Social–Emotional Needs of Latino Immigrant Adolescents: A Sociocultural Model for Development and Implementation of Culturally Specific Interventions

Abstract

This article describes the social–emotional needs of Latino immigrant adolescents within an ecological framework. Most of the literature on Latino immigrants' mental health focuses on the pathology and emotional needs of adults, often neglecting the needs of adolescents. We argue that the needs of adolescent Latinos may differ dramatically from those of their adult counterparts. Our proposed model explains the role of sociocultural factors on the development and maintenance of resiliency and risk factors among Latino immigrant adolescents. This model is an adaptation of W. A. Vega and A. G. Gil's (1999) model for explaining substance use in this population. Implications for interventions that focus on the maintenance of resiliency factors are discussed.

Keywords:

• social–emotional resiliency
• Latino mental health
• Latino immigrant adolescents
• social–emotional outcomes
• culturally specific interventions