Do Mothers' Experiences Count? An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model of Language Brokering Experiences in Mexican Immigrant Families.

Language brokering is a shared parent-child experience with implications for parent-child relationships and, in turn, individuals' psychological well-being; however, few studies recognize the role of parents. This study took a dyadic approach to investigate the association between brokering experiences and internalizing symptoms, and the mediating role of parent-child alienation. Participants were 604 Mexican-origin adolescents (54% female, Mage = 12.41) and their mothers (N = 595). Both adolescents' and their mothers' brokering experiences were related to their own internalizing symptoms via their self-reported parent-child alienation. Mothers' brokering experiences also affected adolescents so that when mothers experienced more negative brokering experiences, adolescents perceived greater parent-child alienation, and in turn more internalizing symptoms, suggesting the necessity of considering language brokering's influence on members involved as a dyadic process.

Cultural stressors, internalizing symptoms, and parent-child alienation among Mexican-origin adolescents.

Objective: The current study investigated the relation of various cultural stressors, parent-child alienation, and Mexican-origin adolescents' internalizing symptoms at both between- and within-person levels across the course of adolescence. Background: Positive parent-child relationships can be a critical buffer against cultural stressors for Mexican-origin adolescents. However, it is unclear whether low levels of parent-child alienation (a) buffer the negative effects of different types of cultural stressors on internalizing symptoms and (b) function at the individual level more generally or during specific periods when adolescents experience high cultural stressors. Method: The current study used a three-wave longitudinal dataset of 604 Mexican-origin adolescents (Wave 1: Mage = 12.41, SD = 0.97, 54% female, 75% born in the United States) and conducted multilevel regression analysis. Results: At the between-person level, overall low parent-child alienation buffered the adverse effects of ethnic discrimination on anxiety and cultural misfit on depressive symptoms. There were no significant within-person-level interactions of parent-child alienation and cultural stressors on adolescent internalizing symptoms. Implication: The findings suggest that interventions should aim to reduce parent-child alienation throughout the course of adolescence to alleviate the impact of cultural stressors on internalizing symptoms among Mexican-origin adolescents.

E-cigarette use susceptibility among youth in Mexico: The roles of remote acculturation, parenting behaviors, and internet use frequency.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use is increasing worldwide, raising concerns about its impact on youth development. Remote acculturation may influence the e-cigarette use cognitions of youth in Mexico by influencing their media use, thereby contributing to their e-cigarette use susceptibility. This study examined whether remote acculturation was associated with youth internet use frequency, and whether youth internet use frequency, in turn, was associated with youth e-cigarette use susceptibility. Because parenting behaviors can relate with lower tobacco and media use (e.g., internet use), this study also examined the associations of parental media restrictions and mother's parenting practices with youth internet use frequency and e-cigarette use susceptibility. METHODS: Data came from a school-based survey with middle school students in Mexico who had never tried e-cigarettes (N = 6004; 52.6% female; Mage = 13.07 years). Students completed measures of remote acculturation, parental media restrictions, mother's parenting practices, internet use, and e-cigarette use susceptibility. RESULTS: Structural equation analyses suggest that U.S. American cultural orientation may increase youth e-cigarette use risk by way of higher youth internet use. Mexican cultural orientation and parental media restrictions may reduce youth e-cigarette use risk by way of lower youth internet use. CONCLUSIONS: Preventive interventions to reduce Mexican youths' intention to try e-cigarettes could benefit from efforts to reduce youth internet use and from media literacy interventions that inform parents and youth about the influence of internet use on youth e-cigarette use.

Keeping it Old School: Profiles of Traditional Gender Role Values and Life Satisfaction Among Mexican Descent Adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of traditional gender role value profiles on life satisfaction for Mexican descent youth. A latent profile analysis was conducted with 524 Mexican descent adolescents (53.1% girls and 46.9% boys; age M = 16.23 years, SD = 1.10 years) to examine endorsement of traditional gender role values. Analyses identified three profiles: modernist, pluralist, and traditionalist, reflecting the degree to which each group endorsed traditional gender roles. A multivariate analysis of variance of the latent profiles demonstrated differences in life satisfaction reports for boys and girls. Girls in the traditionalist profile reported greater overall life satisfaction compared to the pluralist and modernist profiles and greater environmental and friend satisfaction compared to the pluralist profile. For boys, the traditionalist gender value ratings reported greater overall, family, school, and environmental life satisfaction as compared to the pluralist and modernist groups. Results demonstrate that ascribing to more traditional gender role values may be protective for Mexican descent adolescents in regard to life satisfaction. We will discuss applications of our findings for practitioners working with Mexican descent youth focused on increasing positive aspects of emotional well-being.

