Due in 6 Hours

Group is Hispanic

Advantages & Disadvantages of Group Identity
Some group identities may provide us with certain advantages or disadvantages. These may also change over time. Minority response patterns may be either more or less effective in terms of societal integration and economic success. For your sixth journal entry, you will need to choose an article from the list of peer reviewed articles posted in doc sharing or locate your own article from the databases in McAfee Library Online. Read the peer reviewed research article and determine how it relates to your answer to the questions below. In incorporating your peer reviewed research, clearly identify the main findings of the study. Explain how the research and findings apply to what you’ve written in answer to the questions. How do these findings either support or refute your own experiences?
Do you feel your group identity provides you with either advantages or disadvantages or some of both? Why?
How do you feel these advantages/disadvantages compare with others of your identity group and with members of other identity groups in terms of life chances?
Do you feel the response patterns and coping strategies used by your identity group have played a role in your own life chances? Why or why not? Have you as an individual followed the same strategies or different ones?
Are there more effective strategies you believe might have been used by your identity group? If so, what are they? What makes you feel they would be more successful?

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Journal of Family Issues

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DOI: 10.1177/0192513X13488583

published online 15 May 2013Journal of Family Issues
Omar S. López

Outlier to Mainstream Family Research
Averting Another Lost Decade : Moving Hispanic Families From

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DOI: 10.1177/0192513X13488583

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Article

Averting Another Lost
Decade: Moving Hispanic
Families From Outlier
to Mainstream Family
Research

Omar S. López1

Abstract
This study endorses an urgent call-to-action for researchers to move Hispanic
families from outlier to mainstream family research. The top-15 ranked U.S.
journals in the field of family studies published more than 8,000 articles
in the prior decade—the same time period when Hispanics were also the
largest, most rapidly growing ethnic group in the United States. This study
contributes to the field of family studies by using quantitative and qualitative
methods to analyze these articles per journal for empirical evidence that
indicates the importance of Hispanic families within this literature. Further
empirical evidence comes from extending the analysis to 2011. The evidence
presented suggests insufficiency of Hispanic family research with regard to
quantity, quality, relevance, and recognized contributions to the field of
family studies. The discourse includes examples and recommendations for
averting another lost decade of opportunities for research relevant to the
health and welfare of a growing U.S. Hispanic population.

Keywords
disparity, family research, Hispanic, Latina, Latino, Mexican American

1Texas State University, Round Rock, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:
Omar S. López, Texas State University, Round Rock Campus, 1555 University Blvd. Round
Rock, TX, USA.
Email: ol14@txstate.edu

488583 JFIXXX10.1177/0192513X13488583Journal of Family IssuesLópez
research-article2013

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2 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

The social conditions of poverty, inadequate housing, poor access to health
care, and a high rate of single-parent households are experiences shared today
by U.S. Hispanics (Bernal & Sáez-Santiago, 2006). The result of these social
conditions is that mental health and health services are especially needed for
U.S. Hispanics because they are largely uninsured and underserved (Ojeda &
McGuire, 2006; Willerton, Dankoski, & Martir, 2008). McGoldrick and
Hardy (2008) state that the interventions delivered through these services,
however, largely ignore the diverse cultural dimension of families within
U.S. society, and therefore, families from many cultural groups avoid therapy
or never find the interventions helpful.

The long-term expected outlook is for the Hispanic population to change
U.S. demographics in ways that will only increase demand for social ser-
vices and interventions. Hispanics were the largest, most rapidly growing
ethnic group in the United States in the prior decade. According to the
American Community Survey (ACS; U.S. Census Bureau, 2009), of the
U.S. population estimated at 307 million in 2009, 15.8% or 48.4 million
were Hispanic, up from 35.3 million in the 2000 U.S. Census. Within these
census time periods, 51.0% of the nation’s population growth came from
the Hispanics, which had a growth rate of 37.0%—four times the 9.1%
growth rate for the overall population. This rapid growth was the result of
new births, indicating a relatively young Hispanic population, and from
immigration (Domenech-Rodríguez, McNeal, & Cauce, 2008). The U.S.
Census Bureau (2008) has projected that Hispanics will represent 19.4%
(n = 66.4 million) of the U.S. population estimated at 341.4 million in 2020
and 30.3% (n = 132.8 million) of the U.S. population estimated at 439.0
million in 2050.

Researchers over the prior decades have advanced the importance of pro-
viding individuals, families, and children with treatment, prevention, and
mental health service delivery within the context of their cultural and social
processes (Bernal, Trimble, Burlew, & Leong, 2003; Marín & Marín, 1991;
Rogler, 1989; Sue & Zane, 1987). Concurrently, other researchers have
emphasized the need to consider cultural and contextual aspects in psychoso-
cial interventions (Bernal, Bonilla, & Bellido, 1995; Bernal & Scharrón-
del-Rio, 2001; Nagayama-Hall, 2001; Rogler, Malgady, Costantino, &
Blumenthal, 1987). The American Psychological Association’s (2003) multi-
cultural guidelines on education, research, training, practice, and organiza-
tional change further acknowledged the importance of multiculturalism
within the fields of psychology. Within family therapy, researchers have also
long advocated for a more inclusive view of culture (Boyd-Franklin, 2003;
Falicov, 1998; McGoldrick, Giordano, & Garcia-Preto, 2005; Pinsof &
Lebow, 2005; Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1993).

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López 3

Culture plays an important role in mental health treatment for a number of
reasons. The National Institute of Mental Health’s (1999) report titled
Strategic Plan for Reducing Health Disparities cites that one’s cultural
beliefs about the nature of mental illness influence one’s view of the course
and treatment of any condition and that there are differences in how individu-
als from different cultural backgrounds experience and manifest symptoms
of mental illness. Moreover, the report indicates that diagnoses of mental
disorders vary across cultures. In a supplement report from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (2001), the U.S. Surgeon General
concludes that culture moderates various aspects of mental illness—including
manifestation of symptoms, coping styles, family and community support,
and willingness to seek treatment—as well as diagnosis, treatment, and ser-
vice delivery.

