Longitudinal links between maternal cultural socialization, peer ethnic-racial discrimination, and ethnic-racial pride in Mexican American youth

This paper used cross-lagged panel models to test the longitudinal interplay between maternal cultural socialization, peer ethnic-racial discrimination, and ethnic-racial pride across 5th to 11th grade among Mexican American youth (N = 674, M_age  = 10.86; 72% born in the United States; 50% girls; Wave 1 collected 2006-2008). Maternal cultural socialization predicted increases in subsequent youth ethnic-racial pride, and youth ethnic-racial pride prompted greater maternal cultural socialization. However, peer ethnic-racial discrimination was associated with subsequent decreases in ethnic-racial pride. The magnitude of these associations was consistent across 5th to 11th grades suggesting that maternal cultural socialization messages are necessary to maintain ethnic-racial pride across adolescence, thus families must continually support the development of ethnic-racial pride in their youth to counter the effects of discrimination.

Association of Positive Affect with Cognitive Health and Decline for Elder Mexican Americans

The goal of this study was to investigate the linkages of positive affect (PA) with cognitive health and its decline among elder Mexican Americans. We conducted secondary analysis of longitudinal data from the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (SALSA). We used the structural equation modeling framework to achieve three specific aims: (1) identify a valid measure of PA, (2) describe within-person trajectories of PA and cognitive health, and (3) test the inter-relations of these two processes over time. Results showed that, on average, PA and cognitive ability (including verbal memory) decreased over time. Yet, there was significant variability in these patterns of change. Bivariate latent growth curve models showed significant correlations of baseline levels and rates of change of PA and cognitive ability even after controlling for age, education, sex, bilingualism, and depression. Results support the hypothesis that increases and decreases in PA tend to be related to increases and decreases in cognitive health at old age among Mexican Americans.

Print exposure predicts pronoun comprehension strategies in children

Language development requires children to learn how to understand ambiguous pronouns, as in Panda Bear is having lunch with Puppy. He wants a pepperoni slice. Adults tend to link he with Puppy, the prior grammatical subject, but young children either fail to exhibit this bias (Arnold, Brown-Schmidt & Trueswell, 2007) or do so more slowly than adults (Hartshorne et al., 2015a; Song & Fisher, 2005). In the current study, we test whether language exposure affects this bias in elementary-school-age children. Children listened to stories like the one above, and answered questions like "Who wants a pepperoni slice?" which reveal their pronoun interpretation. Individual variation in the rate of selecting the subject character correlated with measures of print exposure, such that children who read more are more likely to follow the subject bias. This is the first study to establish that print exposure affects spoken pronoun comprehension in children.

Making my family proud: The unique contribution of familism pride to the psychological adjustment of Latinx emerging adults

OBJECTIVES

Familism values serve to provide key cultural scripts in Latinx families, and these values have been associated with positive psychosocial outcomes for Latinx youth (Stein et al., 2014). Yet, how familism values intersect with the experience of positive emotions remains relatively unknown. In particular, familism pride may be an important positive emotion that links familism values to positive psychosocial outcomes. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study developed a measure of familism pride and examined its unique prediction to psychosocial outcomes.

METHOD

Self-report survey data were collected from 2 samples of Latinx emerging adults who were part of a psychology subject pool at a comprehensive university in Los Angeles designated as an Hispanic-serving institution. Sample 1 (n = 352) was 72.2% women with a mean age of 18.9 years, whereas Sample 2 was 68.6% women with a mean age of 19.3 years.

RESULTS

Factor analyses supported that familism pride was distinct from familism values (familial support, obligation, reference, respeto). Familism pride was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and greater experience of joy when controlling for familism values in both samples.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study underscores the importance of examining emotional processes in the study of familism and suggests a new dimension of familism that has not received research attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding the influence of individual variables contributing to multivariate outliers in assessments of data quality

Mahalanobis distance is often recommended to identify patients or clinical sites that are considered unusual in clinical trials. Patients extreme in one or more covariates may be considered outliers in that they reside some distance from the multivariate mean, which can be thought of as the center of the data cloud. Less often discussed, patients whose data are believed to be "too good to be true" are located near the centroid as inliers. In order to efficiently investigate these anomalies for potential lapses in data quality, it is important to understand how the individual variables contribute to each multivariate outlier. There is a lack of literature describing a reasonable workflow for identification of outliers and their subsequent investigation to understand how each variable contributes to an observation being considered extreme. We describe how to identify multivariate inliers and outliers, classify outliers according to varying levels of severity, and summarize the contributions of variables using principal components in a manner that is accessible to a wide audience with straightforward interpretation. We illustrate how numerous data visualizations, including Pareto plots, can facilitate further review even in studies containing numerous observations and variables. We illustrate these methodologies using data from a multicenter clinical trial.

Developmental Outcomes of School Attachment Among Students of Mexican Origin

We used a longitudinal community study of 674 grade school children (Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8; 337 males, 337 females) of Mexican origin to examine outcomes of school attachment. Attachment to school is important in this population given the high level of school dropout rates of Mexican-origin students. Results indicated that, on average, school attachment from fifth to sixth grade remains stable, but declines from sixth to eighth grade. Boys had lower levels of school attachment at fifth grade but followed similar patterns of change as girls did. Attachment to teachers, peer competence, school aspirations and expectations, and substance-use cognitions emerged as longitudinal outcomes of level or changes in school attachment. Gender moderated associations of school attachment.

