Family strengths and Latinx youth externalizing behavior: Modifying impacts of an adverse immigration environment.

Abstract

In recent years, the federal administration has ramped up efforts to curb and enforce immigration laws, in essence redefining how immigration, particularly in the Latinx population, is viewed and dealt with in the United States. The aim of the present study was to examine Latinx family strengths in relation to youth externalizing behavior, considering the modifying impacts of the current anti-immigration environment. Data were drawn from a study of 547 mother-adolescent dyads. Adolescents were 12.80 years old (SD ϭ 1.03) on average and 55% female; 88% were U.S. born. Adolescents completed measures of family strengths, including parental behavioral control, parental support, and respeto. They also reported on their own externalizing behavior. Mothers completed a measure of their affective and behavioral responses to immigration actions and news. Results showed that in families of mothers who reported adverse responses to the immigration context, parental behavioral control, parental support (boys only), and respeto were more strongly related to youth behavior. Results align with the family compensatory effects model, in which strengths at the family level help to offset adversities outside the home. Discussion focuses on ways to support families in establishing and maintaining high levels of protective processes and on the need to challenge anti-immigration rhetoric, practices, and policies that undermine healthy youth development in the Latinx population. Public Significance StatementAnti-immigration actions and news have an adverse effect on Latinx families. High levels of parental behavioral control, parental warmth, and the cultural value of respeto function as family strengths that protect youth from the negative impacts of anti-immigrant rhetoric and practice.

Anti‐immigration policies of the trump administration: A review of Latinx mental health and resilience in the face of structural violence

“…Unlike the focus on internalizing outcomes, only four articles of the 21 discussed outcomes such as hyperactivity, impulsivity, conduct difficulties, and general externalizing problems. Low rates of rule-breaking and aggression related externalizing behaviors were reported in a sample of Latinx youth, according to Calzada et al (2020). Immigrant Latinx children separated from their mothers at the border reported higher rates of "total difficulties" (which includes externalizing problems) than children who were not separated (Maclean et al, 2019).…”

An interdisciplinary framework examining culture and adaptation in migrant children and adolescents

“…Strong family ties help provide migrant children and adolescents with the emotional as well as social support they need to develop a healthy sense of self (Calzada, Roche, White, Partovi, & Little, 2020; Castro‐Salazar & Bagley, 2010; Juang et al., 2018; Zhou, 1997). Family members, particularly parents, serve as agents of socialization for migrant children by teaching them their heritage language and the meaning of cultural symbols and practices (Vélez‐Agosto et al., 2017).…”

Parent immigration stress predicts youth externalizing behavior trajectories among Latino families in an emerging immigrant context

“…In addition, the finding that parent immigration stress predicted youths’ externalizing behaviors is in line with earlier research on Latino immigrant youth. Indeed, prior research has found links between exo and mesosystem stressors and youth problem behaviors among Latino immigrant youth across several destination contexts, most of which were traditional immigrant contexts that have longer histories of supporting and sustaining immigrant families (Calzada et al, 2020; Lorenzo‐Blanco et al, 2016; Martinez, 2006; Ponting et al, 2018). Thus, it appears that immigration stress experienced among parents may exert adverse effects on their youth regardless of the specific context in which such stress occurs.…”

“…Ponting et al (2018) found that discrimination‐related stress predicted externalizing symptoms in a sample of Latino adolescents in California due to increased family conflict. Calzada et al (2020) recently found that among parents who experienced a more adverse immigration context, family factors, such as parental support, parental behavioral control, and respeto (respect), were more strongly related to youth externalizing symptoms among Latino immigrant families in the United States. These findings suggest that family dynamics between parents and their children are among the most proximal spheres of influence for youth and are vulnerable to disruption due to stress associated with the immigration process.…”