Critical consciousness and anti-racist action as rooted in family processes.

Racially ethnically marginalized communities in the United States are exposed to structural and interpersonal forms of racism that have harmful effects on their health, wealth, education, and employment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Racism and Health. https://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/racism-disparities/index.html, 2021). Although a plethora of research exists outlining these harmful effects, research examining how youth from diverse backgrounds effectively combat racism is lacking. Emerging research demonstrates that families may play a key role in the development of critical consciousness and participation in anti-racist actions (Bañales et al., Journal of Social Issues, 2021, 77, 964; Blanco Martinez et al., American Journal of Community Psychology, 2022, 70, 278; Lozada et al., Journal of Black Psychology, 2017, 43, 493). Yet, many key family processes have not been examined in relation to youth development of anti-racist practices. The current study included a sample of 327 racially ethnically diverse emerging adults (Mage = 18.80, SD = 1.28, range = 18-25), and explored the association between ethnic-racial socialization (cultural socialization, preparation for bias) and youth critical consciousness (reflection, motivation, action) and anti-racist (interpersonal, communal, political change) actions, and how familism values impact these associations. Results found that ethnic-racial socialization was positively associated with all aspects of critical consciousness and anti-racist actions. Results also found that familism significantly interacted with ethnic-racial socialization to predict some aspects of critical consciousness and anti-racist actions, but not others. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Familism in action in an emerging immigrant community: An examination of indirect effects in early adolescence.

Familism values promote the positive adaptation of Latinx youth, but few studies have examined potential indirect effects associated with these positive effects. In emerging immigrant communities, where fewer resources are available to youth and families to maintain cultural values and ties, familism may be especially important. In this study of 175 primarily second-generation Latinx youth in such a community, we tested whether familism values were indirectly associated with adolescent outcomes through positive parent-child relationships, private racial/ethnic regard, meaning in life, and support seeking coping. Familism values were associated with greater academic motivation. Additionally, there were significant indirect effects in terms of positive parent-child relationships explaining the links between familism and fewer parent-reported externalizing symptoms, and for meaning in life explaining the links between familism and fewer depressive symptoms and greater academic motivation. Familism was also associated with greater support seeking coping, but this was associated with greater depressive symptoms. Our study suggests that in an emerging immigrant community familism values are primarily associated with positive adaptation through distinct mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

When Discrimination Hurts: The Longitudinal Impact of Increases in Peer Discrimination on Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Mexican-origin Youth.

Life course models of the impact of discrimination on health and mental health outcomes posit that the pernicious effects of discrimination may not be immediate, but instead may become apparent at later stages in development. This study tests whether peer discrimination changes at particular transition points (i.e., transition to middle and high school) predict subsequent internalizing symptoms in Mexican-origin youth. In a sample of 674 Mexican-origin youth (50% female), this study used a latent change score framework to model changes in peer discrimination across time and to test whether changes in peer discrimination at 7th and 9th grades predicted greater depressive and anxiety symptoms in 12th grade controlling for 5th grade symptoms. Irrespective of longitudinal changes, greater peer discrimination in 5th grade predicted greater depressive and anxiety symptoms in 12th grade. Further, significant increases in peer discrimination from 7th to 8th grade and in 9th to 10th grade uniquely predicted greater anxiety symptoms in 12th grade. These findings suggest that longitudinal research on peer discrimination needs to take into account unique periods of risk. Future research implications are discussed.

Lessons Learned in Clinical Research Recruitment of Immigrants and Minority Group Members with First-Episode Psychosis.

Recruitment of immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities with first-episode psychosis (FEP) for research studies presents numerous challenges. We describe methods used to recruit 43 U.S. Latinos with FEP and their family caregivers (n = 41) participating in a study to reduce duration of untreated psychosis. A key challenge was that patients were not continuing treatment at an outpatient clinic, as initially expected. To facilitate identification of patients prior to outpatient care, we collaborated with clinic and hospital administrators. Many patients and families were grappling with the aftermath of a hospitalization or adjusting to a diagnosis of a serious mental illness. A considerable amount of time was devoted to addressing participants' concerns and when possible, facilitating needed services. Our experience underscores the importance of establishing long-term relationships through multiple contacts with patients, families, and stakeholders to address recruitment barriers among underserved groups with FEP.

