Protective Mechanisms for Depression among Racial/Ethnic Minority Youth: Empirical Findings, Issues, and Recommendations

We (1) review empirical studies that report findings regarding putative protective mechanisms when exposed to risk of depression in African American and Hispanic adolescents; (2) identify key protective mechanisms for different risk contexts that garner empirical support; (3) synthesize the mechanisms identified as protective against depression among racial/ethnic minority adolescents; and (4) discuss improved methods for advancing understanding of resilience against depression in minority youth. The studies were selected from PsycINFO searches that met the following inclusion criteria: participants between 12 and 21 years of age, inclusions of racial/ethnic minority members, examining protection through an interaction with a risk factor, and outcome measures of depression, depressed mood, or depressive symptomatology. We found 39 eligible studies; 13 of which included multiple racial/ethnic groups. The following were supported as protective mechanisms, at least preliminarily, for at least one racial/ethnic group and in at least one risk context: employment, extracurricular activities, father–adolescent closeness, familism, maternal support, attending predominately minority schools, neighborhood composition, non-parent support, parental inductive reasoning, religiosity, self-esteem, social activities, and positive early teacher relationships. To investigate protective mechanisms more comprehensively and accurately across individual, social, and community levels of influence, we recommend incorporating multilevel modeling or multilevel growth curve analyses and large diverse samples

Gratitude as a Variable of Mediation between Parental Support and Self-Esteem in Adolescence

Despite there has been a growing interest in the study of gratitude, few studies have investigated which factors support and promote it; notably, no study has yet addressed ways in which parents could promote gratitude in their children. The present study aims to investigate the relation between parental emotional support and self-esteem through the mediation of gratitude. The analyses have been conducted considering both the maternal and the paternal roles. To that end, an explorative model has been proposed of these relations. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 279 15–19 year-old adolescents (M = 16.83, SD = .85) living in Northern Italy. Findings show that (a) the mother’s emotional support, but not the father’s, sustains gratitude, and (b) gratitude completely mediates the relation between maternal emotional support and self-esteem. Limitations and research implications are discussed

The Relationship among Paternal and Maternal Psychological Control, Self-Esteem, and Indecisiveness across Adolescent Genders

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among adolescents’ indecisiveness, adolescents’ self-esteem, and maternal and paternal psychological control by focusing on the differences in the relationship among these variables across adolescent genders. A total of 381 Italian adolescents (215 boys and 166 girls), aged from 13 to 17 years, completed self-report measures of parental psychological control, self-esteem and indecisiveness. Since previous studies have highlighted indirect relations between family characteristics and indecisiveness, structural equation modeling (SEM) methods were used for testing self-esteem as a possible mediator. In particular, a multiple group analysis (based on adolescent genders) was conducted to determine if the resultant model differed for boys and girls. The results showed that self-esteem acted as mediator of the relation between paternal psychological control and boys’ indecisiveness. Moreover, this study shows how maternal and paternal psychological control is differently related to children’s development during early adolescence, emphasizing the important relationship between paternal psychological control and boys’ indecisiveness