Latina/o adolescents' family undocumented-status disclosures directed at school counselors: A latent transition analysis.

Abstract

For adolescents from undocumented families, school counselors may serve as a resource to draw upon for support should the adolescents decide to disclose their family status. In this study, we identified psychological factors that were associated with adolescents' decisions to disclose (or not) their own or a family member's undocumented status to a counselor and examined corresponding mental health implications. Utilizing latent transition analyses with a sample of 410 Latina/o immigrant high school students, four profiles emerged in Wave 1: (1) indifferent nondisclosers, (2) concerned revealers, (3) anxious revealers, and (4) secure revealers. By Wave 2, we identified the same profiles, except anxious revealers were no longer present, and anxious nondisclosers emerged as a new profile. At Wave 3, we only identified three profiles: (1) indifferent nondisclosers (2), concerned revealers, and (3) anxious revealers. As Latina/o immigrant students experienced greater fear of deportation in the middle and end of the year, they were more likely to be concerned revealers (i.e., reporting moderate perceived risk of disclosing, low communication efficacy, and moderate levels of disclosure) compared with most profiles. Anxious revealers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than several other profiles in the beginning of the year, and concerned revealers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than several other profiles in the middle and end of the year. This study emphasizes the importance of considering the diverse experiences of family undocumented adolescents, and it sheds light on the extent to which family undocumented adolescents confide in a counselor. (PsycINFO Database Record