Social–Emotional Needs of Latino Immigrant Adolescents: A Sociocultural Model for Development and Implementation of Culturally Specific Interventions

The Relationship between Mental Health, Acculturative Stress, and Academic Performance in a Latino Middle School Sample

“…Internalizing symptoms were entered first because the literature suggests that it is a stronger predictor of academic performance than is acculturative stress (Blanco-Vega et al 2008;Matthews et al 2009;Mistry et al 2009;Schwartz and Gorman 2003;Schwartz et al 2007). …”

“…Although acculturation may not be stressful for all acculturating individuals, navigating language barriers and coping with perceived discrimination, parent-child acculturative gaps, and the loss of native cultural values and practices can be a stressful experience. Acculturative stress can lead to depression, anxiety, and low self-concept (Blanco-Vega et al 2008;Ellis et al 2008;Gil et al 1994).…”

“…depression, anxiety, aggression, hyperactivity) as contributors to poor academic performance, culturally focused researchers argue that these symptoms may not fully capture the mental health problems of ethnic minority groups such as Latinos. Accordingly, acculturative stress has been proposed as a culturally specific aspect of the mental health of ethnic minority groups and as a unique contributor to the poor academic performance of Latino youth (Alva and de los Reyes 1999;Blanco-Vega et al 2008;Schwartz et al 2007). Acculturative stress has been defined as the psychosocial stressors associated with being part of two conflicting cultures and the perceived need to conform to the host culture to avoid discrimination (Mena et al 1987).…”

“…Knowing that a student is at risk for acculturative stress can help mental health care professionals develop and deliver culturally sensitive interventions that are more relevant to the needs of the target students. The importance of considering acculturative stress in providing culturally responsive interventions is implicit in the literature, which, although sparse, notes that acculturative stress is a unique risk factor that puts ethnic minorities, such as Latinos, at higher risk for negative social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes (Blanco-Vega et al 2008).…”

Development and Validation of the Coping With Acculturative Stress in American Schools (CASAS-A) Scale on a Latino Adolescent Sample

“…Some of these stressors include language barriers, perceived discrimination, lower socioeconomic status, a low sense of school belonging, familial acculturative gaps, and acculturative stress (Blanco-Vega et al, 2008). Due to these stressors, school personnel face many challenges in meeting the varying mental health needs of these students as they adapt to and learn to navigate mainstream American 500983A EI40110.1177/1534508413500983Assessment for Effective InterventionCastro-Olivo et al…”