El propósito de este estudio es examinar el papel de los perfiles de valor de rol de genero tradicional en la satisfacción de vida para la juventud de descendencia mexicana Se condujo un análisis de clases latente con 524 adolescentes de descendencia mexicana para examinar el endoso de los valores tradicionales del género. Los análisis identificaron tres perfiles: Modernista, Pluralista, y Tradicionalista, reflexionando el grado con cual cada grupo endorsa los roles de género tradicionales. MANOVA de las clases latente demostró diferencias en reportes de la satisfactión de la vida para los hombres y las mujeres. Las mujeres el perfil "Tradicionalista" estuvo asociado con satisfacción de la vida general a comparación con los grupos "Pluralista" y "Modernista" y mayor satisfacción en la amistad y ambiental en comparación con el perfil "Pluralista." Para los hombres con clasificación de valor del género "Tradicionalista" reportaron mayor satisfacción general de la familia, la escuela, y ambiental satisfacción de vida en comparación con los grupos "Pluralista" y "Modernista." Los resultados demuestran que adscribirse a valores de rol de género más tradicionales puede ser un protector para adolescentes de descendencia mexicana en relación con la satisfacción de vida. Vamos a discutir las aplicaciones de nuestros encuentros para practicantes trabajando con jóvenes de descendencia mexicana enfocados en aumentando aspectos positivos del bienestar emocional.

Remote Acculturation and Cigarette Smoking Susceptibility among Youth in Mexico.

Many adolescents in majority world countries emulate U.S. American culture, which can influence their development. Globalization allows adolescents from majority world countries to learn about U.S. American culture through mass media and the exchange of information via the internet and other forms of communication. As such, youth in Mexico may experience remote acculturation, which can influence their smoking behaviors. We developed and tested a measure of remote acculturation (i.e., orientation to U.S. American and Mexican culture) among adolescents in Mexico and examined the association of remote acculturation with adolescents' smoking-related cognitions. Data came from a school-based survey of 5492 never-smoker, urban adolescents (51% female, M age = 14.07 years). Confirmatory factor analyses supported two latent factors-one for U.S. American and another for Mexican cultural orientation. Structural equation models revealed that stronger Mexican cultural orientation was associated with lower positive smoking-related attitudes, which were related with lower smoking susceptibility. Consistent with research on acculturation among U.S. Hispanic youth, findings indicate that stronger orientation toward U.S. culture may put adolescents in Mexico at risk for cigarette smoking, while greater orientation toward Mexican culture may prevent youth smoking in Mexico. We discuss directions for future research and policymaking strategies to prevent youth smoking in Mexico.

Movie Language Orientation, Gender, Movie Smoking Exposure, and Smoking Susceptibility among Youth in Mexico.

Introduction: As a result of globalization, youth in Mexico may be exposed to US culture remotely. This remote intercultural contact may influence their movie language orientation and cigarette smoking. To examine how intercultural contact with U.S. culture influences the smoking behaviors of youth in Mexico, this study investigated the influence of English- and Spanish-language movie orientation on movie smoking exposure through US- and Mexico-produced movies. It also examined whether youth movie smoking exposure was associated with higher positive smoking-related expectancies and greater intentions to smoke cigarettes. Methods: Participants were 7524 adolescent never smokers in Mexico (51% female, Mage = 12.39 years) who completed a school-based survey on movie language orientation, movie exposure (from which exposure to tobacco portrayals was estimated), smoking-related expectancies, and smoking susceptibility. Results: Path and mediation analyses indicated that English-language movie orientation was associated with greater movie smoking exposure, leading to more positive smoking-related expectancies and greater youth smoking susceptibility. Conclusion: Consistent with research on the influence of US culture on the smoking of Mexican-heritage youth in the United States, findings suggest that orientation toward English-language movies may put youth in Mexico at risk for smoking initiation. Findings extend existing research on intercultural contact and cigarette smoking with Hispanic youth in the United States to youth in Mexico. Implications for future research are discussed. Implications: This study is one of the first to investigate the influence of remote intercultural contact with US culture on Mexican youth's smoking-related expectancies and susceptibility. This study investigated pathways by which youth's movie language orientation (English vs. Spanish) exposed them to movie smoking through US- and Mexico-produced movies, thereby influencing their smoking-related cognitions. Findings provide initial empirical evidence of a significant association between US remote intercultural contact and smoking among youth in Mexico. An important next step is to investigate how this process unfolds longitudinally and to investigate additional ways youth may engage with US culture to affect their smoking behaviors.

