UC Merced

Youth from immigrant families frequently help their families overcome communication barriers. The term cultural brokering refers to the process by which youth from immigrant families interpret cultural norms for others. An unstudied brokering process and the focus of the present research is emotion brokering: helping others navigate interactions between social partners who hold different norms in the expression and experience of emotions. In contrast to language brokering (i.e., interpreting language for others), the process of brokering emotions has yet to be examined. This dissertation focuses on the emotion brokering experience among two Latinx college-aged samples. Study 1 (N = 122) examined the contexts and emotions involved in emotion brokering. Study 2 (N = 140) examined the relationships between the emotions (i.e., embarrassment, pride) experienced when emotion brokering and psychological adjustment (i.e., acculturative stress, depressive symptoms). Finally, Study 3 (N = 279) examined whether endorsement of emotion brokering as a family assistance behavior moderated the relationships between the emotions experienced when emotion brokering and psychological adjustment. Study 1 revealed that emotion brokering occurs for both negative and positive emotions in multiple interaction contexts. Study 2 demonstrated that embarrassment and pride moderated the relationship between emotion brokering frequency and psychological adjustment. Study 3 demonstrated that endorsement of emotion brokering as a family assistance behavior moderated the relationships between the emotions experienced when emotion brokering and psychological adjustment. Overall, findings provide evidence for a novel, but impactful form of cultural brokering where youth facilitate others’ emotion acculturation. In addition, findings have important practical implications for improving wellbeing and psychological adjustment among youth from immigrant families.