Ethnic socialization and the academic adjustment of adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds.

Ethnic and generation differences in the frequency and types of ethnic socialization messages that 524 eleventh-grade adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds received from their parents were examined. Results indicated that adolescents from both Mexican and Chinese backgrounds reported more cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages than their peers from European backgrounds. Chinese adolescents reported more promotion of mistrust messages than their peers with European backgrounds. Moreover, promotion of mistrust messages negatively predicted academic achievement, whereas positive cultural socialization messages accounted for the higher levels of motivation among adolescents from Chinese and Mexican backgrounds as compared with their equally achieving peers from European backgrounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic Identity and the Academic Adjustment of Adolescents From Mexican, Chinese, and European Backgrounds.

The association of adolescents' ethnic identification with their academic attitudes and achievement was examined among a sample of 589 ninth-grade students from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds. Adolescents from all backgrounds chose a variety of ethnic labels to describe themselves, with those from Mexican, Chinese, and immigrant families incorporating more of their families' national origin and cultural background into their chosen ethnic labels. Nevertheless, the strength of adolescents' ethnic identification was more relevant to their academic adjustment than the specific labels that they chose, and it was most important for the extra motivation necessary for ethnic minority students to attain the same level of academic success as their European American peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authority, autonomy, and parent–adolescent conflict and cohesion: A study of adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, and European backgrounds.

This study examined whether parent–child conflict and cohesion during adolescence vary among families characterized as having different cultural traditions regarding parental authority and individual autonomy. Approximately 1,000 American adolescents from immigrant and native-born families with Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, and European backgrounds reported on their beliefs, expectations, and relationships with parents; longitudinal data were available for approximately 350 of these youths. Despite holding different beliefs about parental authority and individual autonomy, adolescents from all generations and cultural backgrounds reported similar levels of conflict and cohesion with their parents. Discussion focuses on the relative importance of cultural beliefs and social settings in shaping the nature of parent–child relationships during adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How much do I tell thee? Strategies for managing information to parents among American adolescents from Chinese, Mexican, and European backgrounds.

Strategies for managing information about activities to parents, including partial disclosure, avoidance, lying, and full disclosure, were examined in 479 American adolescents (M = 16.38 years, SD = 0.77) varying in generational status and from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds. Information management strategies for personal, prudential, and overlapping (multifaceted) activities as defined within social domain theory were examined. With age, parental education, and generational status controlled, Chinese American adolescents partially disclosed more to mothers about personal and multifaceted activities than did Mexican American adolescents and more to fathers about personal activities than did European American teens. In contrast, European and Mexican American adolescents fully disclosed more to mothers about personal activities than did Chinese-origin adolescents. Strategies varied by generation among Chinese American youth; second-generation adolescents avoided discussing activities with parents more than did immigrants. Adolescents who fully disclosed about all activities and lied less about multifaceted and personal activities reported stronger endorsement of obligations to assist their families, more trust in parents, and less problem behavior. More depressed mood was associated with more lying about personal activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent sibling relationships in Mexican American families: Exploring the role of familism.

To address a significant gap in the literature on normative processes in minority families, the authors studied adolescents' sibling relationships in two-parent Mexican American families and explored connections between sibling relationship characteristics and familism. Participants were 246 adolescent Mexican American sibling pairs who participated in (a) home interviews during which adolescents described their sibling relationships and familism values and (b) a series of 7 nightly phone calls during which adolescents reported their daily activities, including time spent with siblings and family members. Siblings described their relationships as both intimate and conflictual, and daily activity data revealed that they spent an average of 17.2 hr per 7 days in shared activities. Sibling relationship qualities were linked to familism values and practices, and stronger patterns of association emerged for sisters than brothers. Discussion highlights the significance of studying the processes that underlie within-group variations among families of different cultural backgrounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural study of family and peer correlates of adolescent misconduct

