Trajectories of Familísmo, Respéto, Traditional Gender Attitudes, and Parenting Practices Among Mexican‐Origin Families

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Chia‐Feng Chen,Richard W. Robins,Thomas J. Schofield,Daniel W. Russell
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12527

C-F CIowa State University

R W. RUniversity of California, Davis

T J. SLos Angeles County Department of Probation, Juvenile Division

D W. RIowa State University

Trajectories of Familísmo, Respéto, Traditional

Gender Attitudes, and Parenting Practices Among

Mexican-Origin Families

Objective: To investigate the trajectories of cul-

turally specic predictors of parenting practices

in Latinx families: familism (familísmo), respect

(respéto), traditional gender role attitudes

(machísmo and marianísmo), and the degree

to which these parental cultural values predict

changes in parenting practices.

Background: Cultural values have been sug-

gested to predict Latinx parenting practices, but

there is a paucity of direct evidence. The current

study lls the gap by testing such associations

using corresponding measures.

Method: We followed 549 Mexican-origin fam-

ilies from when the adolescents (52% female)

were in the fth to eleventh grade. Parental

authoritativeness, monitoring, and hostility were

reported by multiple informants. Growth curve

modeling was used.

Results: Most trajectories of these parental

cultural values showed small but signicant

declines during offspring adolescence,

Department of Human Development and Family Studies,

0072 LeBaron, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011

(billy@iastate.edu).

Key Words: cultural issues, Hispanic families and issues,

immigrant families and issues, parenting and parenthood,

race and ethnic (minority) issues.

particularly when adolescent use of Spanish or

parent–adolescent conict was high. Parental

cultural values predicted changes in parenting

practices in four of 36 models, wherein initial

paternal familísmo predicted decrease in pater-

nal authoritativeness toward daughters, initial

maternal traditional gender values predicted

decrease in maternal hostility toward daughters,

and initial parental traditional gender values

predicted decrease in parental monitoring of

sons.

Conclusion: Although parental cultural values

do not consistently predict changes in parenting

practices, parental cultural values decreasewith

specic groups during specic times (i.e., dur-

ing adolescence, especially in families with high

parent–adolescent conict or wherein the ado-

lescent uses Spanish frequently).

Implications: More attention to measured con-

structs in research on Latinx families and valid-

ity of parenting is required.Research on nuanced

or lower order components of acculturation is

needed.

Early studies of Latinx families started with the

assumption that the causes of parenting prac-

tices among Latinx families would be similar

to those among other ethnic groups, such that

Family Relations 70 (February 2021): 207–224207

DOI:10.1111/fare.12527

208 Family Relations

many predictors of parenting among non-Latinx

families mirrored those among Latinx families

(Altschul & Lee, 2011). However,it has become

clear that Latinx families are different in that

Latinx parenting has culturally specic pre-

dictors, such as cultural values, that represent

elements crucial to family members, help deter-

mine behaviors displayed during family interac-

tions, and shape perceived meanings in a family

(García Coll et al., 1996; White et al., 2014).

Specically, research has indicated culturally

specic antecedents of parental authoritative-

ness, monitoring, and hostility among Latinx

families (Calzada et al., 2012; Cruz et al., 2011;

Killoren et al., 2015) and determinants of Latinx

parenting practices, such as contextual support

for cultural values (Belsky & Jaffee, 2006; Gar-

cia Coll et al., 1996). A growing number of stud-

ies have examined the potential role of culturally

specic determinants of parenting practices for

Latinx families. These studies have investigated

potential determinants, such as familísmo (i.e.,

strong orientation and commitment toward the

family), respéto (i.e., deference to authority),

machísmo and marianísmo (i.e., traditional

masculine and feminine gender values, respec-

tively; e.g., Ayón et al., 2015; Calderón-Tena

et al., 2011). However, only a small number of

studies has investigated the trajectories of these

parental cultural values (Gonzales et al., 2018;

Knight et al., 2014); thus, the degree to which

changes in these parental cultural values predict

changes in parenting practices has been unclear.

The current study lls the gap by investigating

the trajectories of parental cultural values and

how these changes in turn affect changes in

parenting practices among Latinx families.

B D

 P   S

P  A

In a bioecological perspective, acculturation

is not universal (White et al., 2018); it entails

lower order components, such as specic setting

conditions (e.g., the status of an immigrant),

peoples (e.g., gender and language use), times

(e.g., developmental status), processes (e.g.,

transaction and socialization), and domains

of acculturation (e.g., the context of family;

Bornstein, 2017). In the current study, the

bioecological perspective and the specicity

principle of acculturation (Bornstein, 2017)

served as the overarching framework. The

chronosystem (e.g., parental acculturation dur-

ing offspring adolescence when peer inuence is

enlarged), the macrosystem (e.g., Latinx cultural

values), the exosystem (e.g., Latinx cultural cli-

mate in the neighborhood), the mesosystem

(e.g., adolescent Spanish use across microsys-

tems), the microsystem (e.g., spouse cultural

values and parent–adolescent conict within the

family), and the ontogenic level (e.g., individual

adaptations) were suggested to affect parenting

practices (Belsky & Jaffee, 2006; Bronfenbren-

ner & Morris, 2007; Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993).

Thus, we tested the degree to which changes in

parental cultural values at the ontogenic level

would predict changes in parenting practices

at the microsystem level when variables across

bioecological system levels (i.e., Latinx cultural

climate in the neighborhood, spouse cultural

values, parent–adolescent conict, and ado-

lescent use of Spanish) were simultaneously

considered. On the basis of the specicity prin-

ciple of acculturation (Bornstein, 2017), we

also tested moderation mechanisms of change

in parental cultural values, like the interaction

effects from parent-adolescent gender composi-

tions, parent-adolescent conict, and adolescent

use of Spanish.

L  R  C  P

C V D O

A

Parental cultural attitudes may shift, particularly

during the period of children’s adolescence

when realignment and active negotiation sur-

round the parent–offspring dynamic. During this

time, parents grant increased autonomy to the

adolescent, and the quality of the parent–child

relationship shifts (Bornstein, 2016; Killoren

& Deutsch, 2014). Parental beliefs also may

evolve (Bardi et al., 2009) and cause changes in

parenting practices during this period.

Because differences in parent and adoles-

cent cultural adaptation may lead to conict

(Gonzales et al., 2018) followed by attitude

change (Petty & Wegener, 1998; Smokowski

et al., 2008), adjustments in parental cultural

values and parenting practices may acceler-

ate among Latinx families if the adolescent

is highly behaviorally acculturated (e.g., pre-

ferring English to Spanish; Lorenzo-Blanco

et al., 2013). Also, parental endorsement of

cultural values decline more rapidly with-

out reinforcement from a spouse or from