Bilingualism and Resilience in Latino Youth

描述(由申请人提供)：拉美裔青少年有最高比例的功能受损抑郁症状，包括最高比例的自杀行为。越来越多的拉美裔青年生活在贫困中，这进一步增加了他们出现抑郁症状的风险。尽管应对技能方案已被证明有助于预防或降低抑郁症状的风险，但低社会经济地位(Low-SES)的拉美裔青年对传统心理健康服务的使用率最低，极大地限制了这些应对方案对这一群体的有效性。因此，这些青年可以从预防和干预的替代办法中受益。改进预防工作的关键第一步涉及确定土著的、可获得的和文化上可接受的进程，以支持应对和降低抑郁症状的风险。双语发展是其中一个非常普遍的因素，但在SES较低的拉美裔青年中，双语发展在接触、使用和熟练程度上存在差异。双语有助于执行功能的发展，更高的执行功能与更适应的应对和更低水平的抑郁症状有关。然而，还没有研究考察会说两种语言和拉美裔青年抑郁症状之间的联系。因此，目前的R03的目的是在一个低SES拉丁裔青少年的样本中，检查双语程度和抑郁症状发展之间的联系，以及这种联系的潜在中介因素(EF和应对)。我们将评估80名10-13岁的拉丁裔双语青年在基线和12个月后的双语程度、EF、应对和抑郁症状。我们关注这一年龄段是因为抑郁症状水平在青春期中期激增，使青春期早期成为预防和早期干预的关键时期。评估将包括青年和家长对所有变量的报告，以及对青年语言水平和EF的测试。拟议项目的具体目标是：1)在低社会经济地位的拉丁裔青年中，确定双语程度与一年后抑郁症状发展之间的预期联系，以及2)评估执行功能和应对作为双语与一年后抑郁症状发展之间联系的潜在中介因素。该项目的成功完成将导致一项多波、多地点的R01提案，以确定从双语发展到不同青年群体的心理健康结果的途径。这项研究的长期目标是减少抑郁症状及其对低社会地位拉美裔青少年和类似的高风险、未得到充分服务的青年人口的健康后果的差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Latino adolescents have among the highest rates of functionally impairing depressive symptoms, including the highest rates of suicidal behavior. A significant and growing percentage of Latino youth live in poverty, which further increases their risk for depressive symptoms. Although coping skills programs have proven beneficial for preventing or reducing risk for depressive symptoms, low-socioeconomic status (low-SES) Latino youth have among the lowest rates of utilization of conventional mental health services, greatly limiting the effectiveness of these coping programs for this population. Thus, these youth could benefit from alternative approaches to prevention and intervention. A key first step in improving prevention efforts involves the identification of indigenous, accessible, and culturally acceptable processes that support coping and reduce risk for depressive symptoms. Bilingual language development is one such factor that is highly prevalent, but occurs at varying levels of exposure, usage, and proficiency, in low-SES Latino youth. Bilingualism supports the development of executive function (EF), and higher EF has been linked to more adaptive coping and lower levels of depressive symptoms. However, no research has examined associations between bilingualism and depressive symptoms in Latino youth. Therefore, the purpose of the current R03 is to examine the link between degree of bilingualism and the development of depressive symptoms, as well as the potential mediators (EF and coping) of this link, in a sample of low-SES Latino adolescents. We will assess degree of bilingualism, EF, coping and depressive symptoms at baseline and 12 months later in 80 bilingual Latino youth ages 10-13 years old. We focus on this age range because levels of depressive symptoms spike by middle adolescence, making early adolescence a crucial period for prevention and early intervention. Assessments will include youth and parent reports of all variables as well as testing of youth language proficiency and EF. The Specific Aims of the proposed project are to 1) determine the prospective association between degree of bilingualism and development of depressive symptoms over one year in low-SES Latino youth, and 2) assess executive function and coping as potential mediators of the association between bilingualism and development of depressive symptoms over one year. The successful completion of this project will lead to a multi-wave, multi-site R01 proposal to identify pathways from bilingual language development to mental health outcomes in a diverse population of youth. The long-term goal of this line of research is to reduce disparities in depressive symptoms and their health consequences affecting low-SES Latino adolescents and similar high-risk, underserved youth populations.