Acculturation Profiles and Associations with Parenting Among Immigrant Latinos

Background: This presentation will report on the impact of acculturation and accompanying acculturative stress on the parenting practices of Latino immigrants. Acculturation theory stresses the importance of considering national origin as well as the new context in which immigrants now live. The study (a) examines acculturation profiles based on heritage culture orientation, mainstream culture orientation, familismo, and acculturative stress; (b) describes how social support informs Latinos’ acculturation profiles, controlling for gender and education; and (c) tests how these acculturation profiles are associated with parenting behaviors, including parental involvement, monitoring, agency, and discipline self-efficacy, as well as family conflict.

Method: Participants included 1,167 parents (82% female; Mage=38 years, SD=7.56) of 7^th grade adolescents from 16 eligible middle schools. The majority were born in Mexico (91%), 80% had lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. All consents and surveys were administered by trained research staff, with 98% completed in Spanish. Measures included a 10-item social support scale (α = .94), five acculturation scales (Mexican-orientation, α = .77, Anglo-orientation, α = .85, Stress to Acculturate, α = .79, Stress Against Acculturating, α = .79, and familismo, α = .98), four parenting scales (involvement, α = .79, monitoring, α = .83, agency, α = .70, and discipline self-efficacy, α = .81), and a 8-item family conflict scale (α = .76).

Results: A three-step latent profile analysis using Mplus revealed five profiles of acculturation: Cultural Individualism (n=168, 15%), Cultural Engagement (n=810, 71.3%), Cultural Assimilation (n=47, 4.3%), Cultural Disengagement (n=23, 2.1%), and Cultural Stress (n=77, 7.3%). Social support predicted the Cultural Engagement profile (OR=1.39), which was associated with positive parenting behaviors, such as parental involvement (B = .52, SE = .19, β = 2.78, p < .01) and monitoring (B = .88, SE = .18, β = 4.85, p < .001), and reduced family conflict (B = -.45, SE = .13, β = -3.57, p < .001). The Cultural Stress (comparative) profile was associated with detrimental parenting behaviors (for example, reduced self-agency, parental involvement, and monitoring) and greater family conflict.

Discussion and Implications: Parents’ lack of social support and increased levels of stress associated with acculturation places families at risk through weak parenting practices and increased family conflict. Recommendations include family interventions that effectively support and strengthen culturally competent coping strategies in response to acculturative stress as a means to promote positive parenting practices.