Letter from the Editor
Staff Articles
- Epigenetic effects of Maternal Behavior… Sounds a lot like Attachment Theory
- Mean Kids, Mean Moms?
- Problematizing Perfectionism: A Closer Look at the Perfectionism Construct
- Food Allergy and Bullying: The Implications for Parents of Children with Food Allergies
- Child Maltreatment and Resilience in the Academic Environment
- The Role of Consumer Satisfaction in Psychiatric Care
- The Many Treatment Methodologies for Phobias: Finding the Best Fit
- The Effect of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on the Ability to Recognize Facial Expressions
- The Female/Athlete Paradox: Managing Traditional Views of Masculinity and Femininity
- Socio-emotional Interventions: The Efficacy of Socio-Emotional Interventions in Head Start Classrooms
- Comparing the type of trauma and the severity of PTSD symptoms in children and adolescents
- The Role of Community Connection for Immigrant Youth’s School Engagement
- Household Economic Shock and the Academic Experiences of College Women
- Sexual Minority Identity Development, Onset of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior, and HIV Risk Outcomes
- Parent-Child Interactions in Behavioral Treatment of Selective Mutism: A Case Study
- Children’s Fictional Narratives: Gender Differences in Storytelling
- Risk-Taking Behaviors in First Generation Immigrant Adolescents: The Role of Acculturative Stress and Social Support
- Promoting the Mathematics Achievement of Economically Disadvantaged Latino and African American Students: Understanding the Roles of Parental Involvement and Expectations
- Caregiver and Teacher Use of Evaluation and the Development of Latino Preschooler’s Socio-Emotional Skills
Josephine M. Palmeri
Acculturative stress arises when immigrants’ experience difficulty in reconciling differences between their home and host cultures. Research shows that acculturative stress can lead to negative outcomes, yet limited research examines its effect on risk-taking behaviors. Theory and research also suggests that social support may buffer acculturative stress by providing a space where immigrants’ identities are validated. The present study examined (1) whether acculturative stress predicts risk taking behaviors in first generation immigrant 11th graders within an urban context (N = 189, female = 50.8%) and (2) whether social support moderates this relation. Acculturative stress was measured using Societal, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental-Revised-Short Form (Mena, Padilla, & Maldonado, 1987). Risk-taking behaviors were measured by Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Brener et al., 2002). Social support was measured by Support Networks Measure (Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, unpublished). Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that marijuana use was the only risk taking behavior related to acculturative stress or social support. In addition, hierarchal regression analysis showed that academic support significantly moderated the relation between acculturative stress and marijuana use. The results suggest that in times of high acculturative stress, immigrants with low academic support experience less marijuana usage.