Latinx families are increasing in the population in the United States and have documented mental health concerns. Much remains to be understood about mental health predictors within this population. The present study aimed to help fill this gap and offer an in-depth assessment of psychopathology within a large (N = 330) sample of Latinx mothers and youth by exploring associations between sociodemographic risk, attachment relationship quality, and mental health. Demographic risk was not associated with youth or maternal psychopathology, but attachment relationship quality was associated with all indices of psychopathology in youth and mothers. The interaction between demographic risk and psychopathology only added to the prediction of maternal depression, revealing a pattern wherein maternal closeness was associated with lower depression at low and mean but not high levels of demographic risk. We discuss these findings in terms of the importance of supporting parent-child relationships in this population.
Keywords: Latinx; attachment; mental health; psychopathology; sociodemographic risk.
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