Schedule:
Friday, May 29, 2015
Yellowstone (Hyatt Regency Washington)
* noted as presenting author
Jennifer Beth Unger, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Byron Zamboanga, PhD, Professor, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Elma Lorenzo-Blanco, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Sabrina Des Rosiers, PhD, Assistant Professor, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL
David Cordova, PhD, School of Social Work, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI
Assaf Oshri, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Miguel Angel Cano, PhD, Assistant Professor, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Melinda Gonzales-Backen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Brandy Pina-Watson, PhD, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Purpose: We sought to determine the extent to which initial levels and over-time trajectories of cultural stressors (discrimination, negative context of reception, and bicultural stress) predicted well-being, internalizing symptoms, externalizing problems, and health risk behaviors among recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents. Addressing this research objective involved creating a latent factor for cultural stressors, establishing invariance for this factor over time, estimating a growth curve for this factor over time, and examining the effects of initial levels (intercepts) and trajectories (slopes) of cultural stressors on adolescent outcomes.
Methods: A sample of 302 recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami (Mdn 1 year in the US at baseline) and Los Angeles (Mdn 3 years in the US at baseline) was recruited from public schools and assessed 6 times over a 3-year period. Assessments were conducted using laptop computers with audio computer assisted technology.
Results: Perceived discrimination, context of reception, and bicultural stress loaded onto a latent factor at each of the first five timepoints. The structure of this latent factor demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance over time. A growth curve conducted on this factor over the first five timepoints significantly predicted lower self-esteem (ß=-.24, p<.001), greater aggressive behavior (ß=.47, p<.001) and rule breaking (ß=.41, p<.001), and increased likelihood of cigarette smoking (OR=1.30, p<.05), drunkenness (OR=1.48, p<.01), and marijuana use (OR=1.59, p<.001).
Conclusions: Cultural stressors are an important target for interventions among Hispanic immigrant adolescents. Reducing cultural stress, or helping adolescents to cope with this stress, is likely to improve well-being and to decrease externalizing behaviors and substance use within this population. The present results may be important in designing interventions for Hispanic immigrant children and adolescents, including those within the current wave of unaccompanied child migrants.
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