Benefits and Challenges of Adolescents’ Participation in Organized Activities for Mexican-origin Families

Abstract

In our study, we aimed to qualitatively understand Mexican-origin parents’ perceptions of how adolescents’ participation in organized activities can contribute to benefits and challenges for families and examine whether these benefits and challenges varied depending on the parents’ level of enculturation to Mexican culture. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 34 Mexican-origin parents (mean age = 39.45; 47% 1st generation immigrants, 26% 1.5 generation, and 26% 2nd generation). Inductive and deductive approaches were used in multiple iterative stages of coding to determine the final themes. A cross-case analysis was conducted to compare parents’ responses based on their enculturation to Mexican culture. Parents perceived that the benefits of adolescents’ participation in organized activities were protection, family bonding, transfer of skills, and reinforcement of family ethnic culture. The challenges parents reported were exposure to unsafe situations, constraints on family resources, and family conflict. Parents with a higher enculturation to Mexican culture, more frequently reported family bonding and reinforcement of family ethnic culture as a benefit and family conflict as a challenge of activities compared to parents with a lower enculturation. Findings from our study have implications to help organized activities be culturally responsive to the Mexican-origin families and adolescents they serve.