Language Brokering, Prosocial Capacities, and Intercultural Communication Apprehension Among Latina Mothers and Their Adolescent Children

Jennifer A. Kam, Lisa M. Guntzviller, Rachyl Pines

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Past research on language brokering has primarily focused on the positive and negative outcomes that children of immigrant families experience from brokering. Little is known, however, regarding the positive experiences that language brokees—the immigrant family members for whom children broker—garner from participating in this interaction. Utilizing survey data from 120 Latina/o mother–adolescent dyads, we examined whether more frequent participation in brokering was positively related to mothers’ (i.e., brokees) and adolescents’ (i.e., brokers) prosocial capacities. In turn, we considered whether their prosocial capacities were related to feeling less apprehensive interacting with people outside their cultural group (i.e., intercultural communication apprehension). Multigroup path analyses revealed that mothers’ and adolescents’ frequent participation in brokering was positively related to general perspective-taking and empathic concern; however, only empathic concern was negatively related to intercultural communication apprehension. Our findings reveal that brokers and brokees may experience benefits with positive implications for their intercultural interactions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)168-183
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
Volume48
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2017

Keywords

  • Latina/o
  • empathic concern
  • empathy
  • immigrants
  • intercultural communication apprehension
  • language brokering
  • perspective taking

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Cultural Studies
  • Anthropology

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