Making my family proud: The unique contribution of familism pride to the psychological adjustment of Latinx emerging adults.

OBJECTIVES: Familism values serve to provide key cultural scripts in Latinx families, and these values have been associated with positive psychosocial outcomes for Latinx youth (Stein et al., 2014). Yet, how familism values intersect with the experience of positive emotions remains relatively unknown. In particular, familism pride may be an important positive emotion that links familism values to positive psychosocial outcomes. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study developed a measure of familism pride and examined its unique prediction to psychosocial outcomes. METHOD: Self-report survey data were collected from 2 samples of Latinx emerging adults who were part of a psychology subject pool at a comprehensive university in Los Angeles designated as an Hispanic-serving institution. Sample 1 (n = 352) was 72.2% women with a mean age of 18.9 years, whereas Sample 2 was 68.6% women with a mean age of 19.3 years. RESULTS: Factor analyses supported that familism pride was distinct from familism values (familial support, obligation, reference, respeto). Familism pride was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and greater experience of joy when controlling for familism values in both samples. CONCLUSIONS: Our study underscores the importance of examining emotional processes in the study of familism and suggests a new dimension of familism that has not received research attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Ethnic-racial socialization in Latino families: The influence of mothers' socialization practices on adolescent private regard, familism, and perceived ethnic-racial discrimination.

OBJECTIVES: Cultural value endorsement and ethnic-racial identity promote Latino/a adolescent positive adaptation and mitigate the negative impacts of perceived ethnic-racial discrimination. This study explored the intergenerational process of how adolescents develop these cultural characteristics in concert with their experiences of discrimination, focusing on the role of youth-reported maternal ethnic-racial socialization processes. METHOD: Participants included 175 Latino/a adolescent-mother dyads recruited from the 7th and 8th grades in an understudied emerging immigrant destination. We tested the effects of maternal cultural characteristics (i.e., familism, private regard, and perceived discrimination) on the same adolescent outcomes through youth-reported maternal ethnic-racial socialization practices (i.e., cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and familism socialization, a novel construct introduced in this study). RESULTS: Three significant indirect pathways were identified. Higher maternal private regard was associated with both higher youth familism and higher youth private regard through greater youth-reported familism socialization, and higher maternal private regard was associated with more perceived youth discrimination through greater youth-reported preparation for bias. CONCLUSION: Our results highlight maternal private regard as particularly important for understanding how youth perceptions of socialization processes encourage the development of adolescent cultural characteristics and the benefit of using specific assessment tools, such as a familism socialization measure, to identify how ethnic-racial socialization processes serve as intergenerational links. Directions for future research and implications for intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Depressive symptoms in Latina mothers in an emerging immigrant community.

OBJECTIVES: Latina mothers in emerging immigrant communities experience heightened risk for depressive symptoms because of the convergence of multiple risk factors rooted in economic, cultural, and familial experiences. Previous research with Latina/o adolescents has found that discrimination, and not acculturative stress, predicts depressive symptoms; however, no research to our knowledge has examined the relative impact of both discrimination and acculturative stress in Latina mothers. METHOD: The present study expands this literature by examining how both universal (i.e., economic hardship and parent-child conflict) and cultural stressors (i.e., discrimination and acculturative-based family conflict) predict maternal depressive symptoms in a sample of 169 Latina mothers in an emerging immigrant context. RESULTS: Results found that the presence of universal stressors for Latina mothers does indeed significantly predict depressive symptoms, and that uniquely, 1 type of cultural stressor (i.e., acculturative-based family conflict) predicts depressive symptoms above and beyond the universal stressors. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that it is important to examine how cultural stressors may have differential impact for youth and their parents; thus, more work should examine the impact of acculturative-based family conflict for Latina mothers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The Intersection of Racial-Ethnic Socialization and Adolescence: A Closer Examination at Stage-Salient Issues.

