Interview with Website Expert Avelina Rivero
Meet Avelina Rivero: championing family resiliency in a chilly Minnesota
Getting through her first notorious Minnesota winter? No sweat for Avelina Rivero, a family resiliency whiz! Born and bred in Arizona, she's seizing the challenge and eager for more cold climates ahead.
So, what's family resiliency mean to you?
To Avelina, family resiliency is all about a group's power to unite, adapt, and thrive under pressure. It's a mix of personal drive and collective action. When Avelina thinks of 'resiliency,' she pictures 'strength.'
And the role of culture in shaping mental health?
Culture crafts families' thoughts, interactions, and values. Ultimately, it shapes how people understand, manage, and overcome emotional challenges. It influences perceptions of mental health, what causes and cures it, whether seeking help is approved of, and which issues are recognized or prioritized.
For instance, some cultures lean on families solely for emotional support, while others advocate for therapy.
What's up with your work on our website?
Avelina's current research concentrates on the factors that impact Latina body image and psychological health, including family bonds and cultural values. She's also cooking up a future project on the "Eldest Daughter Syndrome" in Latino immigrant families.
Her goal? To partner with Latino-led community organizations and, eventually, create a program offering materials tailored for Latino families to manage conflict, set boundaries, promote positive body image, discuss body safety, and navigate family transitions.
Currently, she's working on the 40-Day Project, offering postpartum Latinas culturally relevant resources for navigating the "fourth trimester" with a newborn. She teamed up with our website educators and community partners to design body image-related resources for mothers.
How do you involve community partners in your work?
At the moment, Avelina is working alongside CLUES (Latino Communities United in Service), chatting with Latino teens about body image and mental health. As Minnesota's largest Latino-led nonprofit organization, CLUES proves instrumental in empowering families and championing mental health.
Recently, Avelina received feedback from teens wishing to understand the experiences of Latinos in graduate school. To satisfy their curiosity, she was invited back to share her odyssey as a first-generation Latina student navigating primarily white academic spaces and dealing with discrimination.
What's next on your agenda?
Avelina's most enthusiastic about a webinar she's arranging for June 10th, geared towards parents. The webinar aims to provide them with the knowledge and tools to support their adolescents' healthy body image and flatline depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Research shows that body dissatisfaction links to higher rates of these disorders. Topics on Avelina's agenda include adolescent body image influencers, social media's role, and tips for fostering a healthy body image in teenagers.
Author: Kelly Petersen
Family Featured news
Avelina Rivero specializes in family resiliency and strives to strengthen and reinforce families' resilience, with a particular focus on empowering Latino communities[2]. Her mission extends beyond academia by engaging community organizations to create actionable, impactful findings[1][2].*
- Avelina Rivero views family resiliency as a group's power to unite, adapt, and thrive under pressure, a mix of personal drive and collective action.
- Culture significantly influences mental health by shaping families' thoughts, interactions, and values, ultimately impacting perceptions, treatment seeking, and prioritized issues.
- Avelina's current research explore factors impacting Latinas' body image and psychological health, including family bonds and cultural values, partnering with Latino-led community organizations to create tailored resources.
- Upcoming projects for Avelina include a webinar for parents on June 10th, focusing on supporting adolescents' healthy body image, addressing depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, and discussing adolescent body image influencers and social media's role.
