Gender Dynamics in Mexican American Families: Connecting Mothers’, Fathers’, and Youths’ Experiences

Abstract

Study goals were to examine the conditions under which congruent and incongruent patterns of parents’ division of household labor and gender role attitudes emerged, and the implications of these patterns for youth gender development. Questionnaire and phone diary data were collected from mothers, fathers, and youths from 236 Mexican American families in the southwestern US. Preliminary cluster analysis identified three patterns: Traditional divisions of labor and traditional attitudes, egalitarian divisions of labor and egalitarian attitudes, and an incongruent pattern, with a traditional division of labor but egalitarian attitudes. MANOVAs, and follow-up, mixed- and between-group ANOVAs, revealed that these groups of families differed in parents’ time constraints, socioeconomic resources, and cultural orientations. Mothers in the congruent egalitarian group worked more hours and earned higher incomes as compared to mothers in the congruent traditional and incongruent groups, and the emergence of the incongruent group was grounded in within-family, inter-parental differences in work hours and incomes. Parents’ patterns of gendered practices and beliefs were linked to their youths’ housework participation, time with mothers versus fathers, and gender role attitudes. Youths in the congruent traditional group had more traditional gender role attitudes than those in the congruent egalitarian and incongruent groups, and gender atypical housework participation and time with parents were only observed in the congruent egalitarian group. Findings demonstrate the utility of a within-family design to understand complex gendered phenomena, and highlight the multidimensional nature of gender and the importance of contextualizing the study of ethnic minorities.

Gender Role Attitudes across the Transition to Adolescent Motherhood in Mexican‐Origin Families

“…In particular, our findings suggest that the development of gender role attitudes during the transition from pregnancy to adolescent motherhood substantially differs from contemporary models of development during the transition to parenthood that have been largely derived from adult couples. Further, and consistent with prior research on intergenerational transmission of gender role attitudes among Latino families (Lam, McHale, & Updegraff, 2012), our research highlights the importance of attending to the reciprocal processes that transpire in adolescent mother – mother figure relationships during the initial transition to parenthood.…”

The development and correlates of gender role attitudes in African American youth

“…It is noteworthy that, despite their non‐traditional work and family roles, like their ethnic majority counterparts, African American men still endorse more traditional gender role attitudes than African American women (Thornton & Young‐DeMarco, ), a pattern that was also evident in our sample. In African American families, mothers’ less traditional attitudes may serve as a more powerful model, given their greater congruence with both parents’ engagement in less traditional work and family roles (Lam, McHale, & Updegraff, ). Mothers’ lower levels of traditionality also may serve as a more relevant model for youth, given the expected developmental change towards greater flexibility in conceptions of gender across adolescence.…”

Social Support and Postpartum Depression Revisited: The Traditional Female Role as Moderator among Mexican Women

“…Additionally, given the similarities within Latin American cultural values, our findings may prove to be especially important in the United States, where Latinos comprise 16% of the national population and 63% of Latinos are of Mexican origin (Ennis et al 2011). Though gender roles may differ between Mexican and Mexican American or other Latina women (Lega and Procel 2013), past work suggests that Mexican American gender-role development is largely influenced by parental beliefs and cultural values shared with Mexican culture (Gowan and Trevio 1998; Knight et al 2010; Lam et al 2012; Updegraff et al 2014). Future work may benefit from a greater integration of Latin American and U.S. Latina studies that incorporate the unique stressors many Latina immigrants often experience through the process of acculturation (Davila et al 2009; Urquia et al 2012).…”