The literature on parental racial-ethnic socialization (RES) has established the multiple protective effects of RES on developmental outcomes. Although the majority of this literature examines RES processes in adolescence, with the exception of identity processes this literature has not specifically tackled how these messages intersect with specific adolescent developmental processes. We review the literature on RES processes in non-White adolescents with a focus on the parent-adolescent relationship, risk-taking behaviors, romantic relationships, and different contexts (i.e., extracurricular, work, and social media settings). We propose that developmental science needs to account for how parental RES may not only change in adolescence, but in particular responds to the perceived risks associated with this developmental period and interacts with normative developmental tasks and milestones.

Psychosis Literacy Among Latinos With First-Episode Psychosis and Their Caregivers.

OBJECTIVE: The study examined psychosis literacy among Latinos with first-episode psychosis (FEP) and their caregivers. The authors tested a model that knowledge of psychosis and attribution of illness to psychosis predicted professional help seeking in a cross-sectional design. METHODS: The sample (N=148) consisted of 79 Latino consumers who met criteria for a clinical diagnosis of a psychotic disorder and 69 family caregivers. Participants watched a four-minute narrative about a woman with psychosis and were asked to identify the symptoms of serious mental illness (knowledge of psychosis), describe the character's problem and whether she had a serious mental illness (illness attribution), and offer suggestions about what the parents should do (help seeking). Responses to the open-ended questions were reliably coded by two trained raters. RESULTS: Consumers reported low psychosis literacy across all indices (e.g., only 8% included delusions in their knowledge of serious mental illness). Compared with consumers, caregivers reported significantly greater psychosis literacy across most indices, although relatively few reported knowledge of delusions (28%) and disorganized speech (36%). Logistic regression analyses found that caregivers were more than twice as likely as consumers to suggest that the parents seek professional help. Among both consumers and caregivers, greater knowledge of psychosis and attribution of symptoms to serious mental illness were associated with increased likelihood of recommending professional help seeking. CONCLUSIONS: Community campaigns and psychoeducation interventions within clinical settings are needed to improve psychosis literacy among Latinos with FEP. Increasing knowledge of psychosis and facilitating attributions of psychotic symptoms to serious mental illness have the potential to promote professional help seeking.

Using a Narrative Film to Increase Knowledge and Interpersonal Communication About Psychosis Among Latinos.

Narrative communication is effective in increasing public awareness while generating dialogue about varied health topics. The current study utilized narrative communication in the form of a 15-minute motivational film titled La CLAve to help Latinos recognize symptoms of psychosis and begin a discussion about serious mental illness. The study aimed to explore the participants' response to the film and whether the film led to further dialogue about psychosis. Four focus groups were conducted with 40 Spanish-speaking participants, mostly foreign-born Latinas, with a mean age of 49 years. Results indicate that participants engaged with the film as reflected in their ability to recall the storyline in detail. Reports of psychosis knowledge gains included recognition of key symptoms, such as hallucinations and disorganized speech. Participants attributed symptoms of psychosis, observed in a film character, to social stressors and other previously constructed views of mental illness. Many participants discussed the content of the film within their immediate social networks. Other findings include discussions of key barriers and facilitators to seeking mental health treatment among Latino families, such as denial and family support. Results suggest that narrative films offer a promising strategy to stimulate dialogue about serious mental illness among Latinos.

Towards the sustainability of information campaigns: training Promotores to increase the psychosis literacy of Spanish-speaking communities.

PURPOSE: To assess the acceptability and efficacy of training community health workers (promotores) in Mexico to both recognize psychosis and to teach others to recognize psychosis. METHODS: Two studies were carried out utilizing a single-group design. In Study 1, promotores watched a DVD-based psychosis literacy training. In Study 2, promotores were trained to administer a flip-chart version of the program and they then administered it to community residents. RESULTS: Significant increases in the post-training assessment of psychosis literacy were observed. CONCLUSION: Promotores can be an important resource in identifying psychosis early and enhancing the sustainability of psychosis literacy information campaigns.