Wen W, Chen S, Hazen-Swann N, Lorenzo-Blanco EI, Shen Y, Kim SY. Cultural stressors, internalizing symptoms, and parent-child alienation among Mexican-origin adolescents.
Fam Relat 2022;
71:1977-1992. [PMID:
38170013 PMCID:
PMC10760991 DOI:
10.1111/fare.12775]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 04/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
Objective
The current study investigated the relation of various cultural stressors, parent-child alienation, and Mexican-origin adolescents' internalizing symptoms at both between- and within-person levels across the course of adolescence.
Background
Positive parent-child relationships can be a critical buffer against cultural stressors for Mexican-origin adolescents. However, it is unclear whether low levels of parent-child alienation (a) buffer the negative effects of different types of cultural stressors on internalizing symptoms and (b) function at the individual level more generally or during specific periods when adolescents experience high cultural stressors.
Method
The current study used a three-wave longitudinal dataset of 604 Mexican-origin adolescents (Wave 1: Mage = 12.41, SD = 0.97, 54% female, 75% born in the United States) and conducted multilevel regression analysis.
Results
At the between-person level, overall low parent-child alienation buffered the adverse effects of ethnic discrimination on anxiety and cultural misfit on depressive symptoms. There were no significant within-person-level interactions of parent-child alienation and cultural stressors on adolescent internalizing symptoms.
Implication
The findings suggest that interventions should aim to reduce parent-child alienation throughout the course of adolescence to alleviate the impact of cultural stressors on internalizing symptoms among Mexican-origin adolescents.
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