Latino Acculturation and Health Project

Principal Investigators: Paul Smolkowski & Flavio F. Marsiglia

Funding: Centers for Disease Control, National Injury Prevention Center, awards R49/CCR42172 & 1K01CE000496 (2004-2007)

The aim of the Latino Adolescent Acculturation and Health Project (LAAHP) was to study acculturation, health risk behavior, and health protection in Latino adolescents residing in North Carolina and Arizona.  Of relevance to practitioners as well as prevention and intervention researchers, the study examined buffers to problem behaviors among an increasingly at-risk population and drew attention to the importance of family functioning among Mexican and Mexican American families. The project collected longitudinal interviews from 150 Latino families in North Carolina and 150 Latino families in Arizona for a total of 600 interviews (one parent and one adolescent per family). Four interviews per family were conducted over three years.

Bacallao, M. & Smokowski, P.R. (2007). The costs of getting ahead: Mexican family systems after immigration. Family Relations, 56, 52-66.

Buchanan R.L. & Smokowski, P.R. (2011). Pathways from acculturation stress to negative friend associations among Latino adolescents. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 28(5), 375-391, DOI: 10.1007/s10560-011-0239-8.

Buchanan, R. & Smokowski, P.R. (2009). Pathways from acculturation stress to substance use among Latino adolescents: Results from the Latino Acculturation and Health Project, Substance Use and Misuse, 44 (5), 740-762.

Kulis, S., Marsiglia, F. F., & Nagoshi, J. L. (2010). Gender, gender roles, internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors, and substance use among Mexican American adolescents. Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 10, 3, 283-307. doi:10.1080/1533256X.2010.497033  Read full article PMCID: PMC2963473

Marsiglia, F.F., Kulis, S., FitzHarris, B., Becerra, D. (2010). Acculturation gaps and externalizing youth problem behaviors: Assets and challenges of Southwestern Mexican immigrant families. Social Work Forum, 42/43, 6-26. NIHMSID: NIHMS212049

Marsiglia, F. F., Kulis, S., Garcia-Perez, H., & Bermudez-Parsai, M. (2011). Hopelessness, family stress, and depression among Mexican-heritage mothers in the Southwest. Health and Social Work, 36, 7-18.  Read full article PMCID: PMC3074347

Marsiglia, F. F., Kulis, S., Parsai, M. B.., Villar, P., & Garcia, C. (2009). Cohesion and conflict: Family influences on adolescent alcohol use in immigrant Latino families. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 8, 400-412. doi: 10.1080/15332640903327526.  Read full article PMCID: PMC2802346

Marsiglia, F. F., Parsai, M. B.., & Kulis, S. (2009). Effects of familism & family cohesion on problem behaviors among adolescents in Mexican immigrant families in the Southwest U.S. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 18, 203-220. doi: 10.1080/15313200903070965.  Read full article PMCID: PMC2768387

Smokowski, P.R. & Bacallao, M. (2006). Acculturation and aggression in Latino adolescents: A structural model focusing on cultural risk factors and assets. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(5), 657-671.

Smokowski, P.R. & Bacallao, M. (2007). Acculturation, internalizing mental health symptoms, and self-esteem:  Cultural experiences of Latino adolescents in North Carolina.  Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 37(3), 273-292.

Smokowski, P.R., Chapman, M.V., & Bacallao, M. (2007) Acculturation risk and protective factors: Mediating and moderating processes in the development of mental health problems in Latino adolescents. Journal of Human Behavior and the Social Environment, 16(3), 33-56.

Smokowski, P.R. Rose, R., & Bacallao, M. (2008). Acculturation and Latino Family Processes: How parent-adolescent acculturation gaps influence family dynamics. Family Relations, 57(3), 295-308.

Smokowski, P.R., Rose, R., & Bacallao, M. (2009). Acculturation and aggression in Latino adolescents: Modeling longitudinal trajectories from the Latino Acculturation and Health Project. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 40, 589-608.

Smokowski, P.R., Buchanan, R.L., & Bacallao, M. (2009). Acculturation and adjustment in Latino adolescents: How cultural risk factors and assets influence multiple domains of adolescent mental health. Journal of Primary Prevention. 30(3/4), 371-394.

Smokowski, P.R., Bacallao, M., & Rose, R. (2010). Influence of risk factors and cultural assets on Latino adolescents' trajectories of self-esteem and internalizing symptoms. Child Psychiatry and Human Development. 41(2), 133-150.