Trajectories of cultural stressors and effects on mental health and substance use among recently arrived Hispanic immigrant adolescents

Purpose: We sought to determine the extent to which initial levels and over-time trajectories of cultural stressors (discrimination, negative context of reception, and bicultural stress) predicted well-being, internalizing symptoms, externalizing problems, and health risk behaviors among recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents. Addressing this research objective involved creating a latent factor for cultural stressors, establishing invariance for this factor over time, estimating a growth curve for this factor over time, and examining the effects of initial levels (intercepts) and trajectories (slopes) of cultural stressors on adolescent outcomes. Methods: A sample of 302 recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami (Mdn 1 year in the U.S. at baseline) and Los Angeles (Mdn 3 years in the U.S. at baseline) was recruited from public schools and assessed 6 times over a 3-year period. Assessments were conducted using laptop computers with audio computer assisted technology. Results