Cultural stressors, support, and psychopathology among Mexican American adolescents: A prospective mediated moderation model

National reports identify Mexican American adolescents, specifically, and Latino adolescents generally at greater risk than the majority population for experiencing mental health difficulties. A concise understanding of the patterns of risk among Mexican American adolescents is imperative to the development of effective prevention. This study will test a culturally relevant theoretical stress process model to investigate mediating and moderating roles of support in the prospective relations between cultural stressors and psychopathology in a heterogeneous sample of 616 Mexican American adolescents and mothers. Data for this study come from an ongoing longitudinal studying investigating the role of culture and context in the lives of Mexican American families. Preliminary results indicate main effects in expected directions for cultural stressors. In addition, we find significant moderation by gender and supportive context. Among females in high support homes the model explained 10%, 27% and 5% of the variance in time 2 externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, and supportive behavior respectively; for females in low support homes the model explained 3%, 12%, and 3% of the variance in time 2 externalizing symptoms; internalizing symptoms, and supportive behavior respectively. Finally, for males in high support homes the model explained 21%, 29%, and 1% of the variance in time 2 externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, supportive behavior respectively; and for males in low support homes the model explained 27%, 25%, and 4% of the variance in time 2 externalizing symptoms internalizing symptoms, and supportive behavior respectively. Implications for prevention and future research will be discussed.