A Comprehensive Assessment of the Associations Between Demographic Risk, Attachment, and Psychopathology in Latinx Mother-Youth Dyads

• In Event: New Directions for Developmental and Prevention Science for Improving the Lives of Latinx Families

Abstract

Despite the emergent visibility of the Latinx community, limited information exists regarding factors that mitigate or enhance risk for mental health problems in Latinx immigrant families. Latinx immigrant families disproportionately experience sociodemographic disadvantages including poverty, food insecurity, lower levels of education, higher number of children, single marital status, and younger maternal age, placing families at increasing risk for higher levels of depression and anxiety (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). Despite the disproportionate sociodemographic risks, Latinx culture is marked by the deeply ingrained valuing of familism, representing a resiliency factor. Within this framework, the concept of relationship closeness shares similarities with attachment security, which is associated with lower depressive, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms in youth (Fearon et al., 2010). Although ample research has linked attachment security to lower levels of psychopathology in families, little work has explored these associations within Latinx samples (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2017).
The present study aimed to fill this gap by exploring associations between both a) sociodemographic risk and b) attachment relationship quality (RQ) with mental health within recent immigrant Latinx mother-child dyads. We hypothesized: (1) greater demographic risk would be associated with greater psychopathology in youth and their mothers; (2) greater attachment RQ would be associated with lower psychopathology symptoms in youth and mothers; (3) attachment RQ would moderate the association between demographic risk and psychopathology in youth and mothers, such that greater RQ would weaken the positive association between demographic risk and psychopathology. The sample consisted of N = 330 mothers (Mage = 40.54, SDage= 6.48) and their child ages 8 to 17 (Mage = 12.28, SDage= 2.16) recruited by trained community workers and assessed at a community health agency (Latino Health Access).
Data were analyzed via hierarchical linear regressions controlling for child sex and age, and mother age on an initial step. In all analyses examining anxiety or depression, we controlled for the other psychopathology variable. Associations between demographic risk and psychopathology were few. For instance, greater demographic risk was associated with lower levels of youth anxiety (β = -.10, b = -1.20, SE = 0.51, 95% Confidence Interval [-2.19, -0.21], p =. 02.) and was marginally associated with higher youth depression symptoms (p = .05). Demographic risk was not associated with youth externalizing or maternal depression and anxiety. Attachment RQ was associated with lower depression (β = -.09, b = -0.39, SE = 0.17, 95% CI [-0.74, -0.06], p =. 02) and lower externalizing symptoms in youth (β = -.39, b = -3.68, SE = 0.48, 95% CI [-4.63, -2.72], p <. 001), and lower depressive symptoms in mothers (β = -.11, b = -0.05, SE = 0.11, 95% CI [-0.09, -0.01], p =. 01). We also examined whether attachment RQ moderated the association between demographic risk and psychopathology; none of the interactions were significant. We discuss these findings in terms of the immigrant paradox and the importance of understanding the processes that contribute to healthy parent-child functioning to inform interventions that foster relationship health and resilience for this at-risk population.

Authors

• Jose Arreola, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Lyric Noelle Russo, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Breana Cervantes
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hannah Hecht
  Non-Presenting Author

• Francisca Leal, Latino Health Access
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gloria Montiel, Latino Health Access
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paulina Paredes, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancy Guerra, UCI Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica L Borelli, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author