Mexican-origin Parents Research Articles

Impact of immigrant-related stress on mental health among Mexican-origin families: Implications for a shifting and complex immigration climate.

Latinx immigrant families may face stressful experiences premigration, en route to the host country, and once they arrive in the host country (postmigration). The present study examines the impact of premigration stress and postmigration stress (together defined as immigrant-related stress) on the mental health of Mexican-origin parents and their children using both cross-sectional and longitudinal methodology. Data collection across four timepoints occurred from 2013 to 2018. At Time 1, 104 families were enrolled in the study and met the following criteria: (1) At least one Mexican-origin immigrant parent; (2) One child between the ages of 6-10 years; and (3) Family income at or below 150% of the federal poverty line. Hierarchical multiple regression and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) were used to analyze the cross-sectional and longitudinal data, respectively. HLM models revealed that higher postmigration stress over time (2013-2018) was related to higher mental health problems among parents and children. Higher premigration stress was associated with higher parent-reported child mental health problems, while postmigration stress was associated with higher parent mental health problems. Specifically, discrimination emerged as a salient factor of poor parent mental health. Immigrant-related stress was related to higher total parent and child mental health problems. This study demonstrates the strong impact of postmigration stress on mental health over the span of several years and during a time of heightened stress for many Mexican immigrant communities. The results inform the need for family-wide interventions that address the complexities of immigrant-related stress as well as comprehensive policy changes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

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

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.

Intensive Naming: Concerted Cultivation and Flexible Ethnicity among U.S. Middle-Class Mexican-Origin Parents

AbstractSelecting a name for a child represents an important symbolic and cultural decision. As social labels, names serve as identity markers that influence how their bearers are perceived and treated. Sociologists are increasingly taking advantage of the study of names, with most adopting a quantitative approach and analyzing names as outcomes. Less is known about the social meanings surrounding names and motivations behind naming decisions, the examination of which can provide insight into parental aspirations, the reproduction of class, and strategies for ethnoracial integration. Drawing on 72 in-depth interviews with Mexican-origin respondents, I show how middle-class parents leverage first names to meet their goals of creating middle-class, multicultural children. I find respondents practice intensive naming, a strategic pre-birth form of parenting, where parents carefully assess naming options with the goal of maximizing their children’s opportunities vis-à-vis ethnoracial integration and class distinction. Specifically, I show how parents chose names that are ethnically flexible and signal middle-class status to facilitate their successful integration into various ethnoracial contexts. These findings illustrate the unique challenges parents of color face in their intensive parenting efforts and how names are used as cultural tools to position the next generation in desirable class and ethnoracial terms.

Claiming membership: boundaries, positionality, US citizenship, and what it means to be American

ABSTRACT How do immigrant-origin residents claim membership in the United States? Chinese, Vietnamese and Mexican-origin parents and their citizen teenagers were asked what it means to be a good citizen and to be American. In discussing good citizenship, respondents underscored legal, moral, civic, and economic actions over ascriptive characteristics or political values. Their emphasis on citizenship acts illuminates how noncitizens, including undocumented residents, can claim membership through behaviours, even as inclusion may be contingent on being law-abiding, hard-working, or a good person. The term “American” is more ambiguous legally, but also more racially and economically fraught, including for citizens, as racialized tropes of illegality or cultural otherness affect those of Mexican or Asian origins, respectively. Membership markers are thus not simply about categorical placement inside or outside a boundary of “citizen” or “American”. Rather, national membership can be felt as partial and gradient, positioned closer or further from multiple ideals.

Mexican-origin parents' workplace discrimination and well-being: The roles of familism values, family conflict, and gender.

