The primary purpose of the proposed study is to examine a developmental-contextual model of depressive symptomatology among adolescent girls of Mexican origin.
The aims of this study are 2 fold. First, the proposed study will examine the influence of normative developmental factors (i.e., autonomy development), relational components (i.e., parent-adolescent conflict and attachment), and cultural related issues (i.e., acculturation dissonance between mothers and their daughters) to help explain the depressive symptomatology of Mexican-origin adolescent girls. Second, by using multiple informants (i.e., mother's and daughter's perspectives), the proposed model aims to better capture the dynamics occurring within the mother-daughter dyad. Data will be gathered from 300 adolescent girls (ages between 11-15) and their mothers. Adolescent participants will complete self-administered questionnaires and mothers will complete questionnaires via phone interviews. Hypotheses to be tested are based on a developmental-contextual framework that incorporates resiliency, family systems, attachment, and acculturation theories. Given existing statistics that indicate that Latina adolescent girls are at greater risk for mental health problems, research on this population is needed. The proposed study will have important implications for public health as the findings will provide generative research that can inform the development of culturally sensitive intervention and prevention programs to prevent Mexican origin adolescent girls from experiencing more serious psychiatric disorders. ? ? ?
