Parental Risk Factors, Parenting, and Parent/Adolescent Positive Psychosocial Adjustment in Mexican Immigrant Families: An Application and Extension of the Family Stress Model

Mexican immigrant parents in socioeconomically disadvantaged families may face multiple risk factors in the form of cultural stress, economic stress, work stress, and psychological distress in their adaption to US society. Prior studies have used the family stress model to show that the aforementioned parental risk factors may negatively influence youth adjustment through disrupted parenting practices. However, previous studies applying the family stress model have typically focused on examining the independent influences of distinct parental risk factors on adolescent adjustment, ignoring (1) the utility of the person-centered approach to examining interconnected/interrelated effects of multiple risk factors and (2) the investigation on indirect effects of parental risk factors on both parent and adolescent positive psychosocial outcomes. Focusing on identifying distinct parental profiles of risk factors, this study examined how the identified parental risk profiles influence both adolescents’ and parents’ positive psychosocial adjustment via parenting (parent-reported and adolescent-reported).

The current study utilized a three-wave longitudinal dataset of 604 Mexican immigrant families (604 adolescents; 595 mothers). Maternal risk factors (daily discrimination, racial discrimination, language discrimination, feeling like a misfit, foreigner stress, depressive symptoms, financial difficulties, financial adjustment, financial strain, and work stress) at Wave 1, mother-reported and adolescent-reported parenting (warmth, inductive reasoning, and monitoring) at Wave 2, and mother-reported and adolescent-reported positive psychosocial adjustment (life meaning and resilience) at Wave 3 were assessed.

All analyses were conducted using Mplus 8.6. Using latent profile analysis, three types of maternal risk profiles were identified: the low-risk profile (n = 341; 57.3%), moderate-risk profile (n=193, 32.4%), high-risk profile (n = 61, 10.3%). Utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM), the indirect effect of parenting practices (mother-reported and adolescent-reported) in the link between maternal risk profiles and both mothers’ and adolescents’ positive adjustment were examined. Although no significant indirect effect was observed, the significant direct effects from maternal low-risk profile to supportive parenting practices and from parenting to both mothers’ and adolescents’ resilience and life meaning were obtained.

The findings of maternal adjustment profiles suggest that the majority of Mexican immigrant mothers are at low stress-related risk and only a few mothers are at high stress-related risk. The direct results reveal that (1) mothers identified in the low-risk profile are likely to exhibit suppositive parenting practices toward their children and (2) supportive parenting may not only promote adolescents’ positive psychosocial outcomes, but also boost parents’ positive adjustment. This study provides implications for future interventions through which practitioners (e.g., educators, mental health professionals, policymakers) can help Mexican immigrant families promote positive family interactions and parent-child positive psychosocial adjustment over time.