Discrimination, language brokering efficacy, and academic competence in Mexican-American adolescents

Discrimination 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 discussed