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Parenting and Centrality: The Role of Life Meaning as a Mediator for Parenting and Language Broker Role Identity

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Abstract

Language brokering is a prevalent phenomenon in ethnic minority immigrant populations. Although accruing evidence points to the beneficial impacts of healthy role identity development, research investigating the formation of a language broker role identity in language brokering adolescents is lacking in the literature. In a sample of 604 Latinx adolescents (54.3% female; Mage at Time 1 = 12.41, SD = .97), structured equation modeling was conducted with maternal warmth and hostility examined as antecedents and adolescents’ life meaning as a mediator for language broker role identities. Results revealed that life meaning mediated the positive association from maternal warmth to language broker role identity. However, the negative association from maternal hostility to language broker role identity was no longer significant when accounting for maternal warmth. Corroborating extant findings, reciprocal relations were observed between maternal parenting practices, life meaning and language broker role identity. The results attest to the importance of investigating culturally specific role identity development in immigrant populations and demonstrates the role of maternal parenting practices in affecting adolescents’ role identity formation, albeit with contrasting gender effects.

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Authors’ Contributions

L.S. created the design of the study, conceived of the study and drafted portions of the manuscript; S.Y.K. drafted portions of the manuscript, provided critical review and editing of the manuscript. M.Z. performed the statistical analysis and drafted portions of the manuscript. Y.S. provided critical review and editing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

Support for this research was provided through awards to Su Yeong Kim from (1) National Science Foundation, Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, 1651128 and 0956123 (2) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5R03HD060045-02 (3) Office of the Vice President for Research and Creative Grant and Special Research Grant from the University of Texas at Austin, and (4) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5P2CHD042849-17 grant awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Lester Sim, Department of Psychology, 3249 East Hall, 530 Church Street, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. E-mail: lsim@umich.edu.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Lester Sim

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

    Su Yeong Kim & Minyu Zhang

  3. School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Yishan Shen

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Sim, L., Kim, S.Y., Zhang, M. et al. Parenting and Centrality: The Role of Life Meaning as a Mediator for Parenting and Language Broker Role Identity. J Youth Adolescence 48, 510–526 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0963-x

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