acculturation, internalizing mental health symptoms, and self-esteem

Acculturation, Internalizing Symptoms, and Self-Esteem 1

Running head: ACCULTURATION, INTERNALIZING SYMPTOMS, AND SELF-ESTEEM

Acculturation, Internalizing Mental Health Symptoms, and Self-Esteem:

Cultural Experiences of Latino Adolescents in North Carolina

Paul R. Smokowski, Ph.D.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Martica L. Bacallao, M.S.S.W., Ph.D.

University of North Carolina - Greensboro

KEY WORDS: Latinos, Adolescents, Acculturation, Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem

We wish to thank the Latino families who participated in this study. This study was supported by

grants from the United States Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury

Prevention and Control (R49/CCR42172-02) and from the Centers for Disease Control’s Office

of the Director (1K01 CE000496-01). Address correspondence to the first author at the School of

Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 301 Pittsboro Street, CB 3550, Chapel

Hill, NC 27599-3550 or email [email protected]


Acculturation, Internalizing Mental Health Symptoms, and Self-Esteem:

Cultural Experiences of Latino Adolescents in North Carolina

Abstract

This investigation examined acculturation risk factors and cultural assets, internalizing

behavioral problems, and self-esteem in 323 Latino adolescents living in North Carolina.

Multiple regression analyses revealed two risk factors—perceived discrimination and parent-

adolescent conflict—as highly significant predictors of adolescent internalizing problems and

low self-esteem. Adolescents who were highly involved in Latino culture and who experienced

high parent-adolescent conflict were found particularly at risk for internalizing problems.

Biculturalism and familism were cultural assets found associated with fewer internalizing

problems and higher self-esteem. For internalizing problems, familism’s protective effect was

mediated by parent-adolescent conflict. Implications were discussed.

KEY WORDS: Latinos, Adolescents, Acculturation, Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem


Introduction

Latinos are currently the largest minority group and the fastest growing

sociodemographic group in the United States1,2

. In 2000, the United States Census Bureau

counted more than 35 million Latinos, comprising 12.5% of the adult population and 15% of

individuals under age 203. The fast pace of Latino immigration to the United States is shifting the

nation’s age demographic because Latinos are more likely than non-Latinos to be under 18 years

of age. In 2002, more than one-third of Latinos were under age 18 as compared to less than one-

quarter of the non-Latino White population4.

Considering the fact that 40% of the Latino population in the United States is foreign

born and 52% of this foreign-born group entered the country between 1990 and 20024, it is clear

that many Latino youths are adjusting to life in a new culture and in a new country. Yet, we

know little about how immigration and acculturation influences this fast-growing group of

minority youths5.

Much of the existing empirical research examining acculturation and mental health

symptoms has serious limitations because the studies were skewed toward adults, low

socioeconomic status, urban Latinos, and provided limited generalizable information 6,7,8

.

Further, most studies have used simple markers, such as language use or generational status, to

index complex acculturation processes 9,6,8

. In contrast, the current study addresses these issues

by investigating acculturation risk factors, cultural assets, internalizing symptoms, and self-

esteem in a sample of Latino youths in metropolitan, small town, and rural areas of North

Carolina. Adolescent participants came from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds and

represented a variety of Latino subgroups. Acculturation was measured and modeled as a

multidimensional phenomenon using multiple scales. This investigation’s overarching goal was


to examine how different dimensions of acculturation (e.g. culture-of-origin involvement, U.S.

cultural involvement, and biculturalism) influence self-esteem and internalizing symptoms in

Latino adolescents.

Background Literature

Acculturation Risk Factors

Acculturation is a macro-level process in which cultural change results from contact

between two autonomous cultural groups10

. Usually, the non-dominant group is strongly

influenced to take on the norms, values, and behaviors espoused by the dominant group 11

.

Assimilation, adopting host culture norms, values, and behaviors, has traditionally been seen as

the end point to this process. An individual has become assimilated when she or he has given up

culture-of-origin identity and established a positive identity with the dominant culture. Yet, over

the past four decades, researchers have suggested that the goal of assimilation for new

immigrants may be problematic and have increasingly included examinations of enculturation, or

culture-of-origin affiliation, and bicultural identity development instead of, or along with,

assimilation12,11,13

.

Assimilation and Acculturation Stress as Risk Factors Many acculturation researchers

have hypothesized assimilation as a risk factor for social maladjustment, psychopathology, and

substance use, suggesting that increasing levels of assimilation are associated with negative

health behaviors and mental health difficulties14, 15,16,17,18

. However, the few studies that have

examined the association between assimilation and internalizing symptoms for Latino

adolescents have produced mixed results8. Two investigations with Mexican American

adolescents have shown one-fourth to one-third of the sampled youth reported serious levels of

depression and suicidal ideation19, 20

. National data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control


also indicate that, relative to other ethnic and racial groups, Latino adolescents are at heightened

risk for depression and suicidal ideation21

. Although neither of the empirical studies conducted to

date found a relation between their assimilation measures and self-reports of depression, both

studies found that acculturation stress was positively related to depression and suicidal ideation.

