Major
Psychology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2020
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Latinos represent a significant number of the U.S. population, where they are expected to comprise 30% of the U.S. by 2050 (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2013). Research has demonstrated that adolescents with Latino immigrant parents are at higher risk of experiencing mood disorders in comparison to adolescents with U.S.-born parents (Aldridge & Roesch, 2008; Breslau, Borges, Hagar, Tancredi & Gilman, 2009; Hill & Torres, 2010). Furthermore, adolescence is a critical phase of development in which stress levels are higher (Steinberg, 2014); therefore, it is important to look at the impact of stress on adolescents’ lives, especially of acculturation gap stress, which refers to the different rate of assimilation to a new country between parents and adolescents (Neri & Bermudez-Parsai, 2014). This study aims to examine associations between acculturation gap stress, the number of immigrant parents, and average negative mood.
Participants consisted of 58 students in 7th - 8th grade (Mage=13, 53% male) from a parochial middle school with a primarily low-income Latino population in a large midwestern city. Among parents, 53% of the mothers were born in Mexico and 45% were born in the U.S., while 61% of fathers were born in Mexico, and 39% were born in the U.S. Participants completed a baseline survey as well as a seven-day daily diary questionnaire that assessed the amount of stress adolescents experienced, their coping mechanisms and their mood. The questionnaire was administered by a researcher every day at the same time. Bivariate correlational analyses were conducted to assess the association between baseline acculturation gap stress and average daily negative mood. The number of immigrant parents and the association with acculturation gap stress was also examined. The association between acculturation gap stress an average daily negative mood was significant (r =.33, p < .05). This indicates that higher reports of acculturation gap stress are associated with greater reports of negative mood. Additionally, a linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the impact of both acculturation gap stress and the number of immigrant parents in the home on the average daily negative mood of adolescents. Results demonstrated that the acculturation gap stress significantly predicted the average weekly negative mood, regardless of the number of immigrant parents in the home (=0.33, p= 0.015). These findings highlight the importance to further examine the impact that acculturation gap stress may have on Latino adolescent development to inform future interventions.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
CATHERINE DE CARLO SANTIAGO, PH.D;SARAH A. JOLIE, B.A
Supported By
CASA Lab at Loyola Chicago
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Impact of Acculturation Gap Stress on Latino Adolescents in the U.S.
Latinos represent a significant number of the U.S. population, where they are expected to comprise 30% of the U.S. by 2050 (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2013). Research has demonstrated that adolescents with Latino immigrant parents are at higher risk of experiencing mood disorders in comparison to adolescents with U.S.-born parents (Aldridge & Roesch, 2008; Breslau, Borges, Hagar, Tancredi & Gilman, 2009; Hill & Torres, 2010). Furthermore, adolescence is a critical phase of development in which stress levels are higher (Steinberg, 2014); therefore, it is important to look at the impact of stress on adolescents’ lives, especially of acculturation gap stress, which refers to the different rate of assimilation to a new country between parents and adolescents (Neri & Bermudez-Parsai, 2014). This study aims to examine associations between acculturation gap stress, the number of immigrant parents, and average negative mood.
Participants consisted of 58 students in 7th - 8th grade (Mage=13, 53% male) from a parochial middle school with a primarily low-income Latino population in a large midwestern city. Among parents, 53% of the mothers were born in Mexico and 45% were born in the U.S., while 61% of fathers were born in Mexico, and 39% were born in the U.S. Participants completed a baseline survey as well as a seven-day daily diary questionnaire that assessed the amount of stress adolescents experienced, their coping mechanisms and their mood. The questionnaire was administered by a researcher every day at the same time. Bivariate correlational analyses were conducted to assess the association between baseline acculturation gap stress and average daily negative mood. The number of immigrant parents and the association with acculturation gap stress was also examined. The association between acculturation gap stress an average daily negative mood was significant (r =.33, p < .05). This indicates that higher reports of acculturation gap stress are associated with greater reports of negative mood. Additionally, a linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the impact of both acculturation gap stress and the number of immigrant parents in the home on the average daily negative mood of adolescents. Results demonstrated that the acculturation gap stress significantly predicted the average weekly negative mood, regardless of the number of immigrant parents in the home (=0.33, p= 0.015). These findings highlight the importance to further examine the impact that acculturation gap stress may have on Latino adolescent development to inform future interventions.