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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Updegraff, Kimberly A.
Description
Twenty-five percent of Americans are first- or second-generation immigrants (US Census, 2012). Thus, it is likely that many Americans identify with at least two cultures, that of the mainstream United States culture, and their ethnic culture from which they came, making them bicultural. However, current understanding of the impact of biculturalism on psychological functioning is quite limited in scope, as few studies have examined this association longitudinally or considered the moderating role of the cultural environment. The present study proposed to take a more comprehensive approach in understanding the consequences of biculturalism on psychological outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, and substance abuse symptoms) among Mexican American adolescents, as they belong to one of largest and fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States (US Census, 2013). The present study had two major goals. The first was to examine the influence of biculturalism on depression, anxiety, and substance abuse symptoms longitudinally over the course of two years. It was hypothesized that overall, biculturalism will lead to less depression, anxiety, and substance abuse symptoms. The results partially supported these predictions. For males, biculturalism was related to significantly fewer anxiety symptoms, but not for females. Further, no main effects of biculturalism were found for depression and substance abuse for males or females. The second goal of the study was to examine the potential moderating role of the cultural environment on the influence of biculturalism on mental health symptoms. It was hypothesized that bicultural individuals will exhibit less mental health symptoms in bicultural environments (person-environment fit) compared to more monocultural individuals (person-environment misfit). However, no differences are expected to ii emerge between bicultural and monocultural individuals in monocultural environments, as both groups should be well adapted in these settings. The results did not fully support these predictions. Though, biculturalism for male adolescents was related to significantly fewer anxiety symptoms in home environments where parents reported moderate degrees of biculturalism, and females' biculturalism was related to significantly fewer depression symptoms in neighborhood environments that were relatively bicultural; no effects of biculturalism were found in environments that were the most bicultural. The implications of the findings are discussed.
ContributorsBasilio, Camille D (Author) / Knight, George P. (Thesis advisor) / Kwan, Virginia S.Y. (Committee member) / Roosa, Mark W. (Committee member) / Gonzales, Nancy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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 current study investigates the relationship between school connectedness and academic achievement and whether this relationship is moderated by ethnic identity. Participants included 436 Mexican-origin youth attending a middle school in a southwestern U.S. state. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze whether school connectedness is predictive of academic achievement, measured as standardized test scores, and whether ethnic identity moderates the association in this sample of Mexican-origin youth. Findings revealed that after controlling for age, lunch status, generational status, and gender, school connectedness was a positive predictor of standardized test scores in reading and math. Results also indicated that ethnic private regard moderated the association between school connectedness and standardized test scores in reading. These findings underscore the importance of possessing a positive ethnic identity for Mexican-origin youth in predicting academic outcomes.
ContributorsCollins, Mary Ann (Author) / Santos, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Kinnier, Richard (Committee member) / Kurpius, Sharon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
A fundamental motivation for this study was the underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics careers. There is no doubt women and men can achieve at the same level in Mathematics, yet it is not clear why women are opting out. Adding race to the equation makes the underrepresentation more dramatic. Considering the important number of Latinos in the United States, especially in school age, it is relevant to find what reasons could be preventing them from participating in the careers mentioned. This study highlight the experiences young successful Latinas have in school Mathematics and how they shape their identities, to uncover potential conflicts that could later affect their participation in the field. In order to do so the author utilizes feminist approaches, Latino Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory to analyze the stories compiled. The participants were five successful Latinas in Mathematics, part of the honors track in a school in the Southwest of the United States. The theoretical lenses chosen allowed women of color to tell their story, highlighting the intersection of race, gender and socio-economical status as a factor shaping different schooling experiences. The author found that the participants distanced themselves from their home culture and from other girls at times to allow themselves to develop and maintain a successful identity as a Mathematics student. When talking about Latinos and their culture, the participants shared a view of themselves as proud Latinas who would prove others what Latinas can do. During other times while discussing the success of Latinos in Mathematics, they manifested Latinos were lazy and distance themselves from that stereotype. Similar examples about gender and Mathematics can be found in the study. The importance of the family as a motivator for their success was clear, despite the participants' concern that parents cannot offer certain types of help they feel they need. This was manifest in a tension regarding who owns the "right" Mathematics at home. Results showed that successful Latinas in the US may undergo a constant negotiation of conflicting discourses that force them to distance themselves from certain aspects of their culture, gender, and even their families, to maintain an identity of success in mathematics.
