Gabriela L Stein

University of North Carolina at Greensboro | UNCG · Department of Psychology

The present study examined Multiracial emerging adults’ reports of up to two of their primary caregivers’ support of their Multiracial experiences, in addition to their reports on outcomes of their own feelings of Multiracial pride, challenges with racial identity, lack of family acceptance, and psychological distress. We then organized participant...

Vicarious exposure to discrimination can result in multiple negative outcomes in youth. In this article, we offer a conceptual model that articulates the intersecting contextual factors and potential moderators for U.S. Latine youth's exposure to family‐level vicarious racism, and explore how that affects youth and family responses. We define and d...

Robust research continues to broaden and deepen the field’s understanding of immigrants’ ethnic-racial identity and mental health. We highlight opportunities to pioneer the literature by questioning “who” is meant by immigrant (clearly defining generational status, going beyond covariate and difference-based approaches, focusing on immigrants from...

Evidence suggests that within the context of collectivistic minority groups, familial pride may function largely as a family-based emotion. We examined whether emotions derived from achieving on behalf of ones’ family were associated with positive psychological functioning in Asian American college students. The sample for this cross-sectional desi...

Trajectory studies of the COVID-19 pandemic have described patterns of symptoms over time. Yet, few have examined whether social determinants of health predict the progression of depression and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 or identified which social determinants worsen symptom trajectories. Using a sample of racially/ethnically and linguistical...

The field of psychology is coming toward a critical juncture; scholars are increasingly recognizing that race, ethnicity, and culture play important roles in their fields of study, but do not always have the language to integrate race and culture into their own work. Furthermore, common conceptions of race may systematically exclude those from mult...

Racial-ethnic socialization is a process where parents pass beliefs and behaviors to their children, including critical reflections on race and racism. Currently, it is not well known across racial/ethnic groups in the U.S how parents’ socialization competency (confidence, skills, and stress surrounding the delivery of racial-ethnic socialization)...

This study aims to better understand how racially/ethnically minoritized youth exhibit adaptive psychological functioning (less anxiety) and health behaviors (better sleep and less binge drinking) in the context of discrimination, ethnic-racial identity and coping. Among 364 minoritized emerging adults (Mage = 18.79, 85.2% female), we utilized high...

This paper tested whether shift-&-persist coping, or coping involving the combination of cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and optimism (Chen & Miller, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2012, 7, 135), attenuates the risks presented by economic hardship and ethnic discrimination for change in depressive symptoms from 9th to 12th grade, in a sa...

As the research on familism values, or cultural values relating to support, interconnectedness, and obligations has blossomed, scholars are increasingly interested in the applicability and impact of familism values across diverse racial/ethnic youth. However, existing measures of familism tend to be long, posing potential practicality issues and ha...

Racial-ethnic inequity is deeply entrenched in U.S. social systems, yet adolescents’ voices and understanding around inequity are not often directly examined. The current qualitative study uses focus group data from African American ( n = 21), Chinese- ( n = 17), Indian- ( n = 13), and Mexican- ( n = 17) origin adolescents ( M age = 12.93 years; SD...

Critical civic engagement (CCE) refers to interpersonal, community, and political actions to combat and cope with racial inequity. While discrimination and identity are well-known drivers of civic engagement, it is less well-known how parental preparation for bias socialization, which teaches Black youth how to cope with unequal social systems, wor...

Ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) can promote positive outcomes in minoritized youth, but parents often face challenges in effectively engaging in these conversations. We describe the development of a video‐based online parent intervention program aimed at improving parental motivation, efficacy, and skills in having ERS conversations. The program...

Familism is a central cultural value endorsed by Latinx youth that has been identified as a promotive factor for their psychological wellbeing (Stein et al., 2014). However, in the context of familial stress, familism values may instead serve to increase risk, but this research has not been extended to consider parental alcohol use as a risk contex...

Critical consciousness is one way in which minoritized youth can resist oppression and move towards sociopolitical change, but little is known about how it evolves alongside developmentally-relevant assets such as ethnic-racial identity. Among 367 ethnically-racially diverse youth (Mage = 15.85, 68.9% female, 85% U.S-born), links between multiple i...

