Su Yeong Kim

• Human Development (Ph.D.)
• Professor at University of Texas at Austin

Los Roles Tradicionales del Género Femenino (TFGRs, por sus siglas en inglés) pueden ser predictores (indicadores) socioculturales importantes del consumo de bebidas alcohólicas entre las latinas en Estados Unidos; sin embargo, examinar el rol explicativo de los motivos del consumo de bebidas alcohólicas mejorará el entendimiento actual de la conex...

Mothers and adolescent children in Mexican immigrant families may encounter various sociocultural stressors, which may spill over into family interactions and impede each other’s internalizing symptoms based on the Family Systems Theory. Empirical evidence is needed to identify the sensitive developmental age when mothers and adolescents are most v...

Extensive research on the Family Stress Model demonstrated the negative indirect impacts of parental cultural stress on adolescents’ mental health via disrupted parenting. However, limited attention has been paid to testing how adolescents’ cultural stress could affect parents’ mental health through adolescent-reported parenting. According to Famil...

Mexican-origin youth, a substantial and expanding demographic among U.S. youth, were disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Understanding the factors shaping their COVID-19 vaccine beliefs is crucial for informing future pandemic preparedness and vaccination promotion efforts targeting this vulnerable population. While previous research has estab...

Parenting is often conceptualized as a mutual experience between parent and child, embedded within cultural contexts. Yet, existing literature is predominantly dominated by Western perspectives, leaving it unclear whether Western frameworks apply to Asian families and whether there are unique manifestations of parenting in Asian context. Given the...

Mexican-origin populations tend to reside in disadvantaged neighborhoods, increasing adolescents’ vulnerability to internalizing symptoms. While prior research highlights neighborhood disadvantage’s impact on adolescents, few studies explore its effects on both perceived parenting (maternal and paternal) and internalizing symptoms and the underlyin...

Gender-specific norms are learned, which can influence social norms, attitudes, and behaviors in specific situations. For example, men who conform to certain masculine norms/ideals may express their masculinity by drinking alcohol. Recent research examining the association between endorsement of alcohol-specific masculine norms and men’s risk for h...

Racial–ethnic discrimination is a prevalent stressor for Mexican-origin individuals that potentiates health inequities in depressive symptoms. However, existing research has primarily focused on individual-level associations between discrimination and depressive symptoms, neglecting the interdependent nature within family systems. Little is known a...

More than 20% of US youth are immigrants or the children of immigrants, and Mexicans represent the largest immigrant group. In an increasingly pluralistic society, research is needed to elucidate how risk and protective/promotive factors in immigrants' life contexts are associated with their acculturation. Within the Integrative Risk and Resilience...

Chinese American youth as a group are often labeled as “model minorities.” Yet, this label ignores the vast heterogeneity within Chinese Americans and implies that they are immune to environmental stressors. Using an 8-year longitudinal study of 444 (54% female; initial Mage = 13-year-old) Chinese American adolescents, we identified two (well- vs....

Social anxiety symptoms may increase risk for heavy drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences during pregaming (drinking before a social event); efforts to identify malleable psychosocial risk factors are needed. This study examined cross-sectional relationships between social anxiety symptoms, pregaming behaviors, negative alcohol-related...

The goal of the current study is to examine the moderating role of public and altruistic prosocial behaviors on the associations between motivation/beliefs and alcohol use among college students. Data were collected as part of the Acculturation and Substance Use Research Team (ASURT) Study, and participants include 8040 college student drinkers (Ma...

Mexican-origin youth, as a large and growing population among U.S. youth, have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Understanding what, when, and how sociocultural factors may influence their COVID-19 vaccine uptake could inform current and future pandemic-response interventions promoting vaccination behaviors among Mexican-origin youth. T...

This study used a three‐wave longitudinal dataset to: identify adjustment profiles of U.S. Mexican‐origin adolescents based on their physical, academic, and psychosocial health adjustment; track adjustment profile changes throughout adolescence; and examine the associations between cultural stressors, family obligation, and adjustment profile membe...

Co-ethnic or ethnically-racially diverse neighborhoods can serve as safe and supportive places for U.S. immigrant families to explore and develop clarity about their ethnic identity. Although parents undergo concurrent changes in the adaptation process with their children, existing research has predominantly focused on adolescents, with fewer exami...

Parental experiences of discrimination can impact ethnic minority adolescents’ developmental outcomes. To explicate this link, this study reviewed 30 articles in which the research sample includes target adolescents in the age range of 10 to 18, examining the effect of parental discriminatory experiences on adolescent adjustment and how family fact...

