Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez

Utah State University | USU · Department of Psychology

This study examines the impact of different types of intergroup contact with diverse others on students’ cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. An undergraduate multicultural psychology course required direct intergroup contact by attending at least three multicultural events every semester. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, this requireme...

Microaggressions are hurtful interpersonal interactions that pathologize minoritized identities and affect the well-being of people of color (POC) and can contribute to racial trauma. Research thus far has focused on college students and therapy clients. Little research has focused on the experiences of POC who are training as mental health service...

Whether Latinx families use youth mental health services (MHS) depends on complex influences of barriers and facilitators within and outside of the home. This research sought to shed light on caregiver strain as part of the equation focused on parental identification and responses to youth mental health needs. We examined multiple dimensions of car...

Caregiver strain or stress directly related to caring for a youth with emotional and/or behavioral problems may be an important and understudied cultural factor associated with mental health disparities among Latinx families. Caregiver strain is a highly relevant construct for research questions focused on the identification of youth's mental healt...

E-cigarette use among adolescents is a national health epidemic spreading faster than researchers can amass evidence for risk and protective factors and long-term consequences associated with use. New technologies, such as machine learning, may assist prevention programs in identifying at risk youth and potential targets for intervention before ado...

For those teaching courses on charged, personal, and/or politicized topics, the ability to grade students with minimized grading bias may be particularly relevant. This study examined this issue in a multicultural psychology course, by comparing students’ course grades to their scores on measures of cultural competence. Pedagogical strategies emplo...

The mere mention of Institutional Review Board (IRB) in an academic context elicits eye rolls and groans from the uninitiated to highly experienced researchers. IRB champions make important arguments about ethics review origins in human rights violations carried out in the name of scientific discovery. In this chapter we will provide some of that h...

In the face of harmful disparities and inequities, it is crucial for researchers to critically reflect on methodologies and research practices that can dismantle systems of oppression, accommodate pluralistic realities, and facilitate opportunities for all communities to thrive. Historically, knowledge production for the sciences has followed a col...

A lack of validated measures to examine barriers to youth telepsychology services among Latinx families limits research that could identify targets for reducing mental health disparities. We developed and validated the Latinx Barriers to Accessing Telepsychology Services (Latinx BATS) questionnaire, a brief multidimensional measure for caregivers o...

Psychologists are positioned to help address societal and public health crises in beneficial ways, including collectively working with public sectors to serve marginalized communities. This article highlights the relevance of helping to address societal and public health crises with collectivistic psychological leadership approaches and uses Latinx...

Objectives: This pilot study evaluated the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on teacher stress and coping as well as students’ prosocial classroom behavior. This study also explored the implementation fidelity and social validity of this MBI with teachers. Methods: This study used a single-case multiple baseline design across four...

Objectives: This pilot study evaluated the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on teacher stress and coping as well as students’ prosocial classroom behavior. This study also explored the implementation fidelity and social validity of this MBI with teachers. Methods: This study used a single-case multiple baseline design across four e...

Caregiver acceptance and rejection is crucial to the well-being of LGBTQ people. Research shows that caregivers are affected by having an LGBTQ child/family member, yet studies have neglected to capture the experiences of Latinx caregivers. We present the development and initial validation of the LGBTQ Caregiver Acceptance Scale (LCAS) with a Latin...

E-cigarette use among adolescents is a national health epidemic spreading faster than researchers can amass evidence for risk and protective factors and long-term consequences associated with use. New technologies, such as machine learning, may assist prevention programs in identifying at-risk youth and potential targets for intervention before ado...

El estigma asociado o la vergüenza interiorizada entre los familiares de personas con afecciones estigmatizantes puede ser un factor importante que influye en las conductas de búsqueda de ayuda entre las personas cuidadoras latinxs de jóvenes con problemas de salud mental. Mediante la Escala de Estigma Asociado se evalúan las dimensiones afectiva,...

Background Implementing evidence-based programs in community service settings introduces the challenge of ensuring sustained fidelity to the original program. We employ a fidelity measure based on direct observation of practitioners’ competence and adherence to the evidence-based parenting program (EBPP) GenerationPMTO following installation in nat...

Latinx families face unique barriers to accessing traditional youth mental health services and may instead rely on a wide range of supports to meet youth emotional or behavioral concerns. Previous studies have typically focused on patterns of utilization for discrete services, classified by setting, specialization, or level of care (e.g., specialty...

