“We’re here to help you”: Exploring Latinx parents’ coping socialization of their Latinx youth

• In Event: Resilience and Protection in Black and Latinx Families

Abstract

Extant scholarship has identified how coping (i.e., management of stressful demands), such as proactive coping and shift & persist, may alleviate the negative effects of cultural (e.g., higher racial-ethnic discrimination) and general (e.g., greater economic hardship) stressors on mental health (e.g., lower depressive symptoms) and academic (e.g., higher academic motivation) outcomes among Latinx youth (McDermott et al. 2019). However, little is known about what motivates youth to engage in particular coping strategies. Understanding what motivates Latinx youth to implement certain coping strategies in response to cultural and general stressors is important to the development of interventions aimed at equipping Latinx youth with effective coping skills. For example, parents may play a critical role in youths’ choice of coping by teaching them how to cope (i.e., through their coping socialization; Abaied & Rudolph, 2010). Parents may send explicit messages (e.g., telling youth not to think about the stressor) about how youth should cope. However, prior research has examined how Latinx parents socialize their youth to cope within racial-ethnic socialization (i.e., teaching youth cultural traditions and values), paying less attention to other coping socialization strategies parents may use. Thus, the current study seeks to qualitatively explore parents’ perspectives on their coping socialization strategies (i.e., messages) on their Latinx youth.

Latinx parents (N=28; Mage=42.36, SD=8.51; Female=75%) with 9th (39%) and 10th (61%) grade youth attending 6 high schools within a large and diverse Central Texas school district participated in focus groups to discuss their experiences with cultural stressors. We conducted seven focus groups (4 in Spanish, 2 in English, 1 in Spanish and English). Parents predominately identified as Mexican (89%), most were married (75%), and employed full-time (43%). Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Focus group data was coded and analyzed by four bilingual researchers (one professor, one post-doctoral student, one graduate student, and one undergraduate student) using an abductive analysis approach (Timmermans & Tavory, 2012). We fitted significant statements into preexisting concepts of specific coping strategies parents emphasized in their coping socialization messages (e.g., avoidance coping) before identifying and adding new coping strategies in parents’ coping socialization (e.g., minimizing impact of stress experiences).

Latinx parents described youth sharing with them stressful experiences or seeking them for advice on how to cope with cultural and general stressors. Latinx parents provided youth with messages on how they should cope. Within the coping messages parents sent to youth, we identified 11 distinct coping strategies parents emphasized: Acceptance, Helping or Supporting Others, Limiting Exposure to Stressors, Minimizing Impact of Stress Experience, Positive Reframing, Protection Tactics, Staying Polite, Resistance, Seeking Social Support, Shift & Persist, and Religion/Spirituality. Table 1 presents formulated meanings and exemplar quotes.

Latinx parents seem to play an active role in teaching Latinx youth how to cope with cultural and general stressors. Our findings highlighted a variety of coping strategies in the messages parents send to their youth about how to cope. Understanding parents’ role in the coping socialization of youth may help inform intervention efforts in equipping youth with effective coping skills.

Authors

• Kimberly Henriquez, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Elma Lorenzo-Blanco, University of Texas at Austin