People of Mexican ancestry or origin are a fast growing segment of the population living in the United States. Immigrant Mexican Americans account for 28 percent of the 27 million foreign-born who arrived to the U.S. since 1960 (Rumbaut, 1998). The children of Mexican American families are at a considerable risk for mental health problems. Although large community surveys assessing mental health needs have been conducted with adult Mexican Americans, little attention has been devoted to children and adolescents of this ethnic group. Virtually no systematic data is available to guide the planning of services for this at-risk group. The main purpose of the proposed study is to address this significant gap in the literature and assess a wide range of mental health problems among both immigrant and U.S. born children. The primary aims of the study are: (1) To provide the first report of the overall rates of behavior problems (using the Child Behavior Checklist; CBCL) among a non-referred sample of Mexican American children. (2) To determine differences in selected outcomes between a sample of immigrant and U.S. born Mexican American children and assess their risk for both internalizing and externalizing problems. (3) To examine factors associated with the selected negative outcomes such as parenting characteristics (e.g. Firm/Lax Control), language and social conflicts (e.g. discrimination), and cultural values (e.g. obedience). To test whether these family and socio-cultural factors partially mediate the relationship between generation groups (U.S. born and immigrant) and overall, internalizing, and externalizing problems. A total of 160 Mexican American parents and their middle school children will be interviewed. The sample will be stratified by the family's country of origin (U.S./Mexico), child's gender (male/female), and grade (6th-8th).
| Polo, Antonio J; Lopez, Steven R (2009) Culture, context, and the internalizing distress of Mexican American youth. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 38:273-85 |