Within the United States (U.S.), the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted critical inequalities affecting undocumented communities and resulting in particularly heightened stress for members of these communities. In addition to the stress associated to COVID-19, immigrants in the U.S. were more than ever subjected to a hostile anti-immigrant climate under...

(This is available free as a full-text online manuscript at https://www.psichi.org/page/274JNWinter2022 ) This article is an updated version of Hughes et al.’s (2016) article, which encouraged authors to think about and update the demographic questions they use in their research surveys. Hughes et al. (2016) wrote the original article because they...

The variety of possible suboptimal long-term outcomes associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when left unsupported highlights the importance of timely and accurate identification followed by intervention. Though considerations of race and ethnicity are essential to service delivery, disparities in ADHD identification and in...

The dissemination of evidence‐based parent training (PT) interventions remains extremely limited in Latin American countries. This is concerning when considering the high prevalence of child maltreatment associated with punitive parenting practices across countries in the region. Furthermore, efforts to disseminate PT interventions must be conducte...

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) offers temporary administrative relief from deportation for undocumented immigrant adolescents and young adults who were brought as children to the United States. Accordingly, DACA has contributed to creating a different landscape of opportunities for this group. However, DACA has been and continues to...

Objective: Latinx asylum-seeking families report posttraumatic distress that is 161-204% higher than in nonimmigrants, with adverse consequences for health and well-being. Recent U.S. policies have further embedded trauma in the asylum-seeking process by forcing families to remain in Mexico, enduring dire living conditions in tent encampments near...

Measuring cultural competence has been difficult for conceptual and practical reasons. Yet, professional guidelines and stated values call for training to improve cultural competence. To develop a strong evidence-base for training and improving cultural competence, professionals need reliable and valid measures to capture meaningful changes in cult...

The topic of immigration is timely yet polarizing. By definition, to be an immigrant implies being in a state of transition and transformation. The eventual outcome is likely to be influenced by a series of contextual factors starting in the country of origin, continuing during the migration journey, and culminating in receiving communities. The au...

Background Knowledge regarding barriers faced by Latina/o/x caregivers in accessing youth mental health services (MHS) have largely depended on resource intensive interview-based assessments. Objective We evaluated a questionnaire for Latina/o/x caregivers of youths that presents a briefer and more feasible alternative. Method We conducted a psyc...

Objective: The Latinx immigrant youth population composes nearly a quarter of all children in the U.S. and are a high-risk group for police encounters. Based on perceptions of Latinxs as criminals, increased enforcement actions against Latinxs in the U.S., and failures of policing and police brutality in immigrants' home countries, we expected tha...

Background Previous research shows that Multicultural Psychology courses can produce significant improvements in students’ cultural competence-related attitudes in in-person and online courses. Objective We evaluated the impact of adding a skills-focused group assignment (i.e., Difficult Dialogues) to an online asynchronous Multicultural Psycholog...

Immigrants represent a numerous, and substantially underserved, community of over 44 million people in the U.S., including 700,000 recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (Batalova et al., 2020). Opportunities for competency training in professional psychology to serve this community, however, are scarce, both within...

Objective: This study examined the association between immigration legal status and distress from the announcement of the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program among individuals affected by this potentially traumatic event (PTE), along with identifying relevant risk factors. Method: Participants (N = 233) affected...

Undocumented Latinx immigrants (ULIs) comprise a large segment of the U.S. population, yet they remain at high risk for diminished health outcomes due to increased exposure to adverse experiences and context. Transnational family separation and the distress that accompanies it is an example of a common adverse experience that is chronic and that im...

Multicultural theorists argue that identity development theories fail to capture experiences of ethnic and sexual minorities. This study represents a preliminary investigation into patterns of identification, values, attitudes, behaviors, and sense of belonging of LGBTQ+ ethnic minorities. Ninety-three ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ adults (Mage = 25.3...

Over the past decade, there has been increased attention to the benefits of an integrated health-care care model in which psychologists play a vital role collaborating with other health providers to deliver services in inpatient medical settings, such as emergency departments and acute care medical units. Psychologists working in inpatient medical...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can impact student Domenech Rodríguezs' academic, social, and behavioral outcomes. To improve student outcomes, schools regularly identify students with ADHD and develop relevant educational programming. However, the extant research that supports these practices underrepresents racially and ethnically...

Living under chronic uncertainty, fear, and isolation is the experience of many undocumented immigrants particularly under the recent sociopolitical climate. Yet, despite facing chronic adversity and an uncertain future, undocumented immigrants are highly resilient. This paper draws upon the clinical and research expertise of leading Latinx psychol...

