductions than the Control condition on the Adult Self-Report Anxious/Depressed, Rule-Breaking Behavior, Internalizing Problems and Total Problems scales. The VFBA was also associated with greater improvement than the Control condition in the parents' health-related quality of life, as indicated by all scales of the Medical Outcomes Study Health Survey.
Journal of American Indian Education, 2021
American Journal of Community Psychology
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change, 2022
The wellbeing of Latinx immigrants in the United States varies widely. Immigrants' changes and ma... more The wellbeing of Latinx immigrants in the United States varies widely. Immigrants' changes and maintenance of their cultures, a process known as acculturation, has been postulated to explain differences in wellbeing. However, the mechanisms by which acculturation impacts wellbeing are not fully understood. This study sought to understand the relation between acculturation and wellbeing through a person-environment fit lens, with the hypothesis that the better immigrants can acculturate in ways they prefer (e.g., taking on the practices, values, and identifications they desire), the better their self-reported wellbeing. An explanatory mixed-method approach was used to examine this hypothesis. Four hundred thirty-eight Latinx immigrants (ages 18-77, M ϭ 37.88) who had lived in the United States for less than a year to 55 years (M ϭ 16.75 years) completed survey measures in Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, and Virginia. A subset (n ϭ 73) participated in 12 focus groups. The sample included naturalized citizens (31.0%) along with authorized (33.2%) and unauthorized (35.8%) immigrants, and matched community immigration patterns. Data were analyzed through path analyses and constructivist grounded theory methods. Results indicated that the better Latinx immigrants could acculturate in the ways they preferred, the better their wellbeing. This relation was explained, in part, through lower levels of acculturative stress. This research suggests that practitioners and policymakers should consider ways to support immigrants to acculturate in the ways they desire as opposed to solely focusing their efforts on particular acculturation strategies. Public Policy Relevance Statement Latinx immigrants' acculturation in the United States impacts their wellbeing. These findings suggest that immigrants who can change and maintain their cultures in their desired ways experience higher levels of wellbeing than those who struggle to do so. Thus, policymakers should consider how they can modify policies to facilitate immigrants' ideal acculturation as opposed to requiring particular cultural shifts. W hereas immigrants leave their countries of origin with the intention of improving their lives, their realities do not always coincide with expectations. A woman who immigrates for career advancement and financial security may face barriers to obtaining desired employment. A man who immigrates to reunite with and raise his children may have challenges instilling his cultural values in them. A young person who immigrates for safety may face discrimination and
The aim of the symposium is to bring together and discuss different experiences of interventions ... more The aim of the symposium is to bring together and discuss different experiences of interventions at European level, which are trying to improve the connection between University and the wider society. The focus will be on how we as community psychologists -can promote and develop civic competences in higher education institutions, based on common values, reciprocity and reflection, with the aim to foster the process of cocreation of knowledge: Universities and communities can both get significant benefits from this cooperation. Are there activities and tools like for example Service Learning in European contexts that can be useful in addressing this ambitious but important aim for the future of democracy, social responsibility, and social capital? The symposium tries to answer this question, providing interesting examples of campus community partnership in different European contexts.
Research indicates that immigrant wellbeing depends upon interactions between immigrants? charact... more Research indicates that immigrant wellbeing depends upon interactions between immigrants? characteristics and goals, and receiving communities? openness and acceptance (e.g., Phinney, Horenezyk, Liebkind, & Vedder, 2001). Still, most of the immigrant acculturation and wellbeing literature remains acontextual, thus limiting understanding of why some immigrants thrive while others struggle. To address these gaps, this study applied the Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM; Navas et al., 2005) to characterize Latina/o immigrants? ideal and real acculturation across life domains in distinct regions of the United States. It then answered two questions unexplained by the model: (1) Why would ideal acculturation differ from real acculturation? and (2) What impact does the divergence of real acculturation from ideal acculturation have on wellbeing? To address these questions, the current study adopted a concurrent explanatory mixed-method approach (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007). Four...