Personal and cultural identity development in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents: Links with psychosocial functioning.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined directionality between personal (i.e., coherence and confusion) and cultural identity (i.e., ethnic and U.S.) as well as their additive effects on psychosocial functioning in a sample of recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents. METHOD: The sample consisted of 302 recent (<5 years) immigrant Hispanic adolescents (53% boys; Mage = 14.51 years at baseline; SD = .88 years) from Miami and Los Angeles who participated in a longitudinal study. RESULTS: Results indicated a bidirectional relationship between personal identity coherence and both ethnic and U.S. identity. Ethnic and U.S. affirmation/commitment (A/C) positively and indirectly predicted optimism and negatively predicted rule breaking and aggression through coherence. However, confusion predicted lower self-esteem and optimism and higher depressive symptoms, rule breaking, unprotected sex, and cigarette use. Results further indicated significant site differences. In Los Angeles (but not Miami), ethnic A/C also negatively predicted confusion. CONCLUSION: Given the direct effects of coherence and confusion on nearly every outcome, it may be beneficial for interventions to target personal identity. However, in contexts such as Los Angeles, which has at least some ambivalence toward recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents, it may be more beneficial for interventions to also target cultural identity to reduce confusion and thus promote positive development. (PsycINFO Database Record

Parental Style and Its Association With Substance Use in Argentinean Youth.

BACKGROUND: In Europe and the United States, family relationships and parenting behavior can influence youth substance use, but less is known about their influence in Latin American countries. OBJECTIVE: To explore whether parenting behavior is associated with substance use among Latin American youth. METHODS: A cross-sectional, school-based survey of middle-school youth (n = 3172) in three Argentinian cities queried tobacco, alcohol, and drug use using items adapted from global youth surveys. Parenting behavior was assessed with previously validated items that tapped into demandingness and responsiveness, separately for mothers and fathers. Multilevel logistic regression models assessed associations between parenting behavior and substance use after adjusting for student characteristics, socioeconomic indicators, sensation seeking, and smoking amongst peers and family members. RESULTS: Substance use prevalence was 10% for current smoking, 32% for current drinking alcohol, 17% for past 30-day binge drinking (≥5 drinks), and 8% for previous year illicit drug use (marijuana or cocaine). Greater maternal demandingness was independently associated with lower likelihood of current smoking (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.77; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.64-0.92), current drinking (AOR = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.71-0.92), binge drinking (AOR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.66-0.99, and drug use (AOR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.61-0.83). No other parenting behavior were independently associated with substance use, except for paternal demandingness and binge drinking (AOR = 0.84; 95% CI: 0.74-0.97). For all outcomes, no interactions were found between parenting behavior and student gender. CONCLUSIONS: Among Argentine adolescents, maternal demandingness was the strongest and most consistent correlate of substance use, regardless of adolescent substance use behavior or gender.

The Longitudinal Associations Between Discrimination, Depressive Symptoms, and Prosocial Behaviors in U.S. Latino/a Recent Immigrant Adolescents.

The links between discrimination and adjustment in U.S. Latino/a immigrant adolescents is an important but understudied phenomenon. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations (across 1 year) among discrimination, prosocial behaviors, and depressive symptoms in U.S. Latino immigrant adolescents using two competing models: associations between discrimination and prosocial behaviors via depressive symptoms (mental health strain model), and associations between discrimination and depressive symptoms via prosocial behaviors (prosociality strain model). Participants were 302 Latino/a recent immigrant adolescents (53.3 % boys, M age = 14.51 years at Time 1, SD = .88 years) who completed measures of discrimination, depressive symptoms, and prosocial behaviors at 6-month intervals. The results provided support for both proposed models. The discussion examines the importance of prosocial behaviors in understanding adjustment and effects of discrimination among recently immigrated U.S. Latino adolescents.

Moving away from a cultural deficit to a holistic perspective: Traditional gender role values, academic attitudes, and educational goals for Mexican descent adolescents.