One study identified perceived family dysfunction and negative expectations for the future as

significant predictors of both acculturation stress and depression19

.

Other studies have identified language conflicts and racial discrimination as significant

acculturation stressors. In a study of 5,264 multiethnic Latino high school students, Rumbaut 22

concluded that English-language competence was associated with lower rates of depression.

Romero and Roberts23

compared stressors related to living in a bicultural context for both U.S.-

born and immigrant youth. Lower self-esteem and higher numbers of stressors, including various

types of discrimination, predicted depressive symptoms. In addition, another investigation24

found a significant correlation between acculturation conflicts and self-derogation in a sample of

1,843 Cuban adolescents. This research revealed that problems inherent in the acculturation

process were associated with lower self-esteem. Finally, Rasmussen and colleagues 25

showed

that, even when controlling for depression and self-esteem, higher assimilation scores measured

by the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans were related to suicidal ideation in

their sample of 242 Mexican American eighth graders.

Parent-adolescent conflicts Normative conflicts between parents and adolescents may be

exacerbated by acculturation stress, creating intercultural as well as intergenerational

difficulties36,18

. Children commonly become involved in the U.S. culture faster than adults,

creating an “acculturation gap” between generations that is thought to foster parent-adolescent


conflict. This cultural gap can result in alienation between parents and adolescents and may

fuel adolescent rebellion36,18

.

Cultural Assets and Protective Factors

Enculturation A growing movement within acculturation research emphasizes the

appraisal of enculturation, or culture-of-origin identity, independent of assimilation or

acculturation26

. Enculturation, similar to other terms such as ethnic identity, culture-of-origin

identity, or “Hispanicism”, denotes the individual’s feelings about and investment in their native

culture; whereas, the term assimilation is used to refer to the individual’s investment or

involvement in the host or adopted culture. Enculturation researchers consider three key aspects

of ethnic identity: (a) cultural norms and values; (b) the strength, salience, and meaning of ethnic

identity; and (c) the experience and attitudes associated with minority status27

. Although

enculturation or ethnic identity is often considered as an independent factor, it has also been

considered in combination with host-culture identity to form a bicultural perspective13,27

.

Researchers have consistently found a positive relationship between ethnic identity and

self-esteem8,17,28,29

. One investigation with 669 Latino, African American, and White U.S.-born

high school students identified ethnic identity as a cultural asset predicting higher self-esteem in

all three ethnic groups28

. In contrast, assimilation, in the form of host culture (i.e., U.S.) identity,

only predicted self-esteem for White adolescents. Bat-Chava and Steen30

further confirmed this

association in a meta-analysis that showed ethnic identity to have a moderately strong, positive

relationship with self-esteem across ethnicities, gender, and age groups.

Biculturalism Few investigations have evaluated the influence of integrating assimilation

and enculturation to form bicultural involvement8,13,6

. Most initial evidence indicates that

biculturalism is associated with greater self-esteem, stronger social skills to interact with diverse


groups, and heightened psychological well-being31,13

. Investigations with immigrant adolescents

have reported trends relating biculturalism to positive self-perceptions of global self-worth 32

, and

found bicultural youth to have the lowest levels of acculturation stress and to be less likely than

either low- or high-assimilated Latino youth to report low family pride16

. In addition, a study using

census data to examine the link between biculturalism and school incompletion in more than

16,000 Mexican youths found bicultural youths less likely to drop out of school than either

limited-English or English-only speakers33

. Moreover, other investigators have shown that, as

compared to low- and high-assimilated families, bicultural families displayed significantly lower

levels of conflict and demonstrated more commitment, help, and support among family members34

.

However, not all studies support biculturalism as a cultural asset, and at least one study has

reported that bicultural identity was not related to self-esteem, social competence, or academic

performance35

. Although most investigations show that biculturalism may be a promising cultural

asset, clearly further research is needed to fully illuminate its effects.

Familism is a deeply ingrained sense of being rooted in the family. The term refers to

“attitudes, behaviors, and family structures within an extended family system and is believed to

be the most important factor influencing the lives of Latinos” (p. 130)40

. This strong sense of

family orientation, obligation, and cohesion has noteworthy salutary effects41

. For example,

Cooley40

found familism to be an important deterrent to child maltreatment in both Latino and

non-Latino families. Gil, Wagner, and Vega1 reported familism to have a statistically significant,

negative association with acculturation stress.