This study examined Mexican-origin parents' perceived workplace discrimination, familism, family conflict, and gender as related to parents' well-being (i.e., self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and general physical health) over a 2-year period during the 2007-2009 "Great Recession" in the U.S. Data were drawn from two waves of a larger study of 246 Mexican-origin predominantly immigrant families with adolescents. Using a matched-pairs sample of mothers and fathers, path analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized relations. Moderation analyses revealed that high levels of familism weakened the link between workplace discrimination and parents' depressive symptoms, whereas high levels of parent-youth conflict exacerbated the association to parents' psychosocial well-being. There was variation by parent gender, with parent-youth conflict being more strongly associated with fathers' self-esteem than mothers'. Findings indicate that Mexican-origin parents' familism can mitigate and family conflict can exacerbate the risks of workplace discrimination on parents' psychosocial well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

COVID-19 Imperils Access to Health and Human Services in El Paso, Texas and New York City: Perspectives from Hispanic Parents.

Low-income Hispanic communities are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic through exacerbated financial vulnerabilities and health challenges. The aim of this study is to assess and compare the self-reported impact and challenges caused by COVID-19 in Mexican-origin parents in New York City (NYC), NY and El Paso, TX. Data is based on routine follow-up calls used to assess uptake of the HPV vaccine and COVID-19 concerns conducted between March and August 2020. Three salient themes emerged: (1) financial insecurities; (2) emotional distress associated with COVID-19; and (3) limited access to health and human services. This study revealed increased financial insecurities and emotional distress, and disruptions to health and human services to low-income Mexican-born parents during the pandemic.

Mothers' Perceptions of the Climate of Their Children's Schools: Covariations With Children's Academic Adjustment in Families of Mexican Origin.

Although Latinx parents' perceptions of the climate of their children's schools may play a role in their children's academic adjustment, research examining this idea is sparse. Every 2years beginning when children were in fifth grade (Mage =10.86years) until they were in 11th grade, Mexican-origin mothers (N=674) reported on their perceptions of the climate of their children's schools; information on children's academic adjustment was collected from children and mothers. Multilevel modeling indicated that when mothers had more positive school climate perceptions, their children valued school more and performed better in school, but did not necessarily hold higher educational expectations. The findings suggest the importance of schools in creating welcoming environments for Mexican-origin parents.

Parental socialization profiles in Mexican-origin families: Considering cultural socialization and general parenting practices.

Recognizing that immigrant parents socialize their children in specific ways, the current study examines Mexican-origin families' parental socialization profiles using both parental cultural socialization and general parenting dimensions. We seek to understand how these dimensions interact to form culturally grounded parental socialization profiles in a sample of Mexican-origin parents and adolescents. There were 604 adolescents, 595 mothers, and 293 fathers within Mexican-origin families self-reporting on 2 cultural socialization dimensions (respeto, independence) and 4 general parenting dimensions (warmth, hostility, monitoring, reasoning). Adolescent outcomes were assessed 1 year later. Latent profile analysis revealed eight parental socialization profiles representing distinct combinations of cultural socialization and parenting dimensions. Relative to other profiles, the Integrative-Authoritative profile (high on socialization toward respeto and independence; high on warmth, monitoring, and reasoning; and relatively low on hostility) was the most common parenting pattern and was also associated with more optimal adolescent outcomes. Examining cultural socialization alongside general parenting dimensions can better capture parental socialization strategies among Mexican-origin parents. The various parental socialization profiles that characterize Mexican-origin parents have important implications for adolescent outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Cultural Values and Coparenting Quality in Families of Mexican Origin

This study examined associations between Mexican-origin parents’ cultural values in relation to supportive and undermining coparenting behavior. Data were collected from 80 sets of parents, 160 parents total, with a preschool-age child ( M = 63.60 months old; 39 boys, 41 girls) who were of Mexican origin (22% of mothers and 28% of fathers born in Mexico). Mothers and fathers independently completed questionnaires assessing their cultural values of (a) familismo (i.e., loyalty to family), (b) machismo (i.e., adherence to masculine/feminine gender roles), (c) respeto (i.e., respect for self and others), and (d) simpatía (i.e., maintenance of interpersonal harmony). Mother–father–child triads were observed during a structured play session from which supportive and undermining coparenting behavior was coded. Mothers and fathers who held stronger familism beliefs were characterized by more supportive coparenting behavior. Mothers and fathers who held stronger simpatía beliefs were characterized by less undermining coparenting behavior. Fathers who held stronger respeto beliefs showed more supportive coparenting behavior, whereas mothers who held stronger machismo beliefs were characterized by more undermining coparenting behavior. Mother–father dyads with higher agreement on familism displayed more supportive coparenting behavior, and mothers and fathers who had higher agreement on simpatía beliefs engaged in less undermining coparenting. Results suggest that the cultural values held by both mothers and fathers of Mexican origin are significantly associated with the quality of their coparenting relationship.

