Depression symptoms among Mexican American youth: paternal parenting in the context of maternal parenting, economic stress, and youth gender.

Mexican American youth (N = 146; age range: 14-19 years) living in an immigrant enclave who resided with both parents reported depression symptoms, paternal and maternal acceptance, paternal and maternal harsh parenting, and economic stress. Despite lower levels of youth-reported paternal parenting relative to maternal parenting, paternal acceptance was significantly related to youth depression symptoms in a path model that accounted for parenting intercorrelations as well as other significant correlates of youth depression symptoms. We found evidence suggesting that the relation between youth-reported paternal acceptance and depression might be stronger for girls than for boys. Using an ecological analytic framework, we found that: (a) the link between economic stress and youth depression was robust, and (b) only one parenting variable (paternal acceptance) may partially mediate the link between economic stress and depression symptoms. Our results suggest that paternal parenting and youth gender deserve further consideration in longitudinal research and intervention research addressing depression among Latino youth. Ecological models that highlight the influence of settings where Latino youth and families live should be considered in research on the family relationship context of youth depression.