Objectives: Based on the conceptual overlap between shift-&-persist (S&P) and culturally based strategies (critical civic engagement [CCE] and spiritually based coping), this study tests whether associations between these three previously disparate strategies are attributable to the existence of a higher-order coping construct: culturally informed...

Life course theorists posit that sensitive periods exist during life span development where risk and protective factors may be particularly predictive of psychological outcomes relative to other periods in life. While there have been between-cohort studies trying to examine differences in discrimination and depressive symptoms, these studies have n...

Familism cultural values have been related to greater family cohesion and reduced conflict in Latinx adolescents and emerging adults. This study explores how emotional experiences related to familism may be associated with family functioning above and beyond familism values. We examined whether familism pride (i.e., the tendency to experience posit...

Asian and Latinx emerging adults in the United States typically hold stronger values and expectations regarding their duty to support and respect their families than their White peers. Yet, research has not fully explored how meeting familial expectations is associated with psychological well-being in these populations. This study examined ethnic-r...

This study investigated the main and interactive effects of identity-based challenges, discrimination, and Multiracial pride on psychological distress in Biracial emerging adults. Additionally, we examined whether these associations may differ by Biracial sub-group (e.g., black–white, Asian–white, Latinx–white, and minority–minority) given their un...

Coping in the context of racial-ethnic discrimination is often framed as an individualistic process, where the focus is on how the individual deals with the racialized stressor to mitigate its negative effects. However, individuals exist within social contexts including the family and coping processes may operate interdependently as well. Further,...

Objectives: Little is understood about how Multiracial individuals are socialized around race and ethnicity, and how these socialization messages are related to ethnic-racial identity development. Method: This study utilizes a person-centered framework with a diverse sample of 286 Multiracial college students to examine the patterns of ethnic-ra...

Familism is a core Latinx value that emphasizes deference to family and prioritizing family over the self, and is typically examined as a predictor of positive psychosocial outcomes in Latinx youth and their families (Stein et al., 2014). Few studies have examined predictors of familism in Latinx youth, with the majority of work focusing on how fam...

Framed by developmental and biopsychosocial models, this chapter focuses on the promotive and protective role of racial-ethnic socialization for minoritized youth across the life course. We focus on its links with physical and mental health outcomes as well as moderation and mediational links in reducing the negative outcomes of discrimination. Our...

Race-related biases and discrimination and easily observable race-related characteristics, such as skin color, appear to go hand and hand, but it remains unclear how these factors work together to shape youth development. The current study addresses this gap by investigating skin color satisfaction as a mediator between perceptions of discriminatio...

Familism values promote the positive adaptation of Latinx youth, but few studies have examined potential indirect effects associated with these positive effects. In emerging immigrant communities, where fewer resources are available to youth and families to maintain cultural values and ties, familism may be especially important. In this study of 17...

This introduction to the special section on hidden populations across contexts in developmental science defines what is meant by "hidden populations" and summarizes the studies along thematic lines. Hidden populations are generally minoritized populations embedded in larger systems of oppression and inequality encapsulated within historical time an...

The aims of this mixed-methods study were (a) to explore quantitatively the fit of the COPE inventory (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced) for Latinx youth from immigrant families, and (b) to explore qualitatively aspects of coping in this population. Participants were 175 Latinx adolescents (51% female), most of whom were U.S.-born with im...

There are well-documented mental healthcare disparities currently impacting the US Latinx population. Research efforts have been made to adapt and disseminate interventions aimed at reducing these disparities. However, these have often been conducted in a “top-down” (researcher driven) fashion with little involvement of members of the Latinx commun...

Shift-&-persist is a coping strategy that has been shown to lead to positive health outcomes in low-SES youth but has not yet been examined with respect to psychological health. This study tests whether the shift-&-persist coping strategy works in tandem with ethnic-racial identity to protect against depressive symptoms in the face of two uncontrol...

