Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume 47, Issue 8, 2018, Pages 1629-1648

Profiles of Language Brokering Experiences and Contextual Stressors: Implications for Adolescent Outcomes in Mexican Immigrant Families (Article)

Kim S.Y.* , Hou Y. , Song J. , Schwartz S.J. , Chen S. , Zhang M. , Perreira K.M. , Parra-Medina D.
  • a Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 108 East Dean Keeton Street, Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712, United States
  • b Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 108 East Dean Keeton Street, Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712, United States
  • c Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 108 East Dean Keeton Street, Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712, United States
  • d Department of Public Health Sciences, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States
  • e Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 108 East Dean Keeton Street, Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712, United States
  • f Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 108 East Dean Keeton Street, Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712, United States
  • g Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
  • h Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, United States

Abstract

Adolescents from Mexican immigrant families are often embedded in a challenging social environment and experience multiple contextual stressors, including economic stress, discrimination, and foreigner stress. We consider how the effects of these contextual stressors may be amplified or diminished for adolescents who function as language brokers, interpreting and mediating for their English-limited parents. Using two waves of survey data collected from a sample (N = 604 at Wave 1; N = 483 at Wave 2) of Mexican American adolescents with ages ranging from 11 to 15 (Mage = 12.41, 54% female), four distinct brokering—stress profiles were identified. Latent profile analyses revealed that with moderate levels of contextual stress, adolescents with more positive language brokering experiences (protective group) demonstrated more favorable outcomes than those with neutral language brokering experiences (moderate group) and those who did not involve themselves as frequently in language brokering activities (less-involved group). In contrast, high levels of contextual stress, coupled with more negative language brokering experiences (risk group), produced the least favorable outcomes among adolescents. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Author Keywords

discrimination Foreigner stress Language brokering Mexican American Economic stress

Index Keywords

Parents immigrant human language Humans migrant psychology Adolescent male Emigrants and Immigrants female stress risk factor Risk Factors high risk population Parent-Child Relations Article Adolescent Behavior major clinical study translating (language) Translating human experiment outcome assessment Mexican Americans child parent relation Mexican American Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85044580160&doi=10.1007%2fs10964-018-0851-4&partnerID=40&md5=913d0d52c6ec2c4181455a8efa4c68c5
DOI: 10.1007/s10964-018-0851-4
ISSN: 00472891
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English