Quality of Life and Psychological Well-Being in a Bicultural Latino Community

A telephone survey was made of 270 randomly selected adults of Hispanic origin to determine the characteristics of welladjusted "Latinos" residing within San Francisco's Mission District, a bicultural/bilingual urban milieu. Five areas were investigated: (a) sample demographics, (b) acculturation, (c) quality of life components, (d) psychological well-being, and (e) depression levels. Latinos of 18 national origins were represented. The best-adjusted Latinos (satisfied with their lives and subjectively happy) were bicultural, although oriented more toward the Latino culture than the Anglo culture. The sample quality of life depended upon determiners similar to that of the United States mainstream culture: family, work, having children, physical health, education, spouse relationship, and religion. However, the determiners of their satisfaction were discrepant from those of a national sample. Levels of overall psychological well-being were not significantly different for the Latinos when compared to national samples. However, depression levels and negative affect were higher than those reported for non-Latino samples. Utilizing input from the Latino community itself in order to construct a definition of psychological adjustment facilitated the development of a culturally sensitive scale of psychological adjustment. The well-adjusted Latinos when compared to the least well-adjusted Latinos had (a) better paying jobs, (b) a better education, (c) more years lived in the United States, and (d) higher levels of acculturation.

Cortisol and response to dexamethasone as predictors of withdrawal distress and abstinence success in smokers

BACKGROUND

Glucocorticoids have been linked to self-administration of a wide range of drugs in animals and are increased endogenously by chronic nicotine intake. Corticosteroids have also been shown to regulate nicotine receptor sensitivity and to be involved in behavioral sensitization to nicotine.

METHODS

Cortisol levels and cortisol suppression in response to dexamethasone were measured in a sample of smokers participating in a smoking cessation treatment trial.

RESULTS

Cortisol levels dropped significantly during the early quitting process (2 weeks post-quit) and returned to a level below baseline 1 month post-quit. The magnitude of the initial drop in cortisol was strongly related to post-quit distress and marginally predictive of abstinence. Neither baseline nor post-quit changes in percent cortisol suppression after dexamethasone were related to abstinence success or withdrawal distress.

CONCLUSIONS

Withdrawal from cigarette smoking is marked by a reduction in cortisol levels that appears to be related to the degree of distress experienced during the early quitting period. Further work is needed to determine whether withdrawal-related cortisol changes or distress are predictive of abstinence success.