Purpose We sought to determine the extent to which initial levels and over-time trajectories of cultural stressors (discrimination, negative context of reception, and bicultural stress) predicted well-being, internalizing symptoms, conduct problems, and health risk behaviors among recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents. Addressing this research objective involved creating a latent factor for cultural stressors, establishing invariance for this factor over time, estimating a growth curve for this factor over time, and examining the effects of initial levels (intercepts) and trajectories (slopes) of cultural stressors on adolescent outcomes. Methods A sample of 302 recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami (Mdn 1 year in the US at baseline) and Los Angeles (Mdn 3 years in the US at baseline) was recruited from public schools and assessed 6 times over a 3-year period. Results Perceived discrimination, context of reception, and bicultural stress loaded onto a latent factor at each of the first five timepoints. A growth curve conducted on this factor over the first five timepoints significantly predicted lower self-esteem and optimism, more depressive symptoms, greater aggressive behavior and rule breaking, and increased likelihood of drunkenness and marijuana use. Conclusions The present results may be important in designing interventions for Hispanic immigrant children and adolescents, including those within the current wave of unaccompanied child migrants. Results indicate targeting cultural stressors in interventions may have potential to improve well-being and decrease externalizing behaviors and substance use within this population.
Latino parents can experience acculturation stressors, and according to the Family Stress Model, parent stress can influence youth mental health and substance use by negatively affecting family functioning. To understand how acculturation stressors come together and unfold over time to influence youth mental health and substance use outcomes, the current study investigated the trajectory of a latent parent acculturation stress factor and its influence on youth mental health and substance use via parent-and youth-reported family functioning. Data came from a six-wave, school-based survey with 302 recent (< 5 years) immigrant Latino parents (74% mothers, M age = 41.09 years) and their adolescents (47% female, M age = 14.51 years). Parents’ reports of discrimination, negative context of reception, and acculturative stress loaded onto a latent factor of acculturation stress at each of the first four time points. Earlier levels of and increases in parent acculturation stress predicted worse youth-reported family functioning. Additionally, earlier levels of parent acculturation stress predicted worse parent-reported family functioning and increases in parent acculturation stress predicted better parent-reported family functioning. While youth-reported positive family functioning predicted higher self-esteem, lower symptoms of depression, lower aggressive and rule-breaking behavior in youth, parent-reported family positive functioning predicted lower youth alcohol and cigarette use. Findings highlight the need for Latino youth preventive interventions to target parent acculturation stress and family functioning.
The links between discrimination and adjustment in U.S. Latino/a immigrant adolescents is an important but understudied phenomenon. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations (across 1 year) among discrimination, prosocial behaviors, and depressive symptoms in U.S. Latino immigrant adolescents using two competing models: associations between discrimination and prosocial behaviors via depressive symptoms (mental health strain model), and associations between discrimination and depressive symptoms via prosocial behaviors (prosociality strain model). Participants were 302 Latino/a recent immigrant adolescents (53.3 % boys, M age = 14.51 years at Time 1, SD = .88 years) who completed measures of discrimination, depressive symptoms, and prosocial behaviors at 6-month intervals. The results provided support for both proposed models. The discussion examines the importance of prosocial behaviors in understanding adjustment and effects of discrimination among recently immigrated U.S. Latino adolescents.
Through the use of the cultural-ecological-transactional theory of resilience, the present study seeks to determine if the cultural factors of familismo and ethnic identity have a protective effect and if bicultural stress has a risk effect on the positive psychological functioning of 191 Mexican American adolescents. Two hierarchical linear regressions were preformed to determine the direct and interaction effects of these factors on self-esteem and life satisfaction. Results indicate that familismo values and ethnic identity both significantly and positively predicted self-esteem and life satisfaction. Further, bicultural stress significantly and negatively predicted both self-esteem and life satisfaction. Additionally, there was a significant interaction effect between ethnic identity and bicultural stress on life satisfaction; however, the interaction was contrary to the hypothesis that high ethnic identity would protect against the effect of high levels of bicultural stress. Results are discussed within the cultural-ecological-transactional framework.
Gender roles are a basic organizing feature in Latina/o families (Cauce & Domenech-Rodriguez, 2002), in which female and male gender roles are clearly defined and are captured by the constructs of marianismo (Castillo, Perez, Castillo, & Ghosheh, 2010) and machismo (Arciniega, Anderson, Tovar-Blank, & Tracey, 2008), respectively. Latina/o adolescents are socialized to Latina/o culture's gender role beliefs and expectations; however, research tends to be limited to its respective gender (e.g., studies of marianismo focusing only on women). The present study seeks to validate and explore gender differences in the Marianismo Beliefs Scale (MBS; Castillo et al., 2010) with both Mexican American adolescent boys and girls. Participants were 524 Mexican American adolescents in a midsized South Texas city. A categorical confirmatory factor analysis (CCFA) was performed to test the factor structure and measurement invariance across gender. Results of the CCFA provided a modified 5-factor version of the MBS-the Marianismo Beliefs Scale-Adolescent Version (MBSA). Cross-group mean comparisons indicate that girls endorsed higher levels of family pillar and spiritual pillar beliefs, whereas the boys scored significantly higher on beliefs that Latinas should self-silence to maintain harmony and should be subordinate to others. No gender differences were present for beliefs on Latinas being virtuous and chaste. The MBSA will be discussed in reference to its developmental and gender appropriateness in future research and clinical practice.
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