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected ethnic minority populations and exacerbated preexisting health disparities. The current study aims to promote vaccine uptake among Mexican-origin youth from immigrant families by examining their time to COVID-19 vaccine uptake and assessing the influence of demographic, cognitive, and social factors...

This study adopts a cultural ecological perspective to examine how cumulative effects of external transcultural and cultural strengths are related to baseline and changes in three markers of Mexican-origin adolescents’ self-growth (i.e., resilience, life meaning, and discipline). Using a three-wave longitudinal data set (5 years) of 604 adolescents...

Aim Participating in a drinking game (DG) is common practice among university students and can increase students’ risk for heavy drinking. Given the theoretical link between motivations to drink and alcohol use, careful consideration should be given to students’ motivations to play DGs. In this study, we examined the factor structure, internal cons...

Undergraduates with higher levels of social anxiety may be motivated to participate in high-risk drinking events (e.g., playing drinking games [DG]) as a way to “fit in” or facilitate socialization with peers), putting them at an elevated risk of experiencing alcohol-related negative consequences (e.g., blacking out). The present study sought to te...

This study examines social‐cultural contributors and developmental outcomes of language brokers. From 2012 to 2020, three waves of data were collected from 604 Mexican‐origin adolescent language brokers (Mage = 12.92, SD = 0.92, 54% girls). The study (1) identified four distinct subgroups of language brokers (efficacious, conservative, nonchalant,...

Objective: Among college students, student-athletes are at increased risk for heavy alcohol consumption, participation in risky drinking practices (e.g., playing drinking games [DG]), and adverse alcohol-related consequences relative to non-student-athletes. Within the student-athlete population, level of sports participation (e.g., recreational o...

Using 10‐day daily diary data collected in 2019 from 10th grade students in southern U.S. (N = 161, 57% Latina/x/o, 21% Biracial, 10% Asian, 9% White, 4% Black; 55% female, Mage = 15.51), this study examined various forms of peer‐based discrimination in adolescents’ everyday lives. Results showed that personally experienced discrimination, peer rac...

Adolescence is a challenging and sensitive developmental period in which mothers and adolescents may be vulnerable to internalizing symptoms. The current study aimed to understand how patterns of changes in mother–adolescent perceived parenting (i.e., mother–adolescent perceived parenting transition profiles) corresponded with trajectories of mothe...

Using 3 waves of longitudinal data from 444 Chinese American adolescents (Mage = 13.04 at Wave 1, 54% identified as women), the current study explored if there was variation in discrimination trajectories from early to late adolescence and whether contextual and individual factors predicted trajectories as well as if trajectories were associated wi...

Discrimination experiences are a salient contributor to the health disparities facing Latina/x/o youth. The biopsychosocial model of minority health posits that discrimination influences health through wear and tear on the biological stress responses, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is a primary stress response system...

While different patterns of perceived parenting discrepancy among mother-adolescent dyads have been shown to be associated with adolescent internalizing symptoms, little is known about the pathway underlying such associations, particularly among immigrant families. The current study considered one culturally salient form of mother-adolescent commun...

The current study investigated adolescents’ experiences of COVID-19 anti-Chinese discrimination (i.e., vicariously witnessed, directly experienced), the consequences for mental health, and the moderating role of general pandemic stress. During Summer 2020, 106 adolescents (43% Latino/a/x, 19% Asian American, 13% Black/African American, 26% biracial...

Background: Pregaming, or drinking before going out, is a commonly practiced risky behavior. Drinking motives are well-established predictors of alcohol use and negative alcohol consequences. Given the influence of context on drinking practices, motives specific to pregaming may affect pregaming behaviors and outcomes above and beyond general drin...

Neighborhood disadvantage is defined as the lack of economic and social resources in a neighborhood that negatively affects residents’ health outcomes. Neighborhood disadvantage plays a crucial role in adolescent development, especially in terms of internalizing problems. Research has shown that a higher level of neighborhood disadvantage is direct...

Objectives: Cognitive control predicts functional independence and cognitive health outcomes, but it is yet to be known the extent to which social stress, like discrimination, may diminish cognitive control capacities in Mexican-origin women. We evaluated the prospective associations between everyday and ethnic discrimination on cognitive control,...

Introduction: Acculturation and enculturation have been conceptualized, respectively, as risk and protective factors for cigarette use. Although acculturation/enculturation orientations are often studied as stable characteristics, they represent a dynamic process influenced by individuals’ social environments and can fluctuate across time. Therefor...

