Mayra Bamaca

• Ph.D. Human Development & Family Sudies
• Professor (Associate) at University of California, Merced

Delve into the ideal resource for theory and research on parental monitoring and adolescents' disclosure and concealment from parents. This handbook presents ground-breaking research exploring how adolescents respond to parents' attempts to control and manage their activities and feelings. The chapters highlight how adolescents' responses are as im...

Stressors experienced across multiple domains (e.g., family and peers) may contribute to alcohol use trajectories; however, little is known about the longitudinal links between stressors and alcohol use among Latinx youth. Guided by prior work on stressors and alcohol use, the present study used longitudinal data to examine whether Mexican-origin a...

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...

Scientists have, for some time, recognized that development unfolds in numerous settings, including families, schools, neighborhoods, and organized and unorganized activity settings. Since the turn of the 20th century, the body of mainstream neighborhood effects scholarship draws heavily from the early 20th century Chicago School of Sociology frame...

The current study examines the role of ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) and maternal autonomy granting in predicting ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, resolution, and affirmation trajectories in a sample of Mexican-origin girls (N = 338) in early and middle adolescence at Wave 1. Latent growth curve analyses showed significant growth in ER...

Background: Children who experience maltreatment are at heightened risk for substance use initiation and mental health disorders later in life. Few studies have assessed the relationship between child maltreatment and substance use among Latinx youth. Objective: The current study assessed the potential mediating effect of three aspects of self-r...

Children who experience maltreatment are at heightened risk for substance use initiation and disorders later in life. Few studies have assessed the relationship between child maltreatment and substance use among Latinx youth. The current study used structural equation modeling to determine whether child maltreatment predicted substance use in a lon...

In this 14‐day study, we tested whether Latinx adolescents’ (Mage = 12.76 years, 52% female; 52% U.S. born; N = 21) and parents’ (95% female; 24% U.S. born) daily discrimination experiences were associated with their own and other’s daily affective states. Results indicated that on days when adolescents reported discrimination, they reported higher...

Recent critiques suggest family science is operating on a narrow definition of family that privileges US/western‐centric perspectives and White, heteronormative, and nuclear families. Understanding that self‐assessment is key to scientific growth, this study systematically assessed the publication patterns of the top six family science journals acr...

Girls of Latino background report a high prevalence of depressive symptoms, and discrimination is a risk factor associated with how one feels (e.g., depressed) and identifies with one’s ethnic-racial group (e.g., feelings about being Latina). Given the salience of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) formation during adolescence, especially for girls, the...

The current study examined how ethnic‐racial socialization (i.e., ERS; cultural socialization, preparation for bias) is shaped by neighborhood characteristics and parents’ perceived discrimination, as well as how ERS shapes youth ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) among Latinx parent‐adolescent dyads (N = 69) living in a new destination area (i.e., not h...

Background Puerto Ricans and Mexican immigrants are often exposed to multiple types of adversity across their lifetime (e.g., maltreatment, household dysfunction, discrimination) and this exposure can increase the risk for adult mental health problems. Purpose The objective of this study was to (a) identify subgroups of individuals exposed to uniq...

Parental monitoring of youth daily activities is a salient parenting strategy that has important implications for adolescents’ adjustment and safety. Limited research, however, has examined positive contextual factors that can facilitate parental monitoring behaviors in Latinx families. We examined parental warmth and neighborhood social processes...

Background: Puerto Ricans and Mexican immigrants are often exposed to multiple types of adversity across their lifetime (e.g., maltreatment, household dysfunction, discrimination) and this exposure can increase the risk for adult mental health problems. Purpose: The objective of this study was to (a) identify subgroups of individuals exposed to uni...

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...

Doubled‐up Latinx youth experience many daily challenges associated with ethnic minority status and residential instability. Doubled‐up youth share housing with noncustodial caregivers such as friends and/or extended family members primarily because of economic hardship and a breakdown in available parental support. Using data from baseline and 10...