Mental Health Among Mexican-Origin Immigrant Families: The Roles of Cumulative Sociodemographic Risk and Immigrant-Related Stress

The current study examined the unique effects of cumulative sociodemographic risk and immigrant-related stress on mental health symptoms among Mexican-origin immigrant parents and their school-age children. Further, this study tested whether the effects of cumulative sociodemographic risk and immigrant-related stress on child mental health were mediated by parent mental health. Participants included 104 Mexican-origin immigrant families. Families in the study had a child between the ages of 6 and 10 (Mage = 8.39; 61% female). Data were collected across three time points spaced 6 months apart. Immigrant-related stress was found to predict parent mental health, which in turn predicted child mental health. Cumulative sociodemographic risk did not predict parent or child mental health. Mental health symptoms generally decreased over time, but for children, change in mental health symptoms depended on parent mental health symptoms. Given the high levels of mental health symptoms among Mexican-origin parents and children, reducing a context of stress and promoting mental health interventions for Mexican-origin immigrants is critical.

Mexican-origin parents' differential treatment and siblings' adjustment from adolescence to young adulthood.

Parents' differential treatment is a common family dynamic that has been linked to youth's well-being in childhood and adolescence in European American families. Much less is known, however, about this family process in other ethnic groups. The authors examined the longitudinal associations between parents' differential treatment (PDT) and both depressive symptoms and risky behaviors of Mexican-origin sibling pairs from early adolescence through young adulthood. They also tested the moderating roles of cultural orientations as well as youth age, gender and sibling dyad gender constellation in these associations. Participants were mothers, fathers, and 2 siblings from 246 Mexican-origin families who participated in individual home interviews on 3 occasions over 8 years. Multilevel models revealed that, controlling for dyadic parent-child relationship qualities (i.e., absolute levels of warmth and conflict), adolescents who had less favorable treatment by mothers relative to their sibling reported more depressive symptoms and risky behavior, on average. Findings for fathers' PDT emerged at the within-person level indicating that, on occasions when adolescents experienced less favorable treatment by fathers than usual, they reported more depressive symptoms and risky behavior. However, some of these effects were moderated by youth age and cultural socialization. For example, adolescents who experienced relatively less paternal warmth than their siblings also reported poorer adjustment, but this effect did not emerge for young adults; such an effect also was significant for unfavored youth with stronger but not weaker cultural orientations. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cultural values and other perceived benefits of organized activities: A qualitative analysis of Mexican-origin parents’ perspectives in Arizona

ABSTRACTThe limited understanding on why Latino parents endorse organized activities is problematic given that these beliefs can help elucidate why they overcome barriers to support their children’s participation. In this study, we analyzed interviews from a diverse group of 34 Mexican-origin parents who resided in Arizona. Results of the study indicate that although organized activities were perceived as contexts that can help youth gain skills reflecting mainstream American values (e.g., school engagement, interpersonal skills), parents also thought that activities promoted positive behaviors associated with their ethnic culture based on traditional values related to respeto, familism, and religiosity. The implications of this study suggest that understanding Mexican-origin parents’ perspectives can help organized activity leaders design programs that fully address the benefits that families seek from organized activities.

“They Will Post a Law About Playing Soccer” and Other Ethnic/Racial Microaggressions in Organized Activities Experienced by Mexican-Origin Families

Organized activities have been found to provide positive experiences for Latino adolescents to develop confidence and learn critical life skills; however, these programs are sometimes a context where youth encounter negative experiences related to ethnic/racial microaggressions (ERMs). This qualitative study explores the types of ERMs that Mexican-origin parents and adolescents encountered in their organized activities experience. Parents were mainly concerned about SB-1070 and the associated law enforcement practices that posed a threat to transporting their children to and from the organized activity site. Adolescents reported that they encountered overt (e.g., ethnic teasing) as well as covert forms of discriminatory behavior (e.g., implicit ethnic stereotypes) from peers and adult leaders. Attention to the processes of ERM is critical to helping practitioners promote positive intergroup relations so that more Latinos will participate and stay active in organized activities.

