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In Brief

• Frequency of language brokering may have positive (e.g., increased bonding) and negative outcomes (e.g., poor mental health symptoms).
• Subjective experience when language brokering and feedback from parents may affect the language broker.
• Understanding developmental level and the need for parental feedback may be areas for intervention.

In many immigrant families, because children acculturate at a quicker pace than do their parents, specifically in learning the host language, they are asked to translate and interpret communication, a process known as language brokering (Tse, 1995). (Although translation and interpretation have different meanings, I use these terms interchangeably). For language brokers, language-brokering activities begin early upon arrival in the new country as they acquire linguistic skills, and activities can continue into adulthood (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001; Weisskirch et al., 2011). Even when parents or other adults develop some proficiency in the new language, they may still use a child language broker to build redundancy for understanding the communication (Valdés, 2003). Children not only translate communication but also interpret cultural nuances to convey accurate meaning. At the same time, child language brokers have to navigate power dynamics among themselves, their parents or other adults, and the other communicator. Language brokers also manage sophisticated concepts, which may challenge their understanding and linguistic skills in both languages. From an outside perspective, some individuals may assert that having children engage in language brokering is detrimental because children are brought into situations to which they otherwise would not be privy (e.g., a doctor’s appointment, bill paying), experience significant stress translating high-stakes items and under exigent circumstances (e.g., talking with government officials), and may be removed from typical child activities to engage in language brokering. However, this perspective fails to recognize that language brokering is an acculturation strategy that supports immigrant family functioning and may provide enriching experiences individually and relationally between parent and child, and also help the family acculturate (e.g., Berry, 2003; Fuligni, 2001; Orellana, 2009; Weisskirch, 2017).

Although children have been engaging in such practices for a long time, there has been focused interest on studying language brokering among Family Scientists and other scholars over the past 25 years (e.g., Kam & Lazarevic, 2014; Morales & Hanson, 2005; Weisskirch, 2017 for summaries). Translating from one language to another is often stressful for anyone, and research findings suggest places where intervention may enhance the outcomes to language brokering for children and their families.

Research indicates that individuals from immigrant families report beginning to language broker at 8 to 10 years old, on average, but many begin language brokering sooner in life, depending on age of arrival (Katz, 2014; McQuillan & Tse, 1995). Language brokers report translating a range of items (e.g., notes from school, job applications, immigration paperwork) and in a variety of situations (e.g., at a doctor’s office, on the phone, at a parent’s workplace; Morales & Hanson, 2005). A few studies have found that the type of item and situation is associated with outcomes for language brokers. For example, more frequent language brokering in various places, in comparison to for people or items, has been associated with greater academic performance (Buriel, Perez, De Ment, Chavez, & Moran, 1998) and higher reading scores (Dorner, Orellana, & Li-Grining, 2007). However, language brokering in which the family’s health and well-being are concerned—that is, high-stakes brokering—has been associated with higher perceived stress and lower academic achievement among language brokers (Anguiano, 2018). At the same time, everyday brokering is positively associated with academic achievement (i.e., higher grade-point average) among Latino adolescents, which indicates the importance of the context in which the brokering is occurring.

More frequent language brokering has been associated with positive and negative outcomes for language brokers and their families, greater self-esteem (Weisskirch, 2007), a sense of self-efficacy (Wu & Kim, 2009), greater perspective taking and empathic concern (Kam, Marcoulides, & Merolla, 2017), greater respect for parents (Chao, 2006), and parent–child bonding (Love & Buriel, 2007). At the same time, more frequent language brokering has been found to be associated with stress and feeling burdened (Martinez, McClure, & Eddy, 2009; Weisskirch & Alva, 2002), depressive symptoms (Love & Buriel, 2007), lower self-efficacy among college students (Oznobishin & Kurman, 2009), and lower perceived maternal support and lower regard for mothers (Guan & Shen, 2015). These mixed findings indicate that there may be other factors beyond frequency of engaging in language brokering that contribute to the outcomes of language brokering.

There is growing evidence that language brokers’ subjective experience when language brokering may relate to the outcomes of the experience. That is, when language brokers feel positively about language brokering, they report better outcomes, and vice versa. For example, Weisskirch (2007) found that positive emotions during brokering (e.g., feeling useful and proud) were associated with greater self-esteem, whereas negative emotions (e.g., feeling nervous or uncomfortable) were associated with lower self-esteem. Kim, Hou, and Gonzalez (2017) found that among Mexican American adolescents, those who felt burdened by language brokering reported more depressive symptoms than did those who reported feeling less burdened, and adolescents who indicated greater self-efficacy reported fewer depressive symptoms than did those who reported less self-efficacy. Shen, Kim, and Benner (2019) found that those adolescents were continuously burdened over time had more problematic parent–child relationships and more psychosocial problems in emerging adulthood. Niehaus and Kumpiene (2014) reported that, among the Latino adolescents in their sample, perceptions of success in brokering difficult and complex situations positively associated with self-concept. Furthermore, Sim, Kim, Zhang, and Shen (2019) found that adolescent report of maternal warmth contributed to positive effects on language-brokering role identity and well-being.

Potential Intervention and Implications for Family Scientists

There is little doubt that children will continue to serve as language brokers. Even when language translation services are provided, children interpret in a variety of settings and at home in ways that are informal and for immediate response (Dorner, Orellana, & Jiménez, 2008). Support for immigrant parents may be a key place for intervention. First, parents may benefit from professionals’ acknowledgment that language brokering occurs and that it is a necessary, functional, and effective strategy for acculturation and for the family (Birman, Trickett, & Buchanan, 2005). Second, like all parents, immigrant parents may benefit from training on sensitively attuning their parenting to the developmental level of their children (Kobak, Abbott, Zisk, & Bounoua, 2017). Parents may need reminding that some language brokering tasks or concepts may be beyond their child(ren)’s skills, placing a sense of stress and pressure on the broker that may have deleterious effects over time (Shen et al., 2019). Third, language brokers may benefit from acknowledgment of their work. Valdés (2003) asserted that language-brokering skills may be a form of “giftedness” among immigrant children that merits recognition. Parents may benefit from understanding that praise and positive feedback directed toward the language broker may offset the negative impact of the stressful language-brokering activity (Sim et al., 2019). Further, when language brokers frame their language brokering positively they derive benefit, which may be important for practitioners to support in working with immigrant youth.

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