Determinants of mental health and self-rated health: a model of socioeconomic status, neighborhood safety, and physical activity

OBJECTIVES

We investigated the underlying mechanisms of the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on mental health and self-rated health (SRH), and evaluated how these relationships might vary by race/ethnicity, age, and gender.

METHODS

We analyzed data of 44 921 adults who responded to the 2009 California Health Interview Survey. We used a path analysis to test effects of SES, neighborhood safety, and physical activity on mental health and SRH.

RESULTS

Low SES was associated with greater neighborhood safety concerns, which were negatively associated with physical activity, which was then negatively related to mental health and SRH. This model was similar across different racial/ethnic and gender groups, but mean levels in the constructs differed across groups.

CONCLUSIONS

SES plays an important role in SRH and mental health, and this effect is further nuanced by race/ethnicity and gender. Identifying the psychological (neighborhood safety) and behavioral (physical activity) factors that influence mental health and SRH is critical for tailoring interventions and designing programs that can improve overall health.

Determinants of mental health and self-rated health: a model of socioeconomic status, neighborhood safety, and physical activity

OBJECTIVES

We investigated the underlying mechanisms of the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on mental health and self-rated health (SRH), and evaluated how these relationships might vary by race/ethnicity, age, and gender.

METHODS

We analyzed data of 44 921 adults who responded to the 2009 California Health Interview Survey. We used a path analysis to test effects of SES, neighborhood safety, and physical activity on mental health and SRH.

RESULTS

Low SES was associated with greater neighborhood safety concerns, which were negatively associated with physical activity, which was then negatively related to mental health and SRH. This model was similar across different racial/ethnic and gender groups, but mean levels in the constructs differed across groups.

CONCLUSIONS

SES plays an important role in SRH and mental health, and this effect is further nuanced by race/ethnicity and gender. Identifying the psychological (neighborhood safety) and behavioral (physical activity) factors that influence mental health and SRH is critical for tailoring interventions and designing programs that can improve overall health.

Parents' Optimism, Positive Parenting, and Child Peer Competence in Mexican-Origin Families

OBJECTIVE

This study examined how parents' optimism influences positive parenting and child peer competence in Mexican-origin families.

DESIGN

A sample of 521 families (521 mothers, 438 fathers, and 521 11-year-olds) participated in the cross-sectional study. We used structural equation modeling to assess whether effective parenting would mediate the effect of parents' optimism on child peer competence and whether mothers' and fathers' optimism would moderate the relation between positive parenting and child social competence.

RESULTS

Mothers' and fathers' optimism were associated with effective parenting, which in turn was related to children's peer competence. Mothers' and fathers' optimism also moderated the effect of parenting on child peer competence. High levels of parental optimism buffered children against poor parenting; at low levels of parental optimism, positive parenting was more strongly related to child peer competence.

CONCLUSIONS

Results are consistent with the hypothesis that positive parenting is promoted by parents' optimism and is a proximal driver of child social competence. Parental optimism moderates effects of parenting on child outcomes.

Comparison of Nomothetic Versus Idiographic-Oriented Methods for Making Predictions About Distal Outcomes From Time Series Data

We illustrate the idiographic/nomothetic debate by comparing 3 approaches to using daily self-report data on affect for predicting relationship quality and breakup. The 3 approaches included (a) the first day in the series of daily data; (b) the mean and variability of the daily series; and (c) parameters from dynamic factor analysis, a statistical model that uses all measurement occasions to estimate the structure and dynamics of the data. Our results indicated that data from the first measurement occasion does not provide information about the couples' relationship quality or breakup 1 to 2 years later. The mean and variability of the time series, however, were more informative: females' average positive and negative affect across time was related to relationship quality, whereas males' variability in negative affect across time was predictive of breakup. The dynamic factor analysis, in turn, allowed us to extract information central to the dyadic dynamics. This information proved useful to predict relationship quality but not breakup. The importance of examining intraindividual variability and couple dynamics is highlighted.

Modeling Intraindividual Change in Nonlinear Growth Models with Latent Change Scores

Three central goals of longitudinal research are the modeling of intraindividual change, the examination of interindividual differences in intraindividual change, and the evaluation of determinants of intraindividual change ( Baltes & Nesselroade, 1979 ). The latent growth model is a commonly fit statistical model to examine these goals. However, the latent growth model has difficulty in this examination when change trajectories are nonlinear with respect to time and multiple latent variables impact intraindividual change. We consider a latent growth modeling approach based upon latent change scores ( McArdle, 2001 , 2009 ), which yields information related to these goals of longitudinal research when change trajectories are nonlinear. We illustrate this approach with longitudinal data from the Berkeley Guidance Study regarding lifespan changes in verbal ability.

Distinguishing ordinal and disordinal interactions

Re-parameterized regression models may enable tests of crucial theoretical predictions involving interactive effects of predictors that cannot be tested directly using standard approaches. First, we present a re-parameterized regression model for the Linear × Linear interaction of 2 quantitative predictors that yields point and interval estimates of 1 key parameter-the crossover point of predicted values-and leaves certain other parameters unchanged. We explain how resulting parameter estimates provide direct evidence for distinguishing ordinal from disordinal interactions. We generalize the re-parameterized model to Linear × Qualitative interactions, where the qualitative variable may have 2 or 3 categories, and then describe how to modify the re-parameterized model to test moderating effects. To illustrate our new approach, we fit alternate models to social skills data on 438 participants in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. The re-parameterized regression model had point and interval estimates of the crossover point that fell near the mean on the continuous environment measure. The disordinal form of the interaction supported 1 theoretical model-differential-susceptibility-over a competing model that predicted an ordinal interaction.