Gabriela L Stein

University of Texas at Austin | UT

To help their children survive and thrive in our unequal society, parents of color must engage in the process of ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) or teaching about race, ethnicity, and racism. Equally important to the provision of ERS messages are parents’ confidence, skills, and stress levels around delivering ERS (i.e., ERS competency). Currentl...

Social scientists frequently rely on a single item to assess a participant's race, but this common practice can be misleading by obscuring the number of Multiracial participants in one’s sample. The current study reports descriptive statistics data from a multi-site sample of 688 diverse Multiracial college students (Mage = 21, range = 18–57, 73.1%...

Language proficiencies have implications for how parents and children can communicate effectively and how culture and heritage can be transferred across generations. Previous research has sought to understand the relationship between parent language (mainstream, heritage) proficiencies and the ethnic‐racial orientation of their children, though pri...

Racially ethnically marginalized communities in the United States are exposed to structural and interpersonal forms of racism that have harmful effects on their health, wealth, education, and employment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Racism and Health . https://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/racism‐disparities/index.html , 2021). Although...

Cultural stressors related to racism, xenophobia, and navigating bicultural contexts can compromise the healthy development of Hispanic/Latinx/o (H/L) youth. Youth' coping can minimize the adverse impact of this stress. Less is known about the intermediary processes related to youths' cultural stressor experiences and coping responses. We analyzed...

Racial–ethnic discrimination leads to poorer academic and mental health outcomes for Latinx youth. Although there is a growing literature on the resilience processes that shield Latinx youth from the negative ramifications of these experiences, there is limited work that specifically considers the coping behaviors and processes that youth enact to...

Historically, research on racial socialization (RS) has centered on frequency, beliefs, and content of parent–child communications, with varied applications and implications across racial and ethnic subgroups. The Racial Socialization Competency Scale (RaSCS; Anderson et al., 2020) was developed to assess three dimensions of a novel construct, RS c...

Parents of color’s critical consciousness development (understanding of and actions to redress societal inequalities) is an important yet understudied area, especially relative to the burgeoning literature on youth’s critical consciousness development. As with youth of color, ethnic–racial identity, or the meaning and importance placed on one’s eth...

Objectives: This qualitative investigation examined how Latinx/Hispanic youth experience cultural stressors, emotionally react to, and cope with these stressors within the family context. Method: Forty-five youth participated in six focus groups (51% female; 49% male; 0% nonbinary; Mage = 15.26; SD = 0.79). Results: Using reflexive thematic analysi...

Adolescents from ethnoracially minoritized backgrounds increasingly report high rates of attempted suicide, trauma exposure, and limited access to mental healthcare services. However, less is known regarding their use of services across different youth‐serving systems. This study examines the associations and interactions between self‐injurious tho...

Familial racial‐ethnic socialization (RES) helps youth build tools of cultural resilience by providing messages regarding race and ethnicity that enable them to negotiate and survive the demands of a racialized society. Thus, RES is an important caregiving task for historically minoritized families, including Latine families in the United States. I...

Objectives: Research highlights the benefits of critical action on individual and community well-being; however, more needs to be understood about the ways ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) influences emerging adults’ participation in antiracism actions. Method: The present study examined patterns of parental ERS messages received by a sample of 66...

Objective: To examine how cultural stressors (ethnic–racial discrimination, immigration-related threat, and COVID-19 stress) influence critical reflection, motivation, and action among Latinx adolescents and whether parental preparation for bias moderates these relations. Method: One hundred thirty-five Latinx adolescents (Mage = 16, 59.3% female,...

Models of resilience in minoritized youth posit that youth need to draw upon multiple different cultural (e.g., identity, values, etc.) and general factors (e.g., coping) to thrive in the face of discrimination. Nonetheless, the integration of these factors in empirical scholarship is lacking, as scholars have typically focused on single factors wi...

Objectives: The current cross-sectional study examined whether parental cultural socialization, preparation for bias messages, and adolescents’ ethnic–racial identity (ERI) were associated with shift-and-persist coping strategy characterized by reappraising and accepting uncontrollable stressors (e.g., discrimination, poverty) while maintaining pur...

Shift‐&‐persist (S&P) coping has been shown to buffer against the effects of discrimination on psychosocial functioning in racially and ethnically minoritized youth. However, existing measures of S&P refer broadly to coping with stress and are not specifically tailored to the type of stressor individuals are coping with (e.g., discrimination). The...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the intersection of cultural processes and immigration in parental understanding of adolescent mental health and mental health seeking behaviors among African immigrants in Western countries. The present study examines the perspectives of Congolese immigrant parents on adolescent mental health in Brussels, Belgium...

Objectives. To examine whether referral for social determinants of health (SDH) needs decreases psychological distress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and improves level of functioning and quality of care among diverse adults. Methods. Data are from control participants (n = 503 adults) in a randomized controlled trial testing a m...

In the last decade, there has been a surge in research examining racial-ethnic socialization (RES) in Latinx families building upon a research base that has established Latinx culturally resilient processes. Our chapter brings together these lines of work and presents a model for understanding the protective processes of RES in Latinx families. We...

There is a dearth of knowledge in the coping literature on how minoritized youth cope with racism‐related stressors and the predictors of effective coping responses. This two‐wave study examined the direct and indirect effects of ethnic‐racial socialization on depressive and anxiety symptoms via proactive coping with discrimination in a community s...

