The Relationship Between Parents Acculturation And Childrens Depressive Symptoms Among Mexican American Children Of Low Socio Economic Status

Given the equivocal results on the role that acculturation plays in the depressive symptoms among children and adolescents, and the limited research on Mexican American youth in general, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of parent's acculturation and their children's depressive symptoms among Mexican-American of low socio-economic status. This study followed Rodriguez's (2007) methodological recommendations to use a strong methodological design, and use an orthogonal acculturation measurement. The study selected a stratified random sample of 198 students, selecting equal numbers of males and females, and equal subjects from grades 3rd through 5th. Subjects were selected from three elementary schools located in a low socio-economic school district in the Southwestern United States. Parents of the selected students were asked to complete a demographic form, the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (Cuellar, Arnold, and Maldonado, 1995), and the Internalizing subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18 (CBCL/6-18; Achenbach and Rescorla, 2001). The study found no significant relationship between parent's acculturation and children's depressive symptoms. The study was limited by high attrition among the sample, a frequent characteristic of low socio-economic populations.