title: Bridging the acculturation gap: parent-child relationship quality as a moderator in Mexican American families.
abstract: The authors examined the degree to which disparities in parent and child acculturation are linked to both family and child adjustment. With a sample of 1st- and 2nd-generation Mexican American children, acculturation and parent-child relationship quality at 5th grade, and parent-child conflict, child internalizing, and child externalizing at 7th grade were measured. Acculturation gaps with fathers were found to be related to later father-child conflict as well as internalizing and externalizing outcomes. Many of the associations between father-child acculturation gaps and outcomes were moderated by the child's report of the relationship quality between the child and his or her father. Father-child acculturation gaps were associated with negative outcomes only when children reported a poor relationship with their fathers. Mother-child acculturation gaps were not associated with mother-child conflict or adjustment indices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human and Community Development, Family Research Group, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. tomschofield@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Schofield
authors.forename: Ross D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Parke
authors.forename: Young
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Coltrane
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D002140:California; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology*; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment