Browsing by Subject "Language brokering"
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Item Complex effects of language brokering among Chinese immigrant families : integrating variable-centered and person-centered approaches(2016-05) Shen, Yishan; Kim, Su Yeong; Benner, Aprile D; Loukas, Alexandra; Anderson, Edward R; Dix, Theodore HChildren and adolescents in linguistic minority families, such as Chinese American families, often serve as language brokers; that is, they are the translators or interpreters for their parents who have limited English proficiency. Despite a growing number of scholarly investigations on language brokering, evidence regarding its developmental outcomes remains mixed. To disentangle the complex effects of language brokering, two separate but complementary studies were conducted. Specifically, Study 1 took a variable-centered approach and examined the mechanisms of the complex effects of language brokering frequency, while Study 2 took a person-centered approach and explored subgroups of language brokers based on language brokering feelings and identified predictors and outcomes of subgroup memberships (including a known subgroup of non-brokers). Participants were Chinese American adolescents (N = 252 for Study 1; N = 394 for Study 2 including non-brokers) residing in Northern California who were surveyed when they were in high school (T1; Mage = 17.0; SD = 0.73; 61% female) and again four years later (T2). In Study 1, it was found that frequent language brokering for mothers was associated with brokering-related maternal dependence, which was in turn simultaneously associated with both brokering-related mother-child mutual regard and mother-child role reversal across language brokers’ adolescence and emerging adulthood. In addition, the positive impact of frequent language brokering diminished when language brokers did not perceive warmth from their mothers’ parenting behaviors. In Study 2, two distinct subgroups of adolescent language brokers were identified using latent profile analyses based on language brokering feelings: efficacious brokers and burdened brokers. A key predictor that distinguished the two language broker groups was bilingual proficiency, such that those who were proficient in both English and Chinese were more likely to be efficacious brokers. Moreover, compared to non-brokers, efficacious brokers were not significantly affected by or even benefitted from translating, while burdened brokers’ parent-child relationships and psychosocial well-being were at risk due to brokering. Finally, the majority of adolescents remained in the same subgroups over time, and those who were burdened at both times and those who later became burdened showed poorer adjustment in emerging adulthood than other subgroups.Item A conditional indirect effect of language brokering on adjustment among Chinese and Korean American adolescents : the roles of perceived maternal sacrifice, respect for the mother, and mother-child open communication(2013-05) Shen, Yishan; Kim, Su YeongAsian American adolescents, such as Chinese and Korean American adolescents, often language broker for their immigrant parents. This study examines how language brokering influences parent-child relationships and adolescents' psychological adjustment in Asian-American families. Using a two-wave sample of Chinese (n = 237; average age = 14.65, SD = .68) and Korean (n = 262; average age = 14.72, SD = .69) American adolescents, this study examined a culturally relevant conditional mechanism through which language brokering may contribute to lower levels of internalizing/externalizing problems. Results suggested that language brokering for the mother was associated with perceived maternal sacrifice, which was in turn associated with respect for the mother, which was eventually associated with lower levels of externalizing problems (but not internalizing problems) in the adolescents. Moreover, the indirect effect was conditional on the level of mother-child open communication. With a lower level of open communication, the indirect effect of language brokering on externalizing problems became stronger. Results indicate that interventions designed to reduce Asian American adolescent language brokers' externalizing problems can target their perception of parental sacrifice and their respect for parents, and that this approach may be especially effective for adolescents experiencing a low level of parent-child open communication. At the same time, for these families with low levels of parent-child open communication, encouraging more open communication may be an additional way to intervene.Item Discrimination, language brokering efficacy, and academic competence in Mexican-American adolescents(2018-09-19) Chen, Shanting; Kim, Su Yeong; Benner, Aprile DDiscrimination is a significant risk factor for adolescents’ academic competence. However, the mechanism underlying this association is understudied. Guided by the integrative model of minority children’s development, this study examined whether a culture-specific factor, language brokering efficacy, mediated the relation between adolescents’ perceived discrimination and their academic competence. Two waves of data from 604 Mexican American adolescents (Mage.wave1 = 12.41, SD = .97, 54.3% female) residing in Central Texas were used. Path analyses showed that higher levels of discrimination were negatively related to adolescents’ language brokering efficacy for both mothers and fathers, which was then linked to lower