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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Dev. Psychol.
Sec. Adolescent Psychological Development
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdpys.2024.1464687
This article is part of the Research Topic Promoting a Kinder and More Just World: The Development of Prosocial, Moral, and Social Justice Behaviors in Adolescence View all 3 articles

Longitudinal Relations Between Parenting Practices and Prosocial Behaviors in Recent Immigrant Latino/a Adolescents: Familism Values and Ethnic Identity as Mediators

Provisionally accepted
Sahitya Maiya Sahitya Maiya 1*Gustavo Carlo Gustavo Carlo 2Alexandra Davis Alexandra Davis 3Seth Schwartz Seth Schwartz 4Jennifer Unger Jennifer Unger 5Byron Zamboanga Byron Zamboanga 6Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati 5Daniel Soto Daniel Soto 5Elma Lorenzo-Blanco Elma Lorenzo-Blanco 4
  • 1 University of New Hampshire, Durham, United States
  • 2 University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States
  • 3 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
  • 4 The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
  • 5 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States
  • 6 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The present study investigated the mediating roles of familism values and ethnic identity in longitudinal associations between recent immigrant U.S. Latino/a adolescents' reports of their parents' (i.e., mothers' and fathers') use of social and material rewards and prosocial behaviors.Participants included 302 recent immigrant U.S. Latino/a adolescents (M age = 14.5 years at Time 1, range = 13-17 years, 53% male) recruited from Los Angeles and Miami. Participants self-reported on their perceptions of parents' use of social and material rewards (Time 1), familism values (Time 3), ethnic identity (Time 5), and multiple types of prosocial behaviors (Time 6). Path analyses showed that mothers' use of social rewards was indirectly related (via familism values and ethnic identity) to higher levels of everyday types of helping behaviors seen in youth, whereas mothers' use of material rewards was only directly related to motive-based helping behaviors. In contrast, we found no significant direct or indirect relations from fathers' use of social or material rewards and prosocial behaviors. The discussion describes the parenting and cultural assets that facilitate varied types and motives of prosocial behaviors in recent immigrant U.S. Latino/a youth. Family-based interventions, prosocial development theories, and future research on this topic can target prosocial parenting practices (e.g., social rewards) and cultural assets (e.g., familism values, ethnic identity) to facilitate helping in youth.

    Keywords: Parenting, rewards, familism, ethnic identity, Prosocial behaviors

    Received: 14 Jul 2024; Accepted: 10 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maiya, Carlo, Davis, Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga, Baezconde-Garbanati, Soto and Lorenzo-Blanco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sahitya Maiya, University of New Hampshire, Durham, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.