Hispanic students often suffer from acculturative stress as they adapt to U.S. college environments; however, few scholars have examined the acculturative stress relationship among undocumented versus documented Hispanic college students. In this quantitative, correlational study design, adaptation levels related to acculturative stress between both statuses were examined. The theoretical foundations of this study are based on the social cognitive career theory. This investigation focused on determining how adaptation levels predict Hispanic college students' acculturative stress and whether this realtionship differ between documented and undocumented college students. The I-Adapt measure was used to measure participants' level of adaptability and the social, attitudinal, familial and educational or the Social, Attitudinal, Familial and Educational (S.A.F.E) measurement was used to measure their acculturative stress levels. The sample consisted of 165 Hispanic college students recruited from a private northeastern university. Contrarily to the main hypothesis, Regression analysis revealed that higher levels of cultural and crisis adaptability predicted lower levels of acculturative stress while higher levels of work stress adaptability predicted higher levels of acculturative stress. Future research should focus on further examination differences in adaptation toward acculturative stress and the aftermath of acculturative stress adaptation methods between documented and undocumented college students. The findings of this study can contribute to social change by informing immigration laws to adopt in order to protect college educated, skilled and productive immigrants.

The population of Hispanic children is quickly growing in the United States. Unfortunately, this group has a significant risk of developing internalizing symptoms. The present study examined the complex relationships of cultural and cognitive factors with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Literature suggests that acculturative stress, or the difficulty experienced when adjusting to a new culture, is related to depression and anxiety in Hispanic youth. However, the mechanisms by which acculturative stress relates to anxiety and depression in this population are unknown. Thus, this study attempted to fill these gaps in the current literature by examining potential mediators and/or moderators. Specifically, negative automatic thoughts, which refer to biases and errors in information processing, were considered as a potential mediator of the relationship between acculturative stress and internalizing symptoms. Further, mindfulness, defined as present moment awareness and nonjudgmentalness, was considered as a potential mediator and moderator of the relationship between acculturative stress and internalizing symptoms. These relationships were tested in a sample of 274 middle school-aged Hispanic participants using self-report measures of internalizing symptoms, mindfulness, automatic thoughts, and acculturative stress. Results revealed that both mindfulness and automatic thoughts mediated the relationship of acculturative stress to anxiety and depression. In addition, mindfulness moderated the pathways from acculturative stress to automatic thoughts and from acculturative stress to anxiety. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

Acculturative stress, the stress that originates from adapting to a new culture, is investigated for its role in immigrant mental health. Prior research shows that acculturative stress is commonly associated with adverse mental health outcomes, but this relationship is not inevitable and depends upon many in-group and individual characteristics. This survey study intended to determine whether the relationship found in the literature exists among UCF undergraduate immigrants and whether new variables can play a role in this relationship. Valid and reliable scales were used to measure acculturative stress, mental health, social support, subjective wellbeing, bicultural integration, and cultural orientation. Inconsistent with predictions, immigrants and nonimmigrants were found to have a similar degree of mental health symptoms. Consistent with previous research, a positive correlation between acculturative stress and mental health symptoms was found. Results also show social support, bicultural integration, and acculturative stress to collectively predict immigrant mental health. Immigrant generation and undergraduate year-in-college were found to play a significant role in the relationships investigated. The application of this research in the context of mental health stigmatization and other immigrant phenomena is discussed. Limitations, possible future research, and clinical implications are also shared to address further gaps in the literature.

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Child language brokers frequently translate in adult-level situations. Research has suggested that through translating, brokers may develop advanced language, cognitive, and social skills (De Ment, Buriel, and Villanueva, 2005; McQuillan and Tse, 1995), and these may lead to greater academic achievement and self-efficacy (Buriel, Perez, De Ment, Chavez,and Moran, 1998). Additionally, language brokers have been found to increase in biculturalism as they translate for people of different cultures (Acoach and Webb, 2004; Buriel et al., 1998). Brokers might experience reduced acculturative stress, for which biculturalism has been found to be a protective factor (Bacallao and Smokowski, 2005). Despite its possible benefits, brokering has been associated with negative emotions and behavioral problems for some children (Chao, 2006; Weisskirch and Alva, 2002). The mixed results of language brokering studies may partially be related to the age of participants, with translating appearing to be a more positive experience for older adolescents (Orellana and Reynolds, 2008). The purpose of this study was to test relations among language brokering, academic achievement, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. I proposed and tested if language brokering was associated with more positive outcomes. In addition, I tested if older brokers had more positive outcomes than younger brokers. Participants included 207 Latino middle school students, aged 10 to 14 years, who completed self-report surveys. Measures included a background demographics questionnaire and scales for language brokering, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. Achievement was measured with grades from school records. Results were non-significant for the relation of language brokering with achievement and social self-efficacy when controlling for other predictor variables. In contrast to expectations, translating for more people was associated with decreased academic self-efficacy and greater acculturative stress. Further analysis revealed that language brokering for parents and grandparents was associated with greater acculturative stress, while translating for other people was not. Although translating was associated with more acculturative stress, and older children reported less acculturative stress, age was not found to moderate the relation of language brokering and acculturative stress. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future directions in language brokering research and clinical work are presented. / text