Familism is thought to decrease as acculturation progresses. Gil, Vega, and Dimas16

examined acculturation and adjustment in 6,670 middle school students in Dade County, Florida.

They found that perceived intergenerational acculturation gaps between parents and children


increased with higher levels of U.S. cultural involvement. Both foreign-born and U.S.-born

students with high U.S. cultural involvement were equally likely to report low family pride.

Among foreign-born students, high U.S. cultural involvement dramatically decreased family

pride or familism.

Friendship networks Although social support from friends has been extensively studied

as a health promoting asset for all ethnic and racial groups, little is known about the impact

friendships have during the acculturation process. Friendships may be salient in lowering

internalizing symptoms and enhancing self-esteem during the acculturation process because

immigrant adolescents left their established social networks in their countries-of-origin. They

must form new friendships while acculturating despite language barriers and discriminatory

experiences. If prosocial friendships are not forged, adolescents would likely remain isolated or

turn to antisocial peers for support.

Summary and Hypotheses

Extant studies indicate that certain aspects of assimilation and especially acculturation

stressors are associated with depression, lower self-esteem, and suicidal ideation among Latino

youth. At the same time, it is clear that further research is needed to examine how particular

acculturation risk factors and cultural assets influence internalizing problems and self-esteem.

Past studies of adolescent acculturation have focused primarily on delinquency and substance

use, leaving us with a paucity of information on internalizing symptoms 8.

Although substantial research has positively linked enculturation and ethnic identity to

self-esteem, much less is known about its association with internalizing problems. Similarly,

emerging evidence suggests that biculturalism is related to self-esteem and psychological well-


being. Both ethnic identity and biculturalism appear to be cultural assets, however, few studies

have examined their impact on internalizing problems.

The current study addresses these issues by investigating the relationships among

acculturation risk factors and cultural assets—including assimilation, enculturation, and

biculturalism—and internalizing symptoms and self-esteem in a sample of Latino youths living

in metropolitan, small town, and rural areas of North Carolina. Adolescent acculturation was

measured and modeled as a multidimensional phenomenon using multiple scales of Latino, non-

Latino, and total cultural involvement. Based on past research, we made the following

hypotheses: (a) assimilation and acculturation stressors, such as discrimination and parent-

adolescent conflicts, would be positively related to internalizing problems and negatively related

to self-esteem, and (b) enculturation or culture-of-origin involvement, biculturalism, and

prosocial friendships would be negatively related to internalizing problems and positively related

to self-esteem. We also examined exploratory mediation and moderation effects between

acculturation risk factors and cultural assets as preliminary steps for future research.

Methods

Procedure

This investigation was part of the Latino Acculturation and Health Project, a longitudinal

investigation of acculturation in Latino families in North Carolina and Arizona. Interviews were

conducted with Latino adolescents and at least one of their parents. Active consent to participate

was obtained from parents and adolescents before the interviews took place. All interviews were

conducted in participants’ homes, using the participants’ preferred language. Interviewers were

bilingual or bicultural graduate students in social work or public health. Our analyses focused on

the acculturation process defined by multiple measures of acculturation—length of residence in


the United States, Latino and non-Latino cultural involvement, and biculturalism. Acculturation

stressors, such as perceived discrimination experiences and parent-child conflict, were also

central concerns. The effects of these factors on adolescent self-reports of internalizing problems

and self-esteem were analyzed using cross-sectional data.

Community-based sampling was accomplished by recruiting participants at community

events, as well as receiving referrals from Latino adolescents, English as a Second Language

teachers, and social service and juvenile justice agencies. In the later part of data collection,

interviewers specifically tried to recruit adolescents who were at higher risk for problematic

behaviors. This targeted sampling of Latino adolescents was done to maximize the range of risk

levels in the sample.

Participants

The sample was comprised of 323 Latino adolescents, of which 97% were born outside

of the United States. The average age of the sampled youth was 15 years (SD=1.8; minimum =

11, maximum = 19), and slightly more than half (51%) of the sample was female. The average

length of U.S. residency was 4.77 years with a range of 1 month to 17 years. Ninety-six percent

of the adolescents attended school and the median grade was ninth grade. Sixty-six percent of the

families who participated were from Mexico, 13% were from Central America, and 21% were

from South America. Two-thirds of the adolescents lived with two parents, 24% lived with a

single parent, and the remainder lived with other relatives or on their own. The average annual

household income reported by participants’ parents was $22,446; the median was $19,000

(SD=11,772, minimum = $5,664 per year, maximum = $90,000), indicating that the sample

represented families from an array of income levels but was primarily economically

disadvantaged. Considering that the average family contained five people in the household, most


of the families in the sample were close to the federal poverty level. Sixty-seven percent of

participants’ parents had not graduated from high school and 45% of parents had less than a

seventh-grade education.

Independent Variables

Analyses of the adolescent sample were conducted using measures of the following

independent variables: gender, age, the amount of time the adolescent has lived in the United

States, involvement in Latino and non-Latino cultures, biculturalism, perceived discrimination,

familism, and parent-child conflict.

1. Gender was a dichotomous variable with females coded 1 and males coded 0.

2. Age is the adolescent’s age measured in years.

3. Involvement in Latino and non-Latino cultures was measured using the Bicultural

Involvement Questionnaire (BIQ)36

. The BIQ has 33 items measuring language, food, recreation,

and media use on a 5-point Likert scale and has acceptable psychometric qualities 36

. Instead of

utilizing Latino-to-Anglo scale anchors used by many acculturation instruments, the BIQ scales

separates questions into Latino and non-Latino categories; Likert anchors range from not at all to

very much. Two subscales measure (a) involvement in Latino culture (sometimes called

enculturation or “Hispanicism”), and (b) involvement in the host culture (sometimes called

assimilation or “Americanism"”). Internal consistency reliability was reported as .79 for the

entire BIQ, .93 for the Latino subscale, and .89 for the non-Latino subscale 36

. Test-retest

reliability over six weeks was reported to be .50 for Hispanicism, .54 for Americanism, and .79

for the entire BIQ (e.g. Biculturalism total score). In our sample of 323 Latino adolescents,

internal consistency reliability was .78 for the entire BIQ, .89 for the Latino involvement

subscale, and .91 for the non-Latino involvement subscale.


4. Biculturalism was a calculation of total cultural involvement derived by combining the

scores of the two subscales described above (i.e., Latino cultural involvement and non-Latino

cultural involvement). Internal consistency reliability was .78 for the biculturalism scale in our

sample. These analyses used the average scores for Latino cultural involvement, non-Latino

cultural involvement, and biculturalism, calculated by first adding the items and then dividing by

the number of items answered. This strategy minimizes missing data and results in final variables

with the same possible ranges as the original 5-point Likert scale.

5. Perceived discrimination was a 3-item scale 24

measured on a five-point scale ranging

from not at all to frequently. The utility of this scale has been well established in prior

acculturation research 24,37,38,39

. In prior studies, the internal consistency reliability was reported

to be .56 24

. In our sample, the internal consistency reliability was .74.

6. Familism, as defined for the purposes of this paper, is a deeply ingrained sense of being

rooted in the family and a sense of solidarity with the family in which individual identity is

inseparable from family identity 40

. Moreover, familism engenders a strong sense of family

orientation, obligation, and cohesion, with noteworthy salutary effects 41

. Familism was assessed

using six items1 scored on a 5-point Likert scale with responses ranging between strongly agree to

strongly disagree. The items examined feelings of trust, confidence, loyalty, pride, and expression

of emotions in the family. Developers of the familism scale reported internal consistency reliability

to be .87; in this sample, the internal consistency reliability was .90.

7. Parent-adolescent conflict was assessed using the Conflict Behavior Questionnaire-20

(CBQ-20)42

. This scale provides an overall measure of negative communication conflict within a

parent-adolescent dyad. The CBQ-20 has 20 items that use a yes-no response format to assess

positive and negative interactive behaviors in argumentative exchanges as well as exchanges


lacking a conflict. Although reliability, validity, and minority-group norms have not been

published for this CBQ-20 short form, researchers report that this instrument distinguishes

distressed from non-distressed families43

. The internal consistency reliability for the Conflict

Behavior Questionnaire-20 in this sample was .89.

9. The Prosocial Friends Scale 44

consists of 10 items in a true or false format. This scale

was developed as a part of the School Success Profile, a widely used instrument that assesses risk

and protective factors in middle and high school settings. The range of scores is 0 to 10, with a

higher score signifying relationships with more prosocial friends. The scale reliability for this

sample was .67.

Dependent Measures

The first dependent measure assessed internalizing problems and was collected from

adolescents using the Youth Self-Report (YSR)45

. The YSR internalizing scale consists of three

subscales: Anxious/depressed, Withdrawn/depressed, and Somatic complaints. Scores from these

subscales were added together to create an internalizing scale score. The Anxious/depressed,

Withdrawn/depressed, and Somatic complaints subscales consist of 13 items, eight items, and

three items respectively, measured using a 3-point Likert scale (less than average, average, more

than average). When combined to create the YSR internalizing scale, the score ranges from 0 to

48, with a higher score indicating a higher number of, and greater severity of internalizing

problems. Prior studies reported the YSR internalizing subscale to have internal consistency

reliability over .90 and test-retest reliability of .8045

. The YSR has been used with Latino

adolescents38

. In our sample, the YSR internalizing scale reliability was .85.

