US Immigration Policy Stressors and Latinx Youth Mental Health.

Importance: The youth mental health crisis is exacerbated for Latinx adolescents, a group whose families are targets of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. Objective: To investigate how immigration-related stressors are associated with disruptions in parent-child relationships and, in turn, the mental health symptoms of Latinx adolescents. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data for this prospective cohort study of adolescent-mother dyads were derived from surveys completed at 3 time points spanning 4 years (time 1 [T1] in 2018, time 2 [T2] in 2020, and time 3 [T3] in 2022). Mediation analyses estimated paths from immigration-related stressors to parent-child relationship qualities to mental health symptoms from early to late adolescence. Multivariable and multivariate linear models within a structural equation modeling framework regressed mediators and outcome variables on their own T1 values, offering a scientifically rigorous test of mediation. The setting was a school district in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, and included Latinx adolescents (ages 11-16 years) randomly selected from grade and gender strata. Data were analyzed from June 2023 to March 2024. Exposures: The primary independent variables were T1 mother reports of anti-immigrant worry and behavioral modification and adolescent reports of family member detention or deportation. Mediating variables were the reports of parental support and parent-child conflict of T2 adolescents. Main Outcomes and Measures: T3 adolescent reports of past 6-month internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results: A total of 547 Latinx adolescents (mean [SD] age, 13.3 [1.0] years; 303 female [55.4%]; 244 male [44.6%]) were included in this study. Response rates were 65.2% (547 of 839) among contacted parents and 95.3% (547 of 574) among contacted adolescents with parental permission. Four-year retention rates were 67% (366 of 547 adolescents) and 65% (177 of 271 mothers). Structural model results showed that T1 anti-immigrant worry and behavioral modification was associated with T3 increases in externalizing symptoms indirectly through T1 to T2 increases in parent-child conflict (ß = 0.03; SE = 0.02; 95% CI, 0-0.08). For girls, T1 family member deportation or detention was associated with T1 to T3 increases in internalizing and externalizing symptoms indirectly through T1 to T2 declines in parental support (internalizing: ß = 0.04; SE = 0.02; 95% CI, 0-0.08; externalizing: ß = 0.03; SE = 0.02; 95% CI, 0-0.07). Sensitivity analyses supported structural model findings. Conclusion and Relevance: Results of this cohort study suggest that legislative bodies, the health care system, and educational institutions should implement safeguards to mitigate potential harm conferred by anti-immigrant environments for parent-child relationships and, in turn, Latinx adolescents' mental health.

A mixed methods comparison of adolescents' and researchers' observations of neighborhood characteristics in Latinx neighborhoods.

We used a convergent mixed methods research design to compare and contrast researchers' neighborhood environmental assessments collected using systematic social observations with adolescents' neighborhood environmental assessments collected by semi-structured interviews with US Mexican adolescents. Using qualitative methods, we found that adolescents sometimes observed the same neighborhood environmental features as researchers. They also sometimes observed different environmental features altogether; in both cases they sometimes layered on additional meaning making. Using mixed methods, we found that there was a high degree of overlap between researchers and adolescents in terms of agreement on the presence of neighborhood environmental features, including physical disorder, physical decay, street safety, and sociocultural symbols. Adolescents expanded upon these neighborhood environmental features with references to positive and negative affect and neighborhood environmental resources. This work highlights the shared and unique aspects of researcher versus adolescent observations and how both data sources are critical to understanding Latinx neighborhood environments.

Employer-Provided and Self-Initiated Job Accommodations for Workers with Serious Mental Illness.