Since people learn and display all behavior within a cultural context, to be
effective, an intervention must consider the cultural context of the patient
(Pedersen, 2003). Prior studies have shown differences in how people of
diverse cultures respond to interventions with regard to service utilization
(Arroyo, Westerberg, & Tonigan, 1998; Flaskerud & Liu, 1991; McMiller &
Weisz, 1996), treatment preferences (Aldous, 1994; Constantino, Malgady, &
Rogler, 1994; Penn, Kar, Kramer, Skinner, & Zambrana, 1995), and health
beliefs (McMiller & Weisz, 1996; Penn et al., 1995). A more recent study
using meta-analysis suggests that culturally adapted interventions have a
greater effect than nonadapted, traditional interventions; more cultural adap-
tations lead to better intervention outcomes; and most successful implemen-
tations occur with interventions adapted to the context of a single cultural
group (Smith, Domenech-Rodríguez, & Bernal, 2011).

These findings underscore the critical importance of intervention research
to the advancement of evidence-based psychological practice (Bernal &
Domenech-Rodríquez, 2009). Measures of this importance reflect not only
in the volume of studies published in peer-review journals but also in the
sufficiency of the studies with regard to quality, relevance, and recognized
contributions to the literature. The top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of
family studies published more than 8,000 articles in the prior decade—the
same time period when Hispanics were also the largest, most rapidly grow-
ing ethnic group in the United States. This study contributes to the field of
family studies by using quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze these
articles per journal for empirical evidence that indicates the importance of
Hispanic families within this literature. Further empirical evidence comes
from extending the analysis to 2011. The proposed research is timely in
that no prior study has sufficiently provided scholars and funding organiza-
tions with empirical evidence to identify the research gaps and lines of

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4 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

investigation needed to ensure policy makers, mental health and health pro-
viders, and other stakeholders use the best information to guide social policy
and practice impacting directly Hispanic families.

The precedent for this study came from initial work of Bernal and
Domenech-Rodríquez (2009), which offered a cursory examination of the
psychology literature with regard to studies inclusive of Hispanic families and
children. The following section includes highlights from their work as a pre-
lude to my proposed research. I then outline the methodology and procedures
for the study, followed by a presentation of the results and a discussion of the
findings. The discourse also includes examples to illustrate how researchers
could expand Hispanic family research in select topic areas—relevant to
today’s Hispanic families—but less represented in the Hispanic family
research literature. I conclude with a synthesis of the findings and recommen-
dations that endorse an urgent call-to-action for researchers to move Hispanic
families from outlier to mainstream family research and thereby avert another
lost decade of opportunities for research relevant to the health and welfare of
a growing U.S. Hispanic population.

The Precedent for the Proposed Study

As part of their article introducing the 2009 special issue of Family Process
on advances in Latino family research, Bernal and Domenech-Rodríguez
(2009) examined the entire body of citations cataloged in PsycINFO from
1960 to 2008 for articles on children or families in any field—and for
Hispanics and children or families. Maintained by the American Psychological
Association, the PsycINFO database contains more than 3 million records of
peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health (EBSCO,
2012b). They found that the number of articles on children or families grew
from 18,562 articles in the 1960 to 1969 decade to 157,932 in the time period
2000 to 2008, a growth of 750%. They also found a significant increase in
references on Hispanic children or families from 7 references on Hispanics
and children or families between 1960 and 1969 to 1,256 references in the
time period 2000 to 2008. These Hispanic references, however, only repre-
sented 0.04% and 0.80% of the total references on families and children in
the 1960 to 1969 decade and the time period 2000 to 2008, respectively.

To frame the findings within the context of the special issue, the authors
narrowed the search to the total number of articles published in the Family
Process journal during the past five decades and organized them into the fol-
lowing categories: all articles, culture or ethnicity, and Hispanics. Of the 325
articles published in the time period 2000 to 2008, they identified only 11
articles for the Hispanic category. Of the 891 articles published prior to 2000,

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López 5

the researchers found no articles for the Hispanic category. Bernal and
Domenech-Rodríguez (2009) also explored the Family Process journal pub-
lications for any on culture or ethnicity. They found 1 article published in the
1960 to 1969 decade, 2 in the 1970 to 1979 decade, 4 in the 1980 to 1989
decade, 21 in the 1990 to 1999 decade, and 26 in the time period 2000 to
2008, of which 11 were on Hispanics, as noted earlier. Of the total 1,216
articles published in Family Process over the five decades, the authors found
that only 0.9% related to Hispanics and 4.4% to culture or ethnicity.

In summary, Bernal and Domenech-Rodríguez (2009) found that more
than 99% of the psychological literature during the past five decades did
not reference Hispanics. Similarly, 99% of the articles published between
1960 and 2008 in the Family Process journal were void of any reference to
Hispanics, whereas less than 5% referenced anything to do with culture or
ethnicity. These findings suggest disparity between the available research
within the context of the Hispanic population and its importance as the fast-
est growing ethnic group in the United States. More so, against this vast
backdrop of publications, Hispanic families appear as outliers in main-
stream research.

Hispanic Family Research in Other Prominent Journals

Because their article was an introduction to the Family Process special issue,
the authors’ analysis was limited to a simple count of total articles and
Hispanic-related articles based on their search terms. Still, the Bernal and
Domenech-Rodríguez (2009) article was noteworthy in calling attention to
the dearth of family research within the context of the Hispanic population.
I was most intrigued, however, by the authors’ findings from their keyword
analysis of the prominent journal, Family Process. In this study, I expand
this specific aspect of their research to other prominent journals in the field
of family studies, which provides a summative evaluation of Hispanic fam-
ily research published in sync with the same time period when Hispanics
were the largest, most rapidly growing ethnic group in the United States
(American Community Survey; U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). I then extend
the analysis to 2011, which provides a formative evaluation of Hispanic
family research published at the start of the new decade (2011-2020) com-
pared with the prior decade.

The prominent journals analyzed in the proposed research are the top-15
ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies, based on their 5-year
impact factor, 2006 to 2010, as reported in the 2010 Journal Citation Reports:
Social Sciences Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2011). Expanding the research to
these prominent journals is important. Bernal and Domenech-Rodríguez

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6 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

(2009) based their findings solely on the quantity of Hispanic family research
citations in articles found in the psychology literature but without regard to
quality, relevance, or recognized contributions from these articles to the field
of family studies. Scholars recognize these latter attributes as hallmarks of
the top-15 ranked U.S. journals selected for this study, and therefore, the
findings from this research are likewise within the context of these
attributes.

