Abstract
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 communication, language brokering (i.e., adolescents translating and interpreting between host and heritage languages for mothers), in order to investigate its mediating role based on two waves of longitudinal data on Mexican-origin immigrant families. Wave 1 included 604 adolescents (54% female; Mage = 12.92, SD = 0.92) and 595 mothers (Mage = 38.89, SD = 5.74); Wave 2 was collected one year later with data from 483 adolescents. Perceived parenting discrepancy patterns at Wave 1 were captured by three profiles based on the levels of both mothers’ and adolescents’ perceived positive parenting (i.e., Mother High, Adolescent High, and Both High). Compared to the other two profiles, adolescents who reported much lower positive parenting than mothers at Wave 1 (i.e., Mother High) experienced more negative feelings about brokering at Wave 2, relating to more anxiety. Being in the Mother High (vs. Both High) group was also directly related to more depressive symptoms one year later. This study highlights the importance of considering culturally salient forms of communication, such as language brokering, when designing family-level interventions to reduce adolescents’ internalizing symptoms by building agreement on high positive parenting among mother-adolescent dyads from immigrant families.
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Funding
This research was supported through awards to Su Yeong Kim from (1) National Science Foundation, Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, 1651128 and 0956123, (2) National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities 1R21MD012706-01A1 and 3R21MD-012706-02S1, (3) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5R03HD060045-02, (4) Russell Sage Foundation, 2699, (5) Spencer Foundation, 10023427, (6) Hogg Foundation for Mental Health JRG-102, (7) Office of the Vice President for Research and Creative Grant and Special Research Grant from the University of Texas at Austin, (8) College of Natural Sciences Catalyst Grant from the University of Texas at Austin, and (9) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5P2CHD042849-20 grant awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.
Data Sharing and DeclarationData for this manuscript will not be deposited. Data from this study are not available because the sample is a vulnerable population living in a limited geographic area that might be identified based on the data.
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W.W. participated in conceptualizing the study, conducted statistical analyses, and drafted part of the manuscript; S.L. drafted part of the study and participated in the conceptualization; S.Y.S. participated in conceptualizing the study, interpreting the results, and providing critical reviews of the manuscript; C.S.T. participated in the interpretation of the results and provided a critical review of the manuscript; K.S.Y. designed the larger project, collected data, participated in the conceptualization of the current study and interpretation of the results, and provided reviews of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Wen, W., Scott, L., Shen, Y. et al. Perceived Parenting Discrepancy Profiles, Feelings about Language Brokering, and Internalizing Symptoms among Mexican-origin Adolescents in Immigrant Families. J Youth Adolescence 52, 1799–1810 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01817-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01817-3