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Understanding Mexican-Origin Families: Dr. Su Yeong Kim on the Impact of Discrimination and Family Support on Well-Being

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  Dr. Su Yeong Kim and colleagues examine how experiences of discrimination and practices of ethnoracial socialization affect mental health in Mexican-origin adolescents and their parents. Every day, many families of Mexican origin in the U.S. face not only economic hardship but also the persistent challenges of racial–ethnic discrimination. These strains do more than simply weigh on individuals; they ripple across family members, leaving impacts that can last for years and shape entire family systems. But how do daily experiences of discrimination influence mental health? And how might the ways parents talk with their children about race and coping serve either as a buffer or, unexpectedly, as a source of further stress? A new, in-depth study led by Jun Wang and Dr. Su Yeong Kim , with colleagues Jinjin Yan, Xin Li, and Yishan Shen, offers fresh insights into the transactional nature of discrimination, depression, and ethnoracial socialization in Mexican-origin families experien...
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Dr. Kim’s Latest Findings Highlight Ripple Effects of Adolescent Stress on Parents

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Stress in the family does not exist by itself; it moves, transforms, and often catches us by surprise. For decades, scientists and physicians have toiled under the same assumption: the stresses of the parents trickle down to children and impact their mental health. But suppose the reverse were also true? Suppose children’s stresses had the potential to affect the mental health of their parents and sometimes more intensely than the other way around? The latest research conducted by  Dr. Su yeong Kim , published in the  Journal of Youth and Adolescence , named  “ Stress Spillover Among Mother-Adolescent Dyads in Mexican Immigrant Families: How It Varies from Early to Late Adolescence ,”  explored the fine-grained adolescent and maternal stress dynamics at various developmental stages. Why This Study, Why Now? As a researcher of the developmental lives of ethnic minority and immigrant families, I’ve witnessed how  sociocultural stress  in the form of being the...
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Dr. Su Yeong Kim Explores How Acculturation Gaps Shape the Academic Journeys of Chinese American Youth

The immigrant family has to engage in navigating the new cultural lifestyle, even while trying to hold onto or maintain the previous cultural lifestyle. Chinese American adolescents often find themselves in those middle ground roles, involved in interpretative behaviors that help bridge their family connections across time, and achieve academically. In a longitudinal study of 444 Chinese American families, we investigated how acculturation, specifically the alignment/dissonance among parent's cultural profiles to adolescents' cultural profiles, predicted changes in academic performance from the 8th grade through the 12th grade. Beyond Language: Mapping Cultural Orientation Profiles Instead of using broad categorization terms such as "first-generation" or merely measuring language proficiency, our team adopted a person-centered framework, examining multiple indicators of cultural heritage values, language abilities, and sense of familial obligation. We identified thre...
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Dr. Su Yeong Kim on Cultural Stress and the Development of Executive Function over Generations in Mexican Immigrant Families

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Executive Function and Culture through the lens of Dr. Su Yeong Kim’s research The development of executive function an all-encompassing term for skills like memory, flexible thinking, and self-control, is crucial for success during adolescence. While biology certainly plays a part, Dr. Su Yeong Kim's research highlights how cultural stressors, particularly in immigrant families, influence this cognitive growth through both direct and indirect means. The latest study (conducted by Dr. Kim), featured in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications: Culturally relevant stressors as moderators of intergenerational transmission of mother-adolescent executive function in Mexican immigrant families ,  zeroes in on Mexican immigrant families, where adolescents often grow up in settings characterized by economic challenges and a sense of being an outsider. Dive into Dr. Su Yeong Kim's unique approach and see how it sheds light on how family stress impacts cognitive function Dr. Ki...
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