Profiles of Language Brokering Experiences and Contextual Stressors: Implications for Adolescent Outcomes in Mexican Immigrant Families

Su Yeong Kim; Yang Hou; Jiaxiu Song; Seth J. Schwartz; Shanting Chen; Minyu Zhang; Krista M. Perreira; Deborah Parra-Medina

doi:10.1007/s10964-018-0851-4

Profiles of Language Brokering Experiences and Contextual Stressors: Implications for Adolescent Outcomes in Mexican Immigrant Families

Su Yeong Kim, Yang Hou, Jiaxiu Song, Seth J. Schwartz, Shanting Chen, Minyu Zhang, Krista M. Perreira, Deborah Parra-Medina

College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Adolescents from Mexican immigrant families are often embedded in a challenging social environment and experience multiple contextual stressors, including economic stress, discrimination, and foreigner stress. We consider how the effects of these contextual stressors may be amplified or diminished for adolescents who function as language brokers, interpreting and mediating for their English-limited parents. Using two waves of survey data collected from a sample (N = 604 at Wave 1; N = 483 at Wave 2) of Mexican American adolescents with ages ranging from 11 to 15 (M_age = 12.41, 54% female), four distinct brokering—stress profiles were identified. Latent profile analyses revealed that with moderate levels of contextual stress, adolescents with more positive language brokering experiences (protective group) demonstrated more favorable outcomes than those with neutral language brokering experiences (moderate group) and those who did not involve themselves as frequently in language brokering activities (less-involved group). In contrast, high levels of contextual stress, coupled with more negative language brokering experiences (risk group), produced the least favorable outcomes among adolescents.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1629-1648
Number of pages	20
Journal	Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume	47
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0851-4
State	Published - Aug 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding Support for this research was provided through awards to Su Yeong Kim from (1) National Science Foundation, Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, 1651128 and 0956123 (2) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5R03HD060045-02 (3) College of Natural Sciences Catalyst Grant from the University of Texas at Austin (4) Office of the Vice President for Research and Creative Grant and Special Research Grant from the University of Texas at Austin, and (5) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 2P2CHD042849-16 grant awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

Discrimination
Economic stress
Foreigner stress
Language brokering
Mexican American

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Education
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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10.1007/s10964-018-0851-4

Cite this

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title = "Profiles of Language Brokering Experiences and Contextual Stressors: Implications for Adolescent Outcomes in Mexican Immigrant Families",

abstract = "Adolescents from Mexican immigrant families are often embedded in a challenging social environment and experience multiple contextual stressors, including economic stress, discrimination, and foreigner stress. We consider how the effects of these contextual stressors may be amplified or diminished for adolescents who function as language brokers, interpreting and mediating for their English-limited parents. Using two waves of survey data collected from a sample (N = 604 at Wave 1; N = 483 at Wave 2) of Mexican American adolescents with ages ranging from 11 to 15 (Mage = 12.41, 54% female), four distinct brokering—stress profiles were identified. Latent profile analyses revealed that with moderate levels of contextual stress, adolescents with more positive language brokering experiences (protective group) demonstrated more favorable outcomes than those with neutral language brokering experiences (moderate group) and those who did not involve themselves as frequently in language brokering activities (less-involved group). In contrast, high levels of contextual stress, coupled with more negative language brokering experiences (risk group), produced the least favorable outcomes among adolescents.",

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note = "Funding Information: Funding Support for this research was provided through awards to Su Yeong Kim from (1) National Science Foundation, Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, 1651128 and 0956123 (2) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5R03HD060045-02 (3) College of Natural Sciences Catalyst Grant from the University of Texas at Austin (4) Office of the Vice President for Research and Creative Grant and Special Research Grant from the University of Texas at Austin, and (5) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 2P2CHD042849-16 grant awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.",

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Profiles of Language Brokering Experiences and Contextual Stressors: Implications for Adolescent Outcomes in Mexican Immigrant Families

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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