Method

In replicating the Bernal and Domenech-Rodríguez (2009) research design, I
made a number of refinements to their methodology. The authors used the
terms Latino, Hispanic, and Spanish as keywords in the search process
(Bernal & Domenech-Rodríguez, 2009). In my preliminary searches using
these terms, I found that the “Spanish” keyword referred mostly to family
research in Spain or language-related studies rather than as a proxy for
Hispanic families in the United States. I therefore replaced the “Spanish”
term with the keywords Latina, Chicano, Chicana, and Mexican because I
found that the articles more commonly used these terms in reference to U.S.
Hispanic populations in the family research literature. Moreover, the articles
commonly included the search terms Hispanic, Latino, and Latina to refer-
ence studies on U.S. Hispanic subpopulations (e.g., Cuban, Puerto Rican,
Salvadoran). I also added the asterisk symbol (“*”) as a wildcard to the end
of each search term (e.g., Hispanic*) to include other forms of the terms in
the results. These included the plural form of the terms (e.g., Latinos), as well
as hyphenated terms (e.g., Mexican-American).

The authors also searched for their keywords in any portion of text in peer-
reviewed articles (Bernal & Domenech-Rodríguez, 2009). This meant that
articles with the Hispanic terms found exclusively in the references, or men-
tioned sparsely in the narrative—sometimes only once—were included in
their search results. My search results also included articles with the Hispanic
terms in the references and narrative, but further limited the results to articles
with the terms in the keyword, subject, title, or abstract search fields. This
resulted in retrieved articles relating more closely to Hispanic family research
rather than including articles containing only minor mention of the Hispanic
terms.

To understand further the significance of the findings, I conducted two
content analyses. The journal-level content analysis consisted of identifying
the topics of special issues and sections published by the select journals in the
prior decade and in 2011. My research goals were to determine if the journals
had dedicated any issue or section to the study of Hispanic families and, if so,

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López 7

to identify its topic area. For the research design, I assumed the editors or
guest editors would present the special issue or section in an introduction
article and, therefore, these search terms would be included in its title or
abstract. I also conducted a keyword content analysis of the articles identified
in the prior decade and the articles identified in 2011 that met the Hispanic
search criteria. Here, my research goal was to understand what these articles
represented in terms of their research area (e.g., stress, acculturation, divorce)
within the field of family studies.

Procedures

The top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies based on their
5-year impact factor (2006-2010) came from the 2010 Journal Citation
Reports: Social Sciences Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2011). Family journals
published in other countries (e.g., Australia, England) were not included
because of the unlikelihood of finding research articles within the context of
Hispanic families in the United States. Each journal has an International
Standard Serial Number (ISSN), a unique eight-digit number used to identify
a print or electronic periodical publication. The publisher’s online website for
the journal provided its ISSN.

The next step was to use Academic Search Complete to conduct an inven-
tory of research articles within the context of Hispanic families for each of
the select journals. Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly,
multidisciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodi-
cals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals (EBSCO, 2012a).
The Academic Search Complete database allows users to retrieve articles
based on search words and other criteria. The following procedures (Steps
1-6) retrieve the total articles per journal published between 2001 and 2010.

Instructions to Retrieve All Articles per Journal Published Between 2001 and 2010

1. In the first search box, enter the journal’s ISSN(s) and select “IS ISSN
(No Dashes)” for the field option from the drop down menu. If a jour-
nal has more than one ISSN, enter them in the same box with an “or”
separating each ISSN (e.g., 01903187 or 19440391).

2. Check the box for the “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals” option.
3. In “Published Date from” search option, enter the values 2001 and

2010.
4. In “Document Type” search option, select “Articles” as a filter.
5. Leave other search options to preset defaults.

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8 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

6. Click “Search” to retrieve articles; the results indicate the total num-
ber of articles meeting the search criteria published in the select
journal.

The next procedures (Steps 7-10) retrieve the Hispanic family articles
published between 2001 and 2010.

7. Use the same search instructions (Steps 1-5) shown above.
8. In the second search box, enter the following text string: TI(Hispanic*

or Latino* or Latina* or Mexican* or Chicano* or Chicana*) or
SU(Hispanic* or Latino* or Latina* or Mexican* or Chicano* or
Chicana*) or AB(Hispanic* or Latino* or Latina* or Mexican* or
Chicano* or Chicana*) or KW(Hispanic* or Latino* or Latina* or
Mexican* or Chicano* or Chicana*); use “Select a Field (optional)”
as shown.

9. Link the first and second search boxes by selecting “AND” from the
drop down menu.

10. Click “Search” to retrieve the Hispanic family articles with the search
terms in the title (TI) or subject keyword (SU) or abstract (AB) or
author keyword (KW).

I also identified the number of Hispanic family research articles in the top-
15 ranked U.S. journals published in 2011 by following the same procedures
outlined above with the exception of using “2011” for both date values in
Step 3.

To conduct the journal-level content analysis, I used the 10-step proce-
dures outlined above and linked an additional search box with the “AND”
option and entered the following search string: AB(special issue or special
section) or TI(special issue or special section); no field-box option was
selected. During the search process, I used the Academic Search Complete
save and download features to further review the article titles and detailed
abstracts, eliminate redundant entries from the same journal issue, and iden-
tify the topic area for the special issue or section based on the descriptor
keywords, author-supplied keywords, and the abstract.

To conduct the keyword content analysis of the articles, I reran the 10-step
procedures outlined above and used the Academic Search Complete save and
download features to collect the details of these select articles. An article
consisted of multiple records each containing a prefix code identifying its
content, for example, TI for title, AU for author, AB for abstract. I used SAS
procedures to analyze for each article its descriptor keywords (prefix DE) and
author-supplied keywords (prefix KW). Using the prior decade data, I printed

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López 9

out a list of the keyword phrases produced by the frequency analysis, sorted
by counts in descending order, and identified—from the most frequent to the
least—recurring single-word keywords contained in the phrases. Using SAS
coding techniques, the software program scanned each of the keyword
phrases for these single-word keywords and organized the keyword phrases
into topic areas (e.g., stress, acculturation, divorce). This later process con-
sisted of reiterative steps of reviewing, revising, and recoding to distill the
keyword data. I then used the same process to analyze the keyword phrases
from the 2011 articles based on the Hispanic search terms.

