Understanding the Factors Associated with Overprotective Parenting Behaviors in Latino Parents

• Published date: 01 December 2021
• Author: Lourdes Suarez‐Morales,Cynthia Torres
• Date: 01 December 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12548

L S-M C TNova Southeastern University

Understanding the Factors Associated with

Overprotective Parenting Behaviors

in Latino Parents

Objective: The current investigation examined

whether parental psychopathology and psy-

chosocial stress are related to overprotective

parenting behaviors in a sample of Latino

parents.

Background: Scant literature exists on the rela-

tionship among psychosocial stress, parental

psychopathology, and parental behaviors in

Latino populations. Further, the literature has

focused on parental behaviors as predictors and

not as outcomes.

Method: Sixty-four Latino parents participated

in this study. Parents completed measuresof psy-

chosocial stress, psychopathology, and overpro-

tective parenting behaviors. Regressionanalyses

examined predictors of overprotectiveparenting

behaviors consisting of control, supervision, and

separation problems.

Results: Findings showed that psychosocial

stress predicted overprotective parenting behav-

iors. However, parental psychopathology had no

effect on parental behaviors. Further analysis

of psychosocial stress subscales indicated that

immigration stress was associated with parental

control and parental separation problems. With

regardto subscales of parental psychopathology,

College of Psychology, NovaSoutheastern University, 3301

College Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314 (lsuarez-

morales@nova.edu).

Key Words: Latino, parenting behaviors, parental psy-

chopathology, psychosocialstress.

parental hostility and parental depression were

related to parental control.

Conclusion: Latino parents’ use of controlling

parenting behaviors seem to be associated with

the level of stress they experience—inparticular,

immigration-related stress.

Implications: These ndings suggest the need

for interventions that not only focus on teaching

appropriate parenting techniques but that also

address psychosocial stressors experienced by

Latino parents to diminish the effect that immi-

gration related stress has on their parenting

practices.

Research suggests that parenting behaviors

of Latino parents vary in terms of controlling

or overprotective characteristics (Halgunseth

et al., 2006; Varela & Hensley-Malony, 2009).

In particular, controlling or overprotective

parenting practices have been associated with

child anxiety in studies with White non-Latino

(Ballash et al., 2006; Wood et al., 2003) and

Latino populations (Varela et al., 2004; 2013).

However, there is a lack of understanding about

what contributes to the likelihood of Latino par-

ents engaging in overprotective practices. In this

study, the factors associated with overprotective

parenting behaviors in Latino families were

examined.

P B

In the literature, parenting behaviors are often

examined using Baumrind’s (1991) parenting

1556Family Relations 70 (December 2021): 1556–1570

DOI:10.1111/fare.12548