Matching Items (13)
Description
Ethnic identity has consistently been associated with Latino youths' psychosocial well-being; however, an area that has received much less attention is how parents' characteristics inform their ethnic socialization efforts and, in turn, youths' ethnic identity. In addition, we know little about how this process unfolds in specific at-risk samples of youth, such as adolescent mothers. Thus, the current prospective study examined how mothers' cultural characteristics informed adolescents' and mothers' reports of ethnic socialization, and how this, in turn, informed adolescents' ethnic identity exploration and resolution among a sample of 193 adolescent mothers and their mothers. In addition, the current study tested whether mothers' ethnic identity affirmation was directly related to adolescents' ethnic identity affirmation over time. Results indicated that mothers' familism was associated with increases in mothers' reports of maternal ethnic socialization, and, in turn, with increases in ethnic identity exploration for foreign-born adolescents, and decreases in ethnic identity exploration for U.S.-born adolescents. In addition, adolescents' reports of familial ethnic socialization were associated with increases in their ethnic identity exploration and resolution. Finally, mothers' ethnic identity affirmation was associated with increases in adolescents' ethnic identity affirmation. Findings are discussed with special attention to the importance of mothers' cultural values in how they socialize their adolescents, and this impact on adolescents' ethnic identity, as well as the implications this study has for interventions focused on bolstering positive outcomes for adolescent mothers.
ContributorsDerlan, Chelsea L (Author) / Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J. (Thesis advisor) / Knight, George P. (Committee member) / Updegraff, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Recommendations made by expert groups are pervasive throughout various life domains. Yet not all recommendations--or expert groups--are equally persuasive. This research aims to identify factors that influence the persuasiveness of recommendations. More specifically, this study examined the effects of decisional cohesion (the amount of agreement among the experts in support of the recommendation), framing (whether the message is framed as a loss or gain), and the domain of the recommendation (health vs. financial) on the persuasiveness of the recommendation. The participants consisted of 1,981 undergraduates from Arizona State University. The participants read a vignette including information about the expert group making a recommendation--which varied the amount of expert agreement for the recommendation--and the recommendation, which was framed as either a gain or loss. Participants then responded to questions about the persuasiveness of the recommendation. In this study, there was a linear main effect of decisional cohesion such that the greater the decisional cohesion of the expert group the more persuasive their recommendation. In addition, there was a main effect of domain such that the health recommendation was more persuasive than the financial recommendation. Contrary to predictions, there was no observed interaction between the amount of decisional cohesion and the framing of the recommendation nor was there a main effect of framing. Further analyses show support for a mediation effect indicating that high levels of decisional cohesion increased the perceived entitativity of the expert group--the degree to which the group was perceived as a unified, cohesive group¬--which increased the recommendation's persuasiveness. An implication of this research is that policy makers could increase the persuasiveness of their recommendations by promoting recommendations that are unanimously supported by their experts or at least show higher levels of decisional cohesion.
ContributorsVotruba, Ashley M (Author) / Kwan, Virginia S.Y. (Thesis advisor) / Saks, Michael J. (Committee member) / Demaine, Linda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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
This dissertation examined Mexican American individuals' romantic relationships within two distinct developmental periods, adolescence and adulthood. Study 1 used latent class analysis to explore whether 12th grade Mexican Americans' (N = 218) romantic relationship characteristics, cultural values, and gender created unique romantic relationship profiles. Results suggested a three-class solution: higher quality, satisfactory quality, and lower quality romantic relationships. Subsequently, associations between profiles and adolescents' adjustment variables were examined via regression analyses. Adolescents with higher and satisfactory quality romantic relationships reported greater future family expectations, higher self-esteem, and fewer externalizing symptoms than adolescents with lower quality romantic relationships. Similarly, adolescents with higher quality romantic relationships reported greater academic self-efficacy and fewer sexual partners than adolescents with lower quality romantic relationships. Finally, adolescents with higher quality romantic relationships also reported greater future family expectations and higher academic self-efficacy than adolescents with satisfactory quality romantic relationships. To summarize, results suggested that adolescents engaged in three unique types of romantic relationships with higher quality being most optimal for their adjustment. Study 2 used latent growth modeling to examine marital partners' (N = 466) intra- and inter-individual changes of acculturative stress, depressive symptoms, and marital quality. On average across the seven years, husbands' acculturative stress remained steady, but wives' significantly decreased; partners' depressive symptoms remained relatively steady, but their marital quality significantly decreased. Although partners' experiences of acculturative stress were less similar than their experiences of depressive symptoms and marital quality, overall their experiences were interconnected. Significant spillover and crossover effects emerged between partners' initial levels of acculturative stress and depressive symptoms and between depressive symptoms and marital quality. Moreover, changes in husbands' depressive symptoms were negatively associated with changes in their marital quality. Overall, results suggested that partners' experiences were interconnected across time.
