Abstract
Latinx emerging adults may experience elevated depressive symptoms due to typical stressors during this developmental stage, in addition to social factors such as racial/ethnic discrimination. Evaluating potential risk and protective factors of depression among Latinx emerging adults will improve this disorder's prevention and treatment. The current cross-sectional, correlational study employed a web-based survey to examine associations among sociocultural variables (i.e., respeto, feminism, and discrimination), depressive symptoms, parent-focused parentification, and emotion regulation in a Latinx sample of emerging adults (n = 246; 68.7% Mexican/Mexican American/Chicano(a); 86% female; mean age = 24.7, SD = 3.42) through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's Process-Person-Context-Time model. Results of hypothesis testing revealed the following significant relationships: difficulties in emotion regulation were associated with greater depressive symptoms (r(184) = .60, p < .001); parentification was associated with greater depressive symptoms (r(184) = .23, p = .002); feminism was associated with difficulty in emotion regulation (r(192) = –.19, p < .001); discrimination was associated with greater depressive symptoms (r(184) = –.31, p < .001) and difficulties in emotion regulation (r(194) = .17, p = .018). As hypothesized, sociocultural variables were associated with emotion dysregulation and symptoms of depression. Limitations, recommendations for future research, and clinical implications are discussed.