The second dependent measure was the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES)46,

which is

widely used in social science research. We retained seven of the scale’s original 10 items, and


scored on a 4-point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Possible scores

ranged from 7 to 28. For this data set, the calculated reliability of the seven-item Rosenberg SES

was .83. Reliability from prior studies cannot be compared because we dropped items.

The three items we deleted were I wish I could have more respect for myself, At times, I

think I am no good at all, and I am able to do things as well as most other people. We chose to

drop these items because they did not have significant factor loadings when factor analyses were

conducted, and scale reliability was enhanced when they were deleted. We believe these items

were problematic because they did not have straightforward translations from English to

Spanish. Further, the meaning of these items was complicated for disadvantaged immigrants who

experienced daily discrimination. It was unclear whether these particular items would measure

low self-esteem or form a realistic appraisal of participants’ low status in U.S. society.

Data Analyses

Following our examination of bivariate correlations, independent variables were entered

into OLS linear regression models in hierarchical single-variable blocks. Demographic variables

were entered first (e.g., gender, age); followed by acculturation variables (e.g., length of time the

adolescent has lived in the United States, adolescent involvement in Latino culture, involvement

in non-Latino culture, adolescent biculturalism, and perceived discrimination); family attributes

(e.g., familism, parent-child conflict); and finishing with the prosocial friends scale. This

approach allowed for examination of mediation processes in the data47,48

. We chose this order of

entry to examine if family attributes mediated acculturation variables.

Using the approach suggested by Baron and Kenny48

, mediation effects were identified

for variables that were significant upon initial entry into the model, but became non-significant

when a subsequent variable was entered into the model. The decomposition of mediation effects


and significance testing for the indirect effect was performed using the seminal methods of

Alwin and Hauser47

. The direct effect was the variable’s standardized coefficient when the

mediator was in the model. The total effect was the coefficient without the mediator. The indirect

effect was obtained by subtracting the direct effect from the total effect. The difference between

the model F-statistics with and without the mediator provided a test statistic for the indirect

effect with the number of degrees of freedom equal to the number of variables subtracted from

the total model—usually one for the mediator.

Acculturation measures, especially Latino cultural involvement, non-Latino cultural

involvement, and biculturalism (total cultural involvement) display significant intercorrelations.

These variables were not used in the same model to avoid multicollinearity. In order to

independently evaluate the relative predictive values of Latino cultural involvement, non-Latino

cultural involvement, and biculturalism, three models were tested for each dependent variable.

The first model, Ethnic Identity, tested adolescent Latino cultural involvement. The second

model, U.S. Identity, included adolescent non-Latino (U.S.) cultural involvement. The final

model, Biculturalism, examined adolescent total cultural involvement. Systematically testing the

cultural involvement scales in this way allowed us to compare main effects and determine which

subscale was responsible for biculturalism effects.

Along with direct and mediation effects, moderation effects were assessed by entering

interaction terms in the regression models. Interactions between adolescent Latino cultural

involvement, adolescent non-Latino cultural involvement, and adolescent biculturalism and

parent-child conflict, familism, and discrimination were entered into the regression models (e.g.,

biculturalism x parent-child conflict, biculturalism x discrimination, biculturalism x familism).


Because interaction terms can introduce problematic levels of multicollinearity into

regression equations, creating high variance inflation factors and low tolerances, all of the

continuous variables were centered by taking the difference between observed scores and the grand

mean before calculating interaction terms49,50

. This procedure lowered collinearity, rendering

acceptable variance inflation factors and tolerance diagnostics. For parsimony, only significant

independent variables and interaction terms were retained in the final regression models.

Results

Table 1 shows bivariate correlations between all independent and dependent variables.

Standardized regression coefficients and R2 change statistics from hierarchical multiple

regression models for internalizing symptoms and self-esteem are shown in Table 2. Independent

variables were entered individually into linear regression models in the ecological order shown

in the tables. Direct, indirect, and total effects were decomposed in Table 3.

*********************************

Insert Tables 1, 2, and 3 about here

*********************************

Hypothesis I: Assimilation and acculturation stressors, such as discrimination and parent-

adolescent conflicts, are positively related to internalizing problems and negatively related to

self-esteem.

This hypothesis was partially supported. Assimilation as indicated by length of U.S.

residency was not significantly related to internalizing problems, but significantly predicted

lower levels of self-esteem. At the same time another measure of assimilation, adolescent

involvement in non-Latino (U.S.) culture, was shown as negatively associated with internalizing

symptoms and not significantly related to self-esteem, contradicting Hypothesis I. Further,

adolescent involvement in non-Latino (U.S.) culture served as a protective factor by moderating


the impact of parent-adolescent conflict on internalizing symptoms (see the interaction term in

Table 2 for the U.S. identity model).

