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Directional Effects in Cultural Identity: A Family Systems Approach for Immigrant Latinx Families

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Abstract

Although there is a substantial body of work focusing on the processes underlying cultural identity in general, less is known regarding how these processes might operate within the context of Latinx families. Moreover, among the limited research that has included the adolescent and caregiver cultural identity, most of the research has primarily focused on how caregivers influence their adolescent’s cultural identity. In the present study, the directional pathways between recently immigrated adolescents’ and caregivers’ ethnic and U.S. identity belonging were examined using data from a longitudinal study of acculturation and identity development among recently arrived Latinx immigrant families. The sample consisted of 302 primary caregivers (Mage = 41.09, SD = 7.13 at baseline; 67.5% mothers) and their adolescents (Mage = 14.51, SD = 0.88 at baseline; 46.7% female). The results indicated that caregivers’ ethnic identity belonging significantly predicted adolescents’ ethnic identity belonging over time. At the same time, adolescents’ ethnic identity negatively predicted caregivers’ ethnic identity belonging over time, whereas adolescents’ U.S. identity belonging positively predicted caregivers’ later ethnic identity belonging. The findings indicate that immigrant caregivers may retain their native culture to direct and respond to their children’s changing cultural identifications.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Maria-Rosa Velazquez, Tatiana Clavijo, Mercedes Prado, Alba Alfonso, Aleyda Marcos, Daisy Ramirez, Lissette Ramirez, Perlita Carrillo, Monica Pattarroyo, Daniel Soto, Juan A. Villamar, and Karina M. Lizzi for their work in conducting assessments, building rapport, and tracking families.

Authors’ Contributions

AM, conducted the data analyses and spearhaeded manuscript preparation; OM, CC, EILB, MAC, BLZ, MGB, and LBG participated in manuscript preparation; DWS managed the data collection efforts and participated in manuscript preparation; SJS and JBU served as co-principal investigators, oversaw the conduct of the study, and participated in manuscript preparation; and JS served as a senior cultural advisors and participated in manuscript preparation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, co-funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Grant DA026594; Seth J. Schwartz, PI; Jennifer B. Unger, Co-PI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Alan Meca

  2. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Oswaldo Moreno

  3. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Cory Cobb, Elma I. Lorenzo-Blanco & Seth J. Schwartz

  4. Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Miguel Ángel Cano

  5. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, NC, USA

    Byron L. Zamboanga

  6. Florida State University, Miami, FL, USA

    Melinda Gonzales-Backen

  7. University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    José Szapocznik

  8. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jennifer B. Unger, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati & Daniel W. Soto

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  1. Alan Meca
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  2. Oswaldo Moreno
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  3. Cory Cobb
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  4. Elma I. Lorenzo-Blanco
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Correspondence to Alan Meca.

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The authors declared no potential conflict of interests with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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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 and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Appendix

Appendix

Given our focus on exploring the association between ethnic and U.S. belonging subscales for adolescents and their caregivers, measurement invariance was examined across reporters to evaluate the degree to which these items were equally appropriate for adolescents and caregivers. Consistent with our longitudinal invariance analysis, configural (equal form), metric (equal factor loadings), and scalar (equal item intercepts) invariance across reporters was examined. To do this, the analytics steps began with the least restrictive model, the configural model. Building on this model, metric invariance model was examined by constraining factor loadings to equality across time, and then scalar invariance by constraining intercepts and factor loadings to equality across reporters. The configural, metric, and scalar invariance models were compared using the CFI (ΔCFI < 0.010) and RMSEA (ΔRMSEA < 0.010; Little 2013). The assumption of longitudinal metric and scalar invariance would be satisfied if the ΔCFI < 0.01 and ΔRMSEA < 0.01. To reduce model complexity, this was done separately for the MEIM and the AIM.

As indicated in Table 1, for the MEIM, the configural model was associated with adequate-to-good model fit [χ2 (76) = 176.450, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.927; RMSEA = 0.066; SRMR = 0.049]. Upon imposing metric constraints, there was a significant decline in model fit [Δχ2 (7) = 41.011, p < 0.001; ΔCFI = 0.023; ΔRMSEA = 0.007]. However, further probing indicated that no single factor loading was significantly different across reporters. Similarly, although there was a significant decline upon imposing scalar constraints [Δχ2 (7) = 30.858, p < 0.001; ΔCFI = 0.013; ΔRMSEA = 0.002], no one intercept was found to vary across reporters indicating partial metric and scalar invariance. For the AIM, the configural model was also associated with mediocre-to-good model fit [χ2 (76) = 232.759, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.911; RMSEA = 0.083; SRMR = 0.048]. Results indicated full metric [Δχ2 (7) = 8.934, p = 0.257; ΔCFI = 0.002; ΔRMSEA = 0.003] and scalar invariance [Δχ2 (7) = 20.417, p = 0.005; ΔCFI = 0.007; ΔRMSEA < 0.001].

Table 4

Table 4 Measurement invariance across adolescent and caregivers for MEIM and AIM at baseline
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Meca, A., Moreno, O., Cobb, C. et al. Directional Effects in Cultural Identity: A Family Systems Approach for Immigrant Latinx Families. J Youth Adolescence 50, 965–977 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01406-2

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