Let's Move Together.

Due to shared health behaviors and disease risk, families may be more effective targets for health promotion. This study assessed whether providing family health history (FHH)-based risk information for heart disease and diabetes affected encouragement to engage in physical activity (PA) and healthy weight (HW) maintenance and co-engagement in physical activity among 320 Mexican-origin parents and their 1,081 children. At baseline and 10 months, parents indicated who they encouraged and who encouraged them to engage in PA/HW, and with whom they co-engaged in PA. Households were randomized to receive FHH-based assessments either by one or all adult household members. Primary analyses consisted of regression analyses using generalized estimating equations. At baseline, parents reported encouraging their child for both PA and HW in 37.6% of parent-child dyads and reported receiving children's encouragement for both in 12.1% of dyads. These increased to 56.8% and 17.5% at 10 months ( p < .001). Co-engagement in PA increased from 11.4% to 15.7% ( p < .001), with younger children (30.4%) and mother-daughter dyads (26.8%) most likely to co-engage at 10 months. Providing FHH-based risk information to all adult household members (vs. one) was associated with increased parent-to-child encouragement of PA/HW ( p = .011) at 10 months but not child-to-parent encouragement. New encouragement from parent-to-child ( p = .048) and from child-to-parent ( p = .003) predicted new 10-month PA co-engagement. Providing FHH information on a household level can promote parental encouragement for PA/HW, which can promote greater parent-child co-engagement in PA. In this high-risk population with a cultural emphasis on family ties, using FHH-based risk information for all adult household members may be a promising avenue to promote PA.

Is socioeconomic incorporation associated with a healthier diet? Dietary patterns among Mexican-origin children in the United States

With each successive generation in the United States, Mexican-origin families lose their initial dietary advantages. Focusing on children's diets, we ask whether greater socioeconomic status (SES) can help buffer Mexican-origin children in immigrant families from negative dietary acculturation or whether it exacerbates these dietary risks. Pooling data from the 1999 to 2009 waves of the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we test whether the association between generational status and Mexican-origin children's nutrition varies by the family's SES. When predicting children's overall dietary quality using the Healthy Eating Index (2010) and predicting unhealthy dietary patterns, we find stronger evidence of segmented assimilation, whereby greater family average SES is associated with better diets across generations of Mexican-origin children. High-status Mexican-origin parents appear able to buffer their children against generational dietary declines documented in the acculturation literature.

Mexican-origin parents' work conditions and adolescents' adjustment.

Mexican-origin parents' work experiences are a distal extrafamilial context for adolescents' adjustment. This 2-wave multiinformant study examined the prospective mechanisms linking parents' work conditions (i.e., self-direction, work pressure, workplace discrimination) to adolescents' adjustment (i.e., educational expectations, depressive symptoms, risky behavior) across the transition to high school drawing on work socialization and spillover models. We examined the indirect effects of parental work conditions on adolescent adjustment through parents' psychological functioning (i.e., depressive symptoms, role overload) and aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship (i.e., parental solicitation, parent-adolescent conflict), as well as moderation by adolescent gender. Participants were 246 predominantly immigrant, Mexican-origin, 2-parent families who participated in home interviews when adolescents were approximately 13 and 15 years of age. Results supported the positive impact of fathers' occupational self-direction on all 3 aspects of adolescents' adjustment through decreased father-adolescent conflict, after controlling for family socioeconomic status and earner status, and underemployment. Parental work pressure and discrimination were indirectly linked to adolescents' adjustment, with different mechanisms emerging for mothers and fathers. Adolescents' gender moderated the associations between fathers' self-direction and girls' depressive symptoms, and fathers' experiences of discrimination and boys' risk behavior. Results suggest that Mexican-origin mothers' and fathers' perceptions of work conditions have important implications for multiple domains of adolescents' adjustment across the transition to high school.

