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Guide to the Amado M. Padilla Papers
M0497
M0497
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Table of contents
Title: Amado M. Padilla papers
Identifier/Call Number: M0497
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
103.0 Linear feet
: 204 boxes
Date: 1969-1990
Abstract: Amado Padilla is a professor of psychology who studies Hispanic American bilingualism and mental health. The collection contains
correspondence, personal and professional papers, and material from Padilla's work with the Spanish Speaking Mental Health
Research Center, National Center for Bilingual Research (including an extensive meta-analysis project), and a small amount
of correspondence from the Center for Language Education and Research.
Physical Location: Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36-48 hours in advance. For more
information on paging collections, see the department's website:
http://library.stanford.edu/spc .
creator:
Padilla, Amado M.
[Identification of item], Amado M. Padilla Papers, M0497, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford,
California.
The materials are open for research use.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
The collection is arranged in four series: Series 1. Correspondence and Personal Papers ; Series 2. Spanish-Speaking Mental
Health Research Center (SSMHRC) ; Series 3. National Center for Bilingual Education and Research (NCBR) ; Series 4. Center
for Language Education and Research (CLEAR).
The Amado M. Padilla papers support research on such topics as language studies and education, acculturation and ethnicity,
and psychosocial stress and well-being with regard to Hispanics in the United States. The Collection spans the years 1969
to 1987, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1976 to 1987. The majority of the collection consists of correspondence (personal
and professional), organizational records, and subject files. Letters, notes, agendas, minutes, reports, press releases, publicity
documents, financial records, personnel records, articles, monographs, and more are housed in the collection.
The collection is divided into four (3?) series: Correspondence and Personal Papers (including correspondence for The Hispanic
Journal of Behavioral Sciences), Spanish-Speaking Mental Health Research Center (SSMHRC), National Center for Bilingual Education
and Research (NCBR), and Center for Language, Education, and Research (CLEAR).
Amado M. Padilla was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 19, 1942. After graduating in 1960 from St. Mary High School,
where he was active in sports and earned average grades, Padilla entered New Mexico Highlands University. There he became
a serious student and aspired toward an academic career; he was also active in Psi Chi, the national honorary society in psychology.
He received a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology in 1964. He began his graduate work at Oklahoma State University, received
his M.S. in Experimental Psychology in 1966, and went to The University of New Mexico, where he received his Ph.D. in Experimental
Psychology in 1969.
Padilla’s first academic appointment was at the State University of New York, College at Potsdam, where he was the Assistant
Professor of Psychology from 1969-1971. He relocated to The University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971, serving as Assistant
Professor of Psychology until 1974. In 1974 Padilla accepted an appointment with tenure at the University of California, Los
Angeles, where he taught from 1974-1988. Following his term as Visiting Professor at the School of Education at Stanford University
in 1986-1987, Padilla was invited to permanently join the Stanford faculty. He came to Stanford in 1988, and presently holds
the appointment of Professor of education at the School of Education, where he is involved in the Language, Literacy, and
Culture as well as Psychological Studies Programs.
Throughout his career, Padilla has distinguished himself as a premier researcher, with an emphasis on Mexican American bilingualism
and Hispanic mental health issues. His research, scholarship, and teaching in these heretofore relatively unexplored areas
has placed him at the forefront of the field of Hispanic psychology and mental health, shedding light on critical issues affecting
the well-being of Hispanics, and pointing the way for other researchers to undertake study of them. The marked increase over
the past fifteen years in the quantity and quality of research on Hispanics psychology and mental health, is largely a consequence
of Padilla’s work in identifying the important research areas, and conducting much of the work himself and with his colleagues
and students.
Three major and one minor strand characterize Padilla’s research: language studies and education, acculturation and ethnicity,
psychosocial stress and well-being, and the history of psychology. Emphasizing Hispanics in the United States on these topics,
Padilla has employed Hispanics as respondents in almost all his studies. Padilla’s approach is multidisciplinary: he collaborates
extensively with colleagues in anthropology, applied linguistics, education, history, and sociology in his investigations
and publications. As noted earlier, he has led other Hispanic researchers (and researchers interested in Hispanic issues),
by always having the dual objective in his work of codifying knowledge while also pointing to research gaps in need of study.