BACKGROUND: Many individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are capable of employment in regular jobs (i.e. jobs paying at least minimum wage, not set aside for persons with disabilities, and not obtained with assistance from mental health services), but they may need job accommodations to be successful. The extant literature focuses almost exclusively on accommodations for workers with SMI who are receiving employment support, so we know almost nothing about the nature or frequency of accommodations needed by workers who are independently employed. AIMS: Drawing on survey data from a sample of workers with diagnoses of SMI who are capable of regular, mainstream employment, we aim to: (i) describe the nature and frequency of job accommodations workers requested from their employer or initiated on their own; and (ii) identify individual- and work-related factors associated with the probabilities of requesting or initiating accommodations. METHODS: The analysis sample includes 731 workers with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder, who were employed in regular jobs post-onset of SMI. Workers identified any job accommodations requested from their employer, or initiated on their own. Summary statistics describe the nature and frequency of accommodations in four categories: scheduling, workspace, supervision, job modification. Logistic regression models estimate the relationship between workers' health- and job-related characteristics and the probabilities of requesting or self-initiating accommodations. RESULTS: Whereas 84% of workers in our sample self-initiated accommodations, only 25% requested accommodations from their employer. The most frequent accommodations of either type involved flexibility in scheduling (63% self-initiated, 24% requested), or modifications to the workspace (58%, 19%). Factors significantly correlated with the probability of requesting accommodations include: supportive workplace culture, longer job tenure, more severe cognitive/social limitations. Factors significantly correlated with the probability of self-initiating accommodations include: younger age, more severe social limitations, greater job autonomy. DISCUSSION: This is the first study of job accommodations among a cohort of persons with SMI independently employed in regular jobs. We identify a type of accommodation, self-initiated by the worker, that has not been studied before. These self-initiated accommodations are far more prevalent than employer-provided accommodations in our sample. Key factors associated with the probabilities of requesting/initiating accommodations reflect need (e.g. compromised health) and feasibility of implementation in a particular job. Limitations of the study include the cross-sectional design which limits our ability to identify causal relationships. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVISION AND USE: Providers who deliver vocational services for workers with SMI should be aware of the many ways these employees can accommodate their illness on their own, without the necessity of disclosing SMI to an employer. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICIES: Our results recommend workplace policies that support disclosure and employer-provided accommodations, as well as policies that create flexibility for employees to initiate their own accommodations. IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Given the prevalence of workers' self-initiated accommodations, it is imperative that research on job accommodations for workers with serious mental illness includes consideration of these types of accommodations.

Place-Based Developmental Research: Conceptual and Methodological Advances in Studying Youth Development in Context.

