Neighborhood Disadvantage, Parenting, and Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms in Mexican-Origin Families: Moderating Role of Discrimination

Abstract

Mexican-origin populations tend to reside in disadvantaged neighborhoods, increasing adolescents’ vulnerability to internalizing symptoms. While prior research highlights neighborhood disadvantage’s impact on adolescents, few studies explore its effects on both perceived parenting (maternal and paternal) and internalizing symptoms and the underlying mechanism (i.e., subjective neighborhood violence) explaining such association. Notably, adolescents’ perceptions of their neighborhood may vary across adolescent discrimination experiences (i.e., ethnic and group discrimination), subsequently contributing to parenting and adolescent internalizing symptoms. Using three-wave data (2012–2020) from 604 Mexican-origin adolescents (M_wave1.age = 12.41, SD_wave1.age = 0.97; 54.3% female), findings reveal that the detrimental influence of neighborhood disadvantage on adolescent internalizing symptoms and perceived parental hostility via subjective neighborhood violence was stronger when adolescents experienced higher discrimination. Future policies to reduce neighborhood disadvantage and discrimination are needed to promote adolescent mental health and positive parenting among Mexican-origin families.