We examined the longitudinal relations among parental socialization practices—including acceptance or harsh parenting and ethnic socialization—ethnic identity, familism, and prosocial behaviors in a sample of U.S. Mexican youth. Participants included 462 U.S. Mexican adolescents (Mage at Wave 1 = 10.4 years old; 48.1% female), their mothers, and fathers at the 5th, 7th, 10th, and 12th grades. Results showed that maternal and paternal ethnic socialization predicted several forms of prosocial behaviors via ethnic identity and familism. Fathers’, but not mothers’, harsh parenting and acceptance had direct links to specific forms of prosocial behaviors. This study suggests the need for culturally informed theories that examine the reciprocal relations between two distinct domains of cultural socialization.

The current study examined changes in adolescents’ school bonding from before to during the COVID‐19 pandemic and its individual, parenting, and family‐level correlates. Participants were two adolescents (50% male; M age = 14 years) and one parent (85% female; M age = 45 years) from 682 families ( N = 2046) from an ongoing longitudinal study. Adolescents reported on their school bonding, stress, and coping, while parents reported on their involvement in adolescents’ education and pandemic‐related financial need. A two‐wave latent change score model suggested that adolescents’ school bonding decreased from before to during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Stress and pandemic‐related financial need served as risk factors, whereas coping and parental involvement served as protective factors against declines in adolescents’ school bonding.

Scholars have long asserted the importance of studying cultural socialization processes predicting prosocial behaviors, but studies on this topic among Black young adults are rare. The current study examined the mediating roles of ethnic-racial identity and religious identity in associations between ethnic-racial socialization and prosocial behaviors among Black young adults. Participants consisted of 208 Black young adults ( Mage = 19.90 years, SDage = 1.62, 73.6% women) from universities across the United States, who reported on their ethnic-racial socialization, ethnic-racial identity, religious identity, and prosocial behaviors. Mediation analyses showed that ethnic-racial identity and religious identity mediated the relation between ethnic-racial socialization and prosocial behavior. Our findings highlight the ways in which cultural socialization and identity processes foster prosocial behaviors among Black young adults. Discussion focuses on a culturally grounded and strengths-based understanding of prosocial development among Black young adults.

Acculturative stress is viewed as detrimental to the mental health and prosocial behaviors of Latinx young adults, but empirical research on the topic is scarce. The present study examined the intervening role of internalizing symptoms in associations between acculturative stress and prosocial behaviors in Latinx college students. Participants included 1410 (74.9% women; M age = 19.71 years; 77.5% U.S.-born) Latinx college students, who reported on their levels of acculturative stress, internalizing symptoms, and public, and altruistic prosocial behaviors. Path analyses showed that acculturative stress was directly and indirectly related to public and altruistic prosocial behaviors via internalizing symptoms. Moreover, these associations varied by nativity (U.S.-born vs. foreign-born status) of participants. Our findings highlight the mental health strain on prosocial behaviors in the context of acculturative stress. Discussion focuses on the importance of studying within-group (e.g., nativity) differences in Latinx college students’ acculturative stress and adjustment. Implications for theory and intervention work for Latinx positive development are presented.

The current study focused on familism-related content that emerged in a primarily qualitative analysis of U.S. Mexican mother-child conversations about sibling conflicts ( Mage = 10.55; English = 43 (24 female); Spanish = 43 (19 female)). The study’s goals were to (1) describe how familism, a central Latinx value, is conveyed to children in late middle childhood, (2) uncover signs that children at this age actively or passively accept or reject mothers’ observations and expectations, and (3) determine if there are differences in conversation content based on language preference, child gender, or birth order. During discussions about sibling conflict, mothers’ and children’s comments revolved around four pillars of familism: establishing and maintaining harmony and devotion, recognizing the specialness of family ties (in this case sibling ties), accepting role obligations, and developing other-orientation. These values were expressed more implicitly than explicitly by a majority of the dyads. Most children accepted at least some of mothers’ statements, but resistance was also high. Chi-square tests indicated no gender-of-child or birth order differences in the content of the discussions, but dyads who spoke Spanish during the conversations were more likely than those who spoke English to speak in explicit familistic terms and to point to the specialness of the sibling tie. Our study is strengths-based as we demonstrate that in U.S. Mexican families, children’s conflicts with their siblings may serve as catalysts for “teaching moments” during which parents impart culturally relevant values.