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- All Subjects: Adjustment (Psychology)
- Creators: Gonzales, Nancy
Description
Recent reports have indicated that there are both mental health and educational disparities between Latino youth and their European American counterparts. Specifically, Latin youth are at a heightened risk for negative mental health outcomes in comparison to their non-Latino youth (e.g., Eaton et al., 2008). Further, 16.7% of Latino adolescents dropped out of high school compared to 5.3% of European American youth over the past several decades (1960-2011; U.S. Department of Education, 2013). Mexican American (M.A. youth in particular, have the lowest educational attainment among all Latino ethnic groups in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). While these mental health and educational disparities have often been attributed to discrimination experiences that Latino youth encounter, there is also consistent empirical evidence linking discrimination with these maladjustment problems. These studies confirmed that discrimination directly related to depressive symptoms (e.g., Umana-Taylor et al., 2007), externalizing behaviors (Berkel et al., 2010), self-esteem (e.g., Zeiders et al., 2013), and academic outcomes (e.g., Umana-Taylor et al., 2012). Few studies to date have examined the underlying mechanisms (i.e., moderation and mediation) that help us to better understand resiliency paths for those Latino youth that display positive adjustment outcomes despite being faced with similar discrimination encounters that their maladjusted peers face. Therefore, the following two studies examined various mechanisms in which discrimination related to adjustment to better understand potential risk and resiliency processes in hopes of informing intervention research. Paper 1 explored cultural influences on the association between discrimination, active coping, and mental health outcomes in M.A. youth. Paper 2 examined how trajectories of discrimination across 5th, 7th, and 10th grades related to cultural values, externalizing behaviors, and academic outcomes in M.A. youth. Taken together, these studies provide a culturally informed overview of adjustment processes in M.A. adolescents who face discrimination in addition to identifying critical directions for future research in efforts to gaining a more contextualized and comprehensive understanding of the dynamic processes involved in discrimination and adjustment in M.A. youth.
ContributorsO'Donnell, Megan (Author) / Roosa, Mark W. (Thesis advisor) / Dumka, Larry (Committee member) / Gonzales, Nancy (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Asian American (AA) adolescents and young adults are at risk for poor psychological adjustment and diminished health. Parental involvement and intergenerational gap in acculturation (IGA) have been independently associated with intergenerational acculturative conflict, a common stressor in the AA population. However, few studies have tested how the influence of parental involvement on intergenerational acculturative conflict/family cohesion and subsequent psychological adjustment may vary depending on IGA; and even fewer studies have investigated how such models apply to AA general health. The goals of the present study were, therefore, to identify pathways linking these acculturative family processes to AA young adult general health in a large sample of Filipino and Southeast Asian (SEA) families. Analyses utilized data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001), a national longitudinal study of children from immigrant families. Results suggested that although Filipino and SEA families may differ in the acculturative processes that contribute to intergenerational acculturative conflict and family cohesion, depressive symptoms are an important mechanism through which these family outcomes in adolescence influence young adult general health outcomes in both Filipino and SEA families. This investigation serves to inform future programs aimed at providing targeted interventions for AAs at risk for long-term psychological disorders and physical health problems.
ContributorsTanaka, Rika (Author) / Luecken, Linda J. (Thesis advisor) / Gonzales, Nancy (Committee member) / Doane Sampey, Leah (Committee member) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015