Mexican-origin husbands’ work contexts and spouses’ marital quality.

Abstract

Relative to other men, Latino immigrant men are disproportionately likely to experience challenging working conditions, including too many or too few hours, discrimination, and job (in)security. Previous research suggests that work contexts (particularly husbands') may affect interactions between family members, which in turn, spill over into family functioning. The present study examined the patterning of 118 Mexican husbands' self-reported workplace characteristics (i.e., job security, workplace discrimination, and work hours) and links with husbands' and wives' marital warmth and negativity. First, using a 2-step cluster analysis, we identified 3 work context groups:(1) Moderately Secure, Overtime, Minimally Discriminatory Workplaces, (2) Highly Secure, Full-Time, Moderately Discriminatory Workplaces, and (3) Minimally Secure, Full-Time, Highly Discriminatory Workplaces. Second, using mixed-model ANCOVAs, we found (a) a main effect for work context on marital warmth, indicating that husbands in Group 2 reported more marital warmth than husbands in Group 3, and (b) a spouse-by-group interaction showing that whereas Group 2 husbands expressed more warmth relative to their wives, Group 3 husbands expressed less warmth relative to their wives. No significant effects were found for spouses' marital negativity. Taken together, the same job opportunities that motivate low-wage Mexican-origin workers to migrate to the United States may also strain their close relationships. Researchers and practitioners should address links between work contexts and family well-being in other Latina/o samples and explore in greater depth how work characteristics that would otherwise serve to buffer and protect family functioning may have hidden costs for couple and family functioning.

Marital Processes Linking Gender Role Attitudes and Marital Satisfaction Among Mexican‐Origin Couples: Application of an Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Model

“…Contemporary qualitative studies of Latino and Mexican-origin families offer some insights into why this may be so (e.g., Hirsch, 2003;Parra-Cardona et al, 2008). Therefore, dissonance between spouses' gender role attitudes and wives' employment may be normative in the context of immigration and correspondingly less salient to spouses' perceptions of marital warmth and connection (Hengstebeck, Helms, Wood, & Rodriguez, 2017). Therefore, dissonance between spouses' gender role attitudes and wives' employment may be normative in the context of immigration and correspondingly less salient to spouses' perceptions of marital warmth and connection (Hengstebeck, Helms, Wood, & Rodriguez, 2017).…”

“…Given the structural constraints associated with cultural adaptation that make wives' employment and/or husbands' overwork necessary for many Mexican immigrant families (Updegraff, Crouter, Umaña-Taylor, & Cansler, 2007), expectations regarding women's roles in their families are often redefined to include wives' employment (Baker, 2004;Esteinou, 2007). Therefore, dissonance between spouses' gender role attitudes and wives' employment may be normative in the context of immigration and correspondingly less salient to spouses' perceptions of marital warmth and connection (Hengstebeck, Helms, Wood, & Rodriguez, 2017). Thus, regardless of wives' employment status, spouses' beliefs in patriarchal marital roles may reduce the capacity for connection in marriage, whereas partners' flexibility in gender role attitudes may serve as a resource for fostering warmth during the process of immigration.…”

Relational and individual stress pathways linking discrimination and ageing cardiometabolic health

“…(2020) found associations between discrimination and family strain, which was subsequently linked to disease activity via individuals' stress reactivity for African American participants in the Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) study (Ryff, Almeida, Ayanian, et al., 2017). In other prior research, Mexican American men with greater exposure to ethnic discrimination at work demonstrated less warmth to their wives when compared to men in secure, and positive work environments (Hengstebeck et al., 2018), and among Asian Americans, 40% of the association between perceived discrimination and psychological distress was conveyed by family strain, especially family conflict, in this group (Kwon, 2020).…”

Cultural adaptation congruence in immigrant spouses is associated with marital quality

“…One explanation for immigrants' high rates of martial dissatisfaction and dissolution is stress associated with spousal differences in adaptation. Cultural adaptation includes a wide spectrum of attitudinal and behavioral changes (Knight et al, 2018), and immigrant husbands and wives might adapt at different rates to various cultural domains (i.e., language, cultural values; Grzywacz et al, 2009;Hengstebeck et al, 2018). Disagreements in values and expectations may arise within dyads and compromise people's ability to maintain strong relationships.…”

“…Mexican-origin couples who match at, for example, low levels of cultural adaptation may experience different sources of adaptation stress than couples who match at high levels of adaptation, which may influence marital dissatisfaction. At the same time, it is also possible that husbands and wives differ from each other in their workplace experiences and lengths of stay in the United States (Grzywacz et al, 2009;Hengstebeck et al, 2018); thus, husbands and wives may also differ in their rates of adopting, and maintaining, their American versus Mexican orientations, which could manifest in spousal mismatches in adaptation. Specifically, we argue that (1) level of acculturation matching (e.g., high-high vs. low-low) and (2) mismatches between Mexican-origin husband and wives' levels of cultural adaptation (e.g., high-low vs. low-high) may have important implications for their marital quality.…”