Language Brokering and Child Adjustment in Mexican American Families

墨西哥裔美国家庭的语言中介和儿童适应

基本信息

批准号：
8332731
负责人：
SU YEONG KIM
金额：
$ 7.28万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2011-09-13 至 2015-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children play a critical role in the resettlement process of immigrant families, particularly in the role of language broker, which has them translating between the heritage language and English for their immigrant parents, whose English is limited. Although close to 90% of children function in a language brokering role in immigrant families, the ways in which language brokering experiences affect developmental outcomes has received limited attention from immigration scholars. The proposed project will conduct qualitative interviews with forty Mexican American mother-daughter pairs. These families will be selected from a larger study of language brokers and divided into three theoretically meaning groups based on the children's high or low scores on school GPA and depressive symptoms: those showing positive adjustment, those showing negative adjustment, and those showing mixed adjustment. The proposed project uses case analyses to treat each mother-daughter pair as a single unit of analysis, and uses cross-case analysis to organize and merge common themes across cases. Using this methodology, the project will pursue three aims. First, we will examine how feelings about language brokering influence the quality of the mother-daughter relationship and adolescent adjustment. We expect that positive, negative, or mixed feelings about language brokering will parallel the positive, negative, or mixed quality of the parent-child relationship and adolescent adjustment. Second, we will explore how feelings about language brokering in public influence the themes derived in Aim 1. As language brokering in adult-centric public spaces is considered more stressful than translating for a parent at home, we will address separately the issue of how feelings about language brokering in public relate to the quality of the parent-child relationship and adolescent adjustment. Third, we will explore how convergence/divergence in feelings about language brokering in mother-daughter dyads influences the themes derived in Aim 1. We expect that convergence of positive feelings about language brokering will coincide with a positive parent-child relationship and a high level of adolescent adjustment. We also expect that convergence of negative feelings about language brokering will coincide with a negative quality to the parent-child relationship and poor adolescent adjustment. We will explore whether divergence between mothers and daughters in their feelings about language brokering relates to the quality of the parent-child relationship and adolescent adjustment. This project can inform future large-scale research efforts by illuminating how language brokering impacts parent-child relationships, and, more importantly, children's adjustment in terms of both academic and socio-emotional outcomes. This project has the potential to inform population science about the differential processes, practices, and experiences of language brokering and the potential impact on the adjustment of Mexican children, the largest and fastest growing minority group in the U.S.

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童在移民家庭的重新安置过程中起着至关重要的作用，尤其是在语言经纪人的角色中，这使他们在遗产语言和英语之间为移民父母进行翻译，他们的英语有限。尽管接近90％的儿童在移民家庭中的语言经纪角色中发挥作用，但语言经纪经验影响发展成果的方式受到移民学者的关注有限。拟议的项目将对40个墨西哥裔美国母女双人进行定性采访。这些家庭将从更大的语言经纪人的研究中选择，并根据儿童在学校GPA和抑郁症状的高分或低分分为三个理论上的含义：表现阳性调整的人，表现为负面调整的人以及表现出混合调整的人。拟议的项目使用案例分析将每个母女对作为一个分析单位，并使用跨案例分析在案例中组织和合并常见主题。使用此方法，该项目将追求三个目标。首先，我们将研究对语言经纪的感觉如何影响母女关系和青少年调整的质量。我们期望对语言经纪的积极，消极或混杂的感觉将与亲子关系和青少年调整的积极，消极或混合质量平行。其次，我们将探讨如何在AIM 1中获得的语言经纪的感受。由于以成人为中心的公共空间中的语言经纪比在家里的父母翻译时更加压力，因此我们将分别解决与父母关系和青少年关系的质量有关的对语言的感受。第三，我们将探讨对母女二元组中语言经纪的感觉的融合/差异如何影响AIM 1中的主题。我们希望，对语言经纪的积极感觉的融合将与积极的亲子关系和高度的青少年调整相吻合。我们还期望对语言经纪的负面情绪的融合将与亲子关系和青少年调整差的负面质量相吻合。我们将探讨母亲和女儿之间对语言经纪的感觉的分歧是否与亲子关系和青少年调整的质量有关。该项目可以通过阐明语言经纪如何影响父母关系的方式来为未来的大规模研究工作提供信息，更重要的是，儿童的学术和社会情感成果都可以调整。该项目有可能向人口科学提供有关语言经纪的差异过程，实践和经验的信息，以及对墨西哥儿童调整的潜在影响，墨西哥儿童是美国增长最大，增长最快的少数群体。