Diversity, equity, and inclusion sciences were invigorated by Plaut’s (2010) landmark publication “Diversity science: Why and how difference makes a difference.” As this field has expanded over the last decade, it is timely to reflect on its current state and future directions. The goal of this special issue is to bring together a collection of art...

Being the largest immigrant group in the U.S., the process of exploring, forming, and retaining ethnic identity is a critical component to Mexican immigrants’ successful adaptation and wellbeing. Despite recognizing the dynamic nature of ethnic identity development, extant research has predominantly focused on adolescence, overlooking the developme...

Mexican-origin adults comprise over 60% of the Latino population in the U.S., and are at greater risk for cognitive impairment compared to non-Latino Whites. Older Mexican-origin women are also disproportionally affected by cognitive impairment compared to their non-Latino White counterparts. Identifying early-life precursors for reduced cognitive...

Objective People of color and lower socioeconomic status groups in the USA, including those of Mexican origin, are exposed to higher concentrations of air pollution, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Associations were examined between neighborhood air pollution levels and the psychosocial and demographic characteristics of linguistically i...

Mothers and adolescents often perceive parenting differently, but it is unclear how different profiles of mother-adolescent perceived parenting and developmental transitions of such profiles would influence adolescent academic performance longitudinally. The current study adopted a three-wave dataset of 604 Mexican-origin adolescents (54% female; M...

Previous studies have linked parent-child cultural adaptation mismatches with adolescents’ maladjustment without addressing how intergenerational mis/matches are related to positive aspects of adolescent development and parental outcomes. Using data from 604 Mexican-origin families (adolescent sample:54%female, M age =12.41, range=11to15), response...

Although Mexican-origin youth with first-generation immigrant parents are relatively good at retaining their heritage language of Spanish, limited research has been conducted on their Spanish language development during adolescence. From three-wave longitudinal data across six years (Nwave1 = 604, Mage.wave1 = 12.91, 54% female), distinct groups of...

Objective The current study investigated the relation of various cultural stressors, parent–child alienation, and Mexican‐origin adolescents' internalizing symptoms at both between‐ and within‐person levels across the course of adolescence. Background Positive parent–child relationships can be a critical buffer against cultural stressors for Mexic...

Despite being portrayed as model minorities, Chinese American adolescents still face challenges of discrimination. Using data from 444 Chinese American adolescents (Mage = 13.04, 54% female), this study examined the independent and joint influence of individual cultural characteristics (adolescents’ acculturation and enculturation) and contextual f...

This study examined the associations of language brokering stress intensity and exposure with Mexican‐origin youths’ cortisol responses when brokering for fathers and mothers, and the moderating role of youths’ brokering efficacy in these relations. Participants were 289 adolescents (Mage = 17.38, SD = .94, 52% girls) in immigrant families. When br...

Language brokering is a shared parent-child experience with implications for parent-child relationships and, in turn, individuals’ psychological well-being; however, few studies recognize the role of parents. This study took a dyadic approach to investigate the association between brokering experiences and internalizing symptoms, and the mediating...

The paper describes an approach to developing a data-driven development of a feedback theory of cognitive vulnerabilities and family support focused on understanding the dynamics experienced among Latina children, adolescents, and families. Family support is understood to be a response to avoidant and maladaptive behaviors that may be characteristi...

A growing body of research is documenting how racial and ethnic populations embody social inequalities throughout the life course. Some scholars recommend the integration of biospecimens representing the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, neurological and endocrinological processes, and inflammation to capture the embodiment of inequality. Howeve...

Identity research on adolescents from immigrant families focuses primarily on ethnic identities, yet other forms of social identities have been neglected in the literature. Specifically, the adoption of different roles can vary one’s self-concept and manifest in the construction of distinct role-based identities. We examine how parental ethnic iden...

Mexican‐origin children from immigrant families are impacted by various systemic oppressions in life. The study seeks to examine how adolescents’ developmental outcomes are associated with specific phenotypic, psychological, and social features of skin color, as manifested by skin tone, skin color satisfaction, and foreigner stress. By taking a hol...

Parents and adolescents often have different views regarding parental racial socialization practices; however, studies documenting such discrepancies remain scarce. Using a person-centered approach, this study investigated patterns of parent-adolescent discrepant views on racial socialization (i.e., cultural socialization, bias coping, bias awarene...

The intergenerational transmission of executive function may be enhanced or interrupted by culturally salient environmental stressors that shape the practice of executive function in the family. Building upon past research, the current study tests whether culturally relevant stressors such as economic stress and foreigner stress have a direct effec...