Objective: To evaluate shared decision-making (SDM) and delineate SDM processes in audio-recorded conversations between language congruent Spanish-/English-speaking clinicians and parents of pediatric mental health patients. Methods: Transcripts from audio-recorded consultations were rated using the 5-Item Observing Patient Involvement in Decisi...

Life course models of the impact of discrimination on health and mental health outcomes posit that the pernicious effects of discrimination may not be immediate, but instead may become apparent at later stages in development. This study tests whether peer discrimination changes at particular transition points (i.e., transition to middle and high sc...

Objectives: Understanding the experience of foreigner objectification is relevant given the possibility of ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and mistrust of immigrants in the United States. The present study examines main and interactive effects of objectification and English proficiency on developmental outcomes among immigrant mothers and children. Me...

Few studies examine how racial-ethnic peer discrimination experiences of Latinx youth vary across the race-ethnicity of the perpetrator. In a sample of 170 Latinx early adolescents (M_age = 12.86 years, range = 10.33–15.23; 51% female), we identified 4 latent profiles of youth: (a) relatively low likelihood of experiencing discrimination...

Objectives: Latina mothers in emerging immigrant communities experience heightened risk for depressive symptoms because of the convergence of multiple risk factors rooted in economic, cultural, and familial experiences. Previous research with Latina/o adolescents has found that discrimination, and not acculturative stress, predicts depressive symp...

Objectives: Cultural value endorsement and ethnic-racial identity promote Latino/a adolescent positive adaptation and mitigate the negative impacts of perceived ethnic-racial discrimination. This study explored the intergenerational process of how adolescents develop these cultural characteristics in concert with their experiences of discriminatio...

Objectives: Familism values serve to provide key cultural scripts in Latinx families, and these values have been associated with positive psychosocial outcomes for Latinx youth (Stein et al., 2014). Yet, how familism values intersect with the experience of positive emotions remains relatively unknown. In particular, familism pride may be an import...

The literature on parental racial–ethnic socialization (RES) has established the multiple protective effects of RES on developmental outcomes. Although the majority of this literature examines RES processes in adolescence, with the exception of identity processes this literature has not specifically tackled how these messages intersect with specifi...

Ethnic identity is rooted in sociocultural processes, but little is known about how social interactions predict its longitudinal changes. Using data from 154 Asian American adolescents, latent profile analysis derived four typologies based on unfair treatment (i.e., discrimination, model minority stereotyping) and ethnic socialization (i.e., cultur...

This study examined associations between cultural socialization and Hmong American early adolescents’ (n = 93) ethnic–racial identity in the context of the overall parent–adolescent relationship. Findings suggested that cultural socialization was positively related to ethnic exploration and resolution but not to affirmation. Involved–supportive par...

Patient activation has recently emerged as a critical component of effective health care (Hibbard & Greene, 2013), but Latina/o populations demonstrate lower levels of activation compared to non-Latina/o Whites (Cunningham, Hibbard, & Gibbons, 2011). The current study examined demographic and psychological factors associated with immigrant Latina/o...

This longitudinal study examined the role of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and public ethnic regard on depressive symptoms in an adolescent Latino sample (n = 141) living in an emerging immigrant community. Using a cross lagged model, this study found that Time 1 (T1) discrimination did not predict T2 depressive symptoms, nor did depressiv...

Given adversity associated with discrimination, it is important to identify culturally relevant factors that may protect against its harmful effects. Using latent variable interactions, this study examined the moderating effects of cultural assets on the association between multiple types of discrimination and adolescents' adjustment. Participants...

Migrant youth face cultural challenges upon initial adjustment into the United States. Although there is considerable empirical evidence that trauma impacts interpersonal relations, there is a dearth of research examining the association between adverse events and the initial social and cultural exchange experience, and whether this is associated w...

Supporting post-secondary access for Latino adolescents is important due to the size of the population and mixed evidence of progress. In order to better understand the college-going and school-belonging attitudes of Latinos, we used an exploratory latent profile analysis to identify the educational affiliation profiles present in a sample of Latin...

Objectives: Ethnic discrimination increases risk for depressive symptoms, but less is known about factors that influence the impact of this cultural challenge on psychological adjustment for immigrant-origin college students. Sociocultural identity development is especially relevant during emerging adulthood. Studies examining exacerbating or buff...

