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Latino Adolescent Adjustment: An Examination Of Cultural Values, Maria I. Iturbide

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the U.S., 22% of children under the age of 18 are Latino and 52% of Latino children have at least one parent who is foreign-born (Fry & Passel, 2009). Latinos are likely to experience acculturative strains associated with a range of negative outcomes such as academic underachievement. A mixed method sequential explanatory design was used to examine the protective effects of cultural factors that may ameliorate the negative effects of acculturative strains on psychological and academic adjustment.

The quantitative phase of the study examined whether biculturalism and ethnic identity would reduce the negative influence of acculturation strains on adjustment …