Language brokering and Latino children's anxiety symptoms: The moderating role of inhibitory control

• In Event: 1-185 - Understanding the Impact of Sociocultural factors on Latino youth’s Mental Health and Academic Achievement

Integrative Statement

Latino children often serve as language brokers for their families (i.e., translating documents, serving as mediators in social situations; Weisskirch, 2008). Albeit common among these families, brokering might place a strong burden on children’s mental health as they are asked to navigate situations that are normally considered to be beyond their developmental stage. Although studies with young adults suggest brokering is associated with positive outcomes (Weisskirch, 2008), studies with younger children suggest that navigating these complex interactions is linked with more stress and poorer socioemotional health (Martinez et al., 2009). Thus, more research is needed to understand the relation between language brokering and mental health and individual differences that can explain who might be most affected by brokering. One individual difference that has not been studied is children’s inhibitory control – their ability to suppress and control their cognitions and behaviors (Cooper, 2010). The current study examined the link between language brokering and anxiety symptoms in Latino children, while also considering their inhibitory control as a potential moderator. We hypothesized that children who engaged in brokering more often would show higher symptoms of anxiety, and that this would be particularly true for children with poor inhibitory control.

Seventy-eight children (50% female) between the ages of 8-11 (M = 9.91; SD = 1.14) participated in the study. All families identified as fully or part Latino/Hispanic. Children completed measures of their anxiety symptoms using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al., 1997) and their language brokering using the Language Brokering Questionnaire (Weisskirch & Alva, 2002). Children also completed a standard Go/No-go task at the beginning of the study to measure their inhibitory control.

Correlations revealed that more anxiety symptoms were associated with more brokering (r = .347, p = .005) and less inhibitory control (r = -.264, p = .022). Being older was associated with better inhibitory control (r = .307, p = .007). Girls (M = 29.58; SD = 10.11) self-reported more anxiety than boys (M = 22.62; SD = 12.15), t = 2.730, p = .008. Because of these associations age and gender were included in the regression model. Covariates were entered at step one, and resulted in a significant model F(2, 60) = 3.462, p = .038, R2 = .103. Language brokering, and inhibitory control were entered at step 2, and resulted in a significant improvement to the model F ∆ (2, 58) = 4.986 p = .010, R2 ∆ = .132. Lastly, the interaction between language brokering and inhibitory control was entered at step 3, and also resulted in an improvement to the model F ∆ (1, 57) = 4.304, p = .043, R2 ∆ = .054. The interaction was significant (b = -.018, p = .043) and confirmed our hypothesis that language brokering was associated with anxiety symptoms more strongly for children with low inhibitory control. Results suggest the importance of considering individual differences in executive functions and related processes when looking at the effects of contextual stressors on Latino children’s mental health.

Authors

• Laura Quinones-Camacho, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth L Davis, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author