Neighborhood and school ethnic structuring and cultural adaptations among Mexican-origin adolescents.

Abstract

The ethnic and racial structuring of U.S. neighborhoods may have important implications for developmental competencies during adolescence, including the development of heritage and mainstream cultural orientations. In particular, living in highly concentrated Latino neighborhoods during early adolescence – which channels adolescents into related school environments – may promote retention of the ethnic or heritage culture, but it also may constrain adaptation to the mainstream U.S. culture. We tested these hypotheses longitudinally in a sample of 246 Mexican origin adolescents (50.8% girls) and their parents. Data were collected four times over eight years, with adolescents averaging 12.5 (SD = .58) to 19.6 (SD = .66) years of age across the period of the study. Latino ethnic concentration in early adolescents' neighborhoods promoted the retention of Mexican cultural orientations; Latino ethnic concentration in middle schools undermined the development of mainstream U.S cultural orientations. Findings are discussed in terms of integrating cultural-developmental theory with mainstream neighborhood theory to improve understandings of neighborhood and school ethnic concentration effects on adolescent development.

Ethnic Socialization in Neighborhood Contexts: Implications for Ethnic Attitude and Identity Development Among Mexican‐Origin Adolescents

“…Much of the research supporting these hypotheses has focused on the school context (French et al., , ; Umaña‐Taylor, ). There is emerging evidence to suggest that even parallel aspects of school and neighborhood environments (e.g., ethnic structuring of schools and of neighborhoods) do not have the same implications for adolescent development (Munniksma, Scheepers, Stark, & Tolsma, ) or ethnic attitude and identity development (White et al., ). Consequently, the focus on school context versus neighborhood context is likely to be an important distinction.…”

Toward a New Understanding of Ethnic‐Racial Settings for Ethnic‐Racial Identity Development

“…The fourth dimension of our framework, proximity , refers to the immediacy of the setting, or from a social ecological perspective (Bronfenbrenner, ), how close the person is to the setting of interest. The majority of studies have assessed ethnic–racial settings in immediate settings, at the microsystem level, in terms of the other people present at a given moment (Yip, ), peer groups (Yip et al., ), classrooms (Thijs et al., ), schools (Brittian, Umaña‐Taylor, & Derlan, ), and neighborhoods (Juang & Nguyen, ; White, Updegraff et al ). The concept of egohoods has been proposed as a distance‐based measure that allows for overlapping, person‐centered definitions of proximity (vs. distinct census tracts; e.g., Hipp & Boessen, ).…”

Impacts of Immigration Actions and News and the Psychological Distress of U.S. Latino Parents Raising Adolescents

“…Adverse consequences of today’s immigration climate may be pronounced for Latino parents with adolescent children. Compared to younger children, adolescents have a better cognitive understanding of the stressors their families face, experience more direct exposure to extrafamilial risks, and have spent more formative years of identity development within a US context [3]. The present study describes parents’ behavioral and emotional responses to recent immigration actions and news and investigates how these responses are associated with Latino parents’ psychological distress.…”