Results

Table 1 shows the results from these procedures for the prior decade. The
bottom two rows of the table show that of the 8,038 total journal articles
published between 2001 and 2010 among the top-15 ranked U.S. journals in
the field of family studies, 370—or 4.6%—met the search criteria for
Hispanic family research. The second column labeled “Journal Articles”
shows the distribution of the 8,038 articles across the journals, while the third
column labeled “% of Total Journal Articles” is the percentage distribution.
The fourth column labeled “Hispanic Articles” shows the distribution across
the top-15 journals of the 370 articles meeting the search criteria for Hispanic
family research, while the fifth column labeled “% of Total Hispanic Articles”
is the percentage distribution. The last column labeled “% of Journal Articles”
shows each journal’s percentage of “Hispanic Articles” of the “Journal
Articles” it published in the prior decade. These results reflect a broad range
among the journals in their publications of Hispanic family research in the
prior decade.

I computed a Pearson correlation coefficient to assess the relationship
among the top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies between
the Journal Articles (M = 535.9, SD = 289.6, N = 15) and the Hispanic Articles
(M = 24.7, SD = 16.6, N = 15) published in the prior decade. The analysis
showed a moderate, positive correlation between the two variables, r(15) =
.53, p = .04, suggesting that in the prior decade, on average, journals with
higher total publications had a higher tendency to publish Hispanic family
research articles, and conversely, journals with lower total publications had a
lower tendency to publish Hispanic family research articles.

The last column labeled “% of Journal Articles” shows each journal’s per-
centage of articles meeting the search criteria for Hispanic family research of
its total articles published in the prior decade. In terms of relative output, the
Journal of Early Adolescence earns special recognition because of its 233
articles published in the prior decade, 15.5% (n = 36) met the search criteria

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10 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

for Hispanic family research—3.5 times the average rate (4.4%) of the other
top-15 ranked U.S. journals.

The “% of Total Hispanic Articles” column is the percentage distribution
of the 370 articles that met the search criteria for Hispanic family research
across the top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies. In terms
of overall percentage contribution to the publication of Hispanic family
research, four journals standout: Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive
Health (14.6%, n = 54), Journal of Marriage and Family (14.3%, n = 53),
Family Relations (10.3%, n = 38), and Journal of Early Adolescence (9.7%,

Table 1. Articles in Prior Decade (2001-2010) Meeting Search Criteria for
Hispanic Family Research From the Top-15 Ranked U.S. Journals in the Field of
Family Studies.a.

2001-2010 Met search criteria

Journal
Journal
Articles

% of total
journal articles

Hispanic
articles

% of Total
Hispanic articles

% of journal
articles

Child Abuse and Neglect 1,027 12.8 24 6.5 2.3
Child Maltreatment 331 4.1 5 1.4 1.5
Family Process 372 4.6 22 5.9 5.9
Family Relations 512 6.4 38 10.3 7.4
Future of Children 150 1.9 12 3.2 8.0
International Perspectives on

Sexual and Reproductive
Healthb

547 6.8 10 2.7 1.8

Journal of Early Adolescence 233 2.9 36 9.7 15.5
Journal of Family Issues 577 7.2 32 8.6 5.5
Journal of Family Psychology 724 9.0 30 8.1 4.1
Journal of Interpersonal

Violence
950 11.8 26 7.0 2.7

Journal of Marriage and Family 944 11.7 53 14.3 5.6
Journal of Research on

Adolescence
297 3.7 24 6.5 8.1

Journal of Sex and Marital
Therapy

429 5.3 2 0.5 0.5

Perspectives on Sexual and
Reproductive Healthc

765 9.5 54 14.6 7.1

Trauma Violence & Abuse 180 2.2 2 0.5 1.1
Total journal articles 8,038 100.0
Total Hispanic articles 370 100.0 4.6

a. Data from Journal Citation Reports: 2010 Social Sciences Edition; ranking based on 5-year
impact factor, 2006 to 2010.
b. International Family Planning Perspectives (ISSN 01903187) prior to 2009.
c. Family Planning Perspectives (ISSN 00147354) prior to 2002.

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López 11

n = 36). These four journals combined generated 181 articles—almost half
(48.9%) of the 370 articles that met the search criteria for Hispanic family
research in the prior decade.

Hispanic Family Research in 2011: At the Start of the New
Decade, 2011 to 2020

Table 2 shows the results from these procedures for 2011. The bottom two
rows of the table show that of the 965 total journal articles published in 2011
among the top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies, 61—or

Table 2. Articles in 2011 Meeting Search Criteria for Hispanic Family Research
From the Top-15 Ranked U.S. Journals in the Field of Family Studies.a.

2011 Met search criteria

Journal
Journal
articles

% of Total
journal articles

Hispanic
articles

% of total
Hispanic articles

% of journal
articles

Child Abuse and Neglect 118 12.2 2 3.3 1.7
Child Maltreatment 28 2.9 1 1.6 3.6
Family Process 36 3.7 3 4.9 8.3
Family Relations 47 4.9 1 1.6 2.1
Future of Children 21 2.2 7 11.5 33.3
International Perspectives on

Sexual and Reproductive
Healthb

43 4.5 1 1.6 2.3

Journal of Early Adolescence 41 4.2 6 9.8 14.6
Journal of Family Issues 70 7.3 3 4.9 4.3
Journal of Family Psychology 108 11.2 6 9.8 5.6
Journal of Interpersonal

Violence
183 19.0 14 23.0 7.7

Journal of Marriage and Family 84 8.7 7 11.5 8.3
Journal of Research on

Adolescence
75 7.8 1 1.6 1.3

Journal of Sex and Marital
Therapy

30 3.1 1 1.6 3.3

Perspectives on Sexual and
Reproductive Healthc

64 6.6 8 13.1 12.5

Trauma Violence & Abuse 17 1.8 0 0.0 0.0
Total journal articles 965 100.0
Total Hispanic articles 61 100.0 6.3

a. Data from Journal Citation Reports: 2010 Social Sciences Edition; ranking based on 5-year
impact factor, 2006 to 2010.
b. International Family Planning Perspectives (ISSN 01903187) prior to 2009.
c. Family Planning Perspectives (ISSN 00147354) prior to 2002.
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12 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

6.3%—met the search criteria for Hispanic family research. The second col-
umn labeled “Journal Articles” shows the distribution of the 965 articles
across the journals, while the third column labeled “% of Total Journal
Articles” is the percentage distribution. The fourth column labeled “Hispanic
Articles” shows the distribution across the top-15 journals of the 61 articles
meeting the search criteria for Hispanic family research, while the fifth col-
umn labeled “% of Total Hispanic Articles” is the percentage distribution.
The last column labeled “% of Journal Articles” shows each journal’s per-
centage of “Hispanic Articles” of the “Journal Articles” it published in the
prior decade. These results reflect a broad range among the journals in their
publications of Hispanic family research in the prior decade.

