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Familism in Action in an Emerging Immigrant Community: An Examination of Indirect Effects in Early Adolescence

Authors:
Gabriela L Stein at University of Texas at Austin
Gabriela L Stein
Yesenia Mejia Gallardo at University of California, San Diego
Yesenia Mejia Gallardo
Laura M Gonzalez at University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Laura M Gonzalez
Lisa Kiang at Wake Forest University
Lisa Kiang
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Abstract

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 175 primarily second-generation Latinx youth in such a community, we tested whether familism values were indirectly associated with adolescent outcomes through positive parent-child relationships, private racial/ethnic regard, meaning in life, and support seeking coping. Familism values were associated with greater academic motivation. Additionally, there were significant indirect effects in terms of positive parent-child relationships explaining the links between familism and fewer parent-reported externalizing symptoms, and for meaning in life explaining the links between familism and fewer depressive symptoms and greater academic motivation. Familism was also associated with greater support seeking coping, but this was associated with greater depressive symptoms. Our study suggests that in an emerging immigrant community familism values are primarily associated with positive adaptation through distinct mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Familism in Action in an Emerging Immigrant Community:
An Examination of Indirect Effects in Early Adolescence
Gabriela Livas Stein, Yesenia Mejia,
and Laura M. Gonzalez
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Lisa Kiang
Wake Forest University
Andrew J. Supple
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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 175 primarily second-generation Latinx youth in such a
community, we tested whether familism values were indirectly associated with adolescent outcomes
through positive parent–child relationships, private racial/ethnic regard, meaning in life, and support
seeking coping. Familism values were associated with greater academic motivation. Additionally, there
were significant indirect effects in terms of positive parent–child relationships explaining the links
between familism and fewer parent-reported externalizing symptoms, and for meaning in life explaining
the links between familism and fewer depressive symptoms and greater academic motivation. Familism
was also associated with greater support seeking coping, but this was associated with greater depressive
symptoms. Our study suggests that in an emerging immigrant community familism values are primarily
associated with positive adaptation through distinct mechanisms.
Keywords: familism, immigrant, Latinx
Latinx populations constitute one of the fastest growing ethnic
groups in the United States, especially in nontraditional receiving
areas like the Southeast (Pew Research Center, 2018). In these
settings, Latinx youth confront multiple risks, such as discrimina-
tion, acculturative stress, poverty, and lack of ethnic enclaves
(Stein, Gonzales, García Coll, & Prandoni, 2016). In spite of these
risks, Latinx youth consistently demonstrate positive social and
academic adaptation, usually explained in the literature as the
partial result of the promotive effects of familial cultural values
(Hernández & Bámaca-Colbert, 2016). Familism values serve to
guide parent–child and familial relations in Latinx families by
dictating norms on how family members should behave and inter-
act with one another (Sabogal, Marin, Otero-Sabogal, Marin, &
Perez-Stable, 1987). Conceptually, these values include norms
about (a) familial obligations (e.g., helping around the house;
caretaking siblings), (b) familial support and interconnectedness
(e.g., providing emotional support), (c) family serving as behav-
ioral referents (i.e., individual behavior reflecting on family), and
(d) respecting family members (e.g., obedience; Stein et al., 2014).
However, few studies have explored the specific mechanisms
through which familial cultural values promote adaptation and
resilience in Latinx youths, especially in emerging immigrant
communities. Building on past theoretical work explicating the
mechanisms of familial cultural values (Hernández & Bámaca-
Colbert, 2016), the current study tested potential indirect effects
in the relation between familism values and depressive symp-
toms, externalizing symptoms, and academic motivation in Latinx
early adolescents. These outcomes were selected because of the
risk faced by Latinx youth where they confront both educational
and mental health disparities in early adolescence relative to
their non-Latinx white peers (e.g., McLaughlin, Hilt, & Nolen-
Hoeksema, 2007;Musu-Gillette et al., 2017). We focused on
mechanisms of familism values to adolescent outcomes that
have been identified in the literature, like the parent–child
relationship (Hernández & Bámaca-Colbert, 2016), but also
examined mechanisms that have received relatively little re-
search attention (i.e., meaning in life, coping, ethnic identity).
Editor’s Note. Deborah Rivas-Drake served as the action editor for this
article.—EFD
Gabriela Livas Stein and Yesenia Mejia, Department of Psychology,
University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Laura M. Gonzalez, School of
Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Lisa Kiang, De-
partment of Psychology, Wake Forest University; Andrew J. Supple,
Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at
Greensboro.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gabriela
Livas Stein, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at
Greensboro, 296 Eberhart Building, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170. E-mail:
glstein@uncg.edu
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
Developmental Psychology
© 2020 American Psychological Association 2020, Vol. 56, No. 8, 1475–1483
ISSN: 0012-1649 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000791
1475
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