Understanding Cultural Processes Among Hispanic/Latinx Youth

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

While developing within the U.S., Hispanic/Latinx youth must successfully navigate oppressive social systems to maintain their quality of life (Wang et al., 2020). Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that support adjustment and identify risks for maladjustment among Hispanic/Latinx youth. Accordingly, the proposed symposium makes important advances in our understanding of cultural stress (e.g., bicultural stress) that Hispanic/Latinx youth experience as well as culturally grounded developmental (e.g., biculturalism) assets utilized by Hispanic/Latinx youth to successfully navigate contexts of adversity, supporting their adjustment. Indeed, focusing on cultural stressors, Study 1 examined the psychometric validation of a brief measure of bicultural stress (i.e., stress due to navigating two cultural streams), a key cultural stressor experienced by Hispanic/Latinx youth (Cano et al., 2015), and establishes its association with psychosocial adjustment. Drawing on a resilience framework, study 2 identified unique configurations of familial, and universal/culturally grounded individual-level assets, and examined the ways psychosocial adjustment differed by asset profile membership. Study 3 takes a risk and resilience perspective and seeks to understand how personal and ethnic/racial identity, two key developmental and cultural assets (Meca et al., 2019), and cultural stress contribute to the establishment of a U.S. identity among Hispanic/Latinx. Finally, Study 4 identified unique configurations of cultural stress and acculturation and examined differences across psychosocial functioning. Together, these studies make an important contribution to our understanding of the challenges faced by Hispanic/Latinx youth as well as the assets that allow them to navigate adversity.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio

Individual Presentations

• Evaluating a brief measure of bicultural stress for US-born Mexican Americans - Presenting Author: Jacqueline Lucero, University of Texas at San Antonio; Miriam M Martinez, University of Texas at San Antonio; Brendon Decker, The University of Texas at San Antonio; Brian E Armenta, University of Texas at San Antonio

• Patterns of assets that support Latinx adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment: A latent profile analysis - Presenting Author: Rayni Thomas, University of Arizona; Melissa Y Delgado, University of Arizona; Rajni L. Nair, Arizona State University; Kiera Midori Coulter, University of Texas at Austin; Isabella Timmons, Arizona State University; Tera Riley, Arizona State University

• U.S. Identity in Latinx Youth: Examining discrimination, bicultural stress, and personal identity development as predictors - Presenting Author: Bethany Cruz, University of Texas at San Antonio; Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio; Allison Wright, University of Texas at San Antonio; Taryn Veniegas, The University of Texas at San Antonio; Kelsie Allison, Old Dominion University; Lauren Santibanez, University of Texas at San Antonio; Marissa Scurry, The University of Texas at San Antonio; Melinda A Gonzales-Backen, Florida State Univeristy

• Profiles of Acculturation & Cultural Stress Among College-Attending Emerging Adults - Presenting Author: Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio; Bethany Cruz, University of Texas at San Antonio; Angela R. Laird; Jacqueline Lucero, University of Texas at San Antonio; Zenetta Hinojosa, University of Texas at San Antonio; Hannah Sheikh; Seth J. Schwartz; Colleen Ward, Victoria University of Wellington; Ágnes Szabó, Victoria University of Wellington; Jaimee Stuart