‘I Promise’ Video Campaign Supports Better Neighborhoods
Jul 1st
The “I Promise” video campaign, from The Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, features video vignettes of people’s personal commitment to ensuring that all children have the opportunities and supports to thrive, grow and succeed.
Watch the videos here or learn more from the video below:
“I Promise” Video Montage from PolicyLink on Vimeo.
Latino Kids More Likely to be Bullies?
May 5th
Hispanic and black kids had a higher risk of being bullies than white kids, as did those whose mothers reported mental health issues, according to a new study, HealthDay reports.
About 15 percent of kids overall were identified as bullies.
The study indicates that parents can play an important role in preventing their children from becoming bullies by helping them with homework and getting to know their friends.
“Improving parent-child communication and parental involvement with their children could have a substantial impact on child bullying,” study author Dr. Rashmi Shetgiri, a pediatrician and researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, told HealthDay.
Read more here.
Event to Tout ‘Hope for Latino Children’ to Policy-makers
Apr 6th
The National Latino Children’s Institute (NLCI), in partnership with the National Education Association (NEA), Southwest Airlines and Univision, is hosting a national forum April 28 in Washington, D.C., for young Latinos, Latino advocates and policy-makers to develop strategies and solutions for healthy schools and communities.
The forum, Building a Nation of Hope for Latino Children, will convene NCLI’s national network of Latino children’s service providers, including stay-inschool programs, after school programs, health care, mentoring and tutoring, etc. This network, La Promesa (the promise of a bright future) will develop a joint advocacy agenda with and on behalf of Latino children. This forum will provide youth and stakeholders with the opportunity to dialogue directly with policy-makers, media representatives, funders and other national and local leaders.
Participants will present their recommendations to Congress and other policy-makers April 29, 2010.
For fourm details, go here.
Latinos Twice as Likely to be Food Insecure
Feb 18th
Latino households have twice as high a food insecurity rate (17.9%) than non-Hispanic white households (8.2%), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Acceso Hispano reports.
Food insecurity refers to the availability of food and a lack of access to it.
Acceso Hispano, reporting on a presentation by National Council of La Raza President and CEO Janet Murguia, indicates that Latino homes with children have even higher rates of food insecurity (21.6%).
While the typical non-Hispanic White U.S. household spends $45 per person each week for food, Hispanic households spend 25% less, just $33 weekly per person.
A survey in the Journal of Nutrition found that some of the consequences of food insecurity include hunger pangs, fatigue, lack of concentration at school, low work capacity, stress, disrupted household dynamics, and distorted means of food acquisition and management.
Families will go to great lengths to keep their children from going hungry, which is why it is so alarming that many Latino children do not have adequate resources for a nutritious diet. Food insecure children are twice as likely to be in fair or poor health.
Read more here.
Hispanic, Black Kids Spend More Time With Media Than Whites
Feb 16th
The amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth, according to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Hispanic and black children consume nearly 4-and-a-half hours more media daily (13:00 of total media exposure for Hispanics, 12:59 for blacks, and 8:36 for whites).
Some of the largest differences are in TV viewing: black children spend nearly 6 hours and Hispanics just under 5-and-a-half hours, compared to roughly 3-and-a-half hours a day for white youths.
“Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds” is the third in a series of large-scale, nationally representative surveys by the Foundation about young people’s media use. It includes data from all three waves of the study (1999, 2004, and 2009), and is among the largest and most comprehensive publicly available sources of information about media use among American youth.
Latino Children Might Receive Different Pain Treatment Than Whites
Feb 4th
A new study found that differences might exist in the amount of pain medicine given to Latino and white children after surgery, according to a Health Behavior News Service report.
The study, which appears in the February issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, found thay Latino children received 30 percent less opioid analgesics (i.e., morphine-like drugs) than white children did.
Here’s an excerpt from the news report:
During surgery, administration of non-opioid analgesics (such as acetaminophen) and opioid analgesics was similar between Latino and white children, said lead study author Nathalia Jimenez, M.D., of Seattle Children’s Hospital. However, the significant difference after surgery suggests that pain treatment in children has some correlation with the patient’s ethnicity, according to the authors.
“The population in the United States is changing. Twenty-five percent of all the kids are Latino,” Jimenez said. “This is a little window to see how different people are treated or react differently to pain.”
And another excerpt on the possible reason for the disparity:
The difference in treatment might have been due to communication difficulties between the health care providers and the patients and their families, according to the researchers, who also suggested that Latino children might need smaller amounts of opioid analgesics after surgery, perhaps due to biological factors.