Research suggests that Latino adolescents face challenges with respect to their perceptions of success in academia while falling behind in school competencies. This study examines pathways between parent characteristics, adolescent perceptions of parental academic importance, school connectedness, and academic aspirations/expectations for Latinos…

Prior research has shown that college women in the United States are experiencing significantly high rates of verbal aggression (VA); approximately 20% to 30% of college women experience VA in their intimate relationships. Research has shown that familial conflict experiences directly influence these outcomes. Unfortunately, studies focusing on…

This study uses social capital to assess the effects of social support on acculturation-related stress among recently immigrated Hispanics in South Florida before and after immigration. At baseline ("N" = 527), first 12 months in the United States, acculturative stress was negatively related to support from friends ("p" <…

Guided by an ecological perspective, two competing models were tested to examine how sibling relationship quality directly predicted or interacted with academic support from siblings to predict Latino adolescents' academic motivation (N = 258). Gender differences were examined utilizing multiple group analysis in structural equation modeling.…

Home-based parental involvement practices (i.e., educational encouragement, monitoring, and support) and their impact on students' academic persistence were investigated with a sample of 137, ninth-grade Latino students in a northeast high school. Structural Equation Modeling results indicate that the relationship between home-based parental…

A communication framework was developed to examine the influence of maternal use of self-disclosure on adolescent intentions to smoke cigarettes and to engage in sexual intercourse. Data were collected from 516 Dominican and Puerto Rican mother-adolescent dyads. Statistical analyses were conducted in AMOS using structural equation modeling.…

The purpose of this study was to assess the association between acculturation and functional health using multiple proxies of acculturation to examine explanatory pathways to clarify disparate health findings. A population-based cross-sectional, multistage probability sample from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies…

The purposes of this research brief were to examine (a) whether youth reports of neighborhood qualities were significantly related to census data at the block group, measuring the same structural qualities and (b) whether the structural qualities were related to youth development either directly or indirectly through youth perceptions. Data were…

This study used structural equation modeling to test a model of ethnic identity development among 513 Mexican-origin adolescents living in the United States. The model examined the influence of ecological factors, familial ethnic socialization, and autonomy on adolescents' ethnic identity achievement. Findings indicated that lower percentages of…

Tests with linear structural equations (LISREL) suggest that an integrative model best explains interrelationships among peer deviancy, psychological vulnerability, inhalant availability, family environment, acculturative and socioeconomic stress, and educational attainment, and their longitudinal effects on inhalant use and drug use severity…

Mexican American youth have higher physical inactivity rates than their Black or non-Hispanic White counterparts. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among exercise locus of control, age, present exercise level, weight status, and gender with intention to exercise in a sample of Mexican American youth. The study sample…