Participants were 4 groups of early adolescents from middle-class backgrounds (European and Chinese Americans in southern California and Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan, and Beijing, China). The 591 adolescents (M age = 13.8 years) completed questionnaires about their involvement in misconduct and about family and peer characteristics. Mothers of a subsample of adolescents (n = 405) also completed a questionnaire about their relationships with their adolescents. The 4 groups of adolescents reported significantly different mean levels of family and peer correlates but showed strikingly similar levels and patterns of self-reported misconduct. Structural equation models revealed that 2 latent variables (family relationships and peer sanctions) accounted for more variance in misconduct among European and Chinese American adolescents (51%-62%) than among the 2 Chinese groups (15%-24%), mainly because of a greater contribution of peer factors in the former groups.     

Family obligation and the transition to young adulthood.

Changes in a sense of obligation to assist, support, and respect the family were examined among an ethnically diverse group of 745 American individuals as they began to move from secondary school into young adulthood. A sense of family obligation increased for all young adults, with slight variations according to ethnic and financial backgrounds. Young adults from Filipino and Latin American families reported the strongest sense of familial duty during young adulthood, which partially explained their tendency to live with and contribute financially to their families. The implications of family obligation for employment and educational persistence depended on age and academic performance in high school. Finally, a sense of family obligation was associated with more positive emotional well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion recognition across cultures: The influence of ethnicity on empathic accuracy and physiological linkage.

The present study tested whether empathic accuracy and physiological linkage during an emotion recognition task are facilitated by a cultural match between rater and target (cultural advantage model) or unaffected (cultural equivalence model). Participants were 161 college students of African American, Chinese American, European American, or Mexican American ethnicity. To assess empathic accuracy—knowing what another person is feeling—participant’s (raters) used a rating dial to provide continuous, real-time ratings of the valence and intensity of emotions being experienced by 4 strangers (targets). Targets were African American, Chinese American, European American, or Mexican American women who had been videotaped having a conversation with their dating partner in a previous study and had rated their own feelings during the interaction. Empathic accuracy was defined as the similarity between ratings of the videotaped interactions obtained from raters and targets. To assess emotional empathy—feeling what another person is feeling—we examined physiological linkage (similarity between raters’ and targets’ physiology). Our findings for empathic accuracy supported the cultural equivalence model, while those for physiological linkage provided some support for the cultural advantage model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School and community climates and civic commitments: Patterns for ethnic minority and majority students.

The developmental correlates of diffuse support for the polity and civic commitments were explored in a survey of 1,052 students (mean age = 14.96 years) from African American, Arab American, European American, and Latino American backgrounds. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that regardless of their age, gender, or ethnic background, youth were more likely to believe that America was a just society and to commit to democratic goals if they felt a sense of community connectedness, especially if they felt that their teachers practiced a democratic ethic at school. Discussion focuses on the civic purposes of education in inculcating a sense of identification with the polity in younger generations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting Style of Mexican, Mexican American, and Caucasian-Non-Hispanic Families: Social Context and Cultural Influences.

To begin accounting for cultural and contextual factors related to child rearing in Mexican-descent (MD; Mexican American and Mexican immigrant) families in the United States, the current study examined parenting practices in 2-parent families of Mexican, MD, and Caucasian-non-Hispanic (CNH) parents. Parents in all groups reported using authoritative practices more often than authoritarian strategies. MD parents reported greater use of authoritarian practices than Mexican and CNH parents. Results suggest that previously found cultural variations in parenting between MD parents and CNH parents may be more related to the ecological context of MD families than to an affiliation with Mexican culture. Clinicians should explore the positive qualities of authoritative parenting in MD families along with the potential motivations for using authoritarian strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnicity, Expressed Emotion, Attributions, and Course of Schizophrenia: Family Warmth Matters.