levels of academic competence. Implications for intervening to reduce the negative impacts of discrimination are discussedItem Do mothers’ experiences count? : an actor-partner model of language brokering experiences in Mexican immigrant families(2020-07-01) Song, Jiaxiu; Kim, Su YeongLanguage brokering is a shared experience between parents and children in which children interpret and mediate between the host culture/language and their heritage culture/language for their English-limited parents. Using two waves of survey data collected from a sample (N [subscript adolescents] = 604, N [subscript mothers] = 595 at Wave 1) of Mexican American adolescents (Mage = 12.41, 54% female) and their mothers, the current study tested an actor-partner interdependence model and found that both mothers’ and youths’ subjective language brokering experiences were related to their own psychological wellbeing via their own sense of parent-child alienation. This study also found that high levels of adolescents’ perceptions of parent-child alienation mediated the relation between mothers’ negative brokering experiences and adolescents’ psychological maladjustment.Item Language brokering among Latino middle school students : relations with academic achievement, self-efficacy, and acculturative stress(2010-05) Tedford, Sara Louise; Suizzo, Marie-Anne; Carlson, Cindy I.; Keith, Timothy Z.; Kim, Su Yeong; Valencia, Richard R.Child language brokers frequently translate in adult-level situations. Research has suggested that through translating, brokers may develop advanced language, cognitive, and social skills (De Ment, Buriel, and Villanueva, 2005; McQuillan and Tse, 1995), and these may lead to greater academic achievement and self-efficacy (Buriel, Perez, De Ment, Chavez,and Moran, 1998). Additionally, language brokers have been found to increase in biculturalism as they translate for people of different cultures (Acoach and Webb, 2004; Buriel et al., 1998). Brokers might experience reduced acculturative stress, for which biculturalism has been found to be a protective factor (Bacallao and Smokowski, 2005). Despite its possible benefits, brokering has been associated with negative emotions and behavioral problems for some children (Chao, 2006; Weisskirch and Alva, 2002). The mixed results of language brokering studies may partially be related to the age of participants, with translating appearing to be a more positive experience for older adolescents (Orellana and Reynolds, 2008). The purpose of this study was to test relations among language brokering, academic achievement, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. I proposed and tested if language brokering was associated with more positive outcomes. In addition, I tested if older brokers had more positive outcomes than younger brokers. Participants included 207 Latino middle school students, aged 10 to 14 years, who completed self-report surveys. Measures included a background demographics questionnaire and scales for language brokering, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. Achievement was measured with grades from school records. Results were non-significant for the relation of language brokering with achievement and social self-efficacy when controlling for other predictor variables. In contrast to expectations, translating for more people was associated with decreased academic self-efficacy and greater acculturative stress. Further analysis revealed that language brokering for parents and grandparents was associated with greater acculturative stress, while translating for other people was not. Although translating was associated with more acculturative stress, and older children reported less acculturative stress, age was not found to moderate the relation of language brokering and acculturative stress. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future directions in language brokering research and clinical work are presented.Item Parent-child acculturation profiles and adolescent language brokering experiences in Mexican immigrant families(2018-05) Zhang, Minyu; Kim, Su Yeong; Hazen-Swann, Nancy L; Varner, Fatima ALanguage brokering is a special form of interpersonal communication that is affected by the cultural and relational settings in which it occurs. Taking a dyadic perspective of acculturation allows us to see how parent-adolescent acculturation is contextually situated. The current study aims to explore whether the joint acculturation status of parent-adolescent dyads may be one of the precursors that affects objective and subjective experiences of adolescent language brokering. Using data from a two-wave longitudinal study of Mexican American adolescent language brokering families (N = 604 at Wave 1; N = 483 at Wave 2; M [subscript wave1.age] = 12,91; 54.3% female), I conducted latent profile analyses and found four mother-adolescent acculturation profiles and three father-adolescent profiles: adolescent integrated–mother separated, adolescent moderately assimilated–mother moderately separated, adolescent moderately integrated–mother moderately separated, and adolescent moderately integrated–mother separated; adolescent integrated–father moderately separated, adolescent moderately assimilated–father moderately separated, and adolescent moderately integrated–father moderately separated. The adolescent integrated–parent (moderately) separated profiles emerged as the most adaptive, as they related to more positive language brokering experiences compared with other profiles.