Communal Coping Among Spanish-Speaking Mother–Child Dyads Engaging in Language Brokering: A Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

Utilizing self-reported survey data from 120 low-income, Spanish-speaking motherchild dyads, this study examined different types of classes (i.e., subgroups) based on the ways in which mothers and adolescent children coped with language brokering, particularly when they found it stressful. Four classes emerged, listed from largest to smallest class: (a) communal coping mothers, (b) shared communal copers, (c) independent communal coping children, and (d) communal coping children. Mothers' parent-child closeness predicted class membership, but adolescent children's reported closeness was not a significant predictor. Nevertheless, adolescent children's respect for family significantly predicted class membership, whereas mothers' respect for family was not a significant predictor. Mothers who were members of the communal coping children class reported less frequent depressive symptoms, whereas children who were independent communal coping children reported more frequent depressive symptoms.

Examining discrepancies between actual and desired communal coping with type 2 diabetes

“…Although there is burgeoning literature on communal coping, the empirical work on the topic is still developing scholars' understanding of the construct; for example, some studies have suggested that the two dimensions suggested by Lyons et al () may not always be empirically distinguishable (Afifi et al, ; Afifi et al, ). Recent research, however, has suggested that the conceptual distinction between shared appraisal and joint action is empirically meaningful (Basinger, ; Helgeson et al, ; Kam, Basinger, & Guntzviller, ). The current study adds to this work in the context of PLWD and family members.…”

Sanctification of couple relationships and communal coping in married and cohabiting African American couples.

“…With few exceptions (Kam et al, 2017; Rohrbaugh et al, 2012), most of the existing literature on communal coping has been dedicated to its influence on health and medical treatment (Rentscher, 2019). This narrow focus has created a significant gap in research, limiting what is known about communal coping as a relational outcome variable, particularly among African American couples.…”

How do mothers manage their privacy with adolescents? Exploring mother–adolescent communication in Mexican immigrant families

“…Recent research suggests that the process of enculturation has the potential to be problematic for the health and well-being of Latino immigrant adolescents (Kam, Guntzviller, & Pines, 2017; Kam & Lazarevic, 2014b). In particular, adolescent children tend to be interpreters for their parents both in terms of the language and cultural expectations and as a result, parents often rely on their children to navigate for their parents (Guntzviller, Jensen, & Carreno, 2017; Kam, Basinger, et al, 2017; Kam & Lazarevic, 2014a). In other words, children of immigrants prematurely need to take on adult responsibilities, playing adult roles in their family.…”

“…Most of parentification research, to date, has been conducted from the perspective of family counseling psychology and therapy (Champion et al, 2009; Hooper et al, 2012; Kuperminc et al, 2013) while very few communication studies investigated language brokering as a type of parentification (Guntzviller et al, 2017; Kam, Basinger, et al, 2017; Kam, Guntzviller, et al, 2017). Yet, previous findings indicate that parent–adolescent communication plays a key role during the process of emotional parentification (Kuperminc, Jurkovic, & Casey, 2009; Shin & Hecht, 2013; Telzer & Fuligni, 2009), less is known about how parents, particularly Mexican immigrant mothers, manage their private information with their children during the process of emotional parentification.…”

“…Census Bureau, 2013), these children from immigrant families are especially vulnerable to a range of needs their parents depend on. One of the trickier situations concerns possible role reversals where the children not only serves as a language interpreter for the parents, but also may find themselves in circumstances where they provide social and psychological support because the parent, primarily the mother, no longer has access to adult family members for help (Kam, Basinger, & Guntzviller, 2017; Orellana, 2003).…”