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.

Ecological stress during adolescent development may increase the sensitivity to negative emotional processes that can contribute to the onset and progression of internalizing behaviors during preadolescence. Although a small number of studies have considered the link among the complex relations in ecological stress, amygdala reactivity and internalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence, these studies have largely been small, cross-sectional, and often do not consider unique roles of parenting or sex. In the current study, we evaluated the interrelations among ecological stress, amygdala functioning, subsequent internalizing symptoms, and the moderating roles of parenting and sex, 9-and 10-year old preadolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (ABCD). A subset of participants who met a priori quality control criteria for bilateral amygdala during the N-back faces versus places contrast (N = 7,385;Mean Age = 120 months, SD = 7.52; 49.5% Female) were included in the study. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to create a latent variable of ecological stress, and multiple Structural Equation Model (SEM) models were conducted to evaluate the association among baseline ecological stress and internalizing symptoms one year later, the mediating role of amygdala activity, and moderating effects of parental acceptance and sex. The results revealed a significant association among ecological stress and subsequent internalizing symptoms, which was greater in males than females. There was no association between amygdala activity and ecological stress or subsequent internalizing symptoms, and no mediating role of amygdala, or moderating effect of parental acceptance, on the association between ecological stress and internalizing symptoms. An alternative mediation model was tested and revealed that parental acceptance mediated the association between ecological stress and internalizing symptoms, demonstrating lower internalizing symptoms among preadolescents one year later. Given the 4 Ecological stress, amygdala reactivity, and internalizing problems lack of association in brain function, ecological stress and internalizing symptoms in this registered report, effects from small studies should be reconsidered in larger samples.

Expecting discrimination in one's future occupation is known to have negative implications for adolescents' career pathways. However, little is known about how such discriminatory expectations emerge. The current contentious sociopolitical climate toward immigrants, especially those of Latinx heritage, has contributed to heightened discrimination against adolescents in this group. The present study examined how experiences of discrimination over time relate to youths' expectations of future occupational barriers among 148 Latinx adolescents at 3 annual waves (82% U.S.-born; 53% female; M age = 13.54 at Wave 1). Results suggest that Latinx youth report increasing exposure to ethnic-racial discrimination and objectification as a perceived foreigner over time. Moreover, as Latinx youth perceived more ethnic-racial discrimination and foreigner objectification over the course of adolescence they increasingly expected to face racial and ethnic barriers in their future occupations. Implications of these findings for an increasing Latinx youth and working-age population in the United States are discussed.

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