Mental Health Mediation of Bicultural Stress and Academic Motivation for Latinx Emerging Adults

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

The enrollment rates of Hispanic/Latinx college students in the U.S. have increased, almost reaching those of non-Hispanic Whites (36% to 42%); however, despite their increased enrollment rates, Hispanic/Latinx students still have the lowest bachelor’s degree attainment rates compared to all other ethnic/racial groups in the U.S. (Snyder et al., 2019). Due to this achievement gap, there is a need to understand why this academic disparity exists (Navarro et al., 2014). One factor that has been examined in the literature is bicultural stress, or the extent to which having to navigate multiple cultures and/or languages causes stress (Romero & Roberts, 2003). Research has found that bicultural stress is negatively related to academic motivation (Piña-Watson et al., 2015) and well-being among Hispanic/Latinx youth (Romero et al., 2020). Moreover, well-being has been associated with academic motivation (Frisch et al., 2005). While bicultural stress and well-being have been linked to academic motivation, research has not examined whether both constructs have a related effect on academic motivation.
The goal of the current study is to examine whether psychological well-being mediates the relationship between bicultural stress and academic intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation in Hispanic/Latinx college students. The sample consists of 280 Hispanic/Latinx college students (78.6% female, Mage = 21.11 years, SD = 13.62). We conducted a path analysis to assess the relationship between bicultural stress, psychological well-being, and academic motivation, controlling for gender and age. Due to the hypothesized model being fully saturated, we trimmed non-significant covariates. The trimmed model resulted in a good model fit, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA < .001, SRMR = .04, χ2(9) = 8.31, p = 0.5.
Results (see Table 1/Figure 1) indicated the effect of bicultural stress on academic motivation was fully mediated by psychological well-being. Specifically, bicultural stress was negatively associated with psychological well-being (β=-0.34, p<.001), which in turn was significantly associated with amotivation (β =-0.93, p<.001), intrinsic motivation (β=0.48, p<.001) and extrinsic motivation (β=0.34, p=.006). Tests of the indirect effects were conducted using the delta method in Mplus (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2012). Bicultural stress had a negative indirect effect on intrinsic motivation (β=-0.07, p=.007) and extrinsic motivation (β=-0.06, p=.017), and a positive indirect effect on amotivation (β=0.12, p<.001).
Building on prior research, the current study examined whether psychological well-being influences the relationship between bicultural stress and academic motivation. The results provided evidence that the effect of bicultural stress on academic motivation is fully mediated by psychological well-being. These findings are consistent with Acculturation Context and Process model (ACP; Ward & Geeraert, 2016), which posits that as the differences between an individual’s cultures increase, bicultural stress also increases which in turn negatively affects youths’ overall functioning and compromises their academic achievement motivation. However, because cultural processes are inherently developmental and contextualized (Meca et al., 2019), future longitudinal research is necessary to explore these processes and identify contextual factors that may influence these findings. Thus, this study suggests designing interventions to alleviate bicultural stress and support mental health may help to decrease the achievement gap among Hispanic/Latinx youth.

Authors

• Kelsie Allison, Old Dominion University
  Presenting Author

• Cynthia B Meca, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sangeeta Sharma, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie Rodil, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tony Perez, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio
  Non-Presenting Author