As before, I computed a Pearson correlation coefficient to assess the rela-
tionship among the top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies
between the total articles per journal (M = 64.3, SD = 44.8, N = 15) and the
Hispanic family research articles per journal (M = 4.1, SD = 3.9, N = 15)
published in 2011. The analysis showed a strong, positive correlation between
the two variables, r(15) = .64, p = .01, suggesting that in 2011, on average,
journals with higher total publications were more likely to publish Hispanic
family research articles, and conversely, journals with lower total publica-
tions were less likely to publish Hispanic family research articles.

The last column labeled “% of Journal Articles” shows each journal’s per-
centage of articles meeting the search criteria for Hispanic family research of
its total articles published in 2011. In terms of relative output, the Future of
Children earns special recognition because of its 21 articles published in
2011, 33.3% (n = 7) met the search criteria for Hispanic family research—7.3
times the average rate (4.6%) of the other top-15 ranked U.S. journals.

The “% of Total Hispanic Articles” column is the percentage distribution
of the 61 articles that met the search criteria for Hispanic family research
across the top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies. In terms
of overall percentage contribution to the publication of Hispanic family
research, four journals standout: Journal of Interpersonal Violence (23.0%, n
= 14), Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health (13.1%, n = 8), fol-
lowed by a tie for third place between Future of Children (11.5%, n = 7) and
Journal of Marriage and Family (11.5%, n = 7). These four journals com-
bined generated 36 articles—or about three fifths (59.0%) of the 61 articles
in 2011 that met the search criteria for Hispanic family research.

I then computed a paired t test to assess the differences among the jour-
nals in their percentages of Hispanic family research articles published in
the prior decade (M = 5.1%, SD = 3.9%, N = 15) compared with 2011 (M =
7.3%, SD = 8.3%, N = 15). The paired t test found no statistical significance
in the Hispanic family research publication rates among the journals between

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López 13

these two time periods, t(14) = 1.13, p = .28. The implication is that the
journals, on average, had not significantly increased their publication rates
of Hispanic family research articles in 2011 compared with that in the prior
decade when Hispanics were the largest, most rapidly growing ethnic group
in the United States.

Content Analysis of Special Issues and Sections

The journal-level content analysis consisted of identifying the topics of spe-
cial issues and sections published by the select journals in the prior decade
and in 2011. Using an online catalog for journal searches, I counted the num-
ber of total issues published in the prior decade and in 2011 for each of the
select journals in this study. Of the 840 issues published among the journals
in the prior decade, 46 (5.5%) were special issues or sections. Of these 46
special editions, only three (6.5%) were devoted to Hispanic families. These
included two Family Process issues (June 2006, Volume 45, Issue 2, and June
2009, Volume 48, Issue 2), both on the topic of cultural adaptation research
and interventions; and a Journal of Early Adolescence issue (February 2009,
Volume 29, Issue 1) on the topic of Latino early adolescents. Of the 95 issues
among the journals in 2011, four (4.2%) published as special issues or sec-
tions—none focused on Hispanic families.

Content Analysis of Articles Based on Hispanic Search Terms

The keyword content analysis indicated that the 370 articles from the prior
decade contained 3,462 keyword records with a mean of 9.4 per article (SD =
3.8, Min = 2, Max = 30). A frequency analysis revealed that 1,401 nondupli-
cate keyword phrases existed among these records with a mean of 2.5 records
for each keyword phrase (SD = 4.4, Min = 1.0, Max = 57). Of the 18 topic
areas distilled from the keyword phrases, the 370 articles were represented
most by race/ethnicity (n = 111, 30.0%), human relations (n = 86, 23.2%),
sex-related health (n = 82, 22.2%), psychological behavior (n = 58, 15.7%),
and spousal abuse (n = 52, 14.1%).

In comparison, the 61 articles from 2011 contained 927 keyword records
with a mean of 16.6 per article (SD = 8.0, Min = 5, Max = 34). A frequency
analysis further showed that 456 nonduplicate keyword phrases existed
among these records with a mean of 2.0 records for each keyword phrase (SD
= 2.6, Min = 1.0, Max = 26). Of the 16 topic areas distilled from the keyword
phrases, the 61 articles were represented most by human relations (n = 19,
31.1%), race/ethnicity (n = 16, 26.2%), domestic abuse (n = 16, 26.2%), and
sex-related health (n = 13, 21.3%).

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Discussion

The findings from this study suggest that Bernal and Domenech-Rodríguez
(2009) may have underestimated the number of Hispanic citations in the psy-
chological literature and in the Family Process journal during the time period
2000 to 2008. The authors found that more than 99% of the psychological
literature and Family Process articles during this time period did not refer-
ence Hispanics. In comparison, the findings from this study revealed that
95.4% of the articles in the top-15 ranked U.S. journals did not reference
Hispanic families. More specifically, 94.1% of the articles did not reference
Hispanic families in the Family Process journal during the prior decade.

In spite of the differences between the Bernal and Domenech-Rodríguez
(2009) and current results, the findings from this study suggest two dimen-
sions of disparity between the available family research within the context of
the Hispanic population—as identified from the search procedures—and its
importance as the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. The first
dimension of disparity is in the quantity of Hispanic family research articles
found among the selected journals in the prior decade. For every Hispanic
family research article identified from the search procedures, on average, the
journals published 20.7 articles not meeting the Hispanic search criteria.
Furthermore, 2011 was only slightly better—for every Hispanic family
research article identified from the search procedures, on average, the jour-
nals published 14.8 not meeting the search criteria. Against this vast back-
drop of publications, the implication is that Hispanic families continue to
appear as outliers in mainstream family research.

The second dimension of disparity is in the quality, relevance, and recog-
nized contributions from the identified Hispanic family research articles to
the field of family studies. These attributes are hallmarks of the top-15 ranked
U.S. journals selected for this study, and therefore, the Hispanic family
research articles found among these journals are likewise within the context
of these attributes. Rather, an issue that lingers is whether these identified
Hispanic family articles are sufficient in representing the full landscape of
family research.