The contribution that parental educational expectations for youth and youth’s perceptions of academic competence can have on youth’s own educational expectations across early to late adolescence is not well-understood. In a sample of Mexican-origin families, the current study examined longitudinal (from early to late adolescence) associations among...

The intersection of a family's heritage culture and mainstream cultural norms results in person‐to‐person differences in values, beliefs, and behaviors, particularly among immigrant families. These differences often lead to divergent cultural views and patterns of behavior both within and between family members. According to the acculturation‐gap d...

Youth spend a significant amount of time in school surrounded by and interacting with teachers and peers. For doubled-up homeless youth (i.e., youth who share housing with a series of friends and/or extended family members), in-school relationships may be important for their emotional functioning. The current study captured dynamic processes by whi...

In adolescence, Mexican-origin females are at higher risk for depressive symptoms, peer and school stressors are associated with depressive symptoms, and parental support continues to show a protective nature. However, it is unclear how peer and school stressors are associated with depressive symptoms across time, whether parental support moderates...

The current study examined the trajectory of gender role attitudes of 471 Mexican-origin adolescents (236 girls, 235 boys) from 5th grade (Mage = 10.86 years) to 11th grade (Mage = 16.75 years), investigating how situating identities (i.e., gender, nativity, SES), ethnic identity (i.e., ethnic pride), and familial context (i.e., parents' attitudes)...

The intersection of SES and race-ethnicity impact youth development at the family and neighborhood levels. The confluence of neighborhood structural and social characteristics intersects to impact parenting multiple ways. Within lower-income neighborhoods, there is variability in economic and racial-ethnic demographics and social characteristics an...

This article addresses the historical divide between gender development researchers and developmental researchers working with immigrant populations, advocating for the benefits gained by bridging research approaches and interests. For gender researchers, the immigrant context allows for the examination of how children embedded in multiple cultures...

Guided by family resilience perspectives, we used self-report questionnaire data from 379 Latino male 9th and 10th graders in California and North Carolina. We examined how reports of mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviors and neighborhood quality were associated with (a) the probability of non-substance use among participants in the last 6 mont...

Using a sample of 279 (52% female) Latino youth in 9th grade (M = 14.57, SD = .56), we examined profiles of family cohesion and parenting practices and their relation to youth adjustment. The results of latent profile analyses revealed four family profiles: Engaged, Supportive, Intrusive, and Disengaged. Latino youth in the Supportive family profil...

Poster presented at SRA about sources of support and how these influence youth's intrinsic motivation and academic competence/

Using a family systems framework, to examine how parental and youth behaviors are potentially reciprocal behaviors.

The current study identified alcohol and cannabis use trajectories among a sample of Mexican-origin youth and examined cultural and familial correlates from childhood to adolescence. Mexican-origin youth (N = 674) from Northern California were assessed annually from ages 10 to 17 (8 waves). Latent class growth modeling examined variability in devel...

Parental involvement in education is an important determinant of youth's academic success. Yet, there is limited knowledge on how Latino parents' education-related involvement changes over time. Using data from a longitudinal study of 674 Mexican-origin families (mother-adolescent dyad; M age of child at Wave 1=10.4, SD = 0.60), we examined traject...

Gender roles are explicitly rooted in cultural traditions, but limited research has examined the link between gender development and cultural variables (Suarez-Orozco & Qin, 2006). Adolescence is an important period of gender intensification due to rapid cognitive and biological changes and a growing importance of out-of-home contexts (Blakemore, B...

We examined the direct and indirect associations of perceived support (from mother, father, and friends) with self-esteem and depressive symptoms in an ethnic homogeneous sample of Mexican-origin adolescent girls living in the United States (N = 127, 14 to 19 years of age, 68% U.S.-born). Path analyses with structural equation modeling revealed tha...

Much of the cultural processes research has used single-domain measures of and approaches to cultural orientation, acculturation, and ethnic identity. The current study examined the latent cultural profiles that emerged from the intrapersonal (i.e., ethnic identity and generational status), interpersonal (i.e., language use), and familial (i.e., fa...

