Prospective links between acculturative stress and academic well-being among Latinx adolescents

Abstract

Two salient domains of acculturative stress, bicultural stress and English competency pressures, were examined as predictors of academic well-being, including grades, educational expectations, and academic identity over a one-year period using a heterogeneous sample of 329 Latinx youth (MTime1age = 13.67, SD = 0.57; 51% boys). The buffering effects of coping and school belonging were tested along with an exploration of the moderating roles of adolescent gender and nativity. Higher levels of bicultural stress were associated with lower levels of academic well-being over time for girls, whereas English competency pressures had nuanced relations to changes in academic well-being over time that were qualified by gender and nativity. Active coping was a protective factor in links between bicultural stressors and GPA; but, its effect on relations between English competency pressures and academic well-being was more nuanced, only present for foreign-born youth. School belonging did not emerge as a significant protective factor for Latinx youth.