Discrimination and Acculturation Stress: A Longitudinal Study of Children's Well-Being from Prenatal Development to 5 Years of Age.
Katharine H Zeiders, Adriana J Umaña-Taylor, Laudan B Jahromi and 2 others
PMID 27571330WHAT IT FOUND
In families with Mexican-origin adolescent mothers, greater cumulative stress from discrimination and acculturation was associated with more maternal depressive symptoms and poorer child socio-emotional and academic outcomes by age 5.
Mother-child interaction quality was not associated with child outcomes.
Key findings
01Greater family cumulative stress from discrimination and acculturation was associated with more intrusive mother-child interactions and less maternal sensitivity at 36 months.
02Greater family cumulative stress was associated with more maternal depressive symptoms at 36 months, and maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher child behavior problem scores at 60 months.
03Greater family cumulative stress was directly associated with lower child academic achievement at 60 months, while mother-child interaction quality was not associated with child outcomes and no significant explanatory pathway through maternal mood or interaction was found.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was limited to Mexican-origin families with an adolescent mother, so the findings may not apply to older mothers, other groups, or families without a mother-figure. The family cumulative stressor score combined many stressors, so it cannot show which stressor or which time point mattered most. The stress assessment did not include documentation or citizenship status, generational status, years in the United States, or more detailed cultural values and behaviors. Inter-rater reliability for observing intrusive mother-child behavior was low (.62), so that observational measure may be less stable than the other measures. Children's behavior problems were reported by the mothers, who also reported their own depressive symptoms, so maternal mood could have influenced the child scores. The study was observational and did not test an intervention, so it cannot show that reducing discrimination or acculturation stress would improve child outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors reported no financial, consultant, institutional or other conflicts of interest. The article metadata lists NIH and U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing discrimination or acculturation stress will improve child outcomes. This was an observational study, not a treatment trial. It also found no significant explanatory pathway through mother-child interactions.