A Longitudinal Examination of Parenting Processes and Latino Youth’s Risky Sexual Behaviors

Abstract

Latino adolescents engage in riskier sexual behaviors compared to their peers, shown by their higher rates of sexually transmitted infections and lower rates of condom usage; therefore, examining the precursors and correlates of these risky sexual behaviors is important for prevention-intervention program development. Based on cultural-ecological, symbolic interaction, and gender socialization perspectives, we examined associations among mothers' and fathers' parenting and Latino youth's sexual risk over a 5 year period. Further, we investigated the direct and moderating roles of acculturation (e.g., language spoken in the home), nativity (e.g., citizenship status), and adolescents' gender. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (N = 1,899 Latino youth; 49 % female), we conducted a multi-level path model controlling for adolescents' age and prior sexual experience. Our findings revealed that more strictness by mothers and less strictness by fathers at Time 1 were related to lower sexual risk for adolescents at Time 2. Additionally, more monitoring by fathers at Time 2 was associated with lower sexual risk for adolescents at Time 3. Significant gender differences were found such that there were stronger associations among parenting processes and sexual risk for girls than for boys. Finally, we found support for the immigrant paradox (foreign-born youth reported lower sexual risk than US-born youth) and greater gender differences (boys had riskier sexual behaviors than girls) for immigrant compared to US-born youth. The findings reveal the complex associations among parenting processes, nativity status, gender, and sexual risk for Latino adolescents.

“This Is My Responsibility”: Parental Experience of Former Soviet Union Immigrant Parents in Israel

“…Immigrant parents' psychological distress was found to predict their children's mental health problems (RavensSieberer, Erhart, Gosch, & Wille, 2008;Sowa, Crijnen, Bengi-Arslan, & Verhulst, 2000), while their failure to learn the new language is believed to negatively affect their authority and their ability to influence their adolescent children (Portes, Fernandez-Kelly, & Haller, 2009). Parenting practices employed by immigrant parents have been recognized as a significant factor that affects their children's functioning: parental strictness and monitoring were found to be associated with lower sexual risk (Killoren & Deutsch, 2014) and greater academic success (Liew, Kwok, Chang, Chang, & Yeh, 2014) for immigrant adolescents, especially when counterbalanced by autonomy support. Harsh parenting was related to immigrant children's emotional and behavioral problems (Belhadj Kouider, Koglin, & Petermann, 2014), while a low level of parental monitoring and parent-adolescent communication difficulties were associated with youth alcohol consumption (Walsh, Djalovski, Boniel-Nissim, & Harel-Fisch, 2014).…”

The socio-political context of migration and reproductive health disparities: The case of early sexual initiation among Mexican-origin immigrant young women

“…Driscoll et al, 2001; Guarini et al, 2011; Killoren and Deutsch, 2013; Lee and Hahm, 2009; Russell and Lee, 2004). This culturalist approach, that culture determines behavior, inadvertently perpetuates the stereotyping of Latino families as patriarchal, pronatalist, and sexually conservative by describing a “traditional Latino culture,” without attention to structural factors, such as restricted access to economic resources and employment exploitation, within the socio-political context of migration.…”

“…Quantitative studies rarely investigate cultural processes and instead rely on immigrant generation and language as proxies for cultural differences (e.g. Guarini et al, 2011; Killoren and Deutsch, 2013; Lee and Hahm, 2009). Moreover, the complex intersection of cultural, historical, social, and political processes cannot be captured by controlling for SES in quantitative models and some qualitative research has acknowledged but not thoroughly examined the association between SES and culture (e.g., Hyams, 2000; Romo, et al, 2010; Talashek et al, 2004).…”

Adaptación del Child-PARQ/Control: versiones para el padre y la madre en población infantil y adolescente española [Adaptation of the Child-PARQ/Control Mother and Father versions in Spanish child and adolescent population]

“…Consistentemente, la hostilidad materna, esencialmente ligada al rechazo, se perfila como uno de los factores más perniciosos, tanto como desencadenante de trastornos interiorizados, como exteriorizados (Gau y Chang, 2013;McLeod, Weisz y Word, 2007) Los estudios longitudinales muestran que los efectos de las conductas parentales son más fuertes en la interacción inmediata y ello pierde potencia explicativa con el paso del tiempo que media entre ambas. El sexo introduce también un elemento de modulación, los hijos varones tienen mayor tendencia a desarrollar desadaptaciones sociales frente a la crianza negativa, mientras que las hijas son más proclives a desarrollar problemas interiorizados Killoren, 2013).…”