Are Developmental Processes Affected by Immigration? Family Processes, Internalizing Behaviors, and Externalizing Behaviors

J Youth Adolescence (2006) 35:799813 DOI 10.1007/s10964-006-9104-z

ORIGINAL PAPER

Are Developmental Processes Affected by Immigration? Family Processes, Internalizing Behaviors, and Externalizing Behaviors

Alexander T. Vazsonyi Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo Li Huang

Received: 27 July 2005 / Accepted: 6 October 2005 / Published online: 26 July 2006

C

Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006

Abstract The current study compared levels of family processes, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors as well as developmental processes, namely the associations among family processes and measures of internalizing or externalizing behaviors, in native Swiss, 2nd and 1st generation immigrant adolescents (N = 3,540). Findings provided evidence that both 2nd and 1st generation immigrant youth experienced higher rates of internalizing symptoms (depresA. T. Vazsonyi ([envelopeback])

Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University. His research interests include etiological risk factors in adolescent problem behaviors, deviance, and delinquency, criminological theory, and the cross-cultural/cross-national comparative method in the study of human development and behavior. Some of his recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. Vazsonyi is the editor of The Journal of Early Adolescence and an editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behavior. Department of Human Development and Family Studies Auburn University, 284 Spidle Hall, Auburn AL 36849 USA. e-mail: [e-mail]

E. Trejos-Castillo Doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University. Her current interests include the importance of parenting and family processes on the etiology of internalizing and externalizing behaviors as well as risky sexual behaviors in youth, with a particular emphasis on Hispanic immigrant populations.e-mail: [e-mail]

L. Huang Doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University. Her current interests include criminological theory and the etiology of crime and deviance. She is particularly interested in the emerging problems related to crime and deviance in China.e-mail: [e-mail]

sion and anxiety) than native Swiss youth. Comparisons of how individual family processes were associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors provided evidence of few differences across groups. Thus, developmental processes were largely invariant by immigrant status. Although the immigration process may increase the risk for internalizing and some externalizing behaviors, it does not seem to affect how key...