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The Journal of Early Adolescence
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Language Brokering Contexts and Behavioral and Emotional Adjustment Among Latino Parents and Adolescents

Charles R. Martinez, Jr

Oregon Social Learning Center, charlesm{at}oslc.org

Heather H. McClure

Oregon Social Learning Center

J. Mark Eddy

Oregon Social Learning Center

This study examined behavioral and emotional adjustment in family contexts in which there was high versus low demand for adolescents to serve as language brokers in a sample of 73 recently immigrated Latino families with middle-school-aged adolescents. Language brokering was conceptualized as a family process rather than merely an individual phenomenon. Multiple agents were used to assess language brokering and parent and youth adjustment. Results indicated that those in high language brokering contexts, compared with those in low language brokering contexts, demonstrated higher levels of family stress, lower levels of parenting effectiveness, and poorer adolescent adjustment in terms of academic functioning, socioemotional health, and substance use. The findings are particularly important given the limited and mixed findings from formative research on language brokering, particularly in areas within the United States with emerging immigrant populations. Findings suggest the need for advancing practices that increase language and cultural supports for immigrant families and support parents' efforts to foster positive youth and family adjustment.

Key Words: language brokering • acculturation • Latino families • parenting • adolescent adjustment

This version was published on February 1, 2009

The Journal of Early Adolescence, Vol. 29, No. 1, 71-98 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0272431608324477
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