Welcome to the Latino Adolescents, Siblings, and Families (LASF) Lab website!
Family is central to our work. We examine how cultural values and everyday family practices shape Latino family life and youth development. Our research attends to both the challenges families may face—such as discrimination, language barriers, and navigating new communities—and the cultural strengths they draw upon in these contexts.
A core focus of our work is familism, a collectivistic cultural value that emphasizes family interconnectedness and mutual support. This framework provides an important lens for understanding how family relationships promote youth well-being. We examine the roles of mothers, fathers, and siblings, with particular attention to fathers and siblings as often-overlooked sources of guidance, support, and resilience. These relationships shape daily experiences, family responsibilities, social connections, and outcomes related to stress, mental health, and academic adjustment.
Using a mixed-methods approach that includes annual surveys, daily diary reports, and qualitative interviews, we capture both long-term developmental patterns and day-to-day family processes. By centering families’ lived experiences, our work aims to reflect the realities of Latino family life and to contribute to a more inclusive and culturally informed developmental science.
Below are some of our current projects:
The SIBS Study: Sibling Influences, Bonds, and Support
Latino siblings spend a significant amount of time together—over three hours a day on average—building unique, enduring bonds that provide guidance and companionship. Through this daily interaction, they support one another in many ways, from helping with homework to offering encouragement and advice, mutually shaping each other’s behavioral, emotional, and academic development. Siblings may also help each other cope with discrimination and other stressors, offering perspectives grounded in shared experiences that complement parental support. This project examines how these sibling relationships, together with cultural values, influence motivation, school performance, mental health, and overall adjustment.
We are actively recruiting for this project. If you live in St. Joseph County and are interested in participating, please contact 574-400-5643 or VivimosUnidosND@gmail.com.
FAM-CARE: Family Contexts, Academic Resilience, and Emotional Well-Being
College can be a stressful experience, and ethnic-racial minority students often report higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression compared to their White peers. At the same time, cultural values that emphasize family support can be both a source of strength and an additional responsibility. This project examines how ethnic-racial minority college students and their siblings navigate stress together, balancing family obligations with personal goals. By exploring siblings’ collaborative coping strategies, we aim to better understand how families can simultaneously support and challenge students during college stress. We hope to understand how families can both support and challenge students in college.
We are actively recruiting Notre Dame students for this project. If you are interested in participating, please contact 574-400-5643 or NDFAMCARE@gmail.com.
How Latino Families Teach Kids About Emotions
This project looks at how Latino families help children understand and manage their emotions. We know that stress can affect mental health, and learning to handle emotions well can help protect against these effects. We are talking with moms, dads, and siblings to learn about the ways families teach kids about feelings, support each other emotionally, and pass down cultural values.