ContributorsGuerra Lombardi, Paula Patricia (Author) / Middleton, James (Thesis advisor) / Battey, Daniel (Committee member) / Koblitz, Ann (Committee member) / Flores, Alfinio (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
A theme in the life experiences of ethnic minority adolescents is the perception of discrimination and its concomitant challenges. Although existing literature has examined the perception of discrimination in adolescents, little research has examined how the cultural and familial setting may heighten or alleviate the impact of perceived discrimination on psychological outcomes in Latino youth. The current study investigated how traditional cultural values and parent-adolescent relationships prospectively interact with perceptions of group based discrimination to influence Latino adolescent mental health, adjustment, and risky behaviors. Data used from the Parents and Youth Study included 194 Mexican American (MA) adolescents. Adolescents reported on their perceptions of group discrimination, endorsement of traditional Mexican cultural values, and parent-child relationships in the 7th grade (Time 1). The study also used indices of externalizing (mother report), internalizing, substance use and risky sexual behavior (adolescent report) in 10th grade (Time 2). The findings demonstrated that traditional Mexican cultural values, particularly familism, moderated the relationship between perceived group discrimination and adolescent sexual behavior. Additionally, a better overall relationship with mother and father buffered the detrimental effects of perceived group discrimination on risky sexual behavior. The current work discusses future directions of how the context of culture and family may shape an adolescent's response to perceived discrimination and the well-being of minorities.
ContributorsDiaz, Priscila (Author) / Saenz, Delia S. (Thesis advisor) / Kwan, Virginia S.Y. (Committee member) / Gonzales, Nancy (Committee member) / Geiser, Christian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study examined the influence of the traditional values held by Mexican heritage parents on the intention of their adolescent children to use drugs. Specifically, the study tested a mediation model in which the traditional cultural values of parents were hypothesized to influence adolescent drug use intentions indirectly by influencing ethnic identify and adolescent perceptions of parental injunctive norms against drug use. Parents reported on traditional cultural values and expectations for their child. Adolescents reported perceived reaction from parents if they used drugs (parental injunctive norms), ethnic identity, and their intention to use drugs in the future. Two direct effects were observed: parental values on expectations and parental injunctive norms on adolescent drug use intentions. Two paths were also moderated by the sex of the adolescent. The path from parent values to parent expectations was significantly stronger for adolescent girls than boys; the path from ethnic identity affirmation to drug intentions was protective for boys but not for girls. The negative relationship between perceived parental reaction and adolescent drug use intentions suggests that anti-drug norms communicated by parents had a protective influence and can deter youth from using drugs. The results of the current study did not support the hypothesized mediational model, but did provide additional support for the importance of parental influence on adolescents' plans and ideas about using alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. More research is necessary to examine the influence of culture and the mechanisms by which cultural values impact Mexican heritage adolescents' intentions to use drugs and subsequent use.
ContributorsGarvey, Meghan (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy A. (Thesis advisor) / Marsiglia, Flavio F. (Committee member) / Mackinnon, David P. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Biculturalism embodies the degree to which individuals adapt to living within two cultural systems and develop the ability to live effectively across those two cultures. It represents, therefore, a normative developmental task among members of immigrant and ethnic-racial minority groups, and has important implications for psychosocial adjustment. Despite a strong theoretical focus on contextual influences in biculturalism scholarship, the ways in which proximal contexts shape its development are understudied. In my dissertation, I examine the mechanisms via which the family context might influence the development of bicultural competence among a socio-economically diverse sample of 749 U.S. Mexican-origin youths (30% Mexico-born) followed for 7 years (Mage = 10.44 to 17.38 years; Wave 1 to 4).
In study 1, I investigated how parents’ endorsements of values associated with both mainstream and heritage cultures relate to adolescents’ bicultural competence. Longitudinal growth model analyses revealed that parents’ endorsements of mainstream and heritage values simultaneously work to influence adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the effect of multiple and often competing familial contextual influences on adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on intergenerational cultural transmission and advances scholarship on the culturally bounded nature of human development.
In study 2, I offer a substantial extension to decades of family stress model research focused on how family environmental stressors may compromise parenting behaviors and youth development by testing a culturally informed family stress model. My model (a) incorporates family cultural and ecological stressors, (b) focuses on culturally salient parenting practices aimed to teach youth about the heritage culture (i.e., ethnic socialization), and (c) examines bicultural competence as a developmental outcome. Findings suggest that parents’ high exposure to ecological stressors do not compromise parental ethnic socialization or adolescent bicultural competence development. On the other hand, mothers’ exposures to enculturative stressors can disrupt maternal ethnic socialization, and in turn, undermine adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the influence of multiple family environmental stressors on culturally salient parenting practices, and their implications for adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on ethnic-racial minority and immigrant families’ adapting cultures and advances scholarship on the family stress model.
In study 1, I investigated how parents’ endorsements of values associated with both mainstream and heritage cultures relate to adolescents’ bicultural competence. Longitudinal growth model analyses revealed that parents’ endorsements of mainstream and heritage values simultaneously work to influence adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the effect of multiple and often competing familial contextual influences on adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on intergenerational cultural transmission and advances scholarship on the culturally bounded nature of human development.