Familismo, or familism, an important Latino cultural construct associated with youth adjustment, describes the importance of family regarding support, comfort, and services. Increased research on familism among Latino families in the past decade has called for a theoretical process model of familism that can guide research on familism, family proce...

Objectives: Research has indicated that ethnic identity protects ethnic minority youth on various indicators of adjustment, but there is a dearth of research pertaining to contextual influences on ethnic identity. Our study investigated how familial ethnic socialization and best friend’s orientation toward Mexican culture influenced ethnic identity...

We examined trajectories of ethnic identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation and their associations with depressive symptoms and self-esteem 3.5 years later among early and middle adolescent Mexican-origin girls (N = 338). Findings indicated that exploration, resolution, and affirmation increased over time for both cohorts. Among early adol...

We examined the direct and indirect associations of perceived support (from mother, father, and friends) with self-esteem and depressive symptoms in an ethnic homogeneous sample of Mexican-origin adolescent girls living in the United States (N = 127, 14 to 19 years of age, 68% U.S.-born). Path analyses with structural equation modeling revealed tha...

Read this article online at http://www.familyscienceassociation.org/familysciencereview/vol20/issue2%20 The literature on Latino families in the United States rarely has identified specific topics of parent–child conflict among families headed by parents who are immigrants or the children of immigrants. We used 16 focus groups and thematic analysis...

Adolescent sexuality research has expanded to include noncoital behaviors, but there is limited knowledge about individual factors such as cultural values associated with these sexual behaviors outside of industrialized nations. Thus, we examined associations between Latino values (familism, sexual guilt, and importance of female virginity) and thr...

Language brokering is a common practice for Latino youth with immigrant parents. Yet little is known about how youth’s feelings about this responsibility contribute to the parent-adolescent relationship. In this study, we examined the longitudinal associations between language brokering attitudes and parent-adolescent closeness in a sample of Latin...

Using data from a longitudinal study of Mexican-origin girls (ages 11-17 at Time 1), we examined sociocultural (i.e., family structure, nativity, and acculturation), interpersonal (i.e., supportive parenting and conflict), and developmental (i.e., menarche timing and autonomy expectations) predictors of sexual initiation. Using Cox proportional haz...

Previous research on college drinking has paid little attention to Latino students. Social development models (Catalano, Hawkins, & Miller, 1992) suggest that protective influences in one domain (e.g., mothers) can offset negative influences from other domains (e.g., peers) though this possibility has not been explored with respect to Latino colleg...

With the academic risk and resilience perspective, this study examined whether global, authority, and teacher discrimination were indirectly related to academic motivation through self-esteem and depressive symptoms (H1), determined whether supportive maternal and paternal parenting moderated such associations (H2), and considered developmental dif...

We examined the associations between Latino cultural variables and four sexual behaviors among female adolescents of Mexican origin. Participants ages 14 to 19 (N = 153; 70% born in the U.S) completed surveys about four sexual behaviors (making out, receiving and performing oral sex, and vaginal sex) and cultural variables (nativity, language use,...

This study examined differences in behavioral autonomy age expectations between Mexican-origin mothers and their adolescent daughters (N = 319 dyads); variability in behavioral autonomy age expectations as a function of nativity and maternal educational attainment also was examined. Findings indicated significant differences between mothers and dau...

The current study tested a developmental-contextual model of depressive symptomatology among Mexican-origin, female early and middle adolescents and their mothers. The final sample comprised 271 dyads. We examined the interrelations among cultural (i.e., acculturation dissonance), developmental (i.e., pubertal development and autonomy expectation d...

Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework, this study examined the roles of Latino adolescents’ reports of discrimination, neighborhood risk, parent-child conflict over culture, and parental support in relation to their self-esteem and depression. Analysis of self-report data from 383 ninth grade, Latino students from one Los Angeles high...

This study used a person-centered approach to examine patterns of adjustment along psychological (i.e., depression, self-esteem, anxiety) and academic (i.e., academic motivation) domains in a sample (N = 338) of Mexican-origin female adolescents. Four adjustment profiles were identified. A High Functioning (n = 173) group, which exhibited high posi...