Scientists have, for some time, recognized that development unfolds in numerous settings, including families, schools, neighborhoods, and organized and unorganized activity settings. Since the turn of the 20th century, the body of mainstream neighborhood effects scholarship draws heavily from the early 20th century Chicago School of Sociology frameworks and have been situating development in neighborhood contexts and working to identify the structures and processes via which neighborhoods matter for a range of developmental outcomes, especially achievement, behavioral and emotional problems, and sexual activity. From this body of work, two new areas of developmental scholarship are emerging. Both areas are promising for advancing an understanding of child development in context. First, cultural-developmental neighborhood researchers are advancing neighborhood effects research that explicitly recognizes the ways that racial, ethnic, cultural, and immigrant social positions matter for neighborhood environments and for youths' developmental demands, affordances, experiences, and competencies. This body of work substantially expands the range of developmental outcomes examined in neighborhood effects scholarship to recognize normative physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social, and cultural competencies that have largely been overlooked in neighborhood effects scholarship that espoused a more color-blind developmental approach. Second, activity space neighborhood researchers are recognizing that residential neighborhoods have important implications for broader activity spaces-or the set of locations and settings to which youth are regularly exposed, including, for example, schools, work, organized activities, and hang-outs. They are using newer technologies and geographic frameworks to assess exposure to residential neighborhood and extra-neighborhood environments. These perspectives recognize that time (i.e., from microtime to mesotime) and place are critically bound and that exposures can be operationalized at numerous levels of the ecological system (i.e., from microsystems to macrosystems). These frameworks address important limitations of prior development in context scholarship by addressing selection and exposure. Addressing selection involves recognizing that families have some degree of choice when selecting into settings and variables that predict families' choices (e.g., income) also predict development. Considering exposure involves recognizing that different participants or residents experience different amounts of shared and nonshared exposures, resulting in both under-and over-estimation of contextual effects. Activity space scholars incorporate exposure to the residential neighborhood environments, but also to other locations and settings to which youth are regularly exposed, like schools, after-school settings, work, and hang-outs. Unfortunately, the cultural-development and activity space streams, which have both emerged from early 20th century work on neighborhood effects on development, have been advancing largely independently. Thus, the overarching aim of this monograph is to integrate scholarship on residential neighborhoods, cultural development, and activity spaces to advance a framework that can support a better understanding of development in context for diverse groups. In Chapters I and II we present the historical context of the three streams of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological research. We also advance a comprehensive cultural-developmental activity space framework for studying development in context among children, youth, and families that are ethnically, racially, and culturally heterogeneous. This framework actively recognized diversity in ethnic, racial, immigrant, and socioeconomic social positions. In Chapters III-V we advance specific features of the framework, focusing on: (1) the different levels of nested and nonnested ecological systems that can be captured and operationalized with activity space methods, (2) the different dimensions of time and exposures or experiences that can be captured and operationalized by activity space methods, and (3) the importance of settings structures and social processes for identifying underlying mechanisms of contextual effects on development. Structures are setting features related to the composition and spatial arrangement of people and institutions (e.g., socioeconomic disadvantage, ethnic/racial compositions). Social processes represent the collective social dynamics that take place in settings, like social interactions, group activities, experiences with local institutions, mechanisms of social control, or shared beliefs. In Chapter VI, we highlight a range of methodological and empirical exemplars from the United States that are informed by our comprehensive cultural-developmental activity space framework. These exemplars feature both quantitative and qualitative methods, including method mixing. These exemplars feature both quantitative and qualitative methods, including method mixing. The exemplars also highlight the application of the framework across four different samples from populations that vary in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES), geographic region, and urbanicity. They capture activity space characteristics and features in a variety of ways, in addition to incorporating family shared and nonshared activity space exposures. Finally, in Chapter VII we summarize the contributions of the framework for advancing a more comprehensive science of development in context, one that better realizes major developmental theories emphasizing persons, processes, contexts, and time. Additionally, we offer a place-based, culturally informed developmental research agenda to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population.

Familism values and psychological adjustment of Latinx adolescents in an emerging immigrant community: A five wave longitudinal study.

This study examined the relations between normative developmental changes of familism values and later internalizing and externalizing behaviors in Latinx adolescents from an emerging immigrant community. The sample included 547 Latinx adolescents (55.4% female; baseline Mage = 12.80; SD = 1.03) residing in the Southeastern United States. Results from latent growth models indicated that higher initial levels of familism values (intercept) and slower declines (slope) in familism values across adolescence predicted lower internalizing and externalizing behaviors at a later time. These associations generalized across adolescent gender (boys and girls) and ethnic background (Mexican-origin vs. other Latinx-origin). This work highlights the impact of variation in normative developmental changes in familism values on adjustment among Latinx adolescents in an emerging immigrant community context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Workers' Perspectives on Workplace Disclosure of Serious Mental Illness and Their Employers' Responses.

Persons with serious mental illness are often reluctant to disclose their disability to an employer because of the intense stigma associated with their illness. Yet, disclosure may be desirable to gain access to employer-provided job accommodations, or to achieve other goals. In this article, we aimed to (1) describe the contexts in which workers in regular employment disclose a mental illness to their employer and (2) describe employer responses to disclosure, as perceived by the workers themselves. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 workers, who were currently or formerly employed in a mainstream, regular job, post-onset of mental illness. Workers were asked to describe the circumstances that led to disclosure, and to describe their employers' responses to disclosure. Conventional content analysis was applied to identify common themes in the transcribed interviews. Analyses revealed five mutually exclusive disclosure contexts: seeking job accommodations, seeking protection, seeking understanding, responding to an employer's symptom-based inquiries, or being exposed by a third party or event. Analyses also revealed a wider range of employer responses-positive, negative, and ambiguous-than has been suggested by studies in which employers described their reactions to worker disclosure. Some themes were more prevalent among current versus former workers. Overall, the disclosure process appeared to be more complex than has been described by extant frameworks to date, and the linkages between disclosure contexts and employer response themes suggested that many workers did not receive the responses they were seeking from their employers.