Acculturation stressors were deleterious, lending support to Hypothesis I. Parent-

adolescent conflict explained the largest portion of the variance in internalizing symptoms, but

was not related to self-esteem. Perceived discrimination was another significant stressor

positively associated with internalizing problems. For self-esteem, the direct effect of perceived

discrimination was mediated by familism and prosocial friends (see Table 3).

Hypothesis II: Culture-of-origin involvement (e.g., enculturation), familism, prosocial friends,

and biculturalism would be negatively related to internalizing problems and positively related to

self-esteem.

There was also partial support for Hypothesis II. Adolescent involvement in Latino

culture was not significantly related to internalizing problems until the interaction term between

involvement in Latino culture and parent-adolescent conflict was entered into the model.

Although the Beta coefficient for adolescent involvement in Latino culture became significant

when the interaction term was in the model, this should be interpreted cautiously because, on its

own, this variable did not explain a significant amount of variance in internalizing symptoms.

Adolescent involvement in Latino culture was associated with higher self-esteem; however, this

direct effect was mediated by familism (see Tables 2 and 3).

Familism was the strongest factor associated with self-esteem. However, in all three

models predicting internalizing symptoms, the Beta coefficient for familism was not significant

when parent-adolescent conflict was entered into the model, signaling a mediation effect.

As hypothesized, prosocial friends were associated with higher self-esteem; however, friends had

no relationship with internalizing symptoms.


Our hypothesis was also supported for biculturalism, which displayed statistically

significant relationships with internalizing problems and self-esteem, both in the hypothesized

direction. Because the biculturalism score was created by adding the Latino and non-Latino

involvement scores, the different cultural models suggested that the biculturalism effect

associated with internalizing symptoms is driven by non-Latino cultural involvement while the

effect for self-esteem was likely attributable to Latino cultural involvement. However, for both

outcomes, it is important to note that the amount of variance explained by biculturalism is larger

than the amount explained by either of its constituent subscales.

Exploratory mediation and moderation effects between acculturation risk factors and assets

Mediation effects As noted above, direct, indirect, and total effects were decomposed in

Table 3. We found two statistically significant mediating effects in the internalizing symptoms

models: Perceived discrimination was mediated by familism, and parent-adolescent conflict

mediated familism. Seventy-seven percent of the effect of familism on internalizing problems

was mediated by parent-child conflict and 43% of the effect of discrimination on internalizing

problems was mediated by familism in the U.S. Identity model.

Forty-three percent of the effect of Latino cultural involvement on self-esteem was

mediated by familism. Seventy-three percent of the effect of perceived discrimination on self-

esteem was mediated by prosocial friends in the Ethnic Identity model and 57% of the perceived

discrimination effect was mediated by familism in the Biculturalism model.

Moderation effects In the Ethnic Identity model for internalizing symptoms, the Latino

cultural involvement x parent-adolescent conflict interaction term was highly statistically

significant, making the Beta coefficient for adolescent Latino cultural involvement significant

even though this variable, when examined on its own, did not explain a significant portion of the


variance. The adolescent Latino involvement x parent-adolescent conflict interaction term’s

positive Beta coefficient indicated that adolescents who reported both high Latino cultural

involvement and high parent-adolescent conflict also reported the most internalizing symptoms.

In the U.S. Identity model for internalizing symptoms, adolescent involvement in non-

Latino culture was significant until the interaction effect was included in the model for adolescent

non-Latino cultural involvement x parent-adolescent conflict. This interaction effect and the one

described above, indicate the same essential finding: less-assimilated adolescents (e.g., those with

higher Latino cultural involvement or lower non-Latino cultural involvement), coupled with high

levels of parent-adolescent conflict, reported the highest rates of internalizing problems.

Finally, there was a significant interaction effect for biculturalism x prosocial friends in

predicting self-esteem. The negative sign in the slope coefficient suggested that although

prosocial friends were associated with higher self-esteem in all sampled Latino adolescents,

these friends were particularly important for less-bicultural adolescents.

Discussion

This investigation’s analyses broke new ground for acculturation research by comparing

a simple, commonly used indicator of linear acculturation (e.g., length of U.S. residency), bi-

directional acculturation scales (e.g., Latino and non-Latino cultural involvement), and

acculturation stressors (e.g. discrimination, parent-adolescent conflict) in the same models.

Responding to the directions for new research proposed in major reviews of acculturation

research8,13,6

, this study also examined biculturalism and its constituent cultural components.

Parent-adolescent conflict was the dominant risk factor for internalizing problems. Not

only was parent-adolescent conflict associated with more internalizing symptoms, but it also

mediated the beneficial effect of familism on this outcome. These negative effects for parent-


adolescent conflict support previous research findings that show family dysfunction to be

predictive of acculturation stress and depression19

.