Low-income Latina/o immigrants are very likely to experience intense contextual challenges in the USA, such as limited exposure to culturally relevant parent training (PT) prevention interventions. This prevention study consisted of an exploratory randomized controlled trial, aimed at empirically testing the implementation feasibility and initial e...

Adolescents with a history of child maltreatment experience increased risk for psychopathology that sets them on a trajectory towards a range of difficulties in adulthood. Various factors influence caregivers’ decisions to seek mental health services (MHS) that could improve developmental outcomes. The present study applied a machine learning algor...

Determine whether parent characteristics and practices differentiate between substance using and non-using children in Mexico. Data consisted of 52,171 children (i.e., 5 th and 6 th grade) who participated in the National Survey of Drug Use Among Students. The relative importance of student reported parenting factors in classifying lifetime substan...

Latinx caregivers underutilize traditional youth mental health services (MHS) relative to their White counterparts. Disparities may be explained by barriers preventing engagement in traditional MHS. A potential mismatch between available services and preferred culturally appropriate healing practices may also contribute to treatment disparities. Th...

Purpose: The Idaho State University Physician Assistant (PA) program was one of the first PA programs in the country to incorporate medication-assisted treatment (MAT) into its curriculum. This manuscript documents the impact of the course. Methods: In the spring and summer of 2018, 61 students and 12 local providers enrolled in an elective MAT...

Telepsychology has the potential to provide a safe method of addressing mental health problems among Latinx youth during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the extent to which Latinx caregivers are accessing telepsychology services for their child and whether this format is perceived to be an appropriate method of addressing youth psychopathology i...

A discussion of ethical decision-making literature is overdue. In this article, we summarize the current literature of ethical decision-making models used in mental health professions. Of 1,520 articles published between 2001 and 2020 that met initial search criteria, 38 articles were included. We report on the status of empirical evidence for the...

Background Although research is emerging on the subtle slights that women experience, research is needed regarding the frequency with which gender-based microaggressions occur, their impact on mental health, and how views on gender roles may influence their impact. Objective The current study examined how mothers and daughters experienced gender-b...

Behavior disorders are the leading cause of psychological problems affecting young children and adolescents. Behavioral parent training (BPT) programs have been developed to address child behavioral disturbances by supporting caregivers’ skills in shaping their children's behaviors. BPT interventions are packaged in a variety of ways but maintain i...

Parental involvement in education is critical to academic achievement. Mainstream forms of parental involvement often dismiss Latinx parents’ subtle practices. We surveyed 252 Latinxs about their and their parents’ parental communication styles, parenting styles, school involvement, and academic expectations. Correlations were weak to strong. Respo...

The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting some important sources of health disparities that assail our society's most vulnerable people, particularly undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. The focus of this commentary is on uncovering those sources of health disparities and making a call for action. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all righ...

Background There is a significant gap between the prevalence of child and adolescent mental illness in Mexico and access to mental health services, especially those that are evidence-based. School-based interventions can significantly narrow this gap. Objective The study evaluated the effectiveness of the interventions Dejando Huellitas en tu Vi...

An undergraduate multicultural psychology class that aimed to promote shifts in the cultural competence domains of self-awareness, knowledge and skills was offered online and face-to-face. Upon comparison of pre and post self-report measures for 155 students across the two modalities we found significant between group differences for gender, Wilks’...

The National Latinx Psychological Association was established in 2002. In the years since, the association has grown and developed into a thriving community of professionals and professionals in training. A decade later, members of NLPA started to take actions that eventually led to the development of the Ethical Guidelines of the NLPA. We outline...

Parental acceptance is critical to the well-being of sexual minority youth, yet little research has been conducted with fathers, or with Latinx parents of sexual minorities. Understanding Latinx fathers’ cultural context and how it operates to facilitate or challenge acceptance of their sexual minority child could contribute new knowledge regarding...

Introduction: Minimal research has examined how witnesses identify and respond to ethnic microaggressions including the role of colorblind racial attitudes. Method: University student participants (N = 401) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they witnessed a research decoy experiencing an ethnic microaggression,...

Machine learning provides a method of identifying factors that discriminate between substance users and non-users potentially improving our ability to match need with available prevention services within context with limited resources. Our aim was to utilize machine learning to identify high impact factors that best discriminate between substance u...

Research suggests that parenting programs are effective for preventing behavioral and emotional difficulties in children, but a lot more attention needs to be paid to issues of context and culture during the development, testing, and implementation of these interventions. The views and needs of underserved and disenfranchised communities in the USA...

