The integrative model for developmental competencies in minority youth and the stress-buffering model posit that ethnic minority youth have unique experiences (e.g., stressors) that can inhibit their developmental pathways, but that supportive relationships can play a buffering role for individuals when in the presence of stressors. The current study examines the associations between parent-child conflict, sleep, and depressive symptoms among 207 Latinx youth (M = 12.39, SD = 1.15; 53% females) while exploring the moderating role of the opposite parent’s warmth. Results revealed positive links between mother-child conflict, sleep, and depressive symptoms and between father-child conflict and depressive symptoms. No evidence was found for the moderating role of parental warmth. This study’s findings contribute to the knowledge on Latinx youth by creating a starting point for potential intervention targets in familial processes.

The family stress model represents a common framework through which to examine the effects of environmental stressors on adolescent adjustment. The model suggests that economic and neighborhood stressors influence youth adjustment via disruptions to parenting. Incorporating integrative developmental theory, we examined the degree to which parents’ cultural value orientations mitigated the effects of stressors on parenting disruptions and the degree to which environmental adversity qualified the effect of parenting on adolescent adjustment. We tested the hypothesized Integrative Family Stress Model longitudinally in a sample of mother-youth dyads (N = 749) and father-youth dyads (N = 467) from Mexican origin families, across three times points spanning early to middle adolescence. Providing the first longitudinal evidence of family stress mediated effects, mothers’ perceptions of economic pressure were associated with increases in adolescent externalizing symptoms five years later via intermediate increases in harsh parenting. The remaining findings supported the notion that integrative developmental theory can inform family stress model hypothesis testing that is culturally and contextually relevant for wide range of diverse families and youth. For example, fathers’ perceptions of economic pressure and neighborhood danger had important implications for adolescent internalizing, via reductions in paternal warmth, but only at certain levels of neighborhood adversity. Mothers’ familism value orientations mitigated the effects of economic pressure on maternal warmth, protecting their adolescents from experiencing developmental costs associated with environmental stressors. Results are discussed in terms of identifying how integrative developmental theory intersects with the family stress model to set diverse youth on different developmental pathways.