The purpose of this study is to examine how parents' documentation status informs their ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices and the subsequent implications for Latinx youths' psychological adjustment. The mixed-methods approach combined convergent and exploratory sequential designs to explore the breadth and depth of Latinx parents' messages to their children regarding race and ethnicity. Qualitative data were used to generate hypotheses that were tested quantitatively. Analysis of interviews revealed parents' concerns with obeying the law, avoiding interaction with others, teaching children how to deal with discrimination, the importance of transmitting their culture, and concerns for their children's ever-present fear and stress. Path analysis showed that undocumented parents utilized more cultural socialization and promotion of mistrust messages than their documented counterparts. More promotion of mistrust, in turn, was associated with higher levels of adolescent depressive symptoms. Given the current sociopolitical climate and ethnic-racial tensions in the United States, it is imperative to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the nuanced ERS practices Latinx families employ to both cope with and respond to this situation.

The current study expands on ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) among Latinx families to include sociopolitical discussions as a way to better understand how these practices relate to adolescents’ developmental outcomes, including their ethnic–racial identity (ERI) and their sociopolitical development. More specifically, we examined whether there were direct links between parental ERS practices and sociopolitical discussions at home and adolescents’ emergent participatory citizenship via their ERI processes (i.e., exploration and resolution). These questions were examined using path analyses with 267 self‐identified Latinx early adolescents (Mage = 11.88, SD = 1.22; girls = 54.3%). Results revealed direct associations between sociopolitical discussions and cultural socialization at home with civic accountability. Thus, youth whose parents had engaged in more discussions with them about current political issues and who taught them about their ethnic heritage and history endorsed a greater sense of collective responsibility for helping community members in need. Additionally, preparation for bias and sociopolitical discussions at home were each uniquely associated with more ERI exploration, and each was also indirectly associated with expectations for future community involvement via youths’ ERI exploration. Our findings come at a critical juncture in time, providing insight into ways we can support the positive ERI development and build the civic capacity of Latinx adolescents.

As the coronavirus pandemic has taken over matters of life and death globally, immigrant communities were some of the most deeply impacted. In the United States (U.S.), Latinx immigrants and other minorities have experienced greater economic burden and worse health outcomes, resulting in alarming rates of death from COVID-19. Yet the government’s relief measures to support individuals did not extend to millions of immigrants. This left many immigrants with the cruel choice to either stay home to protect themselves and their loved ones from the virus or go to work to support their families. Disregard for a large segment of the population is further complemented by strict immigration policies, harsher border restrictions, and public health guidelines that failed to account for the realities faced by immigrants. In this brief, we highlight the unequal toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrants and consider social work response. We argue that the pandemic demands more of the social work profession, as the coronavirus crisis exposed more clearly the systemic inequalities toward immigrants and aggravates their vulnerabilities. Insofar as systems are unequal and racist in the context of coronavirus, there is a great need for social work response that is innovative, brave, and deeply connected to communities.

The present study assessed how ethnic-racial identity (ERI) and familism promote beneficial academic outcomes in Latino/a youth. In particular, we examined how ERI exploration and resolution were associated with school engagement through youths’ endorsement of the cultural value of familism. Data were drawn from a study of 148 Latino/a adolescents (79% U.S.-born, 53% girls) in the Midwestern region of the United States. Adolescent ERI exploration was associated with emotional, cognitive, and behavioral school engagement, whereas ERI resolution was associated with behavioral school engagement. Adolescent ERI exploration was also indirectly associated with school engagement via familism. This demonstrates that processes involved with gaining knowledge and having clarity about one’s ethnicity, along with youth’s endorsement of cultural values, work together in distinct ways to convey academic benefits to Latino/a adolescents.

The current study examined the concurrent and prospective associations of ethnic–racial identity content (i.e., centrality, private regard, and public regard) and depressive symptomatology among Latino adolescents. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of Latino adolescents (N = 148, 53.4% girls) who were 13–14 years old at Wave 1. Results indicated that higher ethnic–racial centrality at Waves 1 and 2 predicted fewer depressive symptoms at Waves 2 and 3, respectively. In addition, more positive private regard at Wave 1 predicted fewer depressive symptoms at Wave 2, and more positive public regard at Wave 2 predicted fewer symptoms at Wave 3. Thus, ethnic–racial identity content may serve as a cultural protective factor that is linked to diminished depressive symptomatology among Latino youth.