title: Acculturation and aggression in Latino adolescents: a structural model focusing on cultural risk factors and assets.
abstract: The specific aim of this investigation was to map cultural factors associated with aggressive behavior in Latino adolescents. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 481 foreign- and U.S.-born Latino adolescents living in North Carolina and Arizona. Structural Equation Modeling was used to validate a conceptual model linking adolescent and parent culture-of-origin and U.S. cultural involvement, acculturation conflicts, and perceived discrimination to family processes (familism and parent-adolescent conflict) and adolescent aggression. Parent-adolescent conflict was the strongest cultural risk factor followed by perceived discrimination. Familism and adolescent culture-of-origin involvement were key cultural assets associated with less aggressive behavior. Exploratory mediation analyses suggested that familism and parent-adolescent conflict mediated the effects of acculturation conflicts, parent and adolescent culture-of-origin involvement, and parent U.S. cultural involvement on adolescent aggression. Implications for prevention programming were discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550, USA. smokowsk@email.unc.edu
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Smokowski
authors.forename: Martica L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Bacallao
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001130:Arizona; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009657:North Carolina; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011287:Prejudice; D012307:Risk Factors