Transmission of cultural values among Mexican-origin parents and their adolescent and emerging adult offspring.

The integration of the U.S. and Mexican culture is an important process associated with Mexican-origin youths' adjustment and family dynamics. The current study examined the reciprocal associations in parents' and two offspring's cultural values (i.e., familism and respect) in 246 Mexican-origin families. Overall, mothers' values were associated with increases in youths' values 5years later. In contrast, youths' familism values were associated with increases in fathers' familism values 5years later. In addition, developmental differences emerged where parent-to-offspring effects were more consistent for youth transitioning from early to late adolescence than for youth transitioning from middle adolescence to emerging adulthood. Finally, moderation by immigrant status revealed a youth-to-parent effect for mother-youth immigrant dyads, but not for dyads where youth were U.S.-raised. Our findings highlight the reciprocal nature of parent-youth value socialization and provide a nuanced understanding of these processes through the consideration of familism and respect values. As Mexican-origin youth represent a large and rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population, research that advances our understanding of how these youth develop values that foster family cohesion and support is crucial.

Mexican-origin parents' latent occupational profiles: associations with parent-youth relationships and youth aspirations.

This study used an ecological, person-centered approach to identify subgroups of families who had similar profiles across multiple dimensions of Mexican-origin mothers' and fathers' occupational characteristics (i.e., self-direction, hazardous conditions, physical activity) and to relate these subgroups to families' sociocultural characteristics and youth adjustment. The study included 160 dual-earner Mexican-origin families from the urban Southwest. Mothers' and fathers' objective work characteristics and families' sociocultural characteristics were assessed when youth were in early to middle adolescence; adjustment was assessed during late adolescence and early adulthood for 2 offspring in each family. A latent profile analysis identified 3 profiles that evidenced distinct patterns of occupational characteristics: a differentiated high physical activity profile characterized by high levels of physical activity and low levels of self-direction; an incongruent profile characterized by large differences between parents on self-direction, hazards, and physical activity; and a congruent highly self-directed profile characterized by congruence across parents on occupational characteristics. These profiles were linked to sociocultural characteristics (i.e., family income, educational attainment, and acculturation) and to relational adjustment (i.e., mother- and father-youth conflict, father warmth) and educational aspirations. Results are discussed with respect to implications of parents' work for youths' future family relationships and attainment.

Familias: Preparando la Nueva Generación: A Randomized Control Trial Testing the Effects on Positive Parenting Practices.

This article reports the effects of a culturally grounded parenting intervention to strengthen positive parenting practices. The intervention was designed and tested with primarily Mexican origin parents in a large urban setting of the southwestern United States using an ecodevelopmental approach. Parents (N = 393) were randomly assigned three treatment conditions: (1) a parenting and youth intervention, (2) a youth only intervention, or (3) a control group. A measurement model for positive parenting was first evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis, followed by structural equation modeling to estimate the effects of the intervention on positive parenting (i.e., baseline to follow-up). As hypothesized, parents in the intervention group reported higher rates of positive parenting compared to parents in youth-only condition. The results are promising and add to growing evidence that interventions tailored to the cultural characteristics and environments of parents and their children can strengthen positive parenting.

Academic Success of Mexican Origin Adolescent Boys and Girls: The Role of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting and Cultural Orientation

To understand the role that Mexican origin parents play in their children's academic success, this study used structural equation modeling to evaluate the associations of parents' parenting practices (warmth, monitoring, harshness, and academic involvement) and cultural orientations (enculturation and acculturation) with their adolescents' grades, classroom behavior, and association with peers who get into trouble at school. Data were obtained from teachers, mothers, fathers, and male and female adolescents in 560 Mexican origin families living in the southwest U.S. Results indicated that mothers' and fathers' parenting practices and cultural orientations were linked to adolescents' academic outcomes. However, there were differences for boys and girls. Results are discussed in relation to parent and adolescent gender roles and implications for intervention.