The authors examined the role of family factors and the course of schizophrenia by carrying out additional assessments and analyses in 2 previously published studies of Mexican American and Anglo American patients and families. The authors found partial support for an attributional model of relapse for families who are low in emotional overinvolvement. Attributions of control, criticism, and warmth together marginally predicted relapse. The data also indicated that for Mexican Americans, family warmth is a significant protective factor, whereas for Anglo Americans, family criticism is a significant risk factor. These findings suggest that the sociocultural context shapes the pathways by which family processes are related to the course of illness. Moreover, the warmth findings suggest that families may contribute to preventing relapse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expression of emotion through family grouping schemata, distance, and interpersonal focus.

Used a family doll placement technique to study separateness and connectedness within the family as this varies over positive and negative emotional themes. All members of 10 intact families (father, mother, and 2 children), in which 1 child had learning difficulties, participated. Separateness and connectedness were measured by (a) family grouping schemata categories, describing the groupings and subgroupings of dolls; (b) linear distance between dolls; and (c) interpersonal focus of dolls. As hypothesized, positive emotional themes were represented by closer doll placements than negative themes. Parents tended to group the family as a single unit more than children. The child with learning difficulties tended to orient dolls away from one another in painful emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of self-esteem for Mexican Anmerican and European American youths: A reexamination of the influence of parenting.

Decades of research with European American middle-class families have found significant relations between parenting behavior and child self-esteem. Similar research with minority and low-income families is rare. The present study examined the relation between parenting practices and child self-esteem among 70 Mexican American and 161 European American youths. The analyses consisted of regressing child self-esteem on parenting practices (acceptance, rejection, inconsistent discipline, and hostile control), ethnicity, SES, and the interactions between ethnicity, SES, and parenting practices. Several main effects and interactions were significant; for each interaction, behavior of low-income or Mexican American parents had less influence on children's self-esteem than did similar behavior by middle-class or European American parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coparenting around siblings' differential treatment in Mexican-origin families.

In this study we examined patterns of mothers' and fathers' differential affection and discipline toward 2 adolescent offspring in 243 Mexican-origin families. Grounding our work in a family systems perspective, we used interparental patterns of differential treatment as an index of the coparental alliance and tested their associations with parents' reports of familism values, traditional gender role attitudes, and cultural orientations. We also sought to replicate prior research on European American samples linking interparental patterns of differential treatment to marital qualities (coparenting satisfaction, love, and conflict) and adolescent depressive symptoms and risky behaviors. Three interparental patterns emerged: families in which both mothers and fathers treated their 2 offspring equally, incongruent families in which 1 parent treated both offspring equally while the other parent favored 1 offspring, and congruent families in which both parents favored the same offspring. Most parents reported equal treatment, but others fell into the incongruent affection (30%), incongruent discipline (45%), and congruent discipline (16%) groups. Mixed model analyses of variances revealed that in families in which mothers and fathers both treated their offspring equally, parents reported higher familism values, more traditional gender role attitudes, and relatively stronger orientations to Mexican than Anglo culture. Consistent with previous research, interparental incongruence was associated with less positive marital qualities and more adolescent adjustment problems. Discussion focuses on the role of culture in shaping coparenting and the processes through which these coparenting dynamics are linked to marital and youth adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture, ethnicity, and children's facial expressions: A study of European American, mainland Chinese, Chinese American, and adopted Chinese girls.

This investigation extends previous research documenting differences in Chinese and European American infants' facial expressivity. Chinese girls adopted by European American families, nonadopted Mainland Chinese girls, nonadopted Chinese American girls, and nonadopted European American girls responded to emotionally evocative slides and an odor stimulus. European American girls smiled more than Mainland Chinese and Chinese American girls and scored higher than Mainland Chinese girls for disgust-related expressions and overall expressivity. Adopted Chinese girls produced more disgust-related expressions than Mainland Chinese girls. Self-reported maternal strictness, aggravation, positive expressiveness, and cultural identification correlated with children's facial responses, as did number of siblings and adults in the home. Results suggest that culture and family environment influences facial expressivity, creating differences among children of the same ethnicity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent-child conversations about science: The socialization of gender inequities?