The overall aim of the current study was to identify the methodological approach and corresponding analytic procedure that best elucidated the associations among Mexican-origin mother-daughter cultural orientation dissonance, family functioning, and adolescent adjustment. To do so, we employed, and compared, two methodological approaches (i.e., var...

Guided by the academic resilience perspective, the current longitudinal study examined whether academic motivation mediated the relation between Latino adolescents' (N = 221) experiences with discrimination and their academic success. The potential moderating role of gender was also examined. Using multiple group analysis in structural equation mod...

The current study utilized an ecological framework to examine the longitudinal interrelations among Latino adolescents’ (N = 323) cultural orientation (i.e., ethnic identity and enculturation), familial ethnic socialization experiences, and generational status. Findings indicated that ethnic identity and enculturation were both predicted by adolesc...

This study examined the factors associated with resistance to peer pressure toward antisocial behaviors among a sample of Mexican-origin adolescents (n=564) living in a large Southwestern city in the U.S. A model examining the influence of generational status, emotional autonomy from parents, and self-esteem on resistance to peer pressure was teste...

The current study examined the extent to which mothers, fathers, teachers, and teenage friends influenced Latino adolescents’ academic motivation. Using path analysis, separate models were tested for 154 Latino boys and 156 Latina girls. Findings indicated that mothers’ and teachers’ academic support were positively related to adolescent girls’ aca...

This article examines gender and family composition differences in 98 biethnic adolescents’ reports of familial ethnic socialization and ethnic identity. Using analysis of variance, four groups (i.e., adolescent males with Latina mothers and European American fathers, adolescent females with Latina mothers and European American fathers, adolescent...

We examined the relations among parenting behaviors, adolescents’ self-esteem, and neighborhood risk with a Midwestern sample of 324 Latino adolescents. The findings suggest that boys’ self-esteem is influenced by both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviors, whereas girls’ self-esteem is influenced by mothers’ behaviors only. In addition, the fi...

The study explored Colombian, Guatemalan, Mexican, and Puerto Rican mothers' experiences with the process of ethnic socialization. Using focus group methodology, we asked mothers (N = 90) about the ways that their adolescents learned about their ethnicity. Mothers in all groups discussed (a) strategies by which children were socialized about their...

This study explores the experiences of lower middle class Ladino and Indígena parents and caregivers of adolescents with severe physical disabilities as they negotiate Guatemala's urban health care and education systems. Interviews with parents and guardians regarding the diagnostic period, current functioning in several domains and resources were...

The psychological well-being and ethnic identity of biracial adolescents are largely underrepresented topics in current scholarly literature, despite the growing population of biracial and multiracial individuals in the United States. This study examined self-esteem, ethnic identity, and the relationship between these constructs among biracial and...

We explore the use of focus groups with Latino families. Based on our work with Colombian, Guatemalan, Mexican, and Puerto Rican mothers, we review the factors that make this methodology particularly useful for working with these families. In addition, we provide a number of strategies for making the use of focus groups with Latino populations succ...

Two studies were conducted to develop and explore the psychometric properties of the newly developed Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS). Consistent with Erikson's and Tajfel's theoretical perspectives, the EIS assesses 3 domains of ethnic identity forma-tion: exploration, resolution, and affirmation. In both studies, participants (N = 846) completed measu...

This study examined whether Mexican-origin adolescents (N = 1,062) who varied by generational status in the United States would differ with regard to their resistance to peer pressure. After controlling for sex, results indicated that resistance to peer pres-sure varied significantly by generational status. Adolescents who reported no familial birt...

This study examines the relationship between gender, acculturation, parenting, and adolescents' academic outcomes in Mexican-origin immigrant families. Self-report survey data were collected from adolescents attending three high schools in Los Angeles. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted on the 273 adolescents (M = 15.5) who...

This study examines the relationship between gender, acculturation, parenting, and adolescents' academic outcomes in Mexican-origin immigrant families. Self-report survey data were collected from adolescents attending three high schools in Los Angeles. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted on the 273 adolescents (M = 15.5) who...