UC Merced

Autonomy development is a central task during early adulthood, yet autonomy development in ethnic minority groups in the U.S. remains understudied. In study 1, I explored how autonomy as independence (independent action, thinking, and/or decision making) and autonomy as volitional functioning (acting without feeling controlled by others) were associated with depressive symptoms and binge drinking behaviors in a sample of 127 female Hispanic American first year college students. Both participant levels of each type of autonomy and parental promotion of each type were measured. Parental promotion of volitional functioning predicted fewer depressive symptoms, while participant independence interacted with parental promotion of independence such that depressive symptoms were elevated only when participants reported low independence and reported low parental promotion of independence. Using the same dataset, in study 2, I tested if the cultural value of familism predicted any type of participant autonomy and if familism moderated associations between autonomy and dependent variables (depressive symptoms and binge drinking. Familism values did not predict any type of autonomy, and familism did not moderate any associations. Implications for interventions and recommendations for future research are discussed.