For the past quarter of a century, parent-adolescent conflict has been implicated for its

association with serious problems in the acculturation process; however, little empirical data had

been collected to support this assertion 8

. The difficulties that arise from parent-adolescent conflicts

have often been attributed to intergenerational “acculturation gaps” between parents and their

children that result from the younger generation assimilating faster than the older generation 18

.

Although this is an intriguing clinical hypothesis, our empirical data painted a different picture.

Parent-adolescent conflict demonstrated a strong direct effect predicting internalizing problems.

Moreover, significant moderation effects between cultural involvement variables and parent-

adolescent conflict showed that the adolescents who reported the greatest internalizing problems

were those who were both highly involved in Latino culture and in conflict with their parents.

Relative to this group, adolescents who were more involved in non-Latino culture (e.g., more

assimilated) had lower internalizing scores, making non-Latino cultural involvement a protective

factor in the context of parent-adolescent conflict. Overall, these effects suggest that adolescents

highly involved with Latino culture and less involved in non-Latino culture are at the highest risk

of internalizing problems when parent-adolescent conflicts occur. Being in conflict with their

Latino parents may trouble these youths more than their more assimilated counterparts because

they are so invested in their ethnic identities and so familistic. In addition, it is possible that these

low-assimilated youth do not have an outlet outside of their homes to reach out to for help during

conflicts with their parents. During periods of high parent-adolescent conflict, this combined

discomfort with family strife and lack of alternative outlets may leave adolescents highly involved

in Latino culture feeling isolated and depressed.


Perceived discrimination was another important acculturation risk factor that has not

received the attention it deserves in the research literature. Supporting previous studies on

acculturation stressors 19,20

, we found perceived discrimination associated with higher levels of

internalizing problems and lower self-esteem. Although this effect was mediated by prosocial

friends and familism in the multivariate models for predicting self-esteem, it still explained a

significant portion of self-esteem’s variability. These findings support previous work linking

discrimination experiences to self-derogation24,37

and depression23

and extend this work by

showing how discrimination can impact both positive and negative developmental outcomes.

Experiencing discrimination is one of the most adverse elements in the acculturation

process. It is commonly thought that negative health behaviors, such as alcohol and substance

use, may be used as a strategy for coping with acculturation stress1. Maladaptive behavior is

thought to derive from “increased perceptions of discrimination, internalization of minority

status, and/or socialization into cultural attitudes and behaviors that have a disintegrative effect

on family ties” (p. 45)16

. This results in self-deprecation, ethnic self-hatred, and a weakened ego

structure in the assimilated individual6. It is critical that future research examine the dynamics of

discrimination experiences in greater detail. From an intervention and prevention standpoint,

these findings raise additional questions as to how Latino parents and prosocial friends can help

Latino adolescents understand and cope with discrimination. Our analyses also show that the

impact of discrimination can be lessened by family and friends. Service providers should strive

to promote open discussion of discriminatory experiences and coping methods among Latino

adolescents, their families, and friends as a part of intervention and prevention programming51

.

Although acculturation stressors such as parent-adolescent conflict and perceived

discrimination were clearly important, examination of cultural involvement scales lay at the heart


of this investigation. Unlike previous research14,15,16,34

, we found mixed evidence that high

assimilation was a strong risk factor; the direction of the relationship depended upon the outcome

of interest. Revealing one of the disadvantages of assimilation, longer U.S. residency was

significantly associated with lower self-esteem. On the other hand, adolescent involvement in

non-Latino culture was a protective factor associated with reporting fewer internalizing

symptoms, especially in the context of parent-adolescent conflict. These contradictory findings

show how complex and context-dependent acculturation processes are.

For internalizing symptoms, adolescent Latino cultural involvement or ethnic identity

was only significant in its interaction with parent-adolescent conflict, indicating that adolescents

highly involved in Latino culture reported more internalizing symptoms when in conflict with

their parents. Mirroring previous studies30,28,29

, we found ethnic identity (defined as Latino

cultural involvement) to have a significant, though modest, relationship with adolescent self-

esteem. Unlike previous investigations, we contrasted this effect with mainstream U.S. identity

(or non-Latino cultural involvement) and biculturalism and found biculturalism to have the

strongest effect—just as alternation theorists have predicted33,16,8

. Further, the positive Latino

cultural involvement effect on self-esteem was mediated by familism. Latino cultural

involvement and familism are two aspects of cultural life that are significantly correlated for

Latinos. Future studies of enculturation and ethnic identity should include both to parse out their

relative contributions in predicting important outcomes.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we found that biculturalism was a robust cultural

asset associated with both fewer internalizing problems and higher self-esteem. Compared to

past investigations that used simple items on language use or time in the country, bi-dimensional

cultural involvement measures captured more of the complexity of the acculturation process6,13

.