Parental Warmth and Developmental Change in Familism Values: Latinx Adolescents in an Emerging Immigrant Community.

This study examined the developmental changes of familism values across adolescence among Latinx adolescents from an emerging immigrant community, and how changes in parental warmth were associated with changes in familism values. The sample included 547 Latinx adolescents. Multilevel model results indicated that familism values showed a linear decline from 6th to 10th grade. Between-person analyses showed that parental warmth was related to the higher initial levels of familism values but unrelated to changes in familism values. At the within-person level, on the occasions when adolescents report higher parental warmth, they also report higher familism values. This work highlights the importance of parental warmth for socializing developmental changes in Latinx adolescents' familism values in an emerging immigrant community context.

U.S. Mexican-origin young adults' mental health relative to interpersonal stressor transitions from childhood to adolescence.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to describe latent transitions in developmentally and culturally salient interpersonal stressors from late childhood to late adolescence and examine whether different transition patterns predicted early adult mental health problems. METHOD: Data from four waves (Grades 5, 7, 10, 12) of a study of 749 U.S. Mexican-origin youth were used for a latent transition analysis (LTA) of family, peer, and community stressors; distal outcomes of externalizing and internalizing problems were measured 5 years after Grade 12. Latent class analysis (LCA) and LTA were conducted for investigating underlying subgroups of interpersonal stress at each wave and transitions between subtypes over waves. RESULTS: For the LCA, two latent classes emerged at all four waves, representing low and high interpersonal stress. The LTA model with two classes at all waves was conducted with good fit. Six prominent transition classes emerged and related to young adult internalizing and externalizing problems. Transition class related to young adult internalizing and externalizing problems, such that youth who consistently had exposure to interpersonal stress or who had transitions from low to high exposure had more internalizing and externalizing problems. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are discussed relative to the developmental salience of these transitions and opportunities to intervene during adolescence to mitigate later mental health problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The associations among racial discrimination, pubertal timing, neighborhoods, and mental health among U.S. Mexican boys.

The present study addressed gaps in puberty and weathering research by examining the relation between peer racial discrimination, pubertal timing, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and neighborhood context among a longitudinal sample of U.S. Mexican boys. Using three waves of data (N = 383; mean ages: 10.3-15.8 years), we examined the weathering hypothesis: Whether peer racial discrimination experiences in late childhood predicted earlier pubertal timing in adolescence and subsequent mental health problems. We also examined whether variability in youths' neighborhood contexts qualified these associations. Consistent with the weathering hypothesis, exposure to peer racial discrimination in 5th grade, predicated earlier pubertal timing in the 7th grade, which, in turn, predicted increases in internalizing symptoms in the 10th grade. However, this pattern only applied to boys residing in neighborhoods with higher levels of Latinx concentration in 5th grade. Additionally, early timing in the 7th grade predicted increases in externalizing symptoms, but this association was significant only when boys lived in neighborhoods that were lower on Latinx concentration. There was evidence of weathering in context with specific implications for internalizing symptoms, and that neighborhood Latinx concentration was both inhibiting and promoting at unique places in the hypothesized model. The findings advance existing understandings of weathering patterns and individual variation in pubertal timing among U.S. Mexican boys. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Discrimination in Latinx families' linked lives: Examining the roles of family process and youth worries.

