Acculturation Impacts on Depressive Symptoms Among Hispanic Sexual Minority Youth and Hispanic Non-Sexual Minority Youth

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

Abstract

Background: Sexual minority youth (SMY) experience disproportionate risk for mental health, compared to their heterosexual peers (Marshal et al. 2011). Further, within the SMY population, there are disparities between ethnic subgroups, such that Hispanic SMY (HSMY) report higher rates of depression compared to their non-Hispanic SMY counterparts (Kann et al. 2018). Cultural values may either amplify or counter mental health among HSMY, however, little is known about the role that acculturation plays in preventing and/or reducing depressive symptoms among HSMY. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of acculturation (i.e., Americanism - adherence to mainstream cultural values and Hispanicism - adherence to heritage cultural values) on the trajectory of adolescent depressive symptoms and whether there are differential effects by sexual orientation (i.e., HSMY and Hispanic non-SMY). Methods: This study included data from 231 parents and adolescents in the control arm of a randomized controlled trial evaluating an online parenting intervention for adolescents ages 12-16 (Prado et al. 2019). Utilizing latent growth curve modeling in a multigroup framework, we examined the trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms and parent and adolescent acculturation across 36-months and regressed the slope of the trajectory of depressive symptoms on the slope of the trajectory of: (1) adolescent Americanism, (2) adolescent Hispanicism, (3) parent Americanism, and (4) parent Hispanicism among HSMY (n = 43; 19.9%) and Hispanic non-SMY (n = 173; 80.1%). Results: Baseline levels of depressive symptoms for HSMY were significantly higher than Hispanic non-SMY (χ2(1), p < 0.001). For Hispanic non-SMY, adolescents’ own Hispanicism was protective against depressive symptoms such that depressive symptoms decreased overtime (b = -0.47, p < 0.01). Parent Americanism (b = -0.31, p < 0.05) and Hispanicism (b = -0.42, p < 0.01) were also protective against adolescent depressive symptoms. There were no significant associations between adolescent nor parent reports of Hispanicism or Americanism and HSMY depressive symptoms. However, it is important to note that the effect sizes for the relationship of HSMYs’ own Hispaniscism (d = -1.49) and Americanism (d = -1.66) on the trajectory of depressive symptoms were larger than those of Hispanic non-SMY (d = -0.47, -0.48, respectively). Similarly, for the relationship between parent Americanism and depressive symptoms, the effect size for HSMY (d = -0.31) was larger than the effect size for Hispanic non-SMY (d = -0.14). Discussion: Acculturative factors (i.e., Americanism, Hispanicism) may mitigate depressive symptoms among Hispanic youth, speaking to the importance of biculturalism in Hispanic families. Although there were null findings related to the impact of parent and adolescent acculturation on depressive symptoms for HSMY, baseline levels of depression were significantly higher among HSMY, and effect sizes were larger for HSMY than Hispanic non-SMY in three of the four models. Due to unique Hispanic values and beliefs and parent influence on cultural values, there is a need for culturally-tailored family-based preventive interventions to address the role of cultural values in preventing depressive symptoms. Future research with larger samples of HSMY should further elucidate how cultural values may impact HSMY mental health.

Authors

• Alyssa Lozano, University of Miami
  Presenting Author

• Maria I Tapia

• Yannine Estrada, University of Miami

• Guillermo Prado, University of Miami