Although Mexican-origin adolescents experience multiple contextual stressors (e.g., discrimination, economic stress, and foreigner stress) that may result in increased marijuana use, they actively engage in cultural practices (e.g., language brokering) that may protect them from adverse developmental outcomes. Yet, the joint influence of contextual...

Objective and background Previous research suggests that cultural adaptation is associated with Mexican‐origin couples' marital outcomes, including marital distress and rates of dissolution. However, research on the marital implications of different types of spousal differences in cultural adaptation often omits important dyadic dynamics (i.e., inc...

Using a three-wave longitudinal data set of Mexican-origin adolescents (N = 602, Mage = 12.92, SD = 0.91 at Wave 1), this study examines parallel pathways from early exposure to ethnic discrimination and drug-using peers, separately, to underage drinking status by late adolescence. Negative affect was expected to mediate the link from ethnic discri...

The current study investigates how and under what conditions family obligation benefits Mexican American adolescents’ adjustment. The study used two waves of data from 604 Mexican American adolescents (54.3% female, Mage.wave1 = 12.41 years, SD = 0.97) and their parents. Structural equation modeling revealed that both adolescents’ and parents’ sens...

Prior studies investigating the association between acculturation and adolescent adjustment have often focused on specific acculturation domains rather than examining these domains collectively in a profile typology. Here, we investigate stability and change patterns in Mexican American adolescent acculturation profiles over time, using a two‐wave...

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions Language brokering (LB) is an informal translation experience where bilinguals serve as linguistic and cultural intermediaries for family members. LB may have long-term socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes, yet little is known about its effects on executive functions (EFs). This study examines how fi...

Prior research has identified perceived discrimination as being a contributing factor in health and mental health disparities. However, there is little research on the relationship between perceived discrimination and behaviors such as hazardous alcohol and illicit substance use and risky sexual behaviors that put people at risk for negative health...

We advance a tripartite framework of language use to encompass language skills, the practice of language skills, and the subjective experiences associated with language use among Mexican-origin adolescents who function as language brokers by translating and interpreting for their English-limited parents. Using data collected over 2 waves from a sam...

Introduction Discrimination is detrimental for the development of ethnic minority adolescents' academic competence. To combat the negative effects of discrimination and promote academic success, it is important to understand the mechanisms underlying the association between discrimination and academic competence. Guided by the integrative model of...

Language brokering is a special form of interpersonal communication that is affected by the cultural and relational settings in which it occurs. The current study explores whether parent–adolescent acculturation status may influence Mexican American adolescent language brokers’ translation experiences, including brokering frequency and attitudes. U...

Despite chronic exposure to social stressors that are known to undermine health, the Latinx population within the USA is healthier than the non-Latinx White population on most indicators of mental health. However, Latinx children and youth who were born and/or raised in the USA amid a culture of anti-immigrant sentiment, racial/ethnic discriminatio...

Acculturation influences parenting behaviors, the ways cultural values are expressed, the adaptations parents make in response to their host culture environments, and the ways in which they transmit their heritage culture while socializing their children to function in the host culture. Varying levels of acculturation among family members in immigr...

Parents and adolescents often provide discordant reports on parenting. Prior studies are inconsistent regarding the extent, predictors, and consequences of such discordance. The current study aimed to robustly estimate the extent, potential moderators, and consequences of discordance between parent- and adolescent-reported parenting by (a) meta-ana...

This study focused on early adolescents' stress of language brokering and examined the moderating role of family cumulative risk in the relation of language brokering to adjustment problems. Data came from self-reports of 604 low-income Mexican American adolescent language brokers (54% female; X ¯ age = 12.4 ; SD = 0.97; 75% born in the United...

Language brokering is a prevalent phenomenon in ethnic minority immigrant populations. Although accruing evidence points to the beneficial impacts of healthy role identity development, research investigating the formation of a language broker role identity in language brokering adolescents is lacking in the literature. In a sample of 604 Latinx ado...

Research suggests fathers are important to adolescent well-being, yet there is limited information regarding how fathering is associated with adolescent risk and resilience in Mexican American families. This cross-sectional study utilized a structural equation model to examine whether parent–child alienation mediated the relations between parental...

Despite growing research on youth language brokering in immigrant families, evidence regarding its developmental outcomes remains mixed. This study took a person-centered approach, exploring subgroups of language brokers and identifying predictors and long-term outcomes of the subgroup membership. Participants were Chinese American adolescents (N =...

