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Title: Stress of Language Brokering and Mexican American Adolescents’ Adjustment: The Role of Cumulative Risk
This study focused on early adolescents’ stress of language brokering and examined the moderating role of family cumulative risk in the relation of language brokering to adjustment problems. Data came from self-reports of 604 low-income Mexican American adolescent language brokers (54% female; [Formula: see text]= 12.4; SD = 0.97; 75% born in the United States) and their parents (99% foreign-born) in central Texas. Path analyses revealed that brokering stress, but not frequency, was positively associated with adolescents’ adjustment problems, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, and delinquency. We also found that the relation between stress of brokering for mothers and adolescents’ depressive symptoms was stronger among families with a high cumulative risk. Further, with a high cumulative risk, adolescents exhibited delinquent behaviors regardless of the levels of stress from translating for fathers. Current findings underscore the importance of examining family contexts in assessing the consequences of language brokering for Mexican American early adolescents’ well-being.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1651128
PAR ID:
10149671
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Journal of Early Adolescence
Volume:
40
Issue:
3
ISSN:
0272-4316
Page Range / eLocation ID:
400 to 425
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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