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Impacts of Acculturative, Parenting, and Family Stress on US Born and Immigrant Latina/o/x Parent’s Mental Health and Substance Use

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Abstract

Latina/o/x face acculturative stressors which are unique to being an immigrant and/or racial/ethnic minority. Furthermore, Latina/o/x parents face an additional layer of stress related to parenting and family challenges. Little is known about how immigrant and non-immigrant parents cope with stress related to parenting and family stress and how these additional stressors impact parental mental health and substance use. The sample for this secondary data analysis included 1197 parents between 18 and 56 years of age. All analyses controlled for age, gender and number of persons living at home; for the immigrant subsample, we controlled for time in the USA and for the non-immigrant sample, we controlled for generational status. Analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between (1) acculturative stress and mental health and substance use and (2) parenting and family stress and mental health and substance use for immigrants and non-immigrants. Results of multivariate regression models revealed that acculturative stress was significantly associated with mental health, alcohol use, cigarette use, and other tobacco product use for both immigrant and non-immigrants. For both immigrants and non-immigrants, parenting stress and family stress were consistently associated with psychological distress. Parenting stress was associated with greater substance use, including cigarette, other tobacco use, and alcohol use. Given the different associations between acculturative, parenting, and family stress with mental health and substance use among immigrant and non-immigrant parents, family-based interventions should address these stressors to prevent poor health outcomes among Latina/o/x parents and their children.

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Notes

  1. Using guidance from del Río-González (2021), we use the term “Latina/x/o” to refer to groups of mixed gender.

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Funding

This study was funded by grant 5R44MD004792-03 from NIMHD awarded to Dr. Richard Cervantes and by grant 5R25DA050687-02 from NIDA and NIAAA awarded to Dr. Avelardo Valdez.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Sciences, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, 1120 NW 14th Street, Miami, FL, 33136, USA

    Alyssa Lozano

  2. Behavioral Assessment, Inc, 291 South La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90211, USA

    Richard C. Cervantes

  3. School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Miami, 5030 Brunson Dr, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA

    Yannine Estrada & Guillermo Prado

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  1. Alyssa Lozano
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  2. Richard C. Cervantes
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  4. Guillermo Prado
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Correspondence to Alyssa Lozano.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Behavioral Assessment Inc. National Institutes of Health approved Independent Institutional Review Board, #1 IRB00004925) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Lozano, A., Cervantes, R.C., Estrada, Y. et al. Impacts of Acculturative, Parenting, and Family Stress on US Born and Immigrant Latina/o/x Parent’s Mental Health and Substance Use. Prev Sci 25, 296–306 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01440-x

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