Background: Despite the large number of evidence-based practices (EBPs) ready for implementation, they are the exception in usual care, especially for ethnic minority patients, who may not have access to trained health professionals. Providing EBP training as part of a graduate curriculum could help build the pipeline of professionals to provide q...

RESUMEN: El propósito de este estudio fue evaluar los estilos de parentalidad de padres y madres puertorriqueños y entender su relación a la conducta de sus hijos e hijas. Participaron 51 familias con niños y niñas entre las edades de 6 y 11 años. Se codificaron tres dimensiones de parentalidad (i.e., calidez, exigencia, autonomía otorgada) con la...

Mental health treatments can be more effective when they align with the culture of the client and when therapists demonstrate multicultural competence. This chapter defines cultural adaptations and therapist multicultural competencies and provides clinical examples of each. It summarizes relevant research findings in two meta-analyses. In the meta-...

Racial microaggressions can unduly tax people of color. To combat their impact, people need an increased awareness and ability to detect microaggressions when they occur. The present study examined White individuals’ ability to accurately detect microaggressions across 3 conditions with varied exposure to knowledge about microaggressions (control,...

Parents shape their children’s behaviors and impact their developmental trajectories. Despite this, few studies have examined the potential relationship between child reported parenting factors and lifetime substance use and use intentions. The current study examined the potential impact of parenting factors (i.e., positive parenting, supervision,...

Purpose Cultural competence is a critical component in health care services. The relationship between health disparities and prejudice and discrimination is well documented. Prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior are modifiable through training yet few programs have evidence-based training. No published data has reported on baseline leve...

ISU PAS offers a Medication Assisted Treatment course. Students provided reflections on their learning, attitude shifts, and intentions to purse the X waiver. Student essays reflected increases in knowledge, and attitude shifts (minor, major) as well as openness to pursuing the MAT waiver.

An increasing number of culturally adapted family-level interventions address mental health disparities with marginalized populations in the United States. However, with these developments many barriers have arisen, such as challenges with degree of cultural fit, engagement, and sustainability. We conducted 12 elite phenomenological interviews with...

The United States and Mexico have seen significant increases in the prevalence of substance use among Latinx adolescents in the last 20 years. Research is needed to address rising national rates of substances use to inform the development of policies and intervention programs targeting Latinx youth. Our primary aim was to identify demographic facto...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify life and career variables that differ between physician assistants (PAs) with and without career regret. The information in this article may be useful to PAs and PA students in their search for a professional environment that is associated with a lower risk of career regret. Methods: A survey was...

Global health disparities continue to widen as professional standards for effectiveness of mental health services provision become more precise and difficult to achieve across varied economic and social contexts. Within the US, health disparities are evident in Latinx populations. Globally, the health disparities are also evident in Latin America a...

An exploratory analysis using machine learning to understand important parenting variables related to child externalizing outcomes.

Objectives: Two studies and data sources were used to empirically compare and cross-validate three bidimensional acculturation measurement models. Method: Following a cross-sectional design and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Study 1 examined the models in a sample of Central Florida Puerto Ricans (n = 484). In Study 2, the measurement model wa...

Behavioral parent training is an evidence-based intervention that reduces child problem behavior. Unfortunately, there are notable disparities in access to and use of evidence-based parenting interventions, including BPT. One way to address the service gap is through technology-based parenting interventions. The purpose of this systematic review is...

Latino/a populations in the United States are negatively impacted by widespread mental health disparities. Although the dissemination of culturally relevant parent training (PT) programs constitutes an alternative to address this problem, there is a limited number of efficacious culturally adapted PT prevention interventions for low-income Latino/a...

Mental health treatments can be more effective when they align with the culture of the client and when therapists demonstrate multicultural competence. We summarize relevant research findings in two meta‐analyses. In the meta‐analysis examining culturally adapted interventions, the average effect size across 99 studies was d = 0.50 (0.35 after acco...

Relevant initiatives are being implemented in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) aimed at strengthening a culture of prevention. However, cumulative contextual factors constitute significant barriers for implementing rigorous prevention science in these contexts, as defined by guidelines from high-income countries (HICs). Specifically, dissem...

Students enrolled in a semester-long undergraduate multicultural psychology course. The course had explicit objectives tied to changing awareness, knowledge, and skills. Students completed self-report measures in the first week of the course and the second to last week of the course to encourage self-reflection regarding change across the semester....