Familism, family ethnic socialization, and Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' educational adjustment.

The current longitudinal study examined how familism values and family ethnic socialization impacted Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' (N = 205) educational adjustment (i.e., educational expectations, educational utility), and whether these associations were moderated by adolescent mothers' ethnic centrality. Findings indicated that adolescent mothers' reports of familism values and family ethnic socialization were positively associated with their beliefs about educational utility, but not educational expectations. Ethnic centrality moderated the association between adolescent mothers' familism values and educational utility, such that adolescent mothers' endorsement of familism values during pregnancy were associated with significant increases in educational utility after their transition to parenthood, but only when adolescents reported high levels of ethnic centrality. Moreover, ethnic centrality was positively associated with adolescent mothers' educational expectations. Results highlight the importance of familism, ethnic socialization, and ethnic centrality for promoting Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' educational outcomes. Findings are discussed with respect to understanding adolescent mothers' educational adjustment in the context of family and culture.

Family context, Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' parenting knowledge, and children's subsequent developmental outcomes.

This study examined parenting knowledge among Mexican-origin adolescent mothers (N = 191; Mage = 16.26 years), family contextual factors associated with adolescents' parenting knowledge, and toddlers' (Mage = 2.01 years) subsequent developmental outcomes. Data came from home interviews and direct child assessments. Adolescents both underestimated and overestimated children's developmental timing, and showed differences in their knowledge of specific developmental domains. Instrumental support from mother figures was positively linked to adolescents' knowledge accuracy, whereas emotional support was negatively related to adolescents' knowledge confidence. Furthermore, whereas mother figures' autonomy granting was positively linked to knowledge confidence, psychological control was associated with less accurate adolescent parenting knowledge. Toddlers of adolescents with more accurate knowledge showed positive developmental functioning. Intervention implications are discussed.

A Longitudinal Examination of Support, Self-esteem, and Mexican-origin Adolescent Mothers' Parenting Efficacy.

Guided by a risk and resilience framework, this study used a prospective longitudinal, multiple-reporter design to examine how social support from a mother figure during pregnancy interacted with Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' self-esteem to inform their parenting efficacy when their children were 10 months old. Using reports of perceived social support by adolescent mothers (Mage = 16.24, SD =099) and their mother figures (Mage = 40.84, SD = 7.04) in 205 dyads, and controlling for demographic factors (i.e., adolescent age, adolescent nativity, family income, mothers' educational attainment, adolescent-mother coresidence) and adolescents' social support from a significant other, findings indicated that social support during pregnancy was positively associated with adolescent mothers' future parenting efficacy when adolescent mothers had relatively lower self-esteem. Findings were consistent for adolescents' and mothers' reports, and emphasize the value of social support from a mother figure among adolescent mothers with lower self-esteem. Implications for interventions are presented.

A longitudinal examination of parenting behaviors and perceived discrimination predicting Latino adolescents' ethnic identity.

Characteristics of the familial and societal context were examined as predictors of Latino adolescents' (N = 323; 49.5% female) ethnic identity. Consistent with previous work, familial ethnic socialization significantly predicted future levels of ethnic identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation for both male adolescents and female adolescents, although the association was significantly stronger for female adolescents than male adolescents for exploration and resolution. Furthermore, for male adolescents, higher levels of familial ethnic socialization were significantly associated with a faster rate of growth for ethnic identity resolution. In addition, paternal warmth-support emerged as a significant longitudinal predictor of male adolescents', but not female adolescents', ethnic identity exploration. Finally, perceived discrimination was significantly associated with male adolescents', but not female adolescents', ethnic identity exploration and affirmation. Significant gender differences in the relations of interest highlight the need to consider variability in the process of ethnic identity formation by gender.

Latino adolescents' ethnic identity: is there a developmental progression and does growth in ethnic identity predict growth in self-esteem?

The current longitudinal study of 323 Latino adolescents (50.5% male; M age = 15.31 years) examined whether ethnic identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation demonstrated significant growth over a 4-year period and whether growth in ethnic identity predicted growth in self-esteem. Findings from multiple-group latent growth curve models revealed that exploration, resolution, and affirmation all increased significantly from middle to late adolescence for Latina girls. For Latino boys, only affirmation increased significantly. Furthermore, only growth in exploration predicted growth in boys' and girls' self-esteem. This research indicates that patterns of growth in ethnic identity vary by adolescent sex. Furthermore, findings underscore the need to examine the unique contributions of each ethnic identity component, rather than using a composite ethnic identity score.