Date of Award

1-1-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Jesse N. Valdez, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Maria Riva

Third Advisor

Ruth Chao

Fourth Advisor

Roger E. Salters

Keywords

Acculturation, Discrepancy, Language, Spanish

Abstract

The current study is an assessment of whether a language acculturation discrepancy (LAD) within families is most predictive of emotional and behavioral problems for Latina/o youth when relevant variables are controlled. A sample of predominantly Mexican American parent-child dyads was recruited to complete a language-based measure of acculturation and parent participants completed an assessment of their child's emotional and behavioral functioning. Results indicated a total difference value between parent-child levels of language acculturation to be most predictive of the outcome. Additionally, the child's level of language acculturation, independent of that of the parent, was also found to account for a significant amount of variance. Results indicate support for the acculturation gap-distress hypothesis based on discrepancies in language use and proficiency. Limitations of the findings and directions for future research are also discussed.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

Rights holder

Jonathan Muther

File size

141 p.

File format

application/pdf

Language

en

Discipline

Counseling psychology

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