Contextualizing Bicultural Competence Across Youths' Adaptation From High School to College: Prospective Associations With Mental Health and Substance Use.

Bicultural competence, the ability to navigate bicultural demands, is a salient developmental competency for youth of color linked with positive adjustment. This study investigated how discrimination experiences informed developmental trajectories of behavioral and affective bicultural competence across youth's adaptation from high school to college, and how these biculturalism trajectories predicted later adjustment (i.e., internalizing symptoms and binge drinking). Data were collected between 2016 through 2020 and included 206 U.S. Latino youth (Mage=17.59, 64% female, 85% Mexican origin, 11% first and 62% second generation immigrants). Linear latent growth analyses revealed that youth who experienced greater time-varying discrimination demonstrated lower concurrent behavioral and affective bicultural competence. Higher behavioral bicultural competence intercepts were associated with fewer internalizing symptoms in the third college year. No other significant associations emerged for internalizing symptoms or binge drinking. These findings have implications for mental health equity among Latino youth during a critical period of psychopathology onset.

Psychosocial stress, bicultural identity integration, and bicultural self-efficacy among Hispanic emerging adults.

Most studies on psychosocial stress among Hispanics have focused on risk factors. To better understand psychosocial stress among this population, this study aimed to examine components of bicultural identity integration and bicultural self-efficacy, that may be associated with lower psychosocial stress among Hispanic emerging adults (ages 18-25). This aim was tested on a cross-sectional sample of Hispanic emerging adults (Mage = 21.30, SD = 2.09) that included 200 participants (Arizona n = 99, Florida n = 101). The sample included men (n = 98) and women (n = 102). Most participants were US-born (70%), college students (69.5%), and of Mexican heritage (44%). Standardized coefficients from a hierarchical multiple regression model indicate that higher levels of the bicultural harmony component of bicultural identity integration (ß = -0.26, p < 0.001) and the social groundedness component of bicultural self-efficacy (ß = -0.23, p < 0.01) were associated with lower levels of psychosocial stress. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine components of bicultural identity integration and bicultural self-efficacy and their respective associations with psychosocial stress among any racial/ethnic group. Thus, more studies are needed to replicate our findings to determine if bicultural identity integration and bicultural self-efficacy should be considered in psychosocial stress interventions for Hispanics.