A Model of Stress and Coping For Mexican American Adolescents: The Role Of Culturally Related Stressors, Coping, Sex And Ethnic Identity Affirmation on Adaptational Outcomes

Abstract

Many Mexican American adolescents experience a unique set of cultural stressors, which can negatively impact adaptational outcomes. Research on stress and coping suggests that the link between a stressor and adaptational outcomes is explained by the way the individual deals with the stressor. The purpose of this study is to examine a culturally relevant model of stress and coping for Mexican American adolescents. The proposed model hypothesized that the relation between bicultural stress and life satisfaction would be explained by two coping strategies, namely substance use and coping, and that those relations would depend on an individual’s ethnic identity affirmation and sex. A conditional process analysis was proposed to analyze the hypothesized model. Participants were 191 Mexican American adolescents attending a public high school in south Texas. Mean age for participants was 16.6 years old. Participants answered a paper and pencil survey. The results suggest that Mexican American adolescents’ life satisfaction was negatively impacted by bicultural stress, and this negative relation was stronger for those who felt less positively about their ethnic group membership. The relation between bicultural stress and life satisfaction was not explained by the coping strategies proposed, namely substance use and humor. Nevertheless, being a male was related to an increased use of both coping strategies. Findings highlight the influence of bicultural stressors on life satisfaction and the mechanisms of this relationship among Mexican American adolescents.