In study 2, I offer a substantial extension to decades of family stress model research focused on how family environmental stressors may compromise parenting behaviors and youth development by testing a culturally informed family stress model. My model (a) incorporates family cultural and ecological stressors, (b) focuses on culturally salient parenting practices aimed to teach youth about the heritage culture (i.e., ethnic socialization), and (c) examines bicultural competence as a developmental outcome. Findings suggest that parents’ high exposure to ecological stressors do not compromise parental ethnic socialization or adolescent bicultural competence development. On the other hand, mothers’ exposures to enculturative stressors can disrupt maternal ethnic socialization, and in turn, undermine adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the influence of multiple family environmental stressors on culturally salient parenting practices, and their implications for adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on ethnic-racial minority and immigrant families’ adapting cultures and advances scholarship on the family stress model.
ContributorsSafa Pernett, Maria Dalal (Author) / White, Rebecca M. B. (Thesis advisor) / Knight, George P. (Committee member) / Updegraff, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
A preliminary critical ethnographic study was conducted to garner Punjabi Sikh U.S. young adults’ understandings and experiences with their cultural, religious, gender, and sexual identity development. Nine participants from King County, Washington were interviewed and engaged in a weeklong self-reflective journal writing activity. This data was then analyzed alongside existing scholarship. This study indicates that participants experience challenges in navigating their bicultural identity, grappling with the historical and present trauma their communities endure. Additionally, to navigate such challenges, Punjabi Sikh U.S. young adults invoke various methods to negotiate their various cultures, identities, and desires, and remain resilient.
ContributorsSahota, Komalpreet Kaur (Author) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Shabazz, Rashad (Thesis advisor) / Bailey, Marlon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The overarching goal of this dissertation was to contribute to the field’s understanding of young children’s development of ethnic-racial identification. In particular, Study 1 presented the adaptation of three measures that are developmentally appropriate for assessing young children’s ethnic-racial attitudes, ethnic-racial centrality, and ethnic-racial knowledge, and tested the psychometric properties of each measure. Findings from Study 1 provided limited initial support for the construct validity and reliability of the measures; importantly, there were many differences in the descriptives and measurement properties based on the language in which children completed the measures. In addition to measurement of ethnic-racial identification, Study 2 used the measures developed in Study 1 and tested whether Mexican-origin mothers’ adaptive cultural characteristics (i.e., ERI affirmation, ethnic-racial centrality, and involvement in Mexican culture) when children were 3 years of age predicted greater cultural socialization efforts with children at 4 years of age and, in turn, children’s ethnic-racial identification (i.e., children’s ethnic-racial attitudes, ethnic-racial centrality, ethnic-racial knowledge, and identification as Mexican) at 5 years of age. Furthermore, children’s characteristics (i.e., gender and skin tone) were tested as moderators of these processes. Findings supported expected processes from mothers’ adaptive cultural characteristics to children’s ethnic-racial identification via mothers’ cultural socialization across boys and girls, however, relations varied by children’s skin tone. Findings highlight the important role of children’s individual characteristics in cultural socialization and young children’s developing ethnic-racial identification over time. Overall, given the paucity of studies that have examined ethnic-racial identification among young children, the results from Study 1 and Study 2 have the potential to stimulate growth of knowledge in this area.
ContributorsDerlan, Chelsea L (Author) / Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J. J (Thesis advisor) / Updegraff, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / Seaton, Eleanor (Committee member) / Martin, Carol L. (Committee member) / Thompson, Marilyn S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Specific cultural variables have been found to protect against the onset of alcohol, tobacco and drug use among Latino adolescents. It has been suggested that targeting similar cultural components during the treatment of drug dependence and abuse for Latino adults may also enhance the effectiveness of the intervention, although few studies have explored this hypothesis. The current study attempted to remedy this disparity by exploring the potentially protective influence of two cultural variables, ethnic pride and family traditionalism, on self-efficacy to avoid drug use following residential substance abuse treatment among 99 Hispanic and 85 non-Hispanic White males. Results of the study indicate that higher levels of ethnic pride predict greater confidence to remain abstinent from drugs following substance abuse treatment, and that this relationship is stronger among Hispanic participants than non-Hispanic White participants. Family traditionalism was not a significant predictor of drug avoidance self-efficacy for either group, suggesting that some specific cultural variables may be better targets for substance abuse treatment than others. Study limitations and future directions for research and clinical practice are discussed.
ContributorsBoyd, Stephen James (Author) / Gonzalez Castro, Felipe (Thesis advisor) / Barrera, Jr., Manuel (Committee member) / Aiken, Leona (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011