Teenagers, Families, and Well-Being

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is in response to PA-06-180, NIH Small Research Grant Program (R03). The proposed study focuses on culturally-relevant developmental processes that are important for understanding the successful adjustment of children of immigrants in the United States. In immigrant families, Portes and Rumbaut (2001) identify generational dissonance as a family context that places children at increased risk for poor developmental outcomes. We currently know little about the mediating mechanisms that explain this relationship. Uncovering these mechanisms is important, as they may represent possible targets of intervention to increase the likelihood of successful adjustment among children of immigrants. The proposed study tests whether unsupportive parenting may operate as a mediator of the link between generational dissonance and child outcomes. The study further tests whether fathers' and mothers' parenting independently mediate the proposed relationship. It uses both cross-sectional and longitudinal self-reported survey data from mothers, fathers, and adolescents in Asian immigrant families, specifically Chinese Americans. In summary, there are three research aims. First, to test concurrent and longitudinal relations between generational dissonance and (a) unsupportive parenting, (b) adolescents' depressive symptoms, and (c) school performance. Second, to concurrently and longitudinally test whether unsupportive parenting mediates the relationship between parent-child acculturation discrepancy and adolescents' depressive symptoms and school performance. Third, we aim to test whether parent gender moderates the relationships tested in Aims 1 and 2. The proposed study is relevant to public health because it focuses on the developmental outcomes of children of immigrants, a growing and significant segment of America's children who will represent the future of U.S. workforce. It also focuses on the developmental period of early and middle adolescence, a susceptible period of transition when there are increases in socio-emotional problems that can compromise school performance. Finally, the study has the potential for identifying modifiable mediators that can be used to inform future preventive intervention work with children of immigrants.