Mexican American Adolescents’ Cultural Orientation, Externalizing Behavior and Academic Engagement: The Role of Traditional Cultural Values

TLDR

This study examined how traditional cultural values mediate the impact of immigrant status and cultural orientations on externalizing behavior and academic engagement among 598 seventh‑grade Mexican‑origin students. The authors assessed 598 seventh‑grade Mexican‑origin students, measuring immigrant status, Mexican and Anglo cultural orientations, and endorsement of traditional cultural values to analyze their relationships with externalizing behavior and academic engagement. Results showed that immigrant status predicted higher Mexican and lower Anglo orientation, both orientations increased traditional values, which in turn were linked to lower externalizing behaviors and higher academic engagement; mediation analyses confirmed these pathways, indicating traditional values protect immigrant youth from externalizing problems and promote academic engagement relative to later‑generation peers.

Abstract

This study of 598 7th grade students of Mexican origin examined the role of traditional cultural values as a mediator of the effects of immigrant status, Mexican cultural orientation and Anglo cultural orientation on adolescent externalizing behavior and academic engagement. Immigrant status of adolescents and their maternal caregivers uniquely predicted increased Mexican cultural orientation and decreased Anglo cultural orientation, and both Mexican and Anglo cultural orientation related positively to adolescents' endorsement of traditional cultural values. Endorsement of traditional cultural values related, in turn, to decreased externalizing behaviors and increased academic engagement and these findings were replicated across adolescent and teacher report of these two outcomes. Tests of mediation provided further evidence to support these pathways. Findings support the central importance of traditional cultural values as a protective resource that explains why immigrant youth exhibit fewer externalizing problems and increased academic engagement when compared to their second and third generation peers.