The Journal of Early Adolescence

This article reflects on the state of the literature with respect to Latino early adolescents. An overview of the studies included in the special issue is provided and their unique contributions to the field are discussed. The article closes with directions for future research on Latino early adolescents, which include utilizing assessments from multiple informants, accounting for the diverse demographic characteristics of Latinos (e.g., linguistic, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity), and focusing more prominently on resilience and how Latino adolescents' culturally related strengths may minimize the negative effects of commonly experienced stressors.

This study examined interactive relations between adolescent, maternal, and paternal familism values and deviant peer affiliations in predicting adolescent externalizing problems within low-income, Mexican-origin families (N = 598). Adolescent, maternal, and paternal familism values interacted protectively with deviant peer affiliations to predict lower levels of externalizing problems according to two independent teacher reports. These relations were not found with parent reports of adolescent externalizing problems although these models showed a direct, protective effect of maternal familism values. Consistent with the view that traditional cultural values are protective for Latino adolescents, these results suggest that supporting familism values among Mexican-origin groups is a useful avenue for improving adolescent conduct problems, particularly in a school context.

Youth's social relationships at school and at home have been shown to predict a wide variety of school outcomes, such as behavior at school and academic performance. Specifically, relationships with teachers, parents, and peers have all been shown to affect student performance. The current study utilized data collected from 848 Latino middle school students to examine direct and indirect linkages of students' relationships with teachers, parents, and friends with student outcomes. Structural equation models revealed that teacher support was associated with both student behavior and satisfaction with school and was indirectly associated with time spent on homework and grades. Parental support, friend support, friends' school behavior, and parental monitoring of educational issues were directly associated with student reports of teacher support and were indirectly linked to school behavior and satisfaction. Friend behavior at school also showed a significant direct association with student behavior, and parental education monitoring directly predicted student satisfaction with school. Directions for future research and implications for school policy and programming are discussed.

This study examined behavioral and emotional adjustment in family contexts in which there was high versus low demand for adolescents to serve as language brokers in a sample of 73 recently immigrated Latino families with middle-school-aged adolescents. Language brokering was conceptualized as a family process rather than merely an individual phenomenon. Multiple agents were used to assess language brokering and parent and youth adjustment. Results indicated that those in high language brokering contexts, compared with those in low language brokering contexts, demonstrated higher levels of family stress, lower levels of parenting effectiveness, and poorer adolescent adjustment in terms of academic functioning, socioemotional health, and substance use. The findings are particularly important given the limited and mixed findings from formative research on language brokering, particularly in areas within the United States with emerging immigrant populations. Findings suggest the need for advancing practices that increase language and cultural supports for immigrant families and support parents' efforts to foster positive youth and family adjustment.

This study examines the associations among parent-child relationship characteristics, acculturation and enculturation, and child externalizing symptoms in a sample of 40 Latino parent-adolescent dyads. Specifically, the associations between parent-child relationship characteristics (i.e., communication and parental involvement) and adolescents' externalizing symptoms are examined. Also examined is whether the relationship between these two aspects of the parent-child relationship and adolescent functioning would be moderated by acculturation and enculturation differences between parents and their children. Significant relationships are found among parent-child communication, parental involvement, and child externalizing behaviors; however, neither the acculturation nor enculturation gap moderates these associations.

As the U.S. Latino population continues to diversify, it is necessary to understand their experiences of minority status and its implications for well-being. The present cross-sectional study investigates early adolescents' perceptions of public regard for their ethnic group and perceptions of the extent to which opportunity is differentiated by their socioeconomic background (perceived socioeconomic stratification). A comparative approach is taken to examine the extent to which the experiences of Dominican American youth (n = 103) mirrored those of their Black American peers (n = 129). For all youth, more positive public ethnic regard is associated with fewer somatic symptoms, whereas more perceived socioeconomic stratification is associated with more somatic symptoms. For Black youth, in contrast to Dominican youth, lower public regard is associated with higher self-esteem among those who perceives more socioeconomic stratification. Implications for Dominican and Black American youths' experiences of minority status are discussed.

This longitudinal study linked concepts of familism and social capital to investigate emotional support and educational guidance from parents, siblings, friends, and teachers in predicting Latino early adolescents' math grades during their transition from elementary school to junior high. Thirty-one Latino youth were interviewed twice and their school transcripts analyzed. Youth reported that parents and siblings provided the most support and guidance across these years, followed by friends, and to a lesser extent, teachers, who primarily helped with homework. However, only families' support, guidance, and income predicted math grades. Implications for research, policy, and practice highlight immigrant Latino families with modest schooling as resources and how Latino youth draw resources from families, friends, and schools.