Cultural stressors, internalizing symptoms, and parent–child alienation among Mexican‐origin adolescents

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Wen Wen,Shanting Chen,Nancy Hazen‐Swann,Elma I. Lorenzo‐Blanco,Yishan Shen,Su Yeong Kim
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12775

RESEARCH

Cultural stressors, internalizing symptoms,

and parent–child alienation among Mexican-origin

adolescents

Wen Wen

1

|Shanting Chen

2

|Nancy Hazen-Swann

1

|

Elma I. Lorenzo-Blanco

1

|Yishan Shen

3

|Su Yeong Kim

1

1

Human Development and Family Sciences,

The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

2

School of Education and Social Policy,

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

3

School of Family and Consumer Sciences,

Texas State University, San Marcos, TX

Correspondence Wen Wen, Human

Development and Family Sciences, The

University of Texas at Austin, 108 E. Dean

Keeton Street, SEA 2.464, Austin, Texas

78712-1139, USA.

Email: wenwen@utexas.edu

Funding information

This research was supported through awards to

Su Yeong Kim from the National Science

Foundation, Division of Behavioral and

Cognitive Sciences (grants 1651128 and

0956123); the National Institute on Minority

Health and Health Disparities (grants

1R21MD012706-01A1 and 3R21MD-

012706-02S1); the Eunice Kennedy Shriver

National Institute of Child Health and Human

Development (grant 5R03HD060045-02); the

Russell Sage Foundation (grant 2699); the

Spencer Foundation (grant 10023427); the

Hogg Foundation for Mental Health (grant

JRG-102); the Office of the Vice President for

Research and Creative Grant and Special

Research Grant from the University of Texas

at Austin; the College of Natural Sciences

Catalyst Grant from the University of Texas at

Austin; and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver

National Institute of Child Health and Human

Development (grant 5P2CHD042849-20)

awarded to the Population Research Center at

The University of Texas at Austin. No

potential competing interest was reported by

the authors.

Abstract

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 Mexican-origin

adolescents. However, it is unclear whether low levels of

parent–child alienation (a) buffer the negative effects of

different types of cultural stressors on internalizing symp-

toms and (b) function at the individual level more gener-

ally or during specific periods when adolescents experience

high cultural stressors.

Method: The current study used a three-wave longitudinal

dataset of 604 Mexican-origin adolescents (Wave 1:

M

age

=12.41, SD =0.97,54% female, 75% born in the

United States) and conducted multilevel regression analysis.

Results: At the between-person level, overall low parent–

child alienation buffered the adverse effects of ethnic dis-

crimination on anxiety and cultural misfit on depressive

symptoms. There were no significant within-person-level

interactions of parent–child alienation and cultural

stressors on adolescent internalizing symptoms.

Implication: The findings suggest that interventions should

aim to reduce parent–child alienation throughout the course

of adolescence to alleviate the impact of cultural stressors on

internalizing symptoms among Mexican-origin adolescents.

KEYWORDS

cultural stressors, internalizing symptoms, Mexican, multilevel, parent–

child alienation

Received: 15 July 2021Revised: 16 January 2022Accepted: 16 April 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12775

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2022;71:1977–1992. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 1977

Mexican immigrants have historically been stereotyped as “undocumented”and excluded from

government, education, and health institutions (García, 2017). Exclusion from the mainstream

culture and its institutions may evoke the experience of foreignness and isolation (Benavides

et al., 2021). Moreover, with stricter immigration laws and increasing antiimmigrant rhetoric,

Mexican immigrants are often depicted as a burden to the country and thus are more likely to

be perceived as inferior (McCabe et al., 2021). In fact, Mexican-origin adolescents in immigrant

families may experience multiple cultural stressors related to being perceived as foreign and

inferior (Zou & Cheryan, 2017), and these stressors may be especially acute in families that have

low socioeconomic status and lack social capital. For example, Mexican-origin adolescents

may encounter unfair treatment or insults because of their ethnic minority status (i.e., ethnic

discrimination). According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 50% of Latinos experi-

encedethnicdiscriminationwithintheprevious12 months(Noe-Bustamanteetal.,2021).

Moreover, Mexican-origin adolescents may be perceived as foreigners because of their

appearance or the way they use language(e.g., speaking English with an accent) or viewed as

misfits because of the differences between their heritage culture and the mainstream culture

(i.e., cultural misfit).

Given that cultural stress experiences may vary across Mexican-origin adolescents

(i.e., exhibit between-person variation) or change over time for a given adolescent (i.e., exhibit

within-person variation), the detrimental impact of cultural stressors on adolescents’internaliz-

ing symptoms may manifest both across and within adolescents (e.g., Nair et al., 2013; Park

et al., 2017). Thus, it is important to explore interpersonal factors that may protect adolescents

from the detrimental impact of various cultural stressors (i.e., between person) and alleviate the

influence of changes in adolescents’own experiences of cultural stress (i.e., within person) on

internalizing symptoms. Considering that family is an important support system for adoles-

cents, positive parent–child relationships may buffer the adverse impact of cultural stressors on

adolescents’developmental outcomes (Lazarevic et al., 2021). To elucidate the moderating role

of parent–child relationships in Mexican immigrant families of low socioeconomic status, the

current study examined whether low parent–child alienation can function as a protective factor

(a) for different types of cultural stressors and (b) in both between-person and within-person

associations between cultural stressors and internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxiety and depressive

symptoms) from early to late adolescence.

MEXICAN-ORIGIN ADOLESCENTS ENCOUNTER MULTIPLE

CULTURAL STRESS EXPERIENCES

According to the racial position model (Zou & Cheryan, 2017), there are two distinct dimen-

sions of oppression in ethnic minority populations—namely, perception of inferiority and cul-

tural foreignness—and different ethnic minority subgroups in the United States may experience

various levels of cultural stressors along these two dimensions. Whereas inferiority indicates

subordinate and unprivileged status, cultural foreignness refers to perceived deviations from the

dominant cultural prototype in the United States. Different ethnic minority groups may experi-

ence varied levels of cultural stressors along these two dimensions. As a large and increasing

ethnic minority population in the United States (Noe-Bustamante & Flores, 2019), Mexican-

origin individuals often experience distinct forms of cultural stressors at high levels along both

dimensions (Nair et al., 2013; Zou & Cheryan, 2017). However, only a few studies have recog-

nized the importance of studying cultural stressors from both dimensions (e.g., Salas-Wright &

Schwartz, 2019), with the majority of previous studies having focused on just one of the two

dimensions (i.e., inferiority) by investigating the impact of discrimination on adolescent devel-

opment (Benner et al., 2018; Bennett et al., 2020). Although discrimination experiences have a

marked impact on adolescent development, studying a general perception of unfair treatment,

1978 FAMILY RELATIONS