The Journal of Marriage and Family published a set of 21 essays in the
2010 June special issue that reviewed the waterfront of research in the field
over the past 10 years. The seasoned scholars who contributed to this volume
thoroughly and critically reviewed the significant advances (theoretical, empir-
ical, and methodological) in designated areas over the past decade. These 21
areas included the most widely studied topics during the last decade (e.g., par-
enting, marriage, family violence, divorce, and work and family), as well as
timely topics (e.g., immigration and war and terrorism) and understudied

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López 15

populations (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families and families
of color). The journal issue also reported on emerging areas of research with
tremendous potential for family researchers (e.g., biosocial influences on fami-
lies and family policy).

If this study’s select journals represented evenly the 21 topic areas across
the 8,038 articles in the prior decade, this would result, on average, in each
topic area having 365.1 articles outside the context of Hispanic families com-
pared with 17.6 articles within the context of Hispanic families. For the 965
articles published in 2011, the same assumption would result, on average, in
each topic area having 43.0 articles outside the context of Hispanic families
compared with 2.9 articles within the context of Hispanic families. These
comparisons illustrate the insufficiency of Hispanic family research in the
prior decade and in 2011 with regard to quality, relevance, and recognized
contributions to the field of family studies.

The content analysis of special issues and sections also illustrate these
insufficiencies, in that so few of the select journals commissioned an issue or
section specific to Hispanic family research over the prior decade—and none
in 2011. I am not advocating, however, for a massive proliferation of special
issues on Hispanic family research in prestigious journals. Special issues
allow, as intended, the bold steps that spur innovation in important areas of
scholarship researchers might otherwise overlook—but too many special
issues may actually retard knowledge generation (McKinley, 2007; Mowday,
2006; Priem, 2006).

Priem (2006) proposes that whenever a journal commissions a special
issue, our normally open “marketplace,” where new ideas are born and fos-
tered, swings toward a guided “command economy” where ideas are con-
trolled and conform to a journal editor’s agenda. The more special issues
commissioned, the greater this swing. One disconcerting outcome of special
issue proliferation is the unintended “squeezing out” of quality articles on
other topics that otherwise would have appeared in regular issues. Special
issues may also have the unintended outcome of redirecting scholars away
from topics they otherwise would have pursued and instead, toward the spe-
cial issue topics. This effect may continue for many years because research-
ers may focus on extending their work that appeared in the special issue
(Priem, 2006).

Even so, the need for Hispanic family research has never been greater.
Unfortunately, the economy has not yet generated sufficient new jobs for low-
income parents (Aber & Chaudry, 2010). Under these conditions of severe
economic distress, research indicates that parents are unable to invest in their
children’s nutrition, health, and education (Elder, 1999; Kalil & Wightman,
2009) and that parents’ emotional state can become tense resulting in harsh

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16 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

and punitive parenting (Gershoff, Aber, Raver, & Lennon, 2007). In family
environments as these, low-income children are most vulnerable to high levels
of stress that then expresses itself in the form of poor physical and mental
health, low or failing school grades, and gang involvement (American
Psychological Association, 2012).

The keyword content analysis of the articles provide some measure of
where researchers have focused their scholarship in Hispanic family studies
among the 370 and 61 articles that met the search criteria in the prior decade
and 2011, respectively. The content analysis revealed the select articles rep-
resented some topic areas more or less than others. The following three
examples propose how researchers could expand Hispanic family research in
select topic areas—relevant to today’s Hispanic families—but less repre-
sented in the Hispanic family research literature. The first example examines
the research area of assimilation, which had 28 articles (7.6%) in the prior
decade (N = 370) and 7 articles (11.5%) in 2011 (N = 61). The second exam-
ple examines the research area of childhood obesity, which had no article on
this topic in the prior decade (N = 370) and only one article (1.6%) in 2011 (N
= 61). The third example examines the research area of mass violence (war or
terrorism). Here, the content analysis indicated no articles on this topic in the
prior decade (N = 370) or in 2011 (N = 61). Although the author acknowl-
edges the examples do not provide enough details, due to space limitations,
for guiding researchers step-by-step toward implementation, they may serve
sufficiently to illustrate the realm of possibilities for moving Hispanic fami-
lies from outlier to mainstream family research.

Hispanic Immigrant Families: Assimilation

Glick’s (2010) review of research on immigrant families indicates the field
has advanced over the prior decade in understanding the importance of immi-
grants’ selectivity from the sending community, the relevance of assimilation
in family formation patterns, and the processes of individual acculturation
within the context of the family. Immigrant integration—how immigrants
and their families adjust their expectations and family behaviors from the
sending community to realities experienced in the United States—is an
immediate concern for foundations and immigrant-serving organizations
(Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, 2010). Young
immigrant children in particular face a broad array of challenging circum-
stances that make integration difficult. In addition to poverty, racial preju-
dice, and discrimination, these challenging circumstances include high
residential mobility; coping with emotional stresses due to adjustments to
new social norms and a new institutional environment and/or traumas due to

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war, family disruptions, or separations; and inadequate social support for
psychological well-being (Vernez & Abrahamse, 1996).

Poor immigrant children are also more likely to receive limited linguistic
support at home from parents and, therefore, are more often in need of edu-
cational support in school to develop their native language, which enables the
acquisition of English proficiency (McCarthy, 1998). Research shows that
early education programs can prepare immigrant children to enter elementary
school with more advanced English skills, thereby increasing their likelihood
of school and academic success (Magnuson, Lahaie, & Waldfogel, 2006).
Children of immigrant parents, however, have lower rates of preschool
enrollment at ages 3 and 4 than children of nonimmigrant parents (Fortuny,
Hernandez, & Chaudry, 2010). The implication for immigrant children is that
this may hinder future school success and possibly impede their integration
into U.S. society (Hernandez, 2004; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001).

Increasing the enrollment of immigrant children could potentially help
close the gap in school readiness between them and other children (Magnuson
et al., 2006). Understanding how best to achieve this goal is of central interest
to the education community (Brown, Molfese, & Molfese, 2008). Immediate
research on Hispanic immigrant families could contribute to this central inter-
est and improve access to high-quality, early education programs for immi-
grant children within the broader context of K-3 grade (Bogard, Traylor, &
Takanishi, 2008).

