Changes in Latinx parenting behaviors during adolescence: Variation by neighborhood characteristics

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

9-9-2024

Journal

Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43)

DOI

10.1037/fam0001268

Abstract

General parenting research indicates parenting shifts, such as declines in parental warmth, parent-child conflict, and parental monitoring and increases in parental autonomy support, as youth progress through adolescence. Culturally and contextually informed scholarship, however, acknowledges that stability and change in parenting behaviors among ethnically and racially minoritized families and across different neighborhood environments may follow distinct patterns. Neighborhood structural disadvantages might disrupt parenting, and parents might adapt parenting in response to neighborhood opportunities and challenges. This study explored stability and change in parenting processes (e.g., conflict, warmth, control, solicitation, autonomy support) from early to middle adolescence among Latinx families across neighborhoods that varied on key characteristics: concentrated poverty, ethnic concentration, and ethnic-racial diversity. Data derived from the "Caminos" study, which utilized an accelerated longitudinal design of 547 Latinx adolescents (M = 13.31 years; 55.4% girls; 89.6% U.S. born). Two-level growth models were used to analyze 10 time points of data following adolescents from Spring of sixth to Fall of 11th grade. Parent-adolescent conflict and warmth declined linearly; parental solicitation showed a curvilinear increase that flattened over time; parental behavioral control and autonomy support remained stable. Some parenting trajectories varied systematically by neighborhood structural characteristics. This study underscored the significance of culturally and contextually informed frameworks for understanding changes in Latinx parenting during offspring adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Department

Prevention and Community Health

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