Consequently, the analyses showed that biculturalism was a cultural asset for different reasons.

The biculturalism effect for internalizing problems appeared to be driven by the adolescents’

non-Latino cultural involvement while biculturalism’s positive effect on self-esteem was likely

attributable to the maintenance of high levels of Latino cultural involvement. This complexity

makes biculturalism a particularly intriguing asset worthy of further investigation. Our analytic

strategy for modeling multiple components of cultural involvement provides future studies with a

template for intensely examining acculturation dynamics.

Implications for practice and policy

It behooves social workers and psychologists to (a) pay more attention to the deleterious

effects that parent-adolescent conflict and perceived discrimination have on Latino families, and

(b) advocate for programs and policies that decrease familial conflict and reduce discrimination

51. Discrimination resistance skills and family communication enhancement are viable

intervention components that warrant further integration into practice. Taken together, these

findings support the importance of working with Latino youth in a family context. Using a risk

and protective factor framework for prevention intervention52

, social workers and psychologists

should attempt to decrease the impact of discrimination and parent-adolescent conflict while

increasing the salutary influence of familism and biculturalism. Bicultural family skills training

intervention packages have been available since the 1980’s; however, it appears that they need to

be disseminated more rigorously to promote the adjustment of rapidly-acculturating families.

Limitations

The most serious limitation of this study is also one of its strengths. The unique sampling

frame providing previously unknown information about acculturation processes in Latino

families in North Carolina limited the investigation’s generalizability. Caution is warranted in


applying the findings to Latinos beyond this geographical area. Although the range of Latino

cultural subgroups represented roughly paralleled national proportions, the sample size for some

of the subgroups was too small to conduct separate analyses by national origin. Similarly, only a

small percentage (3%) of the adolescents in the sample were born in the United States, making

separate analyses by nativity impossible.

Although we hope that this study encourages more research on mediation and moderation

processes in acculturation research, caution is warranted in interpreting the mediation effects. One

rule for mediation is that the mediator should impact the dependent variable but the dependent

variable should not be able to impact the mediator47,48

. Using cross-sectional data, this rule may be

difficult to satisfy. For example, the impact of familism on internalizing symptoms was mediated

by parent-adolescent conflict; however, lacking longitudinal data, this study could not determine

that parent-adolescent conflict led to adolescent internalizing problems rather than adolescent

internalizing problems leading to parent-adolescent conflict. Future investigations of mediation

pathways should include longitudinal data from multiple reporters. That work is currently under-

way as we collect multiple waves of data from Latino families in North Carolina and Arizona.

Future studies from the Latino Acculturation and Health Project will address these limitations.

Summary

This investigation examined acculturation risk factors and assets, internalizing behavioral

problems, and self-esteem in 323 Latino adolescents living in North Carolina. Although a wide

range of families from different cultures-of-origin and socioeconomic strata were represented,

the sample mainly consisted of disadvantaged, immigrant adolescents from Mexico. Multiple

regression analyses revealed two risk factors—parent-adolescent conflict and perceived

discrimination—as highly significant predictors of adolescent internalizing problems and low


self-esteem. Parent-adolescent conflict was the dominant risk factor identified for internalizing

problems, but was not found related to self-esteem. Not only was parent-adolescent conflict

associated with more internalizing symptoms, but it also mediated the positive effect of familism

on this outcome. Adolescents who were highly involved in Latino culture and also experienced

high parent-adolescent conflict were found particularly at risk for internalizing problems.

We found biculturalism and familism the cultural assets associated with fewer

internalizing problems and higher self-esteem. Familism was by far the strongest predictor of

Latino adolescent self-esteem. Although familism’s relationship with internalizing problems was

mediated by parent-adolescent conflict, familism also mediated the effect of perceived

discrimination on self-esteem and, to a lesser extent, on internalizing problems. Finally, the

separate analyses of Latino and non-Latino cultural involvement and biculturalism showed that

biculturalism was a cultural asset for different reasons. The biculturalism effect for internalizing

problems appeared to be driven by the adolescents’ non-Latino cultural involvement while

biculturalism’s positive effect on self-esteem seemed to be due to the maintenance of high levels

of Latino cultural involvement. The complexity of biculturalism warrants further investigation.

Practitioners and policy makers interested in the mental health and well-being of Latino

adolescents should direct their efforts to helping decrease parent-adolescent conflict, and

addressing institutional and interpersonal discrimination. At the same time, programs and

policies should focus on helping Latino families maintain familism and develop bicultural

competencies in order to reduce the potential for Latino adolescents to develop internalizing

problems or low self-esteem. Future investigations should examine the complexity of the

acculturation process by integrating multiple cultural involvement scales in the study protocol.


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