Immigrant family research would also benefit from this effort. Glick (2010)
cites that the next challenge in this new decade for researchers is to examine
immigrant family processes in the proper temporal ordering with the migration
process and in synchronicity with the family life cycle. This will require more
detailed data collection of family migration histories, family formation histories,
and conditions in sending and receiving locations. Given its prominent role in
the lives of families, the public school is a logical place where researchers could
carry out these studies. No other institution has as much continuous and inten-
sive contact with children during their first two decades of life (Story, Kaphingst,
& French, 2006). Most children attend schools 180 days per year for 6 or more
hours, making public schools a convenient access point for these data collec-
tions that would provide a more comprehensive understanding of how migration
affects Hispanic immigrant families and their future generations.

Hispanic Families and Health: Childhood Obesity

Carr and Springer’s (2010) review of research on families and health in the
prior decade converges on the association of health to family structure, pro-
cess, and context based on relationships; the nature and timing of one’s

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18 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

transition in or out of a family status; and resources available prior to, during,
and after transition. Recent studies have also identified specific interpersonal
interactions that adversely affect child and adult health. Researchers in these
studies note, however, that training programs in building healthy relation-
ships among parents and other family members can improve these interac-
tions (Halford, Markman, & Stanley, 2008).

Public schools are a natural place for interventions aimed at controlling
and preventing childhood obesity. The vast majority of schools nationwide
participate in the National School Lunch Program, and of these schools, more
than three quarters also offer the School Breakfast Program (Crepinsek &
Fox, 2004). Moreover, schools have unique venues to promote physical
activity like physical education classes, recess time, competitive and non-
competitive sports, and programs like dance classes, running events, and
walking clubs (Peterson & Fox, 2007).

The body of high-quality research on the effectiveness of school-based
interventions to prevent or reduce obesity, however, provides limited evi-
dence for researchers to understand clearly how to structure and implement
interventions in schools to achieve maximum effect (Katz et al., 2005;
Peterson & Fox, 2007). What researchers do know is that parents are essen-
tial to changing their children’s behaviors associated with obesity (Golan &
Crow; 2004; Resnikow & Vaughn, 2006; Story et al., 2006).

Several decades of research has revealed that, as in other areas of childhood
development, parents act as powerful socialization agents (Cullen et al., 2001;
Hardy, Wadsworth, & Kuh, 2000; Young, Fors, & Hayes, 2004). Parents’ deci-
sions determine their children’s opportunities for recreation and physical activ-
ities, as well as about food availability in the home, shaping their children’s
dietary practices (Savage, Orlet-Fisher, & Birch, 2007). Thus, parents set the
family’s health practices, which may promote an “obesigenic” home environ-
ment encouraging obesity in their children (Golan & Crow, 2004). School-
based childhood obesity programs can influence a family’s health practices by
educating parents on making healthier choices and by connecting them to com-
munity resources to support healthier lifestyle changes (Peterson & Fox, 2007).

Carr and Springer (2010) state that interdisciplinary teams of researchers
have begun to investigate the complex ways demographic, socioeconomic,
biological, psychosocial, and genetic factors link family structures and pro-
cesses to health outcomes over the life course. The authors expect researchers
will make advances in these areas in this new decade by using cutting-edge
quantitative research methods; by relying on qualitative methods to investi-
gate in depth the distinctive ways families affect health in underresearched
subpopulations; and by developing concepts, measures, and models to link
family roles and processes to specific health outcomes.

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López 19

Researchers could accelerate this process by conducting evidence-based
research with Hispanic families to validate the effects of interventions on spe-
cific health outcomes (e.g., heart disease, cancer, diabetes, child attention-
deficit hyperactivity disorder, asthma) within the context of a dyadic research
design. In such a design, all family members participate in the data collection
to estimate how much each person’s health outcome is associated with the oth-
ers’ health behavior (Carr & Springer, 2010). Thus, researchers would include
in these studies collections of genetic and qualitative data from Hispanic family
members to explore the relative contributions of genetic and social influences
on health. As cited earlier, public schools are a convenient access point for data
collections on families because most children attend schools 180 days per year
for 6 or more hours. Similarly, public schools would provide optimum places
for researchers to implement dyadic research designs, thereby resulting in a
more comprehensive understanding into the health of Hispanic families.

Hispanic Families in the Context of Mass Violence: Terrorism

MacDermid-Wadsworth’s (2010) review of research on family risk and resil-
ience in the context of mass violence describes how the prior decade intro-
duced families around the world to increases in preemptive war, large-scale
attacks on civilians, and global instability. The author cites that most of the
family research during this time period focused on the psychological impact
of trauma rather than in understanding the complexities of families’ experi-
ences with mass violence and the processes for avoiding long-term negative
consequences to individual health and family relationships. Mass violence
itself is the source of this research disparity. Because of dangerous and unsta-
ble circumstances, most researchers conduct studies when conditions have
begun to improve rather than when family challenges are most critical
(McGinn, 2000). Researchers do not therefore have a complete understand-
ing of family experiences under conditions of mass violence in ways that
acknowledge not just the family’s vulnerability but also resilience and diver-
sity (Barber, 2008). To advance the field, new research is needed that exam-
ines how family dynamics interact with individual psychological health and
other factors to prevent trauma, minimize illness, and support family func-
tioning, as well as the biological aspects of trauma and how they interact with
family relationships (MacDermid-Wadsworth, 2010).

Yet the need to understand Hispanic families’ experiences within the context
of mass violence is urgent—here in the United States along the Mexico border.
In 2006, the Mexican government of Felipe Calderón launched a military
offensive against the country’s drug cartels. This sparked vicious turf wars
among rival groups over coveted trafficking routes along the U.S.–northern

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20 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

Mexico border. Across from El Paso, Texas, for example, the border city of
Ciudad Juárez experienced in 2010 higher levels of violence because of the
drug cartels. The cartels’ violence fueled an increase in criminal offences, par-
ticularly kidnappings, extortion, and threats, often carried out on the cartels’
behalf. Gun battles were common on the city’s streets even during the day, and
businesses refusing to pay the cartels’ “fees” had their premises burned down.
Of Mexico’s homicides in 2010, 28% took place in Juárez and the city’s homi-
cide rate rose to the equivalent of 200 per 100,000 people making it the most
violent in the world. Over the past 3 years, these violent conditions in Juárez
have resulted in 116,000 abandoned homes and 11,000 closed businesses.
Between 2007 and 2009, some 110,000 displaced individuals fled to the
Mexican states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, and Veracruz, while an addi-
tional estimated 55,000 people left for El Paso, Texas, and 68,000 for other
U.S. cities (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2010).