Objective: Latino families raising children with mental health and other special health care needs report greater dissatisfaction with care compared with other families. Activation is a promising strategy to eliminate disparities. This study examined the comparative effectiveness of MePrEPA, an activation intervention for Latino parents whose chil...

Transitional age youth were born into a world that is becomingly increasingly diverse. Youth who are ethnic or racial minorities encounter cultural stressors, including acculturative stress and discrimination that undermine their health and mental health. Decades of research demonstrate that cultural assets can serve as risk-reducing and resilience...

Background Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is supported by policymakers as a way to provide service providers and patients with evidence‐based information to make better health‐care decisions and ultimately improve services for patients. However, Latina/o patients are rarely involved as study advisors, and there is a lack of documentation...

The present study examined the longitudinal associations among familism respect and obligations values, ethnic centrality and private regard, and ethnic self-identification. Data were drawn from a socioeconomically diverse sample of Latino students attending a predominantly White university. The selection of a White label was associated with less p...

Objectives: This study examined the relationship between familism and depressive symptoms across relational contexts in adolescence, and whether maternal warmth and support, and school support moderated the relationship between familism and depressive symptoms. Method: A total of 180 Latino adolescents (53% female) in 7th through 10th grades (av...

The Integrative Model of Child Development [Garcia Coll et al. (Child Development 67(5):1891–1914, 1996)] proposed a complex model of development in ethnic minority youth that considered how social positional, environmental, familial, cultural, and child factors interacted to predict psychosocial and academic outcomes. The current chapter builds of...

Although perceived ethnic/racial discrimination is well established as a risk factor for depressive symptoms in ethnic minority youth, few studies have examined their longitudinal relationship over time. This study examined whether a negative attributional style, positive ethnic/racial affect, and emotional reactivity moderated the longitudinal rel...

Objectives: Patterns of parent-adolescent conflict differ between immigrant and nonimmigrant families living in the United States (Fuligni, 1998). Despite this, there is limited empirical literature examining the nuanced nature of parent-adolescent conflict in immigrant families. To fill this gap, the current study examined the role of 2 types of...

Although only a portion of Latina/o adolescents in the United States are undocumented, the social perception of legal status may influence Latina/o youth living in immigrant communities more broadly. This perception has implications not only for how Latina/o youth understand themselves but also for how they construct their aspirations. Qualitative...

Aspirations and expectations are critical to academic attainment and success, yet little is known about how they change over the high school years. With longitudinal data from 157 Asian American adolescents (60% female), we examined normative and within-person changes in aspirations and expectations, and associations with psychological adjustment....

This study used latent profile analysis to develop coping typologies of 340, 14- to16-year-old Mexican American adolescents (M = 14.46, SD = 0.69). Three typologies were identified: (a) opposition coping (adolescents who tended to use anger and venting emotions), (b) support-seeking coping (adolescents who relied on seeking support), and (c) escape...

The present paper takes a translational approach in applying the themes of the current special section to prevention and intervention science in Latino families. The paper reviews the current literature on cultural processes in prevention and intervention research with Latino families. Overall, many prevention and intervention programs have either...

Past studies document that Latino familial cultural values (i.e. familism, affiliative obedience and filial obligation) protect against depressive symptoms and promote academic resilience in adolescence. However, some studies suggest that familial cultural values differ across gender, with females reporting greater obligations and fewer freedoms co...

The goal of this research is to improve the mental health care and outcomes of Latino children with mental health needs. This presentation examines the comparative effectiveness of an activation intervention for Latino parents raising children with mental health needs. Activation is a promising focus of research to eliminate disparities because it...

This article reviews an emerging literature examining the effects of familism across childhood and adolescence. Familism has been described as a Latino cultural value that emphasizes obligation, filial piety, family support and obedience, and its effects have been documented as primarily protective across childhood and adolescence. This review seek...