This study investigated the family as a context for the gender typing of science achievement. Adolescents (N=52) from 2 age levels (mean ages=11 and 13 years) participated with their mothers and fathers on separate occasions; families were from predominantly middle-income European American backgrounds. Questionnaires measured the parents' and the child's attitudes. Each parent also engaged his or her child in 4 structured teaching activities (including science and nonscience tasks). There were no child gender or grade-level differences in children's science-related grades, self-efficacy, or interest. However, parents were more likely to believe that science was less interesting and more difficult for daughters than sons. In addition, parents' beliefs significantly predicted children's interest and self-efficacy in science. When parents' teaching language was examined, fathers tended to use more cognitively demanding speech with sons than with daughters during one of the science tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting practices as predictors of substance use, delinquency, and aggression among urban minority youth: Moderating effects of family structure and gender.

This study examined how parenting factors were associated with adolescent problem behaviors among urban minority youth and to what extent these relationships were moderated by family structure and gender. 228 6th grade students reported how often they use alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or engage in aggressive or delinquent behaviors; a parent or guardian reported their monitoring and other parenting practices. Findings indicated that boys and those from single-parent families engaged in the highest rates of problem behavior. More parental monitoring was associated with less delinquency overall, as well as less drinking in boys only. Eating family dinners together was associated with less aggression overall, as well as less delinquency in youth from single-parent families and in girls. Unsupervised time at home alone was associated with more smoking for girls only. Implications for prevention interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily family conflict and emotional distress among adolescents from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds.

The authors employed a daily diary method to assess daily frequencies of interparental and parent–adolescent conflict over a 2-week period and their implications for emotional distress across the high school years in a longitudinal sample of 415 adolescents from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds. Although family conflict remained fairly infrequent among all ethnic backgrounds across the high school years, its impact on emotional distress was significant across ethnicity and gender. In addition, parent–adolescent conflict significantly mediated the association between interparental conflict and emotional distress. These associations were observed at both the individual and the daily levels, providing evidence for both the chronic and episodic implications of family conflict for adolescents’ emotional adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring students' connectedness to school, teachers, and family: Validation of three scales.

Connectedness to school, teachers, and family are all significant protective factors in adolescents' lives, yet the measurement of each varies considerably. This article describes the measurement properties of three composite scales of adolescent connectedness, adapted from the Add Health study and the California Healthy Kids Survey. These composite scales are created by either summing or taking the mean of all individual items, measured on an ordinal scale. This approach fails to account for the ordinal, non-normal nature of the data. Using a covariance approach, this article describes the measurement properties of the latent constructs of connectedness to school, teachers, and family and the contribution of each of the items used to compile the relevant composite score. The outcomes of this study will provide researchers and practitioners with information about the validity, reliability, and overall usefulness of each of the measures of adolescents' perception of their connectedness to school, teachers, and family. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family functioning among adolescents with bipolar disorder.

This study examined the characteristics of families of adolescents with bipolar disorder during or shortly following a period of mood exacerbation, using measures of family conflict, cohesion, adaptability, and expressed emotion (EE). Demographic, diagnostic, and family functioning data were collected from 58 families (mean age = 14.48; 33 female, 25 male) before entering a randomized trial of family focused treatment. Compared to scale scores reported by healthy adolescents and their families, cohesion and adaptability were more impaired in families with an adolescent with bipolar disorder. Levels of conflict, while higher than normative scores reported by healthy families, were not significantly different from scores gathered from distressed, clinic-referred families. Parents rated high in EE reported less cohesion and adaptability, and more conflict, than parents rated low in EE. Parents expressing greater numbers of critical comments also reported more conflict than those who expressed fewer criticisms. These EE group differences were not accounted for by concurrent adolescent symptom levels. Family adaptability, cohesion, and conflict may be important targets for family treatments administered during the postepisode phases of early onset bipolar disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)