NCJ Number
226929
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 627-641
Date Published
May 2009
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study examined the links between Mexican-American youth’s daily activities and adjustment and the role of cultural practices and values in these links.
Abstract
The most consistent results revealed that Anglo-oriented practices were associated with more time spent in sports, religious, and academic activities, but that Mexican-oriented practices were linked to more time spent in television viewing. More generally, results highlight three conclusions about the links between cultural orientations and youth activities: indices of Anglo- and Mexican-oriented practices add to socioeconomic status (SES) in explaining within-group differences in youth activities. Findings revealed that time spent in unstructured, unsupervised activities was linked to depressive symptoms. Although youth averaged only about 1.5 hours across 7 days in unsupervised hanging out, there was substantial variability across the sample and hanging out was the strongest and most consistent correlate of internalizing and externalizing problems in Mexican-American adolescents. Also found was that the time spent in religious activities was associated, at trend level, with lower levels of depressive symptoms, and, consistent with expectations of the positive correlates of constructive activities, that time in academic activities was related to lower levels of risky behavior and marginally related to lower levels of depressive symptoms. Fathers’ and youth’s familism values and youth reports of mothers’ and fathers’ educational values were negative correlates of youth depressive symptoms, and youth’s familism values and their reports of fathers’ educational values were negative correlates of risky behaviors. Data were collected from 246 Mexican-American families. Tables, figures, and references