This study examined the buffering role of ethnic identity for Asian American adolescents living in an emerging immigrant community. A sample of 176 Asian American ninth graders completed self-report measures assessing ethnic identity, stressors (i.e., perceived racial/ethnic discrimination; economic stress), and mental health outcomes (i.e., depres...

Objectives: Past literature documents many individual predictors of treatment engagement among mental health clients in community settings, but few studies have examined clinic characteristics that may be associated with treatment engagement. With data from a patient activation and self-management trial, this study examined the variation in demogr...

Discrimination is considered a contextual risk factor for ethnic minority youth, but social support provided in the same context may function to offset the risk or encourage adaptive responses. Per the integrative model of child development (Garcia Coll et al., 1996), experiences in the school, familial, and community settings can foster the develo...

Importance Given minority patients’ unequal access to quality care, patient activation and self-management strategies have been suggested as a promising approach to improving mental health care.Objective To determine whether the DECIDE (Decide the problem; Explore the questions; Closed or open-ended questions; Identify the who, why, or how of the...

Cultural value gaps between Mexican American parents and their children are hypothesized to place youth at risk for poor mental health outcomes. While most studies examine these gaps on broad measures of acculturation, the present study examined value gaps in affiliative obedience, a cultural value that has at its core the belief that respect and d...

INTRODUCTION: Quality interactions between mental health providers and patients can help ensure that racial, ethnic, and linguistic (REL) minorities receive quality mental health care. However, for several decades, cultural gaps have been suspected between providers and patients from these backgrounds, and these gaps have been hypothesized to be an...

Researchers examined whether ethnicity alters the risk for difficulty in the transition out the home among children of alcoholics (COAs). We tested this question in a community based, longitudinal sample of 705 COAs and matched with non-COA controls as well as their parents. Latino COAs were less likely to leave home than were Euro-American COAs. E...

Socioeconomic stress has long been found to place youth at risk, with low family income conferring disadvantages in adolescents' school achievement and success. This study investigates the role of socioeconomic stress on academic adjustment, and pinpoints family obligation as a possible buffer of negative associations. We examined direct and intera...

Familism, a Latino value that promotes loyalty, cohesiveness, and obedience within the family, predicts improved outcomes for Latino adolescents. However, few studies have tested whether familism serves a protective role when adolescents are facing stress. We examined whether familism predicted psychosocial outcomes in the context of stress, and wh...

Depressive symptoms in Latino youth have been related to both culturally-universal and culturally-based stressors. However, few studies have examined the unique contributions of culturally-based stressors above and beyond other types of stressors. Moreover, no past studies with Latinos have examined the role of culturally-based stressors within a h...

Although immigrant adolescents typically have high hopes for their futures, educational and career outcomes often do not match aspirations. The future aspirations of 17 Latina/o adolescents in an emerging immigrant community were explored. Qualitative interviews were conducted and analyzed using consensual qualitative research methodology (CQR). In...

Emerging immigrant communities differ from established communities in terms of needs and available resources. Students in these emerging communities may still be acculturating to new contexts and establishing their ethnic identities, which may impact their ability to engage in planning for the future. The current study examines what impact these cu...

Parents are gatekeepers for their children’s mental-health treatment, yet many are unclear about what behaviors warrant intervention. Seeking treatment is further complicated for immigrant parents whose cultural backgrounds may influence their understanding of mental health. This analysis uses qualitative data from [MASKED], which is a representati...

Despite evidence of ethnic differences in substance use patterns among adolescents in community samples, clinical studies have not found ethnic differences in posttreatment outcomes. Prior clinical studies have been limited by small samples, focus on broad treatment modalities, and lack of consideration of important covariates. We investigated ethn...

Research emanating from the field of developmental science indicates that initial risk factors for alcohol use and disorder can be evident in early childhood. One dominant developmental pathway connecting these initial risk factors with subsequent alcohol involvement focuses on the central role of disinhibited or externalizing behaviors. In the cur...

Research on the academic adjustment of immigrant adolescents has been predominately conducted in large cities among established migration areas. To broaden the field's restricted focus, data from 172 (58% female) Asian American adolescents who reside within a non-traditional or emerging immigrant community in the Southeastern US were used to examin...