Journal of Community Psychology
In light of mixed findings regarding the malevolence or benevolence of acculturation gaps in mixe... more In light of mixed findings regarding the malevolence or benevolence of acculturation gaps in mixed-generation immigrant families, this research adopted a qualitative methodology in order to explore the rich complexity of acculturation gaps. Through individual, dyadic, and family semi-structured interviews with two Salvadoran immigrant families this study (a) explored the ways in which family members arrived at their current ascription to practices, values, and identifications, or their acculturative status, (b) identified gaps in components of such statuses among multiple members of the families, and (c) utilized a family resilience model to investigate ways in which the families navigated acculturation gaps. The individual and family narratives were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory, guided by the theories of bidimensional acculturation, acculturation-gap distress, and family resilience. This research revealed that family members often changed their practices in response to their current contexts, but tended to view their values and identifications as enduring, a result of their family and the culture in which they were raised. It also noted that many gaps occurred between all members of the family, but that gaps were most prevalent and contentious between the eldest child of each family and their fathers. Finally, this research identified 18 diverse ways in which families navigated these gaps depending on their quality. As such, this research demonstrated that (1) a family resilience model can be applied to the study of acculturation gaps and (2) expansion of this model as applied to acculturation gaps might be indicated.
Journal of community psychology, 2021
AIMS This study sought to understand the impact of public policies on Latinx immigrants' accu... more AIMS This study sought to understand the impact of public policies on Latinx immigrants' acculturation. METHODS Four hundred thirty-eight first generation Latinx immigrants completed survey measures and a subset (n = 73) participated in 12 focus groups across four US states with distinct immigration-related policies: Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, and Virginia. RESULTS Latinx immigrants living in states with more restrictive immigration-related public policies were less likely to make cultural changes in the ways they desired. Policies impacted acculturation directly by requiring and restricting certain cultural expressions, and indirectly through cultivating the community's climate. Multiple factors appeared to shape policies' influences on acculturation, including confusion from swift policy changes, inconsistent policy implementation, competing policies at divergent ecological levels, and individuals' relative privilege from intersecting personal characteristics. ...
Guba and Lincoln (1994) argued that questions of method are secondary to the paradigm or worldvie... more Guba and Lincoln (1994) argued that questions of method are secondary to the paradigm or worldview we hold. In scientific and philosophical terms, our worldview is made up of ontology (our assumptions about the nature of existence and reality) and epistemology (our belief about what knowledge is and what can be known). Methods, then, are the means by which knowledge can be sought within these assumptions and beliefs. There is a natural fit between (a) the ontology and epistemology that undergird much of community psychology and (b) the paradigms from which qualitative methods spring, leading to particular scientific approaches. The assumptions and beliefs of community psychology include the importance of context, culture, and setting; attention to the frequently ignored disjunction between grand and local theory; efforts to reframe a dominant narrative, which often searches for negative causality in the least empowered individual, into one of strength and emic (i.e., insider) resour...
While research has shown that cultural navigation, or "acculturation" depends on contex... more While research has shown that cultural navigation, or "acculturation" depends on context, most of the literature remains acontextual. Consequently, we used community-based explanatory mixed methods to understand acculturation in context, examining how and why some Latinx Immigrants’ desire to acculturate differently than they actually acculturate. To study the phenomenon of acculturation, we administered bilingual surveys and conducted focus groups with unauthorized and authorized Latinx immigrants living in Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, and Virginia. We analyzed the quantitative data using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and path analysis, and we analyzed the qualitative data using grounded theory, informed by the constructs under study. Our results suggested that Latinx immigrants desire to and do acculturate differently according to their contexts. In this way, both personal and contextual factors explained how Latinx immigrants acculturated better than their mere desire ...
American Journal of Community Psychology
Oppression of immigrants is organized, unrelenting, and embedded into all aspects of societies. •... more Oppression of immigrants is organized, unrelenting, and embedded into all aspects of societies. • Immigrants and allies resist oppression individually and collectively in overt and covert ways. • Settings varying in size and scope can facilitate resistance through their structures and practices. • Settings can focus on systems of oppression, oppressors, and those being oppressed. • To facilitate resistance, settings must start by dismantling oppression within their own systems.
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Papers by Sara Buckingham