Poster #26 - Parent Anglo/Latino Cultural Marginalization and Adolescent Academics: The Moderating Role of Sleep Timing Variability

• In Event: Poster Session 20

Abstract

Academic engagement and school attachment have wide-reaching implications for youth development (Johnson et al., 2001). Hispanic/Latino students often experience additional, race-based stressors that may affect academics (e.g., cultural stress). Culture is vital to development in many contexts, such as family and school (Vélez-Agosto, 2017). Cultural marginalization, a form of cultural orientation, involves weak identifications with mainstream or self-identified culture (e.g., Anglo/Latino culture; Gutierrez et al., 2009). Adolescent marginalization has been linked with lower school connection and performance (Polk et al., 2020), with some evidence that parents’ marginality shapes student well-being (Kim et al., 2006). Additionally, increasing research supports that race-related differences in sleep are linked to adolescent academics (Levy et al., 2016). Previous research suggests that variability in sleep schedule is particularly important for academics among ethnic/racial minority youth (Buckhalt et al., 2007). Thus, the current study examined whether (1) parent Anglo/Latino marginalization predicted adolescent academic performance and negative emotions towards school, and (2) sleep midpoint variability moderated these associations.

Participants were a subsample of Hispanic/Latino twins (N=236; 48.3% male) taken from an ongoing longitudinal study (Lemery-Chalfant et al., 2019), assessed at approximately age 11 (Mage=10.91, SD=1.11). Primary caregivers self-reported Anglo/Latino marginality (e.g., difficulty accepting ideas/values; Cuellar et al., 1995; αs>.92). Parent reports of adolescents’ school liking (negative emotions towards school; α=.93) and parent/teacher reports of academic performance were collected (Armstrong & Goldstein, 2003; α=.92). Participants wore wrist-based accelerometers (Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc, Ardsley, NY USA) for seven nights (M=6.81, SD=.86) to measure the variability of sleep midpoint (i.e., time between sleep start and end, reflecting variability in sleep schedule). Covariates were twin age, sex, and family socioeconomic status. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted in SPSS 27.0.

Primary caregiver cultural marginalization was positively associated with negative emotions towards school (Anglo: b=.05, p<.001; Latino: b=.07, p<.001). Marginalization did not predict parent/teacher report academic performance (Anglo: ps>.47; Latino: ps>.14). Sleep midpoint variability did not moderate associations between marginalization and negative emotions towards school (Anglo: b=-.02, p=.63; Latino: b=-.002, p=.95). However, the interaction between Anglo marginalization and midpoint variability predicted parent-report academic performance (b=-.12, p=.007). Simple slopes revealed that this association was only significant at high levels of midpoint variability (b=-.05, p=.04), not at average/low levels. Similarly, the interaction between Latino marginalization and midpoint variability predicting academic performance was significant (b=-.10, p=.009) only at high levels of midpoint variability (b=-.06, p=.017), and not at average/low levels. A similar pattern of results was observed for teacher-report academics.

Overall, findings point to the importance of cultural processes for academics in adolescence. Specifically, results support that parents’ experiences of greater marginalization from both Latino and Anglo cultures predicted lower adolescent school liking. Parent Anglo/Latino marginalization was only associated with reduced academic performance for youth with higher sleep midpoint variability, suggesting that sleep schedule irregularity exacerbates the effect of cultural stress on academics. Given the importance of fostering positive academic experiences during adolescence, future research should further explore the interaction between cultural orientation and academics, as well as how sleep schedule variability impacts well-being among Hispanic/Latino youth.

Authors

• Crystal Li, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Leah D Doane, Arizona State University

• Emma Lecarie, Arizona State University

• Jeri Sasser, Arizona State University

• Mary Davis, Arizona State University

• Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University