Discordance in Parents’ and Adolescents’ Cultural Orientation and Parent-Child Outcomes in Mexican Immigrant Families

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Using statistical methods such as difference scores and the interaction approach, a significant body of research has revealed how intergenerational discrepancies in cultural adaptation are related to compromised adolescent mental well-being (acculturation gap-distress model; Schwartz et al., 2016). However, difference scores are unable to account for differing baselines and the direction of the difference, while the interaction approach is unable to assess for differences at all levels of discrepancy (Barranti, Carlson & Côté, 2017). Tangentially, most existing research has focused solely on negative aspects of adolescents’ mental health, and has neglected to consider parent outcomes and positive flourishing indicators (e.g., resilience).
The current study uses dyadic response surface analysis (RSA; Schönbrodt et al., 2018), a novel methodology that considers not only the effects of individual indicators, but also whether matches or discrepancies in cultural adaptation are associated with better/worse outcomes. It also provides comparisons of all levels of parent-child matches (e.g., high-high versus low-low) with outcomes. Adopting a bidimensional model of acculturation, this study leverages RSA to test the longitudinal associations between parent-child concordance in four cultural adaptation domains (acculturation, enculturation, English and Spanish proficiency) with children’s and parents’, and the changes in children’s and parents’, positive (i.e., life meaning and resilience) and negative outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms and anxiety).
Data for this study were drawn from a two-wave longitudinal study (waves spaced one year apart) on 604 Mexican American families (Nadolescents=604, Nmothers=596, Nfathers=293) in Texas. Adolescents were in 6th-8th grades and their ages ranged from 11.08 to 15.29 (Mage=12.91 years, SD=0.92). Most adolescents are U.S.-born (N=455, 75.3%), while most parents are Mexico-born (Nmother =592, 99.3%; Nfather=289, 98.6%). Analyses were conducted using the RSA package (Schönbrodt & Humberg, 2018) in R 3.6.2.
RSA demonstrated significant associations between parent-child matches/discrepancies in cultural adaptation at Wave 1, and both parent and adolescent outcomes at Wave 2 (Tables 1 and 2). Specifically, adolescents reported more anxiety when they had lower levels of Spanish proficiency than their father compared to when their Spanish proficiency was higher than their father’s (a3child = -.20, p < .05, Fig.1a). Mothers reported more life meaning when their children were similar to them at high versus low levels of Spanish proficiency (a1mom =.42, p < .001 Fig.1b). Further, adolescents reported more life meaning when mother and child matched at high versus mid-levels of acculturation (a2mom = .36, p < .01, Fig.1c). These results hold even after controlling for covariates (parents’ education level, child gender, nativity, parent and child age and Wave 1 outcomes).
Consistent with the acculturation gap-distress model, our findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how parent-child discrepancy in cultural adaptation affects parents’ and adolescents’ mental health. RSA is a novel methodology that enables us to examine whether matches or mismatches in cultural adaptation are associated with parent and child outcomes, and provides implications on how matches at high versus low levels may be related to these outcomes.

Authors

• Jinjin Yan, Fordham University
  Presenting Author

• Lester Sim, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shanting Chen, University of Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Su Yeong Kim, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author