The present study explores the ways Black/African American emerging adult college students (ages 18–20) and their caregivers engage in racial-ethnic socialization via mobile communication technologies, within the context of a minority-serving 4 year university in the Southeastern US. Qualitative integrative analysis of focus groups ( N = 12 Black/A...

Objectives: Ethnic–racial identity (ERI) has important implications for individual psychosocial functioning as well as familial processes. For example, parents’ ERI can shape children’s developmental contexts through ethnic–racial socialization (ERS). Yet, existing research has tended to focus on the content or frequency of socialization messages t...

Immigrants currently account for close to 14% of the United States’ population with one in four children growing up in an immigrant household. Yet, little is known about how immigrant parents and their adolescents dialogue about race and ethnicity within the evolving sociopolitical environment. Traditionally, the adolescents’ role in racial-ethnic...

Parent-child conversations about race-related issues serve a protective function for minoritized families and are needed to help children of color thrive in the United States (Hughes et al., Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 51, 2016 and 1). Despite the difficulties that parents experience in having such conversations to prepare youth to...

This paper used cross‐lagged panel models to test the longitudinal interplay between maternal cultural socialization, peer ethnic‐racial discrimination, and ethnic‐racial pride across 5th to 11th grade among Mexican American youth (N = 674, Mage = 10.86; 72% born in the United States; 50% girls; Wave 1 collected 2006–2008). Maternal cultural social...

La socialización cultural y la preparación para los mensajes prejuiciosos son las dos dimensiones más estudiadas de la socialización étnico-racial (ERS), aunque entre las muestras de latinos, la preparación para enfrentar los prejuicios se ha investigado significativamente menos (Ayón y otros, 2020). Si bien los estudios sugieren que la socializaci...

In this chapter, we address representational ethics in research on acculturation and enculturation. Informed by diverse fields of study (e.g., community psychology, sociology, anthropology, feminist studies, and developmental science), we first define and review scholarship on representational ethics, including the role of insider and outsider pers...

This chapter applies critical multiracial theory to advance the conceptualization and measurement of multiracial experiences and identity in developmental science. We aim to illustrate the complexity in how multiracials navigate, negotiate, and challenge (mono)racism and white supremacy in the United States. First, we investigate the historic exclu...

In this chapter, we situate the need for a book on the intersection of developmental and diversity science with an eye on methods, collaboration, and implications. We first provide an overview of the global demographic shifts in race and ethnicity and its accompanying impact on global perceptions. We then turn to considering how developmental scien...

In this chapter, we highlight four important overarching suggestions for scholars committed to a diverse developmental science. Although the recommendations are not exhaustive, we discuss thematically four pivotal considerations in the pursuit of an integrated diversity-focused developmental science. The first recommendation is to acknowledge power...

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...

Objective: This study investigated COVID-19 stressors and silver linings, familism values, familial resilience, and coping, and their relation to internalizing symptoms among Latinx youth. Method: A community sample of 135 Latinx adolescents completed online surveys 6-months apart (M age = 16, 59.3% female; majority U.S-born). Results: COVID-1...

Las obligaciones filiales se han asociado con promover resultados psicosociales positivos en los jóvenes latinos (Fuligni y otros, 1999), pero sus efectos promotores pueden atenuarse cuando los jóvenes perciben estas obligaciones como injustas (Kuperminc y otros, 2013). A pesar de su importante papel, se sabe poco sobre lo que contribuye a la injus...

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...

Background Parent–child racial‐ethnic socialization conversations are an important tool to cultivate a sense of pride and equip youth to deal with discrimination. However, conversations about preparation for racial bias can be particularly difficult for parents to deliver effectively. Little research has been done that illuminates the types of chal...

Sexual minority (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual) people are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors compared to their heterosexual peers. The interpersonal theory of suicide proposes that perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness are central to the desire to die, and both are associated with suicidal ideation in sexual minorit...

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...

Indian Americans are an under researched population within the racial-ethnic socialization (RES) literature, and very little is known about how Indian American immigrant families navigate these conversations. To fill this gap in the literature, the present study explored parent and youth perspectives of RES processes in Indian American families. A...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought health and social disparities to the fore, and intensified bias and racism in the U.S. and globally. In the context of discriminatory rhetoric and anti-Asian sentiments voiced by prominent political figures, Asian Americans have been disproportionately targeted with injustice, scapegoating, an...

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–racia...

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...

Pocos estudios han examinado los procesos de identidad nacional en las madres inmigrantes Latinas y sus hijos. Este estudio utiliza un análisis centrado en el individuo APPROACH para examinar cómo se relacionan los perfiles de identidad estadounidense y étnico-racial (Latinxs) con los valores culturales, la orientación grupal y las prácticas de soc...

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. Meth...

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 sympt...

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 discrimination...

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 importa...

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...

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...

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...

La activación del paciente ha emergido recientemente como un componente vital en la asistencia médica efectiva (Hibbard & Greene, 2013), pero las poblaciones Latinas suelen demostrar niveles más bajos de activación en comparación con poblaciones blancas no-Latinas (Cunningham, Hibbard, & Gibbons, 2011). Este estudio examinó factores demográficos y...

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 buffe...

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 (avera...