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Developmental Trajectories of Enculturative Values among Latinx Adolescents in an Emerging Immigrant Community: The Role of Parental Warmth and Acceptance

Fri, April 9, 1:10 to 2:40pm EDT (1:10 to 2:40pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Familism is a set of moral enculturative values characterized by attitudes about family importance, including feelings of familial obligation, consideration of family as a source of support, and viewing one's family as an important reference group in decision-making processes (Knight et al., 2010). Prior work has examined the importance of familism in promoting positive adjustment of Latinx youth (Stein et al., 2015) and longitudinal studies document that parenting factors, including cultural orientations and ethnic socialization, influence developmental trajectories of familism across adolescence (Knight et al., 2014; Schwartz et al., 2013). Positive parenting strategies, such as parental warmth and support, may help nurture adolescent familism values (Huguley et al., 2019; Hernandez & Bamaca-Colbert, 2016). Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of parenting factors in the development of familism among Latinx youth.

Most of the aforementioned work has been conducted in established immigrant receiving areas with adolescents mainly of Mexican or Cuban descent; less is known about developmental trajectories of familism among the broader and more diverse Latinx youth in emerging immigrant communities. Recent research suggests that familism may be especially important in these areas, where there may be fewer cultural resources (Stein et al., 2020). The primary aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal trajectories of developmental change associated with enculturative familism values in a sample of Latinx youth from an emerging immigrant community. We examined the role of gender, nativity, ethnicity, and parental warmth and acceptance vis-à-vis these longitudinal trajectories.

METHOD: The present analyses are drawn from a larger study examining context and psychosocial outcomes in Latinx adolescents in Atlanta (N = 547). Most adolescents (55.4% females, Mage=12.8 years) were born in the U.S. (88.1%), and of Mexican descent (52.3%). Adolescents reported on their familism over four timepoints using the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (MACVS; Knight et al., 2010). The hypothesized model was tested using growth curve modeling in Mplus.

RESULTS & DISCUSSION: The descriptive statistics and correlations are presented in Table 1. The unconditional latent growth model fit the data adequately (χ2 (5) = 19.02, p = .002; CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = .07; SRMR = .12). The average baseline score on familism was 4.42 (SE = .02, p < .001), with a significant variability across individuals (ψ = 0.13, SE = .02, p < .001). The slope was negative (ψ = -0.07, SE = .01, p < .001), indicating that endorsement of familism decreased over time. This mirrors previous work conducted in established immigrant receiving areas (e.g., Knight et al., 2018). Gender and nativity were not significantly associated with the developmental trajectories of familism values. Adolescents’ ethnicity was significantly associated with the intercept, with Mexican adolescents scoring higher on familism compared to non-Mexicans. Parental warmth and acceptance was significantly associated with the intercept (ψ = 0.22, SE = .02, p < .001), but not the slope. Findings suggest that parental warmth and acceptance was indicative of higher familism values in adolescents, but not a significant predictor of the change over time associated with familism.

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