Discrimination and Ethnic Socialization Predicting Familism Values and Prosocial Behaviors among U.S. Latino/a Young Adults

• In Event: 3-136 - A Multicultural Perspective on Values and Positive Developmental Outcomes

Integrative Statement

U.S. Latino/a young adults are at risk for experiencing discrimination in multiple contexts (e.g., work, school, community), and these experiences may be particularly salient with the current political climate (Portes & Rumbaut 2006). The majority of the existing literature on discrimination and adjustment has focused on negative adjustment indices, such as internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Acosta, Hospital, Graziano, Morris, & Wagner, 2015; Schmitt, Branscombe, Postmes, & Garcia, 2014). However, it is also important to consider indicators of positive adjustment, including prosocial behaviors in order to avoid contributing to deficit approaches of ethnic minority youth development. Prosocial behaviors are defined as actions intended to benefit others and include a plethora of helping behaviors such as comforting others and volunteering (Carlo & Randall, 2002). Young adults who experience discrimination might become withdrawn and increasingly socially isolated (Major & O’Brien 2005), which might make it difficult to effectively engage in other-oriented behaviors. There is evidence that discrimination is negatively associated with prosocial behaviors, particularly selflessly motivated helping behaviors (Davis et al., 2016).
It is also important to understand underlying mechanisms and protective factors that play a role in these associations. Cultural values and family processes might be influential factors that help explain the links between discrimination experiences and young adults’ prosocial behaviors. Familism values (sense of obligation to the family/viewing the family as part of the self; Sabogal, Marín, Otero-Sabogal, Marín, & Perez-Stable, 1987) are salient for many Latino/a families and might mediate the links between discrimination and prosocial behaviors. When young adults experience discrimination, they may rely on family for support and embrace family relationships. Discrimination experiences have been positively linked to familism values (Brittian et al., 2013), which in turn are positively associated with multiple forms of prosocial behaviors (Davis et al., in press). It is also important to consider protective factors that might buffer young adults from the deleterious consequences of discrimination. Ethnic socialization (discussing the role of ethnicity with youth) might provide a framework for coping with discrimination experiences (see Hughes et al., 2006), and therefore might act as a protective factor against discrimination experiences.
Participants were 1,527 Latino/a college students (M age = 20.35 years; 75.2% women) from across the U.S. Participants completed measures of their perceptions of bias against their ethnic group (Malcarne, Chavira, Fernandez, & Liu, 2006), their own experiences with family ethnic socialization (Umaña-Taylor, 2001), their endorsement of familism values (Lugo Steidel & Contreras, 2003), and their tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors (Carlo & Randall, 2002). Results demonstrated interactive effects between ethnic socialization and discrimination predicting familism values such that individuals high in ethnic socialization and discrimination reported lower endorsement of familism values (see Figure 2). The interaction also predicted multiple forms of prosocial behaviors. Familism values were also positively associated with three forms of prosocial behaviors. Discussion will focus on the role of ethnic socialization in young adults’ traditional cultural values and prosocial behaviors under conditions of discrimination and perceived barriers. Additionally, differences based on nativity will be explored.

Authors

• Alexandra N Davis, University of New Mexico
  Presenting Author

• Gustavo Carlo, University of Missouri
  Non-Presenting Author