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- All Subjects: Family
- Creators: Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J.
- Creators: Anthony, Elizabeth
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
Mexican-origin adolescent females have the highest birthrate of all other ethnic groups in the U.S. Further, teen mothers are at significant risk for poor outcomes, including low educational attainment. Therefore, examining predictors of Mexican-origin teen mothers' educational attainment was the main goal of the current study. Future-oriented beliefs such as educational aspirations and expectations are suggested to have positive implications for adolescents' educational attainment in general. Therefore, guided by bioecological, social capital, status attainment, social learning, and collective socialization of neighborhood theories, the current study examined neighborhood, maternal, and cultural predictors of 190 Mexican-origin parenting adolescents' educational aspirations, expectations, and attainment. With respect to maternal predictors, the study examined mother figures' (i.e., grandmothers') educational attainment, and aspirations and expectations for the adolescent as predictors of adolescents' educational attainment. Using a multi-informant, longitudinal analytic model, results suggest that adolescents' educational expectations, rather than aspirations, significantly predicted adolescents' attainment one year later. Additionally, grandmothers' educational attainment was indirectly associated with adolescents' educational attainment via the educational expectations of both the grandmother and the adolescent. Further, the neighborhood context indirectly informed adolescents' educational attainment via both grandmothers and adolescents' educational expectations. Finally, adolescents' ethnic identity affirmation was significantly associated with adolescents' educational attainment two years later. Implications regarding the importance of educational expectations and ethnic identity affirmation for at-risk parenting adolescents' educational attainment will be discussed.
ContributorsHarvey-Mendoza, Elizabeth C (Author) / Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J. (Thesis advisor) / Updegraff, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The adaptation and integration of the mainstream and ethnic culture are important processes to understand as they have been associated with immigrant and minority youth's adjustment and family dynamics. However, few studies focusing on youth's cultural experiences have explored youth's active role in their own cultural development, and even less have explored youth's role in influencing parents' cultural development. In the current dissertation, two studies addressed these issues by using a within-family longitudinal design to explore 246 Mexican American youth's role in their own and their families' cultural development. The first study examined the reciprocal associations in parents' and two offspring's cultural values to examine developmental differences in parent-youth socialization processes. Overall, the importance of mothers' values was highlighted as a significant predictor of increases in youths' values, five years later. In addition, Study 1 highlighted situations where youth play an active role in their parents' cultural development as youths' lower endorsement of respect for elders values was associated with increases in fathers' value endorsement, five years later. The second study explored the associations between youth's imitation and de-identification from parents and parent-youth incongruence in Mexican and Anglo cultural orientations. Youths' active role in their cultural development was underscored, as youths' reports of de-identifying from parents were linked to more incongruence in parent-youth Anglo orientations. Further, important family characteristics (i.e., parent-youth warmth and demographic similarities) were shown to predict youths' more imitation and less de-identification from parents.
ContributorsPerez-Brena, Norma J. (Author) / Updegraff, Kimberly A (Thesis advisor) / Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J. (Committee member) / Dumka, Larry E (Committee member) / Glick, Jennifer E. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
A secondary data analysis was conducted to investigate the direct and indirect effects of family traditionalism, family cohesion, and parent involvement on alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use in a sample of pre-adolescent youth (N = 635) and their parents (N = 462). Aim one hypothesized that family cohesion and family traditionalism would be indicators of a higher order construct, operationalized as familismo. Aims two and three hypothesized that family traditionalism, family cohesion, and parent involvement would be protective against youth substance use. Finally, aim four hypothesized that acculturation would decrease the protective effects of family traditionalism and family cohesion on substance use.
Using second order confirmatory factor analysis, aim one found that family cohesion and family traditionalism were indicators of a second order structure. Regarding aims two and three, a consistent significant association was found between family cohesion and parent involvement across alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use outcomes. As well, family cohesion was significantly and inversely associated with past 30-day alcohol use amount ( = -.21, p < 0.05), lifetime alcohol use ( = -.19, p < 0.05), and lifetime marijuana use ( = -.31, p < 0.001). Counter to what was hypothesized, a significant positive relationship between family traditionalism and past 30-day alcohol use amount was found. No significant indirect effects were found. Specific to aim four, significant moderation effects were found between family cohesion and acculturation on alcohol and cigarette use. Higher acculturated youth had greater past 30-day alcohol and cigarette use amount compared to low acculturated youth; as family cohesion increased, alcohol and cigarette use for both low and high-acculturated youth decreased.
This study has important implications for social work and future research specific to culture, family, and youth substance use. This study may assist direct social work practitioners, school personnel, and other professionals that work with Latino youth and families in the tailoring of services that are culturally sensitive and relevant to this population and provides further understanding regarding the impact of culture and family on Latino youth substance use. Findings and limitations are discussed specific to social work practice, policy, and research.
Using second order confirmatory factor analysis, aim one found that family cohesion and family traditionalism were indicators of a second order structure. Regarding aims two and three, a consistent significant association was found between family cohesion and parent involvement across alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use outcomes. As well, family cohesion was significantly and inversely associated with past 30-day alcohol use amount ( = -.21, p < 0.05), lifetime alcohol use ( = -.19, p < 0.05), and lifetime marijuana use ( = -.31, p < 0.001). Counter to what was hypothesized, a significant positive relationship between family traditionalism and past 30-day alcohol use amount was found. No significant indirect effects were found. Specific to aim four, significant moderation effects were found between family cohesion and acculturation on alcohol and cigarette use. Higher acculturated youth had greater past 30-day alcohol and cigarette use amount compared to low acculturated youth; as family cohesion increased, alcohol and cigarette use for both low and high-acculturated youth decreased.
This study has important implications for social work and future research specific to culture, family, and youth substance use. This study may assist direct social work practitioners, school personnel, and other professionals that work with Latino youth and families in the tailoring of services that are culturally sensitive and relevant to this population and provides further understanding regarding the impact of culture and family on Latino youth substance use. Findings and limitations are discussed specific to social work practice, policy, and research.
ContributorsMartinez, Marcos Jerome (Author) / Marsiglia, Flavio F (Thesis advisor) / Kulis, Stephen (Committee member) / Anthony, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015