Acculturative Orientations Among Hispanic/Latinx Caregivers in the ABCD Study: Associations With Caregiver and Youth Mental Health and Youth Brain Function

Description: Background: Population-based neuroscience studies offer opportunities to examine important but understudied sociocultural factors, such as acculturation. Acculturation refers to the extent to which an individual retains their cultural heritage and/or adopts the receiving society’s culture. Acculturation is not only particularly salient among Hispanic/Latinx immigrants to the US, and their children, but has been linked to increased vulnerability to substance use, depression, and suicide. Methods: Using a family systems framework, we investigated how caregivers’ cultural orientation impacts their mental health, as well as the mental health and brain function of their children, among first- and second-generation Hispanic/Latinx caregivers in the ABCD Study. Results: We identified two profiles of caregiver acculturation: bicultural (i.e., retains heritage culture while adopting US culture) and detached (i.e., discards heritage culture and rejects US culture). Bicultural caregivers exhibited fewer mental health problems compared to detached caregivers; further, intergenerational effects were observed as youth exhibited differences in mental health across caregiver profiles. In addition, youth with bicultural caregivers displayed increased resting-state brain activity (i.e., fALFF and ReHo) in the left insula; however, differences in long-range functional connectivity were not significant. Conclusions: This work indicates that caregiver acculturation is an important familial and environmental factor linked to significant differences in youth mental health and insula activity. Future work should examine neurodevelopmental changes across adolescence to determine whether localized, corticolimbic brain effects are ultimately translated into long-range connectivity differences.

Communities: developmental

Related article: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.02.005

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