Su Yeong Kim on How Adolescents’ Stress Impacts Mothers’ Well-being

Stress in the family does not exist by itself; it moves, transforms, and often catches us by surprise. For decades, scientists and physicians have toiled under the same assumption: the stresses of the parents trickle down to children and impact their mental health. But suppose the reverse were also true? Suppose children's stresses had the potential to affect the mental health of their parents and sometimes more intensely than the other way around?

Our latest research, conducted by Wen Wen, Ashley Janyn Galvan, Ka I. Ip, Yang Hou, Shanting Chen, Su Yeong Kim, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, explored the fine-grained adolescent and maternal stress dynamics at various developmental stages.

Why This Research Matters Now: Insights from Su Yeong Kim

As a researcher of the developmental lives of ethnic minority and immigrant families, I’ve witnessed how sociocultural stress in the form of being the outsider or living through financial unpredictability is sometimes taken up as a family matter. In Mexican-origin immigrant families, in which adolescents serve as cultural brokers between the parents and the White mainstream, these stresses can be extreme and multifaceted.
What sets the study apart is its five-year, three-wave longitudinal design, which traces the experiences of over 600 Mexican immigrant adolescents and nearly 600 Central Texas mothers. While past research has treated stress as a stable problem, we tracked it over time and in relationships, shedding light upon the moments, means, and people most affected.

Key Takeaways

• Teenage stress does matter, and it spills over: Youths’ attitudes toward being a foreigner/feeling culturally different significantly predicted anxiety and depressive symptoms of the mother, particularly at the start of the adolescent period (ages 11.5 -- 13.3).

• Maternal stress did not consistently predict adolescent internalizing symptoms: In contrast to common beliefs, mother stresses, such as financial problems or cultural inappropriateness, had relatively little effect on teen depression and anxiety throughout most of the adolescent period.

• Financial stress in adolescents does affect the mother in middle adolescence (at age 14+): This would mean that as teens age and are more aware of home finances, their anxieties can induce unease and worry among their mothers.

Why Su Yeong Kim’s Study Changes the Narrative

Much of the research based upon Family Systems Theory takes a top-down model of parents influencing children, and in particular, mothers influencing the mental health of children. But we took a developmental systems approach, realizing that adolescence is not only a period of change for adolescents but a period of reciprocal change in families.

We identify a pattern of “bottom-up stress spillover”: adolescents, especially adolescents suffering acculturation and financial stresses, have a significant impact on the emotional health of mothers. This happens most evidently at the beginning of adolescence, a time at which adolescents remain dependent on familial support and at which parents are most likely to feel obliged to support children through the new challenges of identity.

Real Lives, Real Stressors

Imagine a 12-year-old girl feeling different at school because of the way she speaks or the color of her skin. She doesn’t quite put it in words to her mother, but the withdrawal, the unhappiness, says it all. Her mother, already handling the work, the bills, and her acculturation, begins to feel lost, anxious, and depressed. She wants to act, but oftentimes does not know how. The body language of unspoken anxiety and tension becomes the daily undertone.

Our results demonstrate that it’s not a hypothetical scenario, but statistically and emotionally accurate for most Mexican immigrant families.

What Should Change?

Our research recommends that the mental health services approach should be changed, along with the support systems for immigrant families: Frame teen stress as a population health issue, not just as a personal or school issue, but as a problem that involves the whole family. Individualize interventions to developmental windows, focus family-based supports in early and middle adolescence when stress spill-over reaches a maximum. Involving the voices of both parent and teenager, culturally competent therapies and neighborhood initiatives need to reaffirm the unique, intertwined experiences of the two generations.

Concluding Remarks

Teens in immigrant families often carry more than backpacks. They carry responsibility, translation burdens, financial worry, and, as we've learned, the mental load that can impact the well-being of their mothers. By understanding these patterns, we can effectively support the broader family system, yielding healthier outcomes for all.