Research on developmental, family, and cross-cultural psychology has consistently found evidence that discrepancies exist between parents and their youth around individual preferences, social conventions, and personal values. In immigrant families, these issues may be compounded by cultural change. Indeed, some research has found that immigrant parent-youth dyads diverge in their heritage and settlement culture orientations and have different personal values priorities. These discrepancies, in turn, are related to poorer youth and family adjustment. In recent years, some studies have proposed that facets of the parent-youth relationship may buffer the experience of maladjustment as a function of cultural discrepancies. Therefore, this dissertation had two general aims: (1) to examine the extent to which immigrant Arab Canadian youth perceive cultural discrepancies between themselves and their parents, as well as how they relate to individual and familial adjustment; and (2) to identify specific facets of the parent-youth relationship that moderate the association between perceived cultural discrepancies and outcomes. Although research on different cultural groups as well as immigrant and ethnic minority families has increased in recent years, there is a paucity of empirical work examining Arab immigrants in Canada. This dissertation used a mixed-methods approach to comprehensively investigate youth’s perceptions of parent-youth cultural discrepancies and parent-youth relationships, and how they related to intergenerational conflict and ethnocultural identity conflict. Study 1 consisted of a series of semi-structured interviews. Using a narrative approach, 12 immigrant youth were asked to describe their individual and family experiences as Arabs living in Canada. Findings confirmed that youth perceived cultural discrepancies between themselves and their parents, which were associated with increased intergenerational conflict and ethnocultural identity conflict. However, specific aspects of the parent-youth relationship were identified as either a protective (i.e., when they were open, communicative, and supportive) or risk (i.e., when they were marked by emotional distance) factor. Study 2 was a quantitative approach to examine the prevalence of perceived cultural discrepancies, and their association with intergenerational conflict and ethnocultural identity conflict. Specifically, a series of hierarchical regressions were used to test the hypotheses that parent-youth relationships moderated the associations between perceived cultural discrepancies and conflict. Results confirmed that immigrant Arab youth in Canada perceived heritage and settlement culture orientation and values discrepancies between themselves and their parents, that perceived cultural discrepancies were associated with more conflict, and that parent-youth relationships moderated the relationship between perceived cultural discrepancies and conflict. These studies were among the first to examine these issues in immigrant Arab families in Canada. It is imperative to increase our knowledge of Arab families in Canada given their rapid population growth, cultural dissimilarity, the pervasiveness of group misunderstanding and misrepresentation that has been exacerbated post-9/11, and the likelihood that immigration from the Middle East and North Africa will surge following the Arab Spring.

Young adulthood is a critical period during which advances in educational, occupational, and financial adjustment set the stage for lifelong economic capital, health, and well-being. Greater understanding of the factors that contribute to positive and negative adjustment in young adulthood is warranted. This longitudinal study highlights the important role of parents by investigating (1) changes in the emotional quality of parent-youth relationships during adolescence and the transition to adulthood, (2) whether such changes relate to young adults’ adjustment outcomes in three age-salient domains, and (3) whether the effects of changes in parental relationships are associated with young adults’ adjustment outcomes through the intervening effects of mental health symptoms. Specifically, I examined direct and indirect associations between changes in mother and father emotional support (ES) and psychological control (PC) and young adults’ educational, occupational, and financial outcomes through youths’ depressive and anxiety symptoms. Sex and SES group differences were also examined. Participants were 545 youth from a medium-sized Canadian city. They were assessed at four time points over a six-year period. All analyses were conducted separately by two developmental transition groups: The young adult transition group included 240 participants who were initially 18 to 21 years old, and the adolescent transition group included 305 participants who were 14 to 17 years old at the initial assessment. Measures of parental ES and PC, youth’s mental health symptoms, and youth’s adjustment were obtained through self-reports. Multi-level modeling analyses showed that mother and father ES increased over time for both transition groups. Declines in mother and father PC were significantly greater for the young adult transition group. Results from latent growth curve mediation analyses revealed that parental ES was linked to positive and negative youth adjustment directly and indirectly through depressive symptoms. Findings also highlight the negative effects of parental PC on youth’s adjustment outcomes directly and also indirectly through changes in youth’s depressive and anxiety symptoms. Differences for mothers and fathers, males and females, and lower and higher SES groups are discussed. Overall, the quality of parent-youth relationships changes during the transition to adulthood, and such changes are important factors in understanding young adults’ educational, occupational, and financial adjustment. / Graduate / 0620

abstract: In the present research, elements of the intra- (i.e., family dynamics) and extra-family (i.e., characteristics of parents' occupations) contexts were examined in a longitudinal design as associated, broadly, with individuals' mental health, relationship quality, and future orientations among Mexican American families with adolescent offspring in two separate studies. The first study reviewed the utility of applying dyadic data methods to the investigation of family processes, explored the strengths three different analytic approaches (i.e., the actor-partner interdependence model, a two-intercept model, and a difference model), and applied them to the study of marital relationships (N = 246 marital dyads). Results revealed that spouses' marital negativity was related to their own somatic symptoms, whereas, spouses' somatic symptoms were associated with both their own and their partners' marital negativity, with some variations by approach. This study suggested the three analytic approaches, though designed to answer slightly different questions, yielded a similar pattern of results with several important differences. The second study utilized a person-centered approach to identify family-level patterns of both mothers' and fathers' objective occupational characteristics (i.e., self-direction, hazardous conditions, physical activity), as well as the larger sociocultural context of these patterns (N = 160 dual-earner families). Results revealed three distinct occupational contexts: Differentiated High Physical Activity, Incongruent, and Congruent High Self-Direction. Results indicated that families in the Congruent High Self-Direction profile had the highest levels of youth career aspirations, whereas, educational aspirations were the highest among youth in both the Incongruent and Congruent High Self-Direction profiles. Youth-mother and -father conflict was highest in the Congruent High Self-Direction profile, and youth-father warmth was highest for families in the Differentiated High Physical Activity profile. This study suggested that Mexican American parents work in varied occupational contexts, and these contexts were differentially associated with family relationships and youth's orientations toward the future. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Family and Human Development 2012