Bicultural Competence, Mental Health, and Substance Use Across Youth Adaptation from High School to College

• In Event: Youth Development in a Multicultural World: Antecedents and Consequents of Biculturalism

Abstract

Bicultural competence ‒ the ability to manage bicultural demands‒ is a developmental task for minority youth, including immigrant and ethnic-racial minority youth, exposed to different cultural systems with important implications for psychological adjustment (Nguyen & Benet-Martinez, 2013). Minority youth develop in contexts that are shaped by their social position (e.g., immigrant status) and its derivatives (e.g., discrimination; Stein et al., 2016). Scant research, however, has focused on how the development of bicultural competence qualified by social stratification and spanning youth adaptation from high school to their first college years informs their adjustment. This gap is especially problematic because stratification forces influence developmental competencies (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018) and this is a transition period in which youth are faced with making decisions that will inform the ways in which they will participate in and contribute to society as adults (Rivas-Drake & Mooney, 2009). Therefore, this study aimed (1) to chart the developmental course of bicultural competence accounting for family immigrant generation status and experiences of discrimination (García Coll et al., 1996) and (2) to understand how bicultural competence development may support minority youth adjustment during this developmental period.
Participants included 206 Latinx youth (64.4% female) who were assessed twice a year from the spring/summer of their senior year of high school (Mage = 17.59 years, SD = .53) to the end of their third year in college (T1-T7). We identified linear growth trajectories of bicultural competence spanning high school to second year in college (T1-T5) and investigated how bicultural competence development related to mental health and substance use (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms, binge drinking) in the sixth college semester (T7). We assessed youth bicultural competence using an adapted version of the Mexican American Biculturalism Scale (Basilio et al., 2014), experiences of discrimination using the Everyday Discrimination Scale (Williams et al., 1997), alcohol use (Johnston et al., 2015), and depressive and anxiety symptoms using respective subscales of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Scales’ Cronbach’s alphas were good across assessments (α. ≥ .75).
Findings indicated that on average, youth’s bicultural competence growth trajectory was moderately high and stable (Unconditional model). Youth from less recent family immigrant generations (ß = -.21, p = .009) and youth who experienced higher T1 discrimination (ß = -.19, p = .026) had lower average intercepts of bicultural competence (Figure 1). Further, more positive bicultural competence slopes were associated with lower T7 depressive symptoms (ß = -.28, p = .012). There was no association between bicultural competence trajectories and T7 anxiety symptoms. Higher bicultural competence intercepts were associated with higher T7 binge drinking (ß = .17, p = .044; Figure 2). Chi-square difference tests indicated that paths did not differ by gender, Δχ2 (6) = 3.901, p = .690 or college generation, Δχ2 (6) = 4.216, p = .647, thus included as covariates. Findings are discussed relative to ways in which social stratification and contextual factors determine the course, benefits, and costs associated with bicultural competence development.

Authors

• Michaela Gusman, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• M. Dalal Safa, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leah D Doane, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author