Objectives: Recognizing that immigrant parents socialize their children in specific ways, the current study examines Mexican-origin families’ parental socialization profiles using both parental cultural socialization and general parenting dimensions. We seek to understand how these dimensions interact to form culturally grounded parental socializat...

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, i...

Objectives: Though previous research has indicated that language brokering can be stressful, the findings are mixed, pointing to potential moderators of the association. Guided by an ecological perspective, we examined the role of individual, family, and environmental factors in Mexican American adolescents’ acute cortisol responses to language bro...

Drinking motives have been theorized as “the final common pathway” to alcohol use, and have been found to be associated with certain drinking patterns and related outcomes. Given the importance of the context in which people drink, researchers have also begun to pay close attention to motives that are specific to participation in a drinking game. T...

Children of immigrants represent one in four children in the United States and will represent one in three children by 2050. Children of Asian and Latino immigrants together represent the majority of children of immigrants in the United States. Children of immigrants may be immigrants themselves, or they may have been born in the United States to f...

Studies of Asian American parenting have primarily focused on first generation immigrant parents. Few studies have examined the experiences of second generation Asian American adults who are now having children of their own. The purpose of this qualitative study, then, is to better understand the values, practices, and concerns of second generation...

Parents and adolescents often have discrepant views of parenting which pose challenges for researchers regarding how to deal with information from multiple informants. Although recent studies indicate that parent–adolescent discrepancies in reports of parenting can be useful in predicting adolescent outcomes, their findings are mixed regarding whet...

This study examined how parental cultural orientations and family process are related among Korean immigrant parents (272 mothers and 164 fathers, N = 436) and how the relationship varies across fathers and mothers. Multiple scales were used to assess bilinear and multidimensional cultural orientation toward both the culture of origin and mainstrea...

The purpose of this study was to examine time-varying associations of parent-adolescent cultural conflict with depressive symptoms and grade point average (GPA) among Chinese Americans from ages 11-22. We pooled two independently collected longitudinal datasets (N = 760 at Wave 1) and used time-varying effect modeling (TVEM) to show that the freque...

Objective: To examine ethnic identity and ethnic socialization as potential protective factors for risk behaviors among U.S. college students. Participants: Participants were 398 African American and Afro-Caribbean students recruited from 30 colleges and universities September 2008 - October 2009. Methods: Data on hazardous alcohol use, substa...

The current study examines the longitudinal indirect pathways linking language acculturation to marital quality. Three waves of data were collected from 416 Chinese American couples over eight years (Mage.wave1 = 48 for husbands, 44 for wives). Actor-partner interdependence model analyses revealed that for both husbands and wives, lower levels of l...

Chinese American parents have a reputation for being “tiger” parents, and Chinese American adolescents are widely viewed as “model” minorities. However, these stereotypes fail to capture the within-group variation among Chinese Americans. This chapter aims to present findings on Chinese Americans’ parenting profiles and adolescent adjustment profil...

Researchers have demonstrated mixed associations between acculturative stress and prosocial behaviors (actions intended to benefit others) among Latino/a adolescents and emerging adults. The current study aimed to examine the relations between acculturative stress and Latino/a young adults’ prosocial behaviors via familism values and emotion reappr...

The current study aimed to untangle the mixed effects of language brokering by examining a contextual factor (i.e., parent-child alienation) and a personal attribute (i.e., resilience) that may relate to adolescents’ feelings during translating (i.e., sense of burden and efficacy) and that may moderate the association between such feelings and adol...

Objective: We examined whether two key emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, moderated the relations between discrimination (i.e., foreigner objectification and general denigration) and adjustment. Methods: Participants were U.S. Latino/a and Asian-heritage college students (N = 1,279, 67% female, 72% U...

Objective: This research examined the magnitude of personality differences across different colleges and universities to understand (1) how much students at different colleges vary from one another and (2) whether there are site level variables that can explain observed differences.Method: Nearly 8,600 students at 30 colleges and universities compl...

Parental discriminatory experiences can have significant implications for adolescent adjustment. This study examined family processes linking parental perceived discrimination to adolescent depressive symptoms and delinquent behaviors by using the family stress model and incorporating family systems theory. Participants were 444 Chinese American ad...

Jewish Americans may grapple with issues of ethnic identity differently than the larger White American group. Drawn from a large multisite sample (N = 8,501), 280 Jewish American (207 female, 73 male) emerging adults were compared with White American and ethnic minority samples on ethnic and U.S. identity. Jewish Americans rated themselves as signi...