Acculturative Family Distancing, Depressive Symptoms, and Risky Behavior Moderated by Biculturalism Among Latinx Youth

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Latinx adolescents are at an elevated risk of displaying depressive symptoms (Stein & Polo, 2014) and engaging in risky behaviors compared to their non-Latinx counterparts (Marsiglia et al., 2018). In this study, we examine the influence of acculturative family distancing on depressive symptoms and risky behavior. Acculturative Family Distancing (AFD) is the distancing that occurs between a parent and a child due to discrepancies in cultural values (Hwang et al., 2010). Among Asian-American and Latinx college students, higher AFD increased the risk of family conflict and was associated with increasing rates of clinical depression (Hwang et al., 2010). Likewise, risky behaviors among Mexican-American youth have been attributed to parent-adolescent acculturation gaps (Marsiglia et al., 2018). Concurrently, studies have highlighted the potential role of biculturalism in associations between AFD and youth adjustment (Carrera, 2014). Biculturalism is a psychological construct that captures the extent to which individuals internalize aspects of two cultures in their personal identity (Basilio et al. 2014), and can be categorized into three domains: advantage (the benefits one sees in living in a dual-cultural environment), facilities (the ease to which one responds to behavioral demands within their dual-cultural context), and comfort (the feelings associated with one’s capacity in navigating their dual-cultural world). Our goals were to apply the acculturative family distancing theory (Hwang et al., 2010) to Latinx middle school students and (a) explore its relations to risky behavior and depressive symptoms and (b) analyze the moderating effects of bicultural comfort, advantages, and facilities.

Methods. The sample included 204 Latinx middle school students from a Southwestern state (Mage = 12.39 years). We utilized a subsample of 189 youth who had complete data on AFD (Acculturative Family Distancing Scale; Hwang, 2006), biculturalism (MABS; Basilio et al., 2014), depressive symptoms (CESD; Beals, 1991), and risky behavior (MSALT; Eccles & Barber, 1990) via an online survey in English.

Results. Table 1 presents means and correlations for all study variables. Regressions (SPSS V. 26 & R) revealed that AFD was positively and significantly associated with both risky behaviors (𝛽 = 0.41) and depressive symptoms (𝛽 = 0.32). Results from moderation analyses showed that bicultural advantages and facilities did not significantly moderate the associations between AFD and risky behaviors nor depressive symptoms. However, bicultural comfort significantly moderated the association between AFD and risky behaviors. Simple slope analyses showed that whereas AFD was significantly related to risky behaviors at all levels of comfort, the relation was weaker when comfort was high (𝛽 = 0.12, SE = 0.06, p < .05) versus low (𝛽 = 0.31, SE = 0.07, p < .001); that is, as participants’ levels of bicultural comfort increased, the magnitude of the positive association between AFD and risky behaviors decreased.

Results of the study corroborate research that identifies AFD as a potential risk factor for Latinx youth and highlight bicultural comfort as a key protective factor. The limitations and implications of the study will also be discussed.

Authors

• Diane Solorio, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Simur Khurana, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kiera Midori Coulter, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rajni L. Nair, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melissa Y Delgado, University of Arizona
  Non-Presenting Author