Valerie V. Salcido’s research while affiliated with University of North Carolina at Greensboro and other places

El presente estudio examinó los recursos culturales en las familias latinas (es decir, valores, apoyo, afrontamiento de problemas) que pudieran haber contribuido a la capacidad de recuperación (resiliencia) familiar durante los primeros años de la pandemia por COVID-19. Los datos de la encuesta se recopilaron desde octubre de 2020 hasta septiembre de 2021 y luego seis meses después utilizando una muestra comunitaria de 135 adolescentes latinos (Medad = 16.00 años, SD = 1.27; 59.3% mujeres; 85.2% nacidos en EE.UU.). Un modelo de análisis de rutas reveló que los valores del familismo y el apoyo de los padres estaban relacionados positivamente con las percepciones simultáneas de la capacidad de recuperación familiar. El apoyo de los padres, las prácticas de socialización étnico-racial de los padres que infunden conocimiento y orgullo culturales a los jóvenes, y el afrontamiento de problemas mediante el cambio y la perseverancia se asociaron positivamente con la capacidad de recuperación familiar seis meses después. En conjunto, aunque la adolescencia frecuentemente se considera como un período marcado por la disminución de la influencia de los padres, estos resultados ponen en evidencia el papel fundamental que los padres desempeñan en la percepción que tienen los jóvenes acerca de la capacidad de recuperación familiar durante los eventos estresantes de la vida. Además, en el contexto de un factor estresante prolongado, los recursos culturales tal como la socialización étnico-racial y el afrontamiento de problemas mediante el cambio y la perseverancia podrían servir particularmente como fuentes de capacidad de recuperación en las familias latinas.

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 counter the harmful impact of racial–ethnic discrimination. This limited work is further hampered by a lack of measurement tools that account for the uniqueness of racial–ethnic discrimination as a stressor and the culturally relevant coping strategies endemic to Latinx populations. This article reviews the mixed findings among studies that have examined discrimination, coping strategies, and Latinx youth outcomes. Furthermore, the pressing need for a new measure that would better capture the nuanced manner in which Latinx adolescents cope with racism-related stress is outlined. This work concludes with methodological considerations as well as recommendations for the field’s study of coping with the insidious impact of racism-related stress among Latinx adolescents.

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 668 racially and ethnically minoritized emerging adult college students (Mage = 18.76, SD = 1.23; female = 81.8%), and their associations with the emerging adults’ demographic characteristics and three forms of antiracism actions. Results: A latent profile analysis revealed a five-profile solution and showed variability in patterns of parental cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages. Participants in profiles reflecting far higher than average frequencies of both messages (high frequency) and those who received mean preparation for bias and above-average cultural socialization (culturally focused) tended to engage most frequently across all forms of antiracism. Conclusions: Our findings suggest the importance of parental ERS messages for fostering engagement in antiracism actions among diverse college students. Results are informative for those who work with minoritized emerging adults navigating racist contexts.

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, 85.2% U.S.-born) completed online surveys at two time points, 6 months apart. Results: Immigration-related threat was associated with greater Time 1 (T1) critical reflection (β = .31, p < .05) and Time 2 (T2) critical motivation (β = .24, p < .01). Preparation for bias moderated the relation between immigration-related threat and T1 critical action (β = .18, p < .01). COVID-19 stress was associated with greater T1 critical motivation (β = .24, p < .01) and T2 critical action (β = .18, p = .01). Conclusions: Cultural stressors may alert Latinx youth to systemic injustices in the United States, and combined with parental messages, may empower youth to address inequities.

