Rajni L. Nair

Mexican-Origin Early Adolescents’ Ethnic Socialization, Ethnic Identity, and Psychosocial Functioning

This study examined how parental ethnic socialization informed adolescents’ ethnic identity (EI) development and, in turn, youths’ psychosocial functioning (i.e., mental health, social competence, academic efficacy, externalizing behaviors) among 749 Mexican-origin families. In addition, school ethnic composition was examined as a moderator of these associations. Findings indicated that mothers’ and fathers’ ethnic socialization were significant longitudinal predictors of adolescents’ EI, although fathers’ ethnic socialization interacted significantly with youths’ school ethnic composition in fifth grade to influence EI in seventh grade. Furthermore, adolescents’ EI was significantly associated with increased academic self-efficacy and social competence, and decreased depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors. Findings support theoretical predictions regarding the central role parents play in Mexican-origin adolescents’ normative developmental processes and adjustment and, importantly, underscore the need to consider variability that is introduced into these processes by features of the social context such as school ethnic composition.

Neighborhood Disadvantage, Stressful Life Events, and Adjustment among Mexican American Early Adolescents.

This study examined a stress process model in which stressful life events and association with delinquent peers mediated the relationship of neighborhood disadvantage to Mexican American early adolescents’ mental health. The authors also proposed that child gender, child generation, and neighborhood informal social control would moderate the relationship of neighborhood disadvantage to children’s experiences of stressful life events. With data from 738 Mexican American early adolescents, results generally provided support for the theoretical model although the relationships of neighborhood disadvantage to stressful life events and adjustment were weaker than expected. Additional research is needed to corroborate these results and determine why neighborhood disadvantage may have different relationships to adjustment for Mexican American early adolescents than for others.

Cross-language measurement equivalence of parenting measures for use with Mexican American populations.

Increasing diversity among families in the United States often necessitates the translation of common measures into various languages. However, even when great care is taken during translations, empirical evaluations of measurement equivalence are necessary. The current study demonstrates the analytic techniques researchers should use to evaluate the measurement equivalence of translated measures. To this end we investigated the cross-language measurement equivalence of several common parenting measures in a sample of 749 Mexican American families. The item invariance results indicated similarity of factor structures across language groups for each of the parenting measures for both mothers and children. Construct validity tests indicated similar slope relations between each of the 4 parenting measures and the outcomes across the 2 language groups for both mothers and children. Equivalence in intercepts, however, was only achieved for some outcomes. These findings indicate that the use of these measures in both within-group and between-group analyses based on correlation/covariance structure is defensible, but researchers are cautioned against interpretations of mean level differences across these language groups.

Acculturation Gap Distress among Latino Youth: Prospective Links to Family Processes and Youth Depressive Symptoms, Alcohol Use, and Academic Performance

Latino youth have higher rates of educational and mental health difficulties compared to peers from other racial/ethnic groups. To understand the factors related to such maladjustment, a mediational model linking youth report of parent-youth acculturation gaps to prospective changes (from spring to fall semester) in youth report of academic performance, depressive symptoms and alcohol use via youth report of parent-youth conflict and family cohesion, was studied in a sample of 248 U.S.—and foreign—born Latino youth (Mage = 15.21 years; 50% female; 67% U.S.-born). Parent-youth acculturation gaps were associated with changes in youth academic performance across two semesters via their negative impact on family functioning. For U.S.-born youth, parent–youth acculturation gaps were also linked to changes in alcohol use via parent-adolescent conflict. Results provide some support for the acculturative gap hypotheses while unique findings across nativity groups suggest that such individual-level characteristics may serve as important sources of variation for Latino youth.

Theorizing the benefits and costs of adaptive cultures for development.

Child socialization and development are, in part, products of adapting cultural systems. These systems evolve from the combined influence of collective history and current environmental affordances. They permeate family systems, shaping child development via numerous mechanisms, including structures and roles; values, beliefs, and goals; and parenting—to name a few. Recent growth in the study of child development among racial, ethnic, and cultural minority groups, which has been supported by important cultural-developmental theoretical advances, sheds essential light on the ways in which adapting cultural systems permeate child socialization and development in all families. Across this scholarship, there are numerous examples of the effectiveness of adapting cultural systems for promoting developmental competencies. There are also examples, however, in which adapting cultural systems either fail to promote developmental competencies or undermine the development of competencies. To address these theoretical and empirical tensions, we advance a set of propositions. Together, the propositions situate the developmental consequences of adapting cultural systems within multiple scientific traditions, including psychological, ecological, family systems, developmental, and biological perspectives. These propositions can support scientific inquiries aimed at identifying both the benefits and costs of adaptive cultures for development among diverse groups.