Our goal was to test a prospective indirect effects model to examine whether maternal and youth exposures to discrimination were linked to adolescent adjustment (i.e., grade point average [GPA], internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms) via maternal warmth and family anti-immigrant behavior modifications and whether youth anti-immigrant worries qualified these relations. Prior research has demonstrated that individual exposures to ethnic-racial discrimination are associated with poor adjustment among Latinx adolescents. Less research has evaluated the impact of discrimination from a family lens or focused on identifying the mechanism via which discrimination impacts adolescent adjustment. Data from a school-based sample of 547 Latinx adolescents (55% female; 88.1% U.S. born) across 2 years were used. Study hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) in Mplus. Whereas adolescents' discrimination exposures were associated with poorer adjustment via disruptions to maternal warmth, mothers' discrimination exposures were associated with lowered adolescent internalizing symptoms via family anti-immigrant behavior modifications. Further, prospective negative relations between warmth and internalizing and GPA were attenuated in the context of adolescents' greater anti-immigrant worries. By exploring discrimination in the family context and examining mechanisms via which discrimination impacts adolescent adjustment, the study offers a more comprehensive picture of the pernicious toll discrimination can have on the family lives of Latinx youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Predictors of latent class trajectories of depressive symptoms in Latina mothers.

Guided by the Family Stress Model (FSM) for minority families, the present study examined culture-specific (i.e., stress responses to anti-immigration actions and news, home-school dissonance) and general (i.e., financial strain, social support) risk and promotive factors as longitudinal predictors of Latina mothers' depressive symptom trajectories. Participants included 271 Latina mothers of early adolescents living in a new immigrant area in the southeast part of the United States, followed prospectively across four time points spanning 2 years. Mothers reported on their depressive symptoms at all four time points; risk and promotive factors were measured at Time 1 (T1). Latent class growth curve models identified three classes of mothers based on their depressive symptom trajectories. Roughly half of mothers reported low and decreasing symptoms, a third indicated moderate and increasing symptoms, and 10% displayed high and increasing symptoms. As expected, higher levels of stress responses to anti-immigration actions and news, home-school dissonance, and financial strain predicted membership in increasing symptom classes, whereas higher social support predicted membership in the decreasing symptom class. By adapting prevention and intervention efforts to the unique cultural and social contexts experienced by Latina mothers in new immigrant areas, practitioners may be better able to protect this segment of the population from experiencing depressive symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Familism Values, Family Assistance, and Prosocial Behaviors Among U.S. Latinx Adolescents.

Among U.S. Mexican adolescents living in established immigrant communities, high familism values are positively associated with compliant, emotional, and dire prosocial behaviors via sociocognitive and cultural psychological mechanisms. Less is known about the behavioral mechanisms that may explain these associations, or about prosocial behaviors among U.S. Latinxs residing in emerging immigrant destinations. We examined the cross-sectional, intervening variable associations among familism values, family assistance behaviors, and culturally salient prosocial behaviors among 547 U.S. Latinx adolescents residing in an emerging immigrant destination (M age = 12.8 years; 55.4% girls). Familism values and family assistance behaviors promoted emotional and dire prosocial behaviors for boys and girls, and promoted compliant prosocial behaviors for boys only. Familism also had direct associations with all three prosocial behaviors for boys and girls. Family assistance behaviors may be a mechanism via which adolescents develop compliant, emotional, and dire prosocial behaviors.

A qualitative examination of familial racial-ethnic socialization experiences among multiracial American emerging adults.

This qualitative interview study investigated the types of parental racial-ethnic socialization messages received by Multiracial American youth over the course of their development. The Multiracial population in America is the largest demographic group among individuals under the age of 18 (Saulny, 2011), but there is a dearth of research about the development of this rapidly growing population. Multiracial youth are members of multiple racial-ethnic groups. Thus, racial-ethnic socialization is particularly complex for Multiracial families because parents typically have different racial backgrounds and experiences compared to their children. Interviews were conducted with 20 Multiracial emerging adult college students (Mage = 20.55; 10 male, 10 female) of diverse racial backgrounds to identify the types of parental racial-ethnic socialization messages they received growing up. Using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), nine themes of racial-ethnic socialization content emerged: Cultural socialization, racial identity socialization, preparation for bias socialization, colorblind socialization, race-conscious socialization, diversity appreciation socialization, negative socialization, exposure to diversity socialization, and silent socialization. This research advances the literature by (a) identifying domains of racial-ethnic socialization messages for Multiracial American families, (b) examining a diverse sample of male and female Multiracial youth, (c) differentiating monoracial versus Multiracial socialization messages, and (d) distinguishing the unique connotations of egalitarian socialization messages (e.g., colorblind, race-conscious, diversity appreciation). The findings have important implications for understanding the development of Multiracial American individuals and families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Validation of the Multiracial Youth Socialization (MY-Soc) Scale among racially diverse multiracial emerging adults.

