Parenting and adolescent mental health in a diverse society: Substantive and measurement issues in studying multiethnic populationsHill, N. E., Boyer, G. R., & Knight, G. P. (in review). Monographs of the Society for Research on Child Development.
Because of increasing ethnic, linguistic and socioeconomic diversity within the United States, it is important to examine the generalizability of developmental models pertaining to the impact of parenting and family socialization on children's mental health and developmental outcomes. In order to inform theory and have confidence in the empirical findings based on comparative research, it is necessary to determine whether constructs manifest themselves similarly across groups and to assess the constructs similarly across ethnic groups. Without evidence that measures are assessing the same construct with the same degree of accuracy across groups, it is impossible to be sure that ethnic similarities and differences are true findings and not artifacts of measurement error. To inform substantive theoretical issues about the relationships between parenting/family socialization practices and children's mental health across ethnic and language groups, the issues of measurement equivalence for assessing parenting and family socialization among three ethnic groups (Euro-American, African American and Mexican American) and two language groups (Spanish and English) were addressed in three studies using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The relationship between parenting/family socialization and children's mental health was examined using ethnically diverse families from similar socioeconomically and community backgrounds. Thus, the influence of ethnicity is relatively unconfounded with socioeconomic and community differences. With the empirical evidence of measurement equivalence, it is possible to make inferences about the nature of the relationship between parenting and children's mental health with greater confidence than was possible from earlier research efforts. Based on revised, cross-ethnically and cross-linguistically equivalent measures, are results support the theories that suggest that parental affection and communication reduce the development of conduct problems and depressive symptoms; whereas harsh and inconsistent disciplinary strategies are associated with increases in problem behavior and depressive symptoms. There were some ethnic differences in the specific results. Understanding substantive theoretical issues and determine measurement equivalence go hand in hand and each is informed by culturally grounded theory about the nature and manifestations of parenting and family socialization in diverse families. This monograph presents and example of the type of sequential research that might be necessary to become confident in the inferences made based on research findings by linking culturally grounded theory with appropriate and equivalent measurement.