Economic stress, parenting, and child adjustment in Mexican American and European American families.
To assess the impact of economic hardship on 111 European American and 167 Mexican American families and their 5th-grade (M age=11.4 years) children, a family stress model was evaluated. Structural equation analyses revealed that economic hardship was linked to indexes of economic pressure that were related to depressive symptoms for mothers and fathers of both ethnicities. Depressive symptoms were linked to marital problems and hostile parenting. Paternal hostile parenting was related to child adjustment problems for European Americans, whereas marital problems were linked to child adjustment problems for Mexican Americans. Maternal acculturation was associated with both higher marital problems and lower hostile parenting. The utility of the model for describing the effects of economic hardship in Mexican Americans is noted.
Parke
Ross D
RD
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, CA 95251, USA. ross.parke@ucr.edu
Coltrane
Scott
S
Duffy
Sharon
S
Buriel
Raymond
R
Dennis
Jessica
J
Powers
Justina
J
French
Sabine
S
Widaman
Keith F
KF
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003710:Demography; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D016487:Parenting / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*