Resilience of Mexican Descent Youth in a Low-Income Neighborhood: Examining Family and Neighborhood Factors

The purpose of the current study is to examine how positive development of Mexican-descent youth in a low-income ethnic enclave is associated with neighborhood and family factors. Guided by the integrative model of developmental competencies for minority children (Garcia Coll et al., 1996), it is hypothesized that frequency of familism behaviors will moderate the association between neighborhood (hazards and cohesion) and positive development (self-esteem and resilience) of Mexican-origin youth (N = 127, 11-18 years old, self-report cross-sectional survey). Higher self-esteem was significantly associated with more frequent familism behaviors, but not associated with neighborhood factors. Consistent with our hypotheses for resilience, frequency of familism behaviors moderated the relation between resilience and both neighborhood hazards and neighborhood cohesion. Higher familism provided a protective stabilizing effect on resilience at all levels of hazards and cohesion. However, high neighborhood cohesion was associated with higher resilience even when youth report less frequent familism behaviors. Public Significance Statement Mexican-descent youth living in low-income ethnic enclave neighborhoods report positive development of self-esteem and resilience that is associated with more frequent positive family interactions. Youth who spend more time with family still reported higher resilience even when they report that crime, gangs, and drugs are problematic in their neighborhood. Youth who had fewer positive family interactions, but who reported positive and close relationships in their neighborhoods were more resilient than those who did not have positive interaction with either family or their neighborhood.