Multiracial children are the largest demographic group in the United States among individuals under the age of 18 (Pew Research Center, 2015), but their developmental processes are understudied. Parents and caregivers play an important role in preparing youth to navigate racialized society by teaching them to understand what it means to be a member of a racial-ethnic group (Hughes et al., 2006). However, this process is more complex in multiracial families, where youth belong to multiple racial-ethnic groups. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to develop and validate the first measure of racial-ethnic socialization for Multiracial youth, the Multiracial Youth Socialization (MY-Soc) Scale, to assess the unique messages that are communicated in multiracial families regarding topics of race, ethnicity, and culture. Using a sample of 901 Multiracial emerging adults (mage = 22.43), we separately captured the socialization practices of two of the youths' primary caregivers from the youths' perspective. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 62-item scale measuring eight types of socialization: Navigating Multiple Heritages Socialization, Multiracial Identity Socialization, Preparation for Monoracism Socialization, Negative Socialization, Colorblind Socialization, Diversity Appreciation Socialization, Race-Conscious Socialization, and Silent Socialization. The MY-Soc Scale was also supported by validity and reliability tests. This study contributes an important tool for scholars and practitioners to learn which racial-ethnic socialization messages are promotive for Multiracial youth development in different contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

U.S. Mexican-Origin Adolescents' Well-Being in the Context of Neighborhood White Concentration: Dismantling Systems of Racism and Oppression during Adolescence.

To address injustices that privilege whiter neighborhoods, many advocate for residential integration. The developmental consequences of greater exposure to whiteness associated with integration, however, are unclear. Research examining BIPOC adolescent development within the context of intraindividual changes in neighborhood white concentration-the changes that take place if an adolescent moves to a whiter neighborhood or if their neighborhood becomes whiter-is needed. We examined trajectories of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a longitudinal sample of U.S. Mexican adolescents (N = 749; 48.9% girls; 70.2% born in the United States). When adolescents experienced an uptick in neighborhood white concentration, they experienced a corresponding uptick in externalizing symptoms. We discuss the impacts of navigating whiter neighborhoods for U.S. Mexican adolescent well-being.

School racial-ethnic discrimination, rule-breaking behaviors and the mediating role of trauma among Latinx adolescents: Considerations for school mental health practice.

Much of the literature linking adversity to trauma fails to account for racialized experiences, including racial-ethnic discrimination, which is a highly prevalent form of adversity for youth of color in the U.S. Adversity and trauma often result in students experiencing elevated rule-breaking behaviors, exacerbating existing racial-ethnic disparities in disproportionate school discipline. Drawing from race-based trauma theory, the present study explored trauma as a mediator of the longitudinal association between racial-ethnic discrimination from teachers, other adults, and students in schools and rule-breaking behaviors among Latinx youth. Data were from a longitudinal study of 547 Latinx students in a southeastern U.S. state. Across gender and nativity groups, school racial-ethnic discrimination and trauma positively predicted later rule-breaking behaviors. Additionally, for girls only, increased levels of trauma partially explained the association between school racial-ethnic discrimination and rule-breaking behaviors. The study highlights the importance of addressing school racial-ethnic discrimination and trauma in equitable school metal health systems. Indeed, efforts aimed at reducing disproportionate school discipline among Latinx students should focus on reducing their exposure to school racial-ethnic discrimination and increasing access to trauma-informed and restorative justice approaches.

Adolescent Development in Context: A Decade Review of Neighborhood and Activity Space Research.