MacDermid-Wadsworth’s (2010) article is therefore timely for advocating
the expansion of Hispanics in family research within the context of mass vio-
lence. Researchers need theoretical perspectives that within the context of mass
violence connect the mechanisms of daily life and family functioning within
the broader community infrastructure and cultural norms (Murthy, 2007). They
also need to develop theory-driven models that explain variations among indi-
viduals and families to gain insights on how to prevent mass violence—or at
the very least minimize the effects on families in its aftermath.

The author concludes the review article by inviting the reader “to find a
global challenge more worthy of researchers’ attention than preventing and
minimizing families’ misery and preparing and supporting their resilience
whenever and wherever they are confronted by mass violence” (MacDermid-
Wadsworth, 2010, p. 553). In so doing, researchers should remember that
families in misery from mass violence are sometimes no farther away than in
our own backyard. Displaced Mexican families live among us—invisible in
our communities from fear of deportation. Others reside in cartel-influenced
border towns where, if feasible, they enroll their children across the border in
the safety of U.S. public schools. Researchers studying these displaced fami-
lies and their children attending our public schools would actualize
MacDermid-Wadsworth’s (2010) global challenge—a worthy contribution to
the welfare of Hispanics seeking refuge in the United States.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The top-15 ranked U.S. journals in the field of family studies published more
than 8,000 articles in the prior decade—the same time period when Hispanics
were also the largest, most rapidly growing ethnic group in the United States.

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López 21

This study contributed to the field of family studies by using quantitative and
qualitative methods to analyze these articles per journal for empirical evi-
dence that indicated the importance of Hispanic families within this litera-
ture. Further empirical evidence came from extending the analysis to 2011.
The evidence presented suggested insufficiency of Hispanic family research
with regard to quantity, quality, relevance, and recognized contributions to
the field of family studies. The content analysis of special issues and sections
also illustrated these insufficiencies, in that so few of the select journals com-
missioned an issue or section specific to Hispanic family research over the
prior decade—and none in 2011.

Despite the consequential risks from massive proliferation of special
issues (Priem, 2006), the findings suggest ample room in the top-15 ranked
U.S. journals in family studies for special issues on Hispanic family research.
These elite journals would serve us best, however, by being selective when
commissioning special issues on Hispanic family research. Here, the journal
editors might convene to launch joint or collaborative special issues on
Hispanic family research that complement—rather than compete for—each
other’s topic areas. This would allow researchers to take the bold steps to
expand Hispanic family research while preserving the open “marketplace”
for ideas (Priem, 2006). Concurrently, funding organizations might also col-
laborate to coordinate a portion of their research awards to initiate this
research effort.

In comparison, the keyword content analysis showed some topic areas
more or less represented than others among the 370 and 61 articles focused
on Hispanic family research in the prior decade and 2011, respectively.
Immigrant assimilation, childhood obesity, and mass violence due to the
U.S.–Mexico border drug war were some of the topic areas less represented
but very relevant to today’s Hispanic families. Examples illustrated the realm
of possibilities—within these topic areas—for moving Hispanic families
from outlier to mainstream family research. The author acknowledges that
studies of these topics may exist in prestigious journals for other fields, as
listed in the 2010 Journal Citation Reports: Social Sciences Edition (Thomson
Reuters, 2011). Some of the 56 fields listed in the edition include, for exam-
ple, demographics, health, and psychiatry, which may have journals that pub-
lish studies related to immigrant assimilation, childhood obesity, and mass
violence, respectively. Thus, the findings in this study may be incomplete
until future research extends the analysis to other fields. In spite of this limi-
tation, this study’s contributions to the field of family research are rooted
firmly within a broader historical context.

In the early days of evaluation in the fields of health and social work was
the guiding question: “Does an intervention work?” Then in 1967, Gordon L.

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22 Journal of Family Issues XX(X)

Paul expanded on this question and, as a challenge to researchers, asked:
“What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual, with that
specific problem, and under which set of circumstances?” His intent was to
clarify more clearly the context in which the intervention worked or did not
work, given that interventions operated within the needs and situation of the
person receiving treatment.

In an attempt to address portions of Paul’s guiding question, researchers advo-
cated for many years the inclusion of human factors like gender, sexual orienta-
tion, and disability in intervention evaluation (Boyd-Franklin, 2003; Falicov,
1998; McGoldrick et al., 2005; Pinsof & Lebow, 2005; Szapocznik & Kurtines,
1993). They often excluded, however, the human factor of culture—as a con-
struct for ethnicity—from such discourse (Bernal et al., 2003; McGoldrick &
Hardy, 2008; Wampold, 2001). The reasons were partly due to their difficulty in
defining the concept of “culture” and in how to transform such a construct into
measures that could predict outcomes or explain behaviors or attitudes. Thus,
little research considered the interactive effects of culture with race, language,
and socioeconomic status, among other variables, on the treatment outcomes.

Family research is crucial to resolving these disparities more so today than
45 years ago when Paul (1967) proposed his question as a challenge to
researchers. The long-term expected outlook is for the Hispanic population to
change U.S. demographics in ways that will only increase demand for social
services and interventions. This is why Hispanic family research must prog-
ress beyond the prior decade. I appeal urgently to researchers to move
Hispanic families from outlier to mainstream research to ensure policy mak-
ers, social service providers, and other stakeholders use the best information
to guide social policy and practice.

To consider the complexities of human factors such as culture, researchers
will need to develop appropriate psychometric instruments, and interventions
may require translation, adaptation, or major revision based on the context of
the Hispanic population in the study (Bernal, 2006; Bravo, 2003). Moreover,
researchers will need to develop multicultural and Spanish language compe-
tency to work successfully with Hispanic families and children. Researchers
may see these challenges as daunting, but the return on this effort will move
Hispanic families from outlier to mainstream family research, averting
another lost decade of opportunities for research relevant to the health and
welfare of a growing U.S. Hispanic population.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Dr. Nancy Chavkin for her exceptional advice on an early draft of
the study; the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments; and Ms. Marta
López for her pragmatic revisions to the final manuscript.

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López 23

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publi-
cation of this article.

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