Examining parent and youth experiences of familism: Effects on youth well-being and family dynamics

This study tested whether measurement of the Familism scale of the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (comprising Support, Obligations, and Referent subscales) was invariant across parent and youth reporters in early adolescence and examined whether reporter discrepancies predicted youth functioning across substance use, problem behavior, academic, peer, and family domains 1 year later. The sample comprised 2410 multi-ethnic Hispanic/Latino/a youth (M_age = 12.87 years; 48% female) and their parents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. At least partial metric invariance was established for Support and Obligations subscales, suggesting associations between mean levels of these subscales with other measures can be meaningfully compared by parent and youth reporters. However, the Referent subscale and Total Familism scale demonstrated only configural invariance, meaning their structure was similar across reporters, but item loadings, latent means, and associations with other measures were not comparable. Reporter discrepancies in Support and Obligations did not account for unique variance in any indicator of youth functioning beyond the main effects of parent and youth Support and Obligations, both of which were associated with adaptive youth outcomes. Both parent and youth reports on the Familism scale of the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale have demonstrated reliability and validity in previous work, but our tests of measurement invariance suggest only the Support and Obligations subscales, but not the Referent or Familism scales, can be meaningfully compared across parent and youth reporters. This work has important implications for the assessment of familism in early adolescence and its role for youth well-being.