Citation

Smokowski PR, Bacallao ML. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 2006; 34(5): 659-673.

Affiliation

School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550, USA. smokowsk@email.unc.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10802-006-9049-4

PMID

17019628

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.

Language: en