This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Open AccessArticle
Neighborhood Conditions in a New Destination Context and Latine Youth’s Ethnic–Racial Identity: What’s Gender Got to Do with It?
by
Olivia C. Goldstein
Olivia C. Goldstein
Dawn P. Witherspoon
Dawn P. Witherspoon
Dr. Dawn P. Witherspoon is a Professor of Psychology and Director of PACT (Parents And Children of a [...]
Dr. Dawn P. Witherspoon is a Professor of Psychology and Director of PACT (Parents And Children Together) in
the Department of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. She obtained a B.A. in Psychology and English and an M.A. in Psychology from North Carolina
Central University in 2000 and 2001, respectively, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Community Psychology from New York University, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Developmental Science and in the Department of Psychology’s Black Child Training Grant Program. After that, she joined The Pennsylvania State University in 2010. Dr. Witherspoon is interested in how
context shapes adolescent development. Her work focuses on neighborhood, school, and family factors that affect adolescents’ socioemotional and academic adjustment. In addition, she examines how race, ethnicity, and other cultural
attributes interact with contextual characteristics to influence adolescent outcomes. A goal of her research is to elucidate the development of urban and rural adolescents, with particular attention to contextual supports.
Mayra Y. Bámaca
Mayra Y. Bámaca
Dr. Mayra Y Bámaca is an Associate
Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of her [...]
Dr. Mayra Y Bámaca is an Associate
Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of California, Merced.
She obtained her B.A. in Psychology from California State University,
Northridge in 2001, her M.S. in Human and Community Development from the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2004, and her Ph.D. in Human
Development and Family Studies from Arizona State University in 2008. Before joining
the University of California, Merced, she worked as an Assistant Professor and
then Associate Professor at the Pennsylvania State University from 2008 to
2020. Dr. Bámaca’s research focuses on Latine and minoritized youth’s
adaptation at the intersection of individual (puberty, age), contextual
(parents, friends, neighborhoods), and sociocultural (acculturation) processes
within racialized contexts. Her work has provided a more nuanced understanding
of the unique and combined influence of multiple social contexts (peer,
neighborhood) in the development and adaptation of U.S.-born and immigrant
Latine adolescents. She is currently a Consulting Editor for the Journal of
Research on Adolescence and is part of the advisory board for the Horowitz Early
Career Scholars Program for the Society for Research in Child Development.
1
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
2
Department of Women’s, Sexuality, and Gender Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
3
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Behav. Sci. 2025, 15(9), 1148; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091148 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 13 June 2025
/
Revised: 15 August 2025
/
Accepted: 18 August 2025
/
Published: 23 August 2025
Abstract
This exploratory pilot study examined how Latine adolescents’ ethnic–racial identity (ERI)—specifically, centrality, private regard, and public regard—was shaped by parents’ gender role socialization (GRS) beliefs and perceptions of neighborhood connectedness and problems. Sixty Latine parent–adolescent dyads living in a Northeastern new destination context participated. Hierarchical regression models were used to test whether GRS beliefs moderated the effects of neighborhood on adolescents’ ERI. Traditional GRS beliefs moderated associations between neighborhood problems and ERI dimensions, such that adolescents whose parents endorsed stronger traditional GRS beliefs reported lower ERI centrality, private regard, and public regard in neighborhoods with more problems. These associations were not significant for neighborhood connectedness and did not differ by child gender. Findings suggest that parent beliefs about gender may shape identity development in environments perceived as risky or under-resourced. The context-dependent nature of socialization and the adaptive nature of parenting processes in emerging Latine communities are discussed.
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Goldstein, O.C.; Witherspoon, D.P.; Bámaca, M.Y.
Neighborhood Conditions in a New Destination Context and Latine Youth’s Ethnic–Racial Identity: What’s Gender Got to Do with It? Behav. Sci. 2025, 15, 1148.
https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091148
AMA Style
Goldstein OC, Witherspoon DP, Bámaca MY.
Neighborhood Conditions in a New Destination Context and Latine Youth’s Ethnic–Racial Identity: What’s Gender Got to Do with It? Behavioral Sciences. 2025; 15(9):1148.
https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091148
Chicago/Turabian Style
Goldstein, Olivia C., Dawn P. Witherspoon, and Mayra Y. Bámaca.
2025. "Neighborhood Conditions in a New Destination Context and Latine Youth’s Ethnic–Racial Identity: What’s Gender Got to Do with It?" Behavioral Sciences 15, no. 9: 1148.
https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091148
APA Style
Goldstein, O. C., Witherspoon, D. P., & Bámaca, M. Y.
(2025). Neighborhood Conditions in a New Destination Context and Latine Youth’s Ethnic–Racial Identity: What’s Gender Got to Do with It? Behavioral Sciences, 15(9), 1148.
https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091148
Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details
here.
Article Metrics
Article Access Statistics
For more information on the journal statistics, click
here.
Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.
