Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper critically analyzes how Japan and its people have referred to outsiders and “racial others,” particularly white Westerners, for their nation building and identity construction in the modern history. Japan is perhaps one of the “most Westernized non-Western” nations. Or at least, it is the most modernized and the “first” First-World nation among the non-Western nations in the history. To obtain this status, after the long national seclusion (the late-1500-1854), Japanese started vigorously introducing Western culture and ideology to modernize and Westernize the nation. By this rapid Westernization, Japanese attempted to obtain an equal status to the Western powers and to distinguish themselves from other non-white people. This process included a reconceptualization of their racial identity, and white Westerners became a new racial reference for Japanese to “become.” This is what Dower (1986) succinctly names “Caucasianization” of Japan and Japanese. The paper is a historical analysis on this process of Caucasianization, its function, and how it fulfilled Japan’s circumstantial needs. The analysis employs both primary and secondary materials from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: This study examined and compared school and peer influences to delinquent related behavior among 626 African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic adjudicated juvenile offenders. Caucasian and Hispanic exhibited increased problems influenced by the school environment that were related to delinquent behavior, particularly Hispanic males. Peer influences were not significant across racial and ethnic groups. Implications related to future research and clinical prevention and intervention are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The empirical evidence has consistently shown that childhood aggression is a precursor of later delinquency (e.g., Brook et al., 1995; Harachi et al., 2006). However, few studies have examined whether ethnic/racial group membership moderates this association. The current investigation examined teacher reported child aggression (K-5th grade) on later referrals to the juvenile justice system by ethnic/racial group (American Indian, Caucasian, and Hispanic). Mean levels of children’s aggression were compared by official juvenile court status across groups. Furthermore, changes in mean levels of aggression were examined over time by racial/ethnic group in both the non-referred and referred groups. The sample included N = 4,622 ethnically diverse children (males and females) part of a large-scale violence prevention effort (Embry et al., 1996). Preliminary findings based on mean level comparisons over time by referral status provided evidence that levels of aggression remained largely stable over time across all three groups. Findings also indicated that for Caucasian and Hispanic children, mean levels of aggression were significantly different by referral status. However, this was not found for American Indian children. Additional analyses will focus on person-centered growth trajectories in aggression over time by referral status and across racial/ethnic groups.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Religious beliefs have been touted as being very influential within the African American community. Likewise, drug addiction and incarceration have been noted to have debilitating effects on the African American community. Because of this, the current study focuses on religious and/or spiritual approaches to providing substance abuse treatment to African American offenders. This study is a multi-site examination of faith-based facilities in the state of Louisiana. These facilities use a treatment modality that is a combination of cognitive-behavioral and religious paradigms. This study compares treatment success between African American and Caucasian American clients to determine if African American clients have an enhanced response to faith-based orientations of substance abuse treatment. Notions of cultural competence in treatment service delivery are discussed as a result of this analysis. Future research and policy implications are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Spirituality seems to influence how African American women process health messages. It is, however, not clear how spirituality can impact health-related outcomes in the context of health message processing models such as the Extended Parallel Process and the Risk Perception Attitude framework. Using a survey of African American and Caucasian women in the context of breast cancer, the role of spirituality and its interactions with perceived efficacy and risk was examined on four health outcomes—message acceptance, talking about breast cancer, information seeking, and behavioral intentions. For African American women, spirituality had a positive impact for talking about breast cancer through an interaction with risk and efficacy such that highly spiritual women with high efficacy and low risk were more likely to talk about breast cancer than when efficacy was low. However, high spirituality exacerbated the negative effects of efficacy on talking about breast cancer regardless of the risk level for Caucasian women. Spirituality also had a positive influence in attending to breast cancer information in the media for African American women. Spirituality played no role in attending to breast cancer information for Caucasian women. Interestingly, spirituality played no role for African American women on behavioral intentions. However, spirituality worked to decrease behavioral intentions for Caucasian women when risk was high.