Parent–Adolescent Conflict, Family Cohesion, and Self‐Esteem Among Hispanic Adolescents in Immigrant Families: A Comparative Analysis

• Author: Lynn A. Warner,Yong Li
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12158
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Date: 01 December 2015

Y L State University of New York at Plattsburgh

L A. W University at Albany, State University of New York∗

Parent–Adolescent Conict, Family Cohesion, and

Self-Esteem Among Hispanic Adolescents in

Immigrant Families: A Comparative Analysis

Using data from one wave of the Children of

Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), the

authors investigated the main and interactive

effects of parent–adolescent conict and family

cohesion on self-esteem among a large and

diverse sample of adolescents in Hispanic immi-

grant families. A comparative analysis of four

Hispanic ethnic subgroups (Cubans, Mexicans,

Nicaraguans, and Colombians) was conducted.

The results indicated that across all subgroups,

parent–adolescent conict was negatively asso-

ciated with self-esteem. Family cohesion was

positively associated with self-esteem across all

subgroups, but it buffered the negative effect of

parent–adolescent conict among Cuban and

Mexican adolescents only. The ndings under-

score the importance of considering differences

in national origin when developing culturally

informed interventions for Hispanic families.

Limitations and directions for future research

are discussed.

Department of Social Work,Ward Hall 112A, 101 Broad St.,

State Universityof New York at Plattsburgh,Plattsburgh, NY

12901 (yli009@plattsburgh.edu).

∗School of Social Welfare, Richardson Hall 210, 135 West-

ern Ave.,University at Albany,State University of New York,

Albany, NY 12222.

Key Words: adolescents, family cohesion, Hispanic ethnic

subgroups, immigrant families, parent–adolescent conict,

self-esteem.

Self-esteem is a signicant indicator of ado-

lescent psychological well-being. Research has

shown that it is highly related to psycholog-

ical and behavioral outcomes such as depres-

sion, substance use, early sexual activity, and

eating problems among non-Hispanic (Isomaa,

Väänänen, Fröjd, Kaltiala-Heino, & Marttunen,

2013; Rhee, Chang, & Rhee, 2003) as well

as Hispanic (Orth, Robins, Widaman, & Con-

ger, 2014; Zamboanga, Schwartz, Jarvis, & Van

Tyne, 2009) youth. However, according to data

from the National Longitudinal Study of Adoles-

cent Health, Hispanics have signicantly lower

self-esteem than their African American and

European American peers (Le, William, & Julie,

2007). Given that Hispanics are the fastest grow-

ing ethnic group in the United States (U.S.

Census Bureau, 2012), and children of Hispanic

origin comprise nearly one fourth of the total

U.S. child population (Murphey, Guzman, &

Torres, 2014), knowledge of potentially modi-

able factors that inhibit and promote self-esteem

among adolescents in Hispanic immigrant fami-

lies is needed.

Family systems theory (Olson, 2000) empha-

sizes the positive and negative aspects of

family functioning that inuence adolescent

well-being. Similarly, resilience frameworks

call for enhancing youth development in the

face of risk factors (Zimmerman, 2013; Zolkoski

& Bullock, 2012) by identifying protective fac-

tors and focusing on strengths as much as

Family Relations 64 (December 2015): 579–591 579

DOI:10.1111/fare.12158