Over the last decade, two lines of inquiry have emerged from earlier investigations of adolescent neighborhood effects. First, researchers began incorporating space-time geography to study adolescent development within activity spaces or routine activity locations and settings. Second, cultural-developmental researchers implicated neighborhood settings in cultural development, to capture neighborhood effects on competencies and processes that are salient or normative for minoritized youth. We review the decade's studies on adolescent externalizing, internalizing, academic achievement, health, and cultural development within neighborhoods and activity spaces. We offer recommendations supporting decompartmentalization of cultural-developmental and activity space scholarship to advance the science of adolescent development in context.

The Influence of Ethnic-Racial Identity Developmental Processes on Global Bicultural Competence Development.

This study investigated ethnic-racial identity (ERI) developmental processes (i.e., exploration and resolution) as pathways for adolescents to develop global bicultural competence, or the ability to meet heritage and host cultural demands. The sample included 749 U.S. Mexican-origin youth (30% Mexico-born; 51% male) followed from early-to-late adolescence (Mage = 12.79-17.38 years). Longitudinal structural equation analyses revealed that youth's sequential engagement in ERI exploration and resolution (from early-to-middle adolescence) promoted global bicultural competence in late adolescence. The findings highlight the benefits of achieving clarity about one's ERI via self-exploration efforts for adolescents' ability to respond effectively to bicultural demands. This study advances mechanisms via which ERI development may support youth adaptation to multiple cultural systems.

Predictors of Latent Class Trajectories of Internalizing Symptoms in Latinx Adolescents.

Guided by ecodevelopmental theories, the present study examined how both culture-specific and general risk and protective factors across contexts predicted trajectories of Latinx youth's internalizing symptoms during early and middle adolescence. Participants included 547 Latinx youth (M age = 12.80; 55% females) recruited in middle school and followed prospectively across four time points spanning two years. Youth reported on their internalizing symptoms at all four time points, and risk and protective factors were measured at Time 1 (T1). Latent class growth curve modeling was used to examine heterogenous trajectories of change in internalizing symptoms separately for females and males, and risk and protective factors were examined as predictors of class membership. Three classes based on symptom trajectories emerged for both females and males, with most adolescents falling into classes characterized by low symptoms that remained stable or decreased over time. Risk and protective factors were predictive of class membership in theoretically meaningful ways. Some predictors of internalizing symptom trajectories differed between females and males. Findings inform our understanding of factors that influence developmental trajectories in Latinx youth and can contribute to the refinement of prevention and intervention efforts to help ensure the well-being of this population.

A prospective examination of neighborhood social and cultural cohesion and parenting processes on ethnic-racial identity among U.S. Mexican adolescents.

Neighborhood social processes may have important implications for parenting processes and ethnic-racial identity (ERI) processes and content in adolescence. Past research suggests that adolescents whose parents engaged in more cultural socialization, an important aspect of parental racial socialization, had higher levels of ERI processes and content. Parenting, however, is also situated within neighborhood contexts and can be influenced by resources available in neighborhoods. For example, having neighbors who share mutual values, trust one another, and appreciate/celebrate one's heritage culture may be a resource that promotes parents' efforts to engage in cultural socialization. We prospectively examined (from x¯age = 10.9-15.8 years) a model in which U.S. Mexican parents' perceptions of neighborhood social and cultural cohesion supported parents' engagement in higher levels of cultural socialization and in turn promoted adolescents' ethnic-racial identity processes and content. We tested a longitudinal mediation model with a sample of 749 U.S. Mexican adolescents (30% Mexico born; 48.9% female) and their parents. Mother-adolescent models suggest mothers' perception of neighborhood social and cultural cohesion in late childhood promoted middle adolescents' ERI affirmation via intermediate increases in maternal cultural socialization. Similar patterns were observed for ERI resolution, but only for adolescents whose mothers were born in the United States. We did not find evidence for mediation in the father-adolescent models. Findings are discussed in the context of the promoting nature of socially and culturally supportive neighborhood environments for U.S. Mexican families and adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).