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 purpose and a positive future orientation. Method: Participants were 367 diverse ethnically/racially minoritized (42.2% Black, 25.9% Latinx, 16.1% Asian/Asian American, 12.5% multiracial, 3.3% from other groups) adolescents (Mage = 15.85, SD = 1.17, 68.9% girls). Structural equation models examined the direct effects of parental cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages on youth’s ERI and shift-and-persist, as well as the indirect effects of socialization messages on shift-and-persist. Results: Preparation for bias and cultural socialization were directly related to a stronger ERI for adolescents, but only cultural socialization was directly associated with greater shift-and-persist. Stronger ERI was associated with greater shift-and-persist, and both cultural socialization and preparation for bias were indirectly associated with greater shift-and-persist. Conclusions: Frequent parental preparation for bias may be indirectly associated with minoritized adolescent’s shift-and-persist coping, whereas cultural socialization impacts youth’s shift-and-persisting both directly and indirectly.

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 first discuss the unique factors that may influence RES processes and need further attention (e.g., acculturation, immigration status, country of origin). We then present a model that delineates how RES supports the development of culturally resilient values and beliefs (i.e., racial-ethnic identity, familism values, familial resilience, critical reflection, and motivation) that lead to the enactment of culturally resilient behaviors (i.e., ethnic-racial behaviors, familism behaviors, familial coping and support, and shift-&-persist coping). We argue that together culturally resilient values and behaviors ultimately result in greater self-esteem, school engagement, prosocial behaviors, and well-being for Latinx youth as they face discrimination, marginalization, and oppression. We conclude by considering how these culturally resilient processes can be embedded in prevention and intervention efforts.

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 sample of 135 Latinx adolescents ( M age = 16, SD = 1.27; 59% female). Results indicate that cultural socialization was related to higher use of proactive coping with discrimination 6 months later, which in turn, was related to fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms. There were no direct or indirect effects between preparation for bias and mental health outcomes.

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 socialización cultural fomenta el desarrollo positivo de los jóvenes, los efectos de la preparación para hacer frente al prejuicio son mucho más ambiguos (Umaña-Taylor y Hill, 2020). Ampliamos esta línea de investigación poniendo a prueba si la calidez parental moderaba la relación entre la socialización cultural y la preparación para enfrentar el prejuicio en los síntomas de internalización, los comportamientos de externalización, la autoestima y la motivación académica en una muestra de 175 adolescentes latinos (Medad = 12.9, DE = 0.68; 52% sexo femenino). También estudiamos si los mensajes de preparación para el prejuicio y los mensajes de socialización cultural, aunados, tuvieron el efecto más beneficioso. Los resultados indicaron que la preparación para el prejuiciose asoció con una autoestima más baja y mayores síntomas de internalización y de comportamientos de externalización. La socialización cultural se asoció con una mayor autoestima. La preparación para el prejuicio interactuó significativamente con la socialización cultural para predecir la motivación académica, de modo que la socialización cultural se asoció con una mayor motivación académica solo para aquellos que informaron altos niveles de preparación para el prejuicio. La calidez parental no fue un moderador significativo para ningún resultado. Los análisis de sensibilidad que agregaron discriminación a los modelos indicaron que, una vez que se controló la discriminación, la preparación para el prejuicio ya no se relacionó con ningún resultado de los jóvenes. Las investigaciones futuras deben considerar moderadores adicionales para determinar para qué resultados y bajo qué circunstancias la preparación para los mensajes con prejuicios puede ser beneficiosa para los adolescentes latinos.

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-19 stress was associated with more depressive (β = .18, p = .027) and anxiety (β = .21, p = .010) symptoms. However, COVID-19 stress was related to higher levels of depressive anxiety symptoms only for youth who engaged in low (β = .38, p < .001; β = .38, p = .001) and medium (β = .19, p = .004; β = .22, p = .011) levels of problem-focused engagement coping. Higher levels of family resilience were associated with lower cross-sectional depressive symptoms (β = -.28, p = .004). For longitudinal models, a significant relation between COVID-19 stress and problem-focused engagement predicted Time 2 depressive symptoms (β = -.20, p < .041). Conclusion: Latinx youth who experienced high levels of COVID-19 stress who enacted problem-focused coping fared better across the pandemic. Familial resilience did not carry the same longitudinal benefit but did bolster mental health concurrently. Clinicians should endeavor to buttress familial resilience processes in addition to problem-engaged coping for Latinx youth in treatment.