About this poster

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Panel information
Panel 2. Cultural Processes

Abstract

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Latines are the largest ethnic/racial minoritized group in the U.S. and make significant contributions to the U.S. economy and communities. However, as a minoritized group, they are vulnerable and exposed to anti-immigrant and race-based prejudice and hostility. A unique group of Latine families are those who parents work in the cattle feedlot industry in rural U.S. communities. Many of these families and their youth are at particular risk for exposure to stress from anti-immigrant and race-based hostile policies and events both in their workplace and in their communities (Carlo et al., 2023). Moreover, cattle feedlot work is deemed one of the most dangerous jobs and many cattle feedlot workers are immigrant Latines (Acosta et al., 2020). Despite the growing attention by scholars to risk factors associated with U.S. Latine youth positive development, few studies examine immigrant-related life events and Latine parents’ workplace stress and their relations to their youth positive development. Ecocultural theorists (Carlo, 2014) have postulated that community- and parents’ workplace-related stress mechanisms can negatively impact youth development, including prosocial behaviors (i.e., care-based helping actions). We examined the possible sequential mediating effects of workplace stress and parental life satisfaction in the relations between immigrant-related stress and U.S. Latine youth prosocial behaviors
Participants were 242 Latine cattle feedlot workers (91% men; M age = 37.72, SD = 10.11 years) with adolescent-aged children (M age = 15.03, SD = 7.31 years) drawn from a cross-sectional study on health and safety risks of Latine immigrant cattle feedyard workers in the Central US. Workers were primarily of Mexican descent (69.5%) living in the U.S. for an average of 12 years. In-person interviews based on structured questionnaires were conducted; participants reported on community-level immigration-related stressful life events (Turner & Wheaton, 1995), occupational stress (Cervantes et al., 1991), life satisfaction (Diener et al., 1985), and prosocial behaviors (Carlo & Randall, 2002).
Table 1 shows bivariate correlations and descriptive statistics for the main study variables. Path analysis was conducted to test the study hypotheses with immigration-related stressful life events (predictor), occupational stress (first-order mediator), life satisfaction (second-order mediator), and youth’s prosocial behaviors (outcome), controlling for the number of people in the household (see Figure 1). Results suggested that immigration-related stressful life events were positively related to occupational stress, which was in turn negatively related to life satisfaction, which was subsequently positively related to prosocial behavior. Importantly, the total indirect effect from immigration-related stressful life events to prosocial behaviors via occupational stress and life satisfaction and the partial indirect effect from occupational stress to prosocial behaviors via life satisfaction was significant.
Discussion will emphasize the stress spillover effects of community-level stressful life events to youth’s prosocial behavior through the undergirding mechanisms of parents’ occupational stress and life satisfaction in the context of Latine cattle feedlot worker’s families.

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