Neighborhood structural characteristics and Mexican-origin adolescents’ development

Abstract

Ethnic–racial and socioeconomic residential segregation are endemic in the United States, representing societal-level sociocultural processes that likely shape development. Considered alongside communities’ abilities to respond to external forces, like stratification, in ways that promote youth adaptive functioning and mitigate maladaptive functioning, it is likely that residence in segregated neighborhoods during adolescence has both costs and benefits. We examined the influences that early adolescents’ neighborhood structural characteristics, including Latino concentration and concentrated poverty, had on a range of developmentally salient downstream outcomes (i.e., internalizing, externalizing, prosocial behaviors, and ethnic–racial identity resolution) via implications for intermediate aspects of adolescents’ community participation and engagement (i.e., ethnic–racial identity exploration, ethnic–racial discrimination from peers, and school attachment). These mediational mechanisms were tested prospectively across three waves (Mage w1-w3 = 12.79, 15.83, 17.37 years, respectively) in a sample of 733 Mexican-origin adolescents (48.8% female). We found higher neighborhood Latino concentration during early adolescence predicted greater school attachment and ethnic–racial identity exploration and lower discrimination from peers in middle adolescence. These benefits, in turn, were associated with lower externalizing and internalizing and higher ethnic–racial identity resolution and prosocial behaviors in late adolescence. Findings are discussed relative to major guidelines for integrating culture into development and psychopathology.

When Discrimination Hurts: The Longitudinal Impact of Increases in Peer Discrimination on Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Mexican-origin Youth

“…Concomitant changes in discrimination and perceptions of school climate may negatively impact psychosocial and academic functioning for Latinx youth. Similarly, school attachment and ethnic-racial identity exploration in middle adolescence served to protect Mexican-origin youth from internalizing symptoms in late adolescence (White et al 2018), and these processes may be important sources of resilience. Further, recent work suggests that the relation between internalizing symptoms and discrimination across adolescence is bidirectional (Hou et al 2015), and more work should endeavor to examine how these processes relate across time, especially for depressive symptoms for which there was no evidence of timing effects.…”

Cultural development and psychopathology

“…White, Zeiders, and Safa (2018) studied the role of racial residential segregation on the development of internalizing, externalizing, prosocial behaviors, and ethnic–racial identity resolution in a sample of 733 Mexican-origin adolescents assessed at three time points. Higher neighborhood Latino concentration during early adolescence predicted greater ethnic–racial identity exploration and lower discrimination from peers in middle adolescence.…”

Prenatal Neighborhood Ethnocultural Context and the Mental Health of Mothers and Children in Low‐Income Mexican American Families

“…Historically, higher neighborhood Latinx concentration has been operationalized as an indicator of neighborhood risk among samples of ethnically and racially diverse children (e.g., Lara-Cinisomo, Xue, & Brooks-Gunn, 2013;Xue, Leventhal, Brooks-Gunn, & Earls, 2005). Cultural developmental theory suggests that the costs or benefits of Latinx concentration for children's development may depend on individual race or ethnicity, such that higher neighborhood Latinx concentration may not be promotive of mental health for all children (Garc ıa Coll et al, 1996;White et al, 2018). Rather, aspects of living in neighborhood comprised of higher proportions of same-ethnic neighbors may be promotive for Mexican American families, highlighting the importance of within-group design and thoughtful operationalization of neighborhood Latinx concentration.…”