Emerging adult (EA), college students from immigrant families continue engaging in language brokering (LB), translating documents and other media for their parents, in ways that can affect their well-being. For these language brokers, the relationship between parental attachment and psychological well-being may be through frequency and perceptions of their LB work. In this study, 459 language brokers (Mage = 21.36, Female = 80%) completed an online questionnaire about frequency and perceptions of LB, attachment, and psychological well-being. Attachment anxiety and avoidance had negative indirect effects on anxiety and somatic symptoms through feelings of LB burden. Attachment anxiety had a negative indirect effect on somatic symptoms through LB intrusiveness. There were negative indirect effects of LB burden on attachment avoidance to anxiety and somatic symptoms. There was a negative indirect effect of LB intrusiveness on attachment avoidance to somatic symptoms. Findings indicate that perceptions of LB may relate to psychological well-being when attachment is insecure.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/rob-weisskirch/44/
Accepted version. Published in Journal of Family Issues, Volume 42, Issue 1, 2021, pp. 156-175, by SAGE Publications. Final publication available via doi: 10.1177/0192513X20910763.