Cultural stressors, internalizing symptoms, and parent-child alienation among Mexican-origin adolescents

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. Positive parent-child relationships can be a critical buffer against cultural stressors for Mexican-origin adolescents. However, it is unclear whether positive parent-child relationships (i.e., low level of parent-child alienation) (1) protects against different types of cultural stressors, and (2) functions at the between- or within-person level from early to late adolescence. 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) and conducted multilevel analysis. At the between-person level, overall low parent-child alienation buffered the adverse effects of ethnic discrimination on anxiety and the detrimental impact of cultural misfit on depressive symptoms. There were no significant within-person level interactions of parent-child alienation and cultural stressors on adolescent internalizing symptoms. 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

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Development and Family Sciences

Grantor

The University of Texas at Austin

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Wen, Wen, M.A.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kim, Su Yeong

• Cultural stressors
• Internalizing symptoms
• Multilevel
• Parent-child alienation

Language dc:language.iso

en

Identifier URI

http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/43495

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/116600