Latina/o youth lag behind Asian American and non-Latina/o White youth in many academic areas. Previous research has taken a deficit approach to understand the factors that affect academic outcomes for Latina/o youth often neglecting to highlight both the potential positive and negative contributions of gender role values. The present study took a holistic perspective to understand the affect of traditional Latina/o gender role values (i.e., marianismo, machismo, and caballerismo) on the academic attitudes and educational goals of Mexican descent youth. Structural equation models were tested to examine the associations of "positive" and "negative" gender role values on educational goals using 524 Mexican descent adolescents from a mid-sized city in southern Texas. We hypothesized that positive aspects of traditional Latina/o gender role values (i.e., "positive marianismo" and caballerismo) would be associated with more positive attitudes toward academics and higher educational goals. We further expected negative gender role values (i.e., "negative marianismo" and machismo) to have the opposite effect. Additionally, based on the theory of planned behavior and gender schema theory, academic attitudes were hypothesized to mediate the relation between gender role values and educational goals. An alternative model was tested in which educational goals mediated the relation between gender roles and academic attitudes. Results indicated that both models fit the data well, and recommendations are made for future longitudinal research aimed at disentangling the directionality of the relations in the model. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Perceived context of reception among recent Hispanic immigrants: conceptualization, instrument development, and preliminary validation.

Context of reception has been discussed widely in the sociological and anthropological literature, but no measures of this construct exist. We designed a measure of perceived context of reception and provide initial support for the factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and incremental and discriminant validity of scores generated by this measure. A sample of 302 recent-immigrant Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads from Miami and Los Angeles completed the new perceived context of reception measure, as well as measures of perceived discrimination; Hispanic/American cultural practices, values, and identifications; and depressive symptoms. In Phase 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses extracted a factor for negative perceived context of reception. A subscale corresponding to this factor was used in Phase 2; for parents and adolescents, negative perceived context of reception and perceived discrimination were differentially associated with acculturation-related variables-suggesting discriminant validity between perceived discrimination and negative perceived context of reception. For adolescents at both sites and for parents in Los Angeles only, the negative perceived context of reception dimensions were significantly associated with depressive symptoms 6 months later, over and above the contribution made by perceived discrimination--suggesting incremental validity. Results are discussed in terms of perceived context of reception as a new and emerging construct.

Domains of acculturation and their effects on substance use and sexual behavior in recent Hispanic immigrant adolescents.

This study evaluated the immigrant paradox by ascertaining the effects of multiple components of acculturation on substance use and sexual behavior among recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents primarily from Mexico (35 %) and Cuba (31 %). A sample of 302 adolescents (53 % boys; mean age 14.51 years) from Miami (n = 152) and Los Angeles (n = 150) provided data on Hispanic and US cultural practices, values, and identifications at baseline and provided reports of cigarette use, alcohol use, sexual activity, and unprotected sex approximately 1 year later. Results indicated strong gender differences, with the majority of significant findings emerging for boys. Supporting the immigrant paradox (i.e., that becoming oriented toward US culture is predictive of increased health risks), individualist values predicted greater numbers of oral sex partners and unprotected sex occasions for boys. However, contrary to the immigrant paradox, for boys, both US practices and US identification predicted less heavy drinking, fewer oral and vaginal/anal sex partners, and less unprotected vaginal/anal sex. Ethnic identity (identification with one's heritage culture) predicted greater numbers of sexual partners but negatively predicted unprotected sex. Results indicate a need for multidimensional, multi-domain models of acculturation and suggest that more work is needed to determine the most effective ways to culturally inform prevention programs.

Correlates of chilean adolescents' negative attitudes toward cigarettes: the role of gender, peer, parental, and environmental factors.

INTRODUCTION: We examined the association of peer, parental, and environmental factors with negative attitudes toward cigarettes among youth from Santiago, Chile. METHODS: A total of 860 youth from Santiago, Chile, completed questions regarding their lifetime use of cigarettes, intentions to smoke, attitudes toward cigarettes, and questions that assessed peer, parental, and environmental factors. RESULTS: For both boys and girls, peer disapproval of smoking was associated with more negative attitudes toward cigarettes and peer smoking was associated with less negative attitudes toward cigarettes. Peer pressure was significantly associated with more negative attitudes toward cigarettes for girls only. Parental smoking was associated with less negative attitudes and parental control with more negative attitudes, but these associations were significant in the overall sample only. School prevention efforts and exposure to cigarette ads were not associated with cigarette attitudes. Difficulty in accessing cigarettes was positively associated with negative attitudes for boys and girls. CONCLUSION: Smoking prevention efforts focus on attitude change, but scant information is available about the experiences that influence Chilean youth's attitudes toward cigarettes. Results from the current study suggest that prevention efforts could benefit from gender-specific strategies. Girls' but not boys' attitudes were influenced by peer pressure. Moreover, negative attitudes toward cigarettes were associated with lower current smoking in girls only. Parental smoking was an important influence on youth's attitudes toward cigarettes. Efforts to reduce smoking among Chilean youth may benefit from concurrently reducing parental smoking.