Explaining the Relations Between Acculturative Stress and Prosocial Behaviors in Latino Youth from the Midwest
Abstract
Stressful experiences may weaken coping mechanisms, lead to maladjustment in adolescents (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), and may also influence adolescents' relationships with their peers. Latino adolescents face unique forms of stress associated with their cultural orientation. One form of cultural stress that is salient to many Latino adolescents is acculturative stress. Acculturative stress is defined as stress that results from adapting to a new culture (Alegria & Woo, 2009). One specific behavioral outcome of acculturative stress is prosocial behaviors (i.e., actions intended to benefit another; Carlo & Randall, 2002). Acculturative stress may influence psychological processes that in turn influence the adolescents' social relationships. Specifically, adolescents who are experiencing acculturative stress may begin to feel more depressive symptoms and may gravitate towards more deviant peers. In previous research, acculturative stress has been positively linked with depressive symptoms in Latino adolescents (Crockett et al., 2007). Research has also shown that Latino adolescents become more at risk for deviant peer affiliation as they become more acculturated (Samaniego & Gonzales, 1999). This may be in part due to the increased pressure adolescents experience to engage in mainstream culture and distance themselves from their traditional cultures. There is also supportive evidence for the notion that deviant peer affiliation may have detrimental consequences for adolescents' social behaviors (see Carlo et al., 1999). In an effort to extend previous research, the current study examines how acculturative stress influences Latino adolescents' prosocial behaviors directly and indirectly via depressive symptoms and deviant peer affiliation. The current study uses data from the larger NSF funded Latino Youth Care Project. Participants include 89 Latino adolescents from Nebraska (mean age = 15.24 years; range = 14-18 years; 68.4% female). Participants completed measures of their acculturative stress (Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory; Rodriguez et al., 2002), depressive symptoms (CES-D; Radloff, 1977), deviant peer affiliation (Dishion et al., 1991), and their tendencies to engage in three common types of prosocial behaviors (Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised; Carlo et al., 2003). The results demonstrated that acculturative stress was directly, negatively associated with public and anonymous prosocial behaviors. Acculturative stress was also positively associated with depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms, in turn, were positively associated with deviant peer affiliations. Deviant peer affiliations were not significantly associated with prosocial behaviors. There were marginal, negative effects, however, between deviant peer affiliations and compliant and anonymous prosocial behaviors. The discussion focuses on the influence of acculturative stress on prosocial behaviors via depressive symptoms and deviant peer affiliation and the impact of these results on future research and practice.
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