Objective

To examine ethnic identity and ethnic socialization as potential protective factors for risk behaviors among US college students.

Participants

Participants were 398 African American and Afro-Caribbean students recruited from 30 colleges and universities during September 2008-October 2009.

Methods

Data on hazardous alcohol use, substance use, sexual behaviors, ethnic identity, and ethnic/racial socialization were collected. Hierarchical linear and negative binomial regression analyses were conducted to determine the degree to which ethnic identity and ethnic/racial socialization predicted the risk behaviors.

Results

Ethnic Identity affirmation, belonging, and commitment (EI-ABC) significantly predicted lower substance use and hazardous alcohol use. Ethnic/racial socialization was not a significant predictor of substance use or sexual risk behaviors.

Conclusions

Components of ethnic identity are potentially protective against alcohol and substance use behaviors. Additional research is recommended to determine effective intervention strategies.

A growing body of research is documenting how racial and ethnic populations embody social inequalities throughout the life course. Some scholars recommend the integration of biospecimens representing the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, neurological and endocrinological processes, and inflammation to capture the embodiment of inequality. However, in comparison to other racial and ethnic groups, there has been little research examining how Hispanic/Latinx persons embody racial and ethnic discrimination, much less resulting from institutional and structural racism. We provide a rationale for expanding biobehavioral research examining the physiological consequences of racism among Latinx persons. We identify gaps and make recommendations for a future research agenda in which biobehavioral research can expand knowledge about chronic disease inequities among Latinx populations and inform behavioral and institutional interventions. We end by cautioning readers to approach the recommendations in this article as a call to expand the embodiment of racism research to include the diverse Latinx population as the United States addresses racial inequity.

Researchers have demonstrated mixed associations between acculturative stress and prosocial behaviors (actions intended to benefit others) among Latino/a adolescents and emerging adults. The current study aimed to examine the relations between acculturative stress and Latino/a young adults' prosocial behaviors via familism values and emotion reappraisal. Participants were 1,527 Latino/a college students (M _age = 20.35 years, SD = 3.88; 75.2% women) from universities across the United States. The results demonstrated direct and indirect links between acculturative stress and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, acculturative stress was positively related to familism values, which in turn were positively associated with multiple forms of prosocial behaviors. Additionally, emotion reappraisal was positively associated with specific forms of prosocial behaviors. There was also evidence that familism and emotion reappraisals moderated the associations between acculturative stress and specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Discussion focuses on the interplay of culture-related and emotion-regulation processes associated with Latino/a young adults' positive social outcomes.

Researchers, service providers, and policymakers must uncover and better understand the issues facing youths in Asian gangs in order to most effectively intervene with appropriate policies and programs. The present investigation sampled young male Filipino gang members in Hawai’i. Thematic analyses of the focus group data challenge the commonly held view of racial harmony in Hawai’i. It appears that racial and social discrimination from peers and authority figures propel Filipino boys to seek out gang membership as a way to protect themselves from being targets of oppression.

Objectives

Past research has established that the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) exhibits measurement invariance across diverse ethnic groups. However, relatively little research has evaluated whether this measure is invariant across generational status. Thus, the present study evaluates the invariance of the MEIM across foreign-born, second-generation, and later-generation respondents.

Method

A large, ethnically diverse sample of college students completed the MEIM as part of an online survey (N = 9,107; 72.8% women; mean age = 20.31 years; SD = 3.38).

Results

There is evidence of configural and metric invariance, but there is little evidence of scalar invariance across generational status groups.

Conclusions

This study suggests that the MEIM has an equivalent factor structure across generation groups, indicating it is appropriate to compare the magnitude of associations between the MEIM and other variables across foreign-born, second-generation, and later-generation individuals. However, the lack of scalar invariance suggests that mean-level differences across generational status should be interpreted with caution. (PsycINFO Database Record

Objective

We examined whether two key emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, moderated the relations between discrimination (i.e., foreigner objectification and general denigration) and adjustment.

Methods

Participants were U.S. Latino/a and Asian-heritage college students (N = 1,279, 67% female, 72% U.S. born) from the Multi-Site University Study of Identity and Culture (MUSIC). Students completed online self-report surveys in 2009.

Results

Multi-group path analysis demonstrated that a fully constrained model fit well for both Latino/a and Asian-heritage student data. The results showed that with increasing levels of denigration (but not foreigner objectification), the combination of lower cognitive reappraisal and higher expressive suppression was related to greater depressive symptoms, anxiety, and aggression.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the importance of examining multiple emotion regulation strategies simultaneously-considering what strategies are available to individuals and in what combination they are used-to understand how best to deal with negative emotions resulting from experiencing discrimination.