Familism and Psychological Wellbeing Among Latinx Youth: The Role of Parental Alcohol Use

• In Event: Family and Cultural Pathways to Socioemotional and Academic Well-Being in Latinx Adolescents

Abstract

Familism, a core cultural value in Latinx families, is typically correlated with positive youth development, including fewer depressive symptoms (Piña-Watson et al., 2019) and higher self-esteem (Romero et al., 2020). Although substantial evidence indicates that familism serves as a protective factor, a handful of studies suggest that high endorsement of familism can be maladaptive when accompanied with stress (Calzada et al., 2013), such as in the context of family conflict (Hernández et al., 2010), extensive family responsibilities (East & Weisner, 2009), and changes in parental physical/mental health (Telzer et al., 2015). However, this research has not been extended to parental alcohol use. Given that households characterized by substance use problems are often higher in familial stress and conflict (Lander et al., 2013), and familism values complicates familial relations with substance users in the home for mothers (Calzada et al., 2013), endorsement of familism values may also be detrimental for youth when accompanied with parental alcohol use. Accordingly, we extend research by testing whether parental alcohol use moderates the effects of familism on youth depression and self-esteem. We hypothesized that (a) familism would be positively associated with self-esteem and negatively associated with depressive symptoms and that (b) Parental alcohol use would moderate relations between familism and our outcomes such that, at high levels of parental alcohol use, familism would become a risk factor and related to greater depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem.

Using a sample of 175 Latinx mother-child dyads (Youth age=12.9; 51.4% female) recruited from an emerging immigrant community in North Carolina, we employed structural equation modeling to test how familism, parental alcohol use, and their interaction were associated with youth depressive symptoms and self-esteem. Our model, which controlled for family income and gender, provided a good fit to the data (X2(221)=278.364, p=.0053, RMSEA=.039, CFI=.975, SRMR=.080). As predicted, youth familism values were associated with greater self-esteem (b=.227, p=.002) and fewer depressive symptoms (b=-.247, p=.002) as main effects. Parental alcohol use was not associated directly with either outcome, but significantly interacted with youth familism values to predict self-esteem (see Figure 1 for structural model). Probing this interaction (see Figure 2) revealed that familism values promoted greater self-esteem for Latinx youth whose parents consumed alcohol at low (B=.592, p<.001) and mean (B=.314, p=.019) levels. While high familism did not predict worse self-esteem at high levels of parental alcohol use, the promotive effect of familism did break down and was no longer associated with greater self-esteem (B=.035, p=.861).

Overall, our results are largely consistent with the broader literature that has found familism to be an important protective factor in the lives of Latinx youth, yet our findings also provide evidence that the impact of familism can depend on the family context in which it occurs. Thus, more research is necessary to examine the myriad of ways in which familism functions across ecological and familial contexts. Additionally, future research should continue to investigate how cultural values intersect with parental substance use and other familial risk factors, such as maternal depression.

Authors

• Valerie V Salcido, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• N. Keita Christophe, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gabriela Livas Stein, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author