ContributorsMoosmann, Danyel A. V (Author) / Roosa, Mark W. (Thesis advisor) / Christopher, F. Scott (Committee member) / White, Rebecca M B (Committee member) / Millsap, Roger E (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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
First-generation college students, for whom neither parent has a bachelor's degree, are at an increased risk for dropping out of college compared with their continuing-generation counterparts. This research aims to examine whether varying perceptions of the future may contribute to these differences; specifically, whether presentations of future opportunities with and without a college degree impact academic motivation and performance, and whether this relationship holds for people from different college generation status backgrounds. Additionally, the study explores whether the effect is consistent with regulatory focus profiles--whether someone is motivated to avoid negative outcomes (e.g., prevention orientation) or attain positive outcomes (e.g., promotion orientation). Prevention oriented first-generation students were expected to have increased motivation and performance when asked to contrast the future with and without a college degree, whereas promotion oriented continuing-generation students were expected to have increased motivation and performance by merely thinking about the future with a college degree. Participants consisted of 330 undergraduates from an introductory psychology course. Participants were randomly assigned to presentations of future opportunities with a degree, with and without a degree, or a no-prime control condition. Motivation and performance were assessed using academic motivation and delay of gratification scales and a short anagram task. The proposed hypotheses were not supported; however, important findings emerged from exploratory analysis. First- and continuing-generation college students perceived future opportunities with a college degree similarly, meaning that both first- and continuing-generation students believed that a degree would endow opportunities. Additionally, belief in future opportunities significantly predicted academic motivation, delay of gratification, and anagram performance; thus, belief in future opportunities is a determinant of academic motivation and performance. Finally, first-generation students' performance varied by belief that a college degree would create future opportunities. Therefore, future interventions to increase performance and retention among first-generation students should emphasize the value of a college degree for future success. This research has implications for the understanding of college generation status, academic motivation, and performance.
ContributorsHerrmann, Sarah D (Author) / Kwan, Virginia S.Y. (Thesis advisor) / Okun, Morris A. (Committee member) / Saenz, Delia S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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
The current study explored whether intrinsically religious individuals are able to separate the "sin" from the "sinner" (i.e., separate category membership from behavior) when judging homosexual individuals, or whether they are instead subject to the negativity bias (judgments based solely on category membership) in moral judgments. All effects were expected to occur only for participants high in homophobia. Participants were 305 undergraduate male and female students at a large, public university in the southwestern U.S. Respondents read one of five scenarios that described gay or straight targets who were celibate or engaged in same or opposite sex relationships, then were asked to respond to a series of questions evaluating attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the target. Results revealed that homophobia led to a negativity bias in judgments of gay targets, which was intensified by intrinsic religiosity. However, individuals high on intrinsic religiosity and high on homophobia also differentiated between gay targets based on sexual behavior, such that gay targets who were celibate or in an opposite-sex relationship were rated more favorably than gay targets in a same-sex relationship. These findings demonstrate that the negativity bias and "sin vs. sinner" differentiation may both be occurring for intrinsically religious individuals. The moderating effect of homophobia on the interaction between intrinsic religiosity and judgments of gay and straight targets shows us that religiosity itself is not inherently tolerant or intolerant.
ContributorsFilip-Crawford, Gabrielle (Author) / Nagoshi, Craig T. (Thesis advisor) / Kwan, Virginia S.Y. (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion suggests that positive emotions should broaden thought and behavior repertoires in order to develop lasting resources. In the social domain, this means deploying a variety of affiliative strategies in order to build cooperative relationships. A functionalist perspective on positive emotion suggests that different positive emotions should have distinct effects on these affiliative mechanisms. This study elicited awe, amusement, pride or a neutral control in pairs of same sex strangers. They then completed an open-ended "getting to know you" conversation, which were recorded and coded for affiliative behaviors—smiling, laughter, mimicry, and asking questions. After, they rated their perception of the other as complex and how much they liked each other. Then they played the prisoner's dilemma game. Results indicate that there was a significant mediated effect such that being in the pride condition predicted greater smiling, and smiling predicted cooperation on the prisoner's dilemma. This was true both when an individual's own smiling was predicting their cooperative behavior and when their partner's smiling was predicting their cooperative behavior. However, these effects were only seen in female dyads, not male dyads. There was also a significant mediated effect such that pride led women to ask more questions, which led partners to like each other more. Additionally, awe led to greater mimicry in men, which in turn led to greater cooperation. In women, awe led to greater perception of the other as complex. Overall, these results indicate that there are broaden and build effects of positive emotions, but these are specific to both the emotion and the sex of the interaction members. This is also the first study to demonstrate both an actor and a partner effect of smiling on cooperation in a prisoner’s dilemma. An important area for further inquiry will be the interaction of emotion and sex in predicting social behavior. While sex differences in responding to threats have been characterized by the “tend and befriend” versus “fight or flight” action patterns, a similar approach may also need to be developed for sex differences in response to opportunities.
ContributorsDanvers, Alexander (Author) / Shiota, Michelle N. (Thesis advisor) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Committee member) / Kwan, Virginia S.Y. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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