Padilla has held several major administrative positions in conjunction with his academic appointments. In 1973-1974, he served
as Director of the Institute for Applied Behavioral Science at The University of California, Santa Barbara; from 1976-1989
he was the Director and Principal Investigator of the Spanish Speaking Mental Health Research Center (SSMHRC) at the University
of California, Los Angeles; during 1982-85 he directed the National Center for Bilingual Research (NCBR) in Los Alamitos,
California; and in 1985-1988 he acted as Director and Principal Investigator of the Center For Language, Education, and Research
(CLEAR) at the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to directing these research centers, in 1978 Padilla founded
The Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Science. During this time, he also established the first Hispanic Health and Mental Health
Literature Data Base, a computerized database providing researches with published bibliographies and literature searches.
Padilla’s prolific work in the field of Hispanic psychology and mental health has earned him numerous awards, and his invitations
to sit on national panels, review boards, and commissions. In 1977 he was recognized in Who’s Who in Health Care; and in 1977-1978
he was invited to be a Fulbright-Hays Senior Lecturer to the Pontifica Universidad Catolica del Peru in Lima, Peru, where
he taught statistics and environmental design and established a psychological laboratory. He was invited to serve from 1978-1981
as an elected member-at-large of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Psychology Section J; from 1978-1979
as a member of the National Research Council/National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Evaluation Panel (Behavioral
and Social Sciences); and from 1979-1981 as a member on the Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences’ Panel on Selection
and Placement of Students in Programs for the Mentally Retarded. In 1979 he was elected Treasurer of the Interamerican Society
of Psychology, a position he held until 1982; from 1982-1984 he served as a member of the American Psychological Association’s
Education and Training Board; from 1982-1983 he acted as Chairman of the National Research Council/Ford Foundation Postdoctoral
Fellowship for Minorities Program Panel in Psychology; in 1983 and 1984 he served as a member on the American Psychological
Association’s Continuing Education and Undergraduate Education Committees; and in 1984-1985 as a member on the National Institute
of Drug Abuse’s Epidemiology and Prevention Subcommittee of the Epidemiology, Prevention, and Services Research Review Committee.
Padilla was elected Chairman in 1985 of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on the International Relations
in Psychology, a position he held for one year, and in which capacity he traveled to Chile in 1985 as part of the Human Rights
Delegation to Chile sponsored by the American Psychological Association and American Committee for Human Rights. Succeeding
professional appointments include the California School of Professional Psychology’s Board of Trustees (Member, 1986); the
State of California’s Commission for economic Development Task Force for the Seriously Mentally Ill (Member; 1986); the American
Educational Research Association’s Outstanding Dissertations Award Committee (Chairman, 1986); the American Psychological
Association’s Publication and Communication Board (Member, 1987); and the Carnegie Corporation’s Council on Adolescent Development
Task Force on the Education of Early Adolescents (Member, 1987).
Padilla’s great success and recognition in the field of Hispanic psychology and mental health, a field he has essentially
established himself, reflect his exceptional academic, professional, and personal abilities. Padilla believes that his achievements
are due to the strong belief in the value of education maintained by his parents, Manuel and Esperanza. The oldest of five
brothers, Padilla and his brothers hold a total of ten university degrees. His mother also returned to school and at age 55
received her B.A. degree from the University of New Mexico. Padilla’s roots from both sides of the family extend back over
two hundred years in New Mexico and he acknowledges that most days he would rather be sitting on the porch of his home in
Corrales, New Mexico despite his attraction to Northern California. Padilla is married to Kathryn Lindhom who received her
Ph.D at UCLA in Psychology and who is on the faculty at San Jose State.
Related Archival Materials note
Subjects and Indexing Terms
National Center for Bilingual Education and Research (U.S.).
Padilla, Amado M.
Spanish Speaking Mental Health Research Center (U.S.).
Education, Bilingual --United States.
Hispanic Americans
Hispanic Americans--Mental health