Acculturative stress and ethnic–racial identity among U.S. Latinx adults: Cultural stress and stress process frameworks.

= 126) completed online self-report measures of acculturative stress, perceived general life stress, ERI, and psychological distress. Moderated mediation found evidence of full mediation for English competency pressure and Spanish competency pressure and partial mediation for pressure to acculturate. In addition, for English competency pressure, ERI exploration significantly moderated the relationship such that moderate and high ERI exploration augmented the indirect effect, and for Spanish competency pressure, ERI commitment moderated the relationship such that moderate and high ERI commitment buffered the indirect effect. The findings provide evidence that acculturative stress dimensions are associated with Latinx psychological adjustment through unique direct and indirect pathways. For Latinx adults, ERI exploration and commitment may function as cultural individual difference variables that confer risk and protective factors for stress processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).