Longitudinal measurement equivalence of subjective language brokering experiences scale in Mexican American adolescents.

Abstract

Objectives Language brokering occurs frequently in immigrant families and can have significant implications for the well-being of family members involved. The present study aimed to develop and validate a measure that can be used to assess multiple dimensions of subjective language brokering experiences among Mexican American adolescents. Methods Participants were 557 adolescent language brokers (54.2% female, Mage.wave1 =12.96, SD=.94) in Mexican American families. Results Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we were able to identify seven reliable subscales of language brokering: linguistic benefits, socio-emotional benefits, efficacy, positive parent-child relationships, parental dependence, negative feelings, and centrality. Tests of factorial invariance show that these subscales demonstrate, at minimum, partial strict invariance across time and across experiences of translating for mothers and fathers, and in most cases, also across adolescent gender, nativity, and translation frequency. Thus, in general, the means of the subscales and the relations among the subscales with other variables can be compared across these different occasions and groups. Tests of criterion-related validity demonstrated that these subscales correlated, concurrently and longitudinally, with parental warmth and hostility, parent-child alienation, adolescent family obligation, depressive symptoms, resilience, and life meaning. Conclusions This reliable and valid subjective language brokering experiences scale will be helpful for gaining a better understanding of adolescents’ language brokering experiences with their mothers and fathers, and how such experiences may influence their development.

Acculturation, Mental Health, and Quality of Life am ong Hispanic Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Latent Class Analysis

“…These findings shed new light on cultural characteristics that may be importantly related to psychosocial health, with implications for support programs for Hispanics CCS and their families, as well as for potential areas of further inquiry in studies of ethnicity and disease among cancer survivors. and negatively associated with depressive symptoms, 20 which supports our finding of greater mental health and quality of life in the LH group.…”

“…Among Mexican Americans, perceiving linguistic and socioemotional benefits from language brokering has also been positively associated with adolescent resilience outcomes such as mental and behavioral health at multiple time points. Cross-cultural validity is a potential limitation of self-report measures of depressive symptoms due to cultural variations in perceptions of mental illness 20 and/or unique expressions of feelings based on the language used in assessment. 21 However, a recent multi-site study of the measurement properties of the CES-D in a large sample of Hispanic/Latino adults in the United States found acceptable measurement invariance across subgroups, suggesting that differences in depressive symptom scores likely reflect true differences in symptoms.…”

Burdened or Efficacious? Subgroups of Chinese American Language Brokers, Predictors, and Long-Term Outcomes

“…Focusing on subjective feelings about language brokering within mother-adolescent dyads was meaningful in that it could best capture distinct emotions that adolescent language brokers might have. Not only is language brokering more frequently observed between mother-adolescent dyads than father-adolescent dyads (Chao, 2006; Villanueva & Buriel, 2010), but adolescents also experience more intense emotions, both positive and negative, when language brokering for mothers than for fathers (Kim, Hou, Shen, & Zhang, 2017; Wu & Kim, 2009). For this reason, it would have been ideal to investigate the consequent mother-child relationships, rather than general parent-child relationships, as outcomes of language broker subgroups.…”

Parenting and Centrality: The Role of Life Meaning as a Mediator for Parenting and Language Broker Role Identity

“…Language broker centrality.-Language broker centrality was measured using three items from a language broker measure (Kim, Hou, Shen, & Zhang, 2017). Language broker centrality measures the extent to which adolescents perceived the language broker role identity as important to self-concepts.…”