Communicating for One’s Family: An Interdisciplinary Review of Language and Cultural Brokering in Immigrant Families

AKam, Jennifer; Lazarevic, Vanja

doi:10.1080/23808985.2014.11679157

Cited by 46 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…These rigorous psychometric properties would allow not only for future examinations of relations among subscales of language brokering experiences and other variables, but also comparisons of mean levels of language brokering subscales both longitudinally and across brokering for mothers and fathers (Chen, 2008). Despite evidence suggesting different gender roles of fathers and mothers in Mexican American families (Morales et al, 2012; Updegraff et al, 2014), extant language brokering studies, many of which are conducted with Mexican American families, have not looked carefully into potential differences across children's experiences of language brokering for mothers and fathers (Kam & Lazarevic, 2014a). Thus, researchers interested in language brokering or more general parent-child interactions in Mexican immigrant families may use our scale to assess adolescent language brokering experiences separately by parent gender in order to enhance our knowledge of the ways in which adolescent perceptions of mothers and fathers may differ.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The socio-emotional benefits include having more opportunities to practice intra-personal and inter-personal skills, such as feeling mature because of language brokering or learning to communicate more effectively with parents and other individuals for whom brokers are translating (Orellana et al, 2003; Weisskirch & Alva, 2002). Adolescents may derive a sense of efficacy from translating when they are good at it and can translate correctly for their parents (Kam & Lazarevic, 2014a). On the other hand, adolescents may feel negatively about language brokering: for example, feeling impatient or wanting to do other things rather than translating for parents (Kim et al, 2014), getting nervous when the translating tasks are hard (Corona et al, 2012), or feeling embarrassed about translating (Weisskirch & Alva, 2002).…”

Section: Adolescents’ Subjective Language Brokering Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Longitudinal measurement equivalence of subjective language brokering experiences scale in Mexican American adolescents.

Kim¹,

Hou²,

Shen³

et al. 2017

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

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Objectives Language brokering occurs frequently in immigrant families and can have significant implications for the well-being of family members involved. The present study aimed to develop and validate a measure that can be used to assess multiple dimensions of subjective language brokering experiences among Mexican American adolescents. Methods Participants were 557 adolescent language brokers (54.2% female, Mage.wave1 =12.96, SD=.94) in Mexican American families. Results Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we were able to identify seven reliable subscales of language brokering: linguistic benefits, socio-emotional benefits, efficacy, positive parent-child relationships, parental dependence, negative feelings, and centrality. Tests of factorial invariance show that these subscales demonstrate, at minimum, partial strict invariance across time and across experiences of translating for mothers and fathers, and in most cases, also across adolescent gender, nativity, and translation frequency. Thus, in general, the means of the subscales and the relations among the subscales with other variables can be compared across these different occasions and groups. Tests of criterion-related validity demonstrated that these subscales correlated, concurrently and longitudinally, with parental warmth and hostility, parent-child alienation, adolescent family obligation, depressive symptoms, resilience, and life meaning. Conclusions This reliable and valid subjective language brokering experiences scale will be helpful for gaining a better understanding of adolescents’ language brokering experiences with their mothers and fathers, and how such experiences may influence their development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Adolescents’ Subjective Language Brokering Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal measurement equivalence of subjective language brokering experiences scale in Mexican American adolescents.

Kim¹,

Hou²,

Shen³

et al. 2017

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

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“…Past research has found that brokering places young members of immigrant families at risk for a variety of negative outcomes, such as elevated acculturation stress, depressive symptoms, and substance use (Kam, ; Kam & Lazarevic, ; Love & Buriel, ; Martinez, McClure, & Eddy, ). Earlier work found that brokers reported experiencing stress because young brokers must quickly and spontaneously process cognitively and linguistically complex messages, may feel caught between two or more cultures, or may feel that the success of their family rests on their shoulders (Love & Buriel, ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using an Acculturation‐Stress‐Resilience Framework to Explore Latent Profiles of Latina/o Language Brokers

Kam

Marcoulides

Merolla

2017

J of Research on Adolesc

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With survey data from 243 Latina/o early adolescent language brokers, latent profile analyses were conducted to identify different types (i.e., profiles) of brokers. Profiles were based on how often Latina/o early adolescents brokered for family members, as well as their levels of family-based acculturation stress, negative brokering beliefs, parentification, and positive brokering beliefs. Three brokering profiles emerged: (1) infrequent-ambivalents, (2) occasional-moderates, and (3) parentified-endorsers. Profile membership was significantly predicted by ethnic identification and brokering in a medical context. Respect, brokering at school, and brokering at home did not significantly predict profile membership. In addition, parentified-endorsers had more frequent perceived ethnic/racial discrimination and depressive symptoms than other profiles. In contrast, infrequent-ambivalents engaged in risky behaviors less frequently than other profiles.

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“…Language brokering is a challenging task for children and adolescents. Understanding how language brokering experiences relate to children's and adolescents’ well‐being is important and can contribute to a broader understanding of immigrant families’ adjustment (Kam & Lazarevic, ).…”

Section: Feelings About Language Brokering and Adolescent Adjustmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Language brokering is a challenging task for children and adolescents. Understanding how language brokering experiences relate to children's and adolescents' well-being is important and can contribute to a broader understanding of immigrant families' adjustment (Kam & Lazarevic, 2014a). Previous studies have demonstrated both negative and positive effects of language brokering on individual adjustment (Morales & Hanson, 2005;Shen, Kim, Wang, & Chao, 2014;Weisskirch, 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Brokering and Depressive Symptoms in Mexican‐American Adolescents: Parent–Child Alienation and Resilience as Moderators

2016

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The current study aimed to untangle the mixed effects of language brokering by examining a contextual factor (i.e., parent-child alienation) and a personal attribute (i.e., resilience) that may relate to adolescents’ feelings during translating (i.e., sense of burden and efficacy) and that may moderate the association between such feelings and adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants included 557 adolescent language brokers (Mage = 12.96) in Mexican-American families. Results showed that adolescents with a strong sense of alienation from parents or low resilience a) experienced more burden or less efficacy in translating, and b) were more susceptible to the detrimental effects of feeling a sense of burden and the beneficial effects of experiencing a sense of efficacy, as measured by depressive symptoms.

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Communicating for One’s Family: An Interdisciplinary Review of Language and Cultural Brokering in Immigrant Families

Cited by 46 publications

References 45 publications

Longitudinal measurement equivalence of subjective language brokering experiences scale in Mexican American adolescents.

Longitudinal measurement equivalence of subjective language brokering experiences scale in Mexican American adolescents.

Using an Acculturation‐Stress‐Resilience Framework to Explore Latent Profiles of Latina/o Language Brokers

Language Brokering and Depressive Symptoms in Mexican‐American Adolescents: Parent–Child Alienation and Resilience as Moderators

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