Gender-Specific Patterns of Relations among Acculturative Stress, Family Processes, and Prosocial Behaviors in Latinx Youth

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the direct and indirect relations between acculturative stress and Latinx youth prosocial tendencies. In addition, we considered family conflict, parental support, and parental psychological control as explanatory mechanisms. Participants included 306 (53.8% female, Mage = 15.50, SD = .42; range = 14 to 18) Latinx adolescents and their parents (87.9% mothers). The majority of adolescents were born in the U.S. (n = 206, 68.0%; average time in U.S. = 10 years) and identified as a Mexican heritage group member (n = 248, 81.0%). Findings differed by youth gender and suggest that for boys, parental support (but not psychological control) serves as underlying mechanism in the effects of acculturative stress and family conflict on youth’s prosocial behaviors. Contrastingly, for girls, parental support (but not psychological control) serves as underlying mechanism in the negative effects of family conflict (but not acculturative stress) on youth’s prosocial behaviors. The findings are discussed in the context of the need for integrative theories that account for cultural, family and gender-related socialization mechanisms to better understand prosocial behaviors among Latinx youth.

Keywords:

• Prosocial behaviors
• parenting
• family conflict
• acculturative stress
• Latinx families

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by grant # 1022744 from the National Science Foundation to L. Crockett and G. Carlo. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the participating families and the Latino Youth Care Project staff. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Cara Streit

Cara Streit received her PhD from the University in 2017 in Human Development and Family Science. Her research focuses on how family and cultural processes influence prosocial and moral development in ethnic minority children and adolescents. Her work examines the generalizability of traditional models of prosocial and moral behaviors across different cultures and considers mothers, fathers, and siblings as socialization agents of youth’s prosocial behaviors. In addition, she explores how cultural values are transmitted from one generation to the next and the role of cultural mechanisms in positive youth development.

Alexandra N. Davis

Alexandra Davis received her PhD from the University of Missouri in 2016 in Human Development and Family Science. She has been involved in research projects examining sociocultural and contextual factors related to positive functioning, including family relationships and prosocial/moral development, among ethnic minority and low-SES youth and adolescents.

Gustavo Carlo

Dr. Gustavo Carlo is Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. Before arriving to UCI, Dr. Carlo was the Millsap Professor of Diversity and Multicultural Studies in Human Development and Family Science at the University of Missouri. His primary research interest focuses on understanding positive social development and health in culturally-diverse children and adolescents. Many of his projects focus on U.S. ethnic/racial groups, including Latino/a youth and families.