1. Sandra Ventura: See Research Poster Here

Speaking is an important part of a child’s development. It’s more than just a tool to communicate, it’s also the primary way that people create lasting connections with one another. When a child struggles to develop school readiness and language skills, they’re usually given a screening that helps clinicians understand if intervention should take place. For primarily Spanish-speaking children, there is a lack of intervention. Existing literature provides evidence that there is a high amount of misdiagnosis for primarily Spanish-speaking bilingual children. Being misunderstood by adults can lead to a lot of stress for a child and in the long term, it can lead to adverse outcomes. My research question looks at how many families use referrals to seek support for their child’s development. Findings from this study could inform changes in developmental screening tools so that they can be more accurate for primarily Spanish-speaking children. Providing more support for children’s development could help them succeed in school, engage in society, and lessen the amount of trauma they’ll experience throughout their lifetime.

2. Aurora Rochin: See Research Poster Here

Many people associate household chaos with disorganization, loud noises, and unpredictability. However, in recent years scholars have acknowledged that household chaos cannot be defined so simply for many families. Whereas some families may find loud, messy environments to be stressful and overwhelming, others embrace and even thrive in them. The experience of household chaos can have tremendous effects on parent-child relationships and interactions. For example, a parent who is feeling overwhelmed by their environment may be less engaging with their child. I am interested in determining the relationship between household chaos and parenting characteristics such as warmth, hostility, and directiveness in culturally diverse environments. Using a combination of LENA audio recordings, parenting measures, and parent-reported household chaos, findings from this study will expand our understanding of chaos in the home and how it affects parenting, discipline, and relationships with children in the home.

3. Venise Shaw: See Research Poster Here

Mothers are typically viewed as “the” parent for all things meal-related, but what about fathers? In Jansen et al (2020), many of the fathers who participated in that study said that the mothers assumed greater responsibilities concerning meals and mealtimes. Research is lacking regarding the level of fathers’ involvement in mealtimes with young children. I’m interested in examining how fathers are involved during family mealtimes, specifically, how they use controlling and/or autonomy-promoting practices, including nutrition education and negotiation. This is important because the division of labor has proven benefits in the business world, but its influence in the home has not been widely researched. Mealtimes provide an atmosphere for socialization around food and are influenced by routines, rituals, and behaviors, and each parent plays a distinctive role. The direct or indirect contributions of fathers during mealtime warrants further research, as children of engaged and present fathers during meals exhibit higher self-esteem, along with enhanced cognitive, social, and emotional development.

4. Rod Bezanilla Davila: See Research Poster Here

Chaos in the home—noise, disparate schedules, etc.—can negatively affect child development and adversely impact the child-parent relationship. Stressors such as chaos can also impact one’s physical and mental health. The cultural components of parents’ perception of chaos in the Latinx community can be crucial to determining what factors play a significant role in household chaos. My research question is: What is the concordance between objective and subjective measures of chaos in the home? We will obtain critical and concrete data through one-on-one parent interviews, questionnaires, and LENA recordings (a wearable device that collects information about a child’s language and listening environment). How we define the root causes of chaos in a family home is vital to creating solid solutions to diminish its harmful effects.

5. Ikram Mohamed: See Research Poster Here

There is not much information about the role of fathers during mealtimes as it is rarely investigated because mothers are typically seen as the primary caregiver. My research question asks college students to report on their father’s involvement during mealtimes when they were children, and on their father’s feeding practices. My question investigates how college students’ reports may be related to their own current healthy or problematic eating behaviors. My research question is important because it examines the future effects of paternal choices and behaviors about food options on children in their early adulthood. By conducting this study, I hope to learn about the positive or negative effects of a father’s presence or absence at the dinner table.

6. Kani Mirza: See Research Poster Here

Family interactions during mealtimes are powerful times for parents to engage in socialization behaviors with their children, and their feeding practices are an effective way to look at parent-child relationships. Chaos in the family can have a detrimental effect on a child’s functioning (Fulkerson, 2019), and in turn may cause controlling and coercive parental feeding practices which implicates further negative effects within a child’s development. With that said, I am interested in exploring the connection between household chaos and parental feeding practices. Specifically, is household chaos related to more controlling or coercive parental behaviors during mealtime? Through the use of coded LENA recordings and self-reports of family chaos, we will be identifying coercive or autonomy-promoting feeding practices among parents, as well as measuring the children’s verbal responses (through the indication of crying, fussiness, or food refusal). With these findings, we will be evaluating their connection to parent-reported measures of household chaos. Every child deserves a healthy home food environment and recognizing the impact of the external environment on parental child feeding practices is the first step. We may not be able to change a parent’s level of education or socioeconomic status, but with this research we hope to support parents in managing household chaos and fostering responses to supplement children’s healthy development and positive eating behaviors.

7. Enrico Young: See Research Poster Here

Bilingualism is often seen as an asset when joining the US workforce, but this skill is perceived very differently as Latinx/Hispanic children begin school. Hispanic children are often unfamiliar with the language of instruction which puts them at risk for lower academic achievement –especially as it relates to literacy skills. I am interested to know if this disparity experienced by these children can be diminished through early interventions. My current research involves identifying markers in their early language skills which are predictive of academic achievement. I believe this academic disparity can be better understood by identifying these early language predictors to implement interventions that will strengthen children’s early English language skills.

8. Melissa Ulloa: See Research Poster Here

Individual culture and home environment are part of an eco-cultural context. One element of eco-cultural context is daily family activities and routines at home. Under a cultural lens, the daily activities, interactions, and environments in a home may be perceived differently by different people. For example, one might feel that a noisy home is a chaotic environment that causes stress. Conversely, another might perceive noise as a cheerful feature of the home environment. Due to this subjectivity, my research question is as follows: What do Latinx mothers perceive as chaotic in their home environment, activities, and routines? My research method will include Latinx mothers’ responses to an interview that includes questions about their home activities and interactions. This study on the perceptions of chaos is crucial to learn about Latinx families’ environments and interactions. In addition, my project allows the Latinx community to be heard and to share aspects about their culture that may not be known. Lastly, this work will contribute to further research into children’s development, the effects of noise, language acquisition, parent and children interaction, and parenting stress among Latinx families using an eco-cultural context.

9. Giselle Reyes: See Research Poster Here

Our research is focused on behaviors that revolve around the family mealtime, and I am researching mealtimes in the context of gender socialization. We already know that gender socialization begins early in childhood, and that parents play an important role in showing children what are appropriate behaviors for their gender assigned at birth. There is also plenty of research showing what adults and adolescents think are appropriate eating behaviors for women versus men, but not as much is known about how these beliefs develop during childhood. My question is focused on what kinds of foods and portion sizes parents think are appropriate for their children, and what are their motivations behind those decisions. For this research, parents will complete a task where they create a meal for two children—a 3-year-old and 10-year-old boy or girl—and then respond to questions about their motivations behind the types of food and portion sizes they selected for these meals. We anticipate that this research will give us some insight into what parents think are appropriate meals for their children at different ages, and what roles this may play into their children’s gender socialization.

10. Paloma Salas: See Research Poster Here