Socialization Toward Money in Latino Families: an Exploratory Study of Gender Differences.

Sexual activity Roles. Author manuscript; bachelor in PMC 2013 Jul 1.

Published in final edited form as:

PMCID: PMC3638960

NIHMSID: NIHMS438660

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

Abstract

Written report 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 iii 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 betwixt-grouping ANOVAs, revealed that these groups of families differed in parents' time constraints, socioeconomic resource, and cultural orientations. Mothers in the congruent egalitarian group worked more hours and earned college incomes as compared to mothers in the coinciding 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 behavior were linked to their youths' housework participation, time with mothers versus fathers, and gender function attitudes. Youths in the coinciding traditional grouping 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 inside-family unit pattern to understand complex gendered phenomena, and highlight the multidimensional nature of gender and the importance of contextualizing the study of ethnic minorities.

Keywords: gender office attitudes, gender socialization, household labor, Mexican American families, pattern analytic approach

Introduction

Estimates based on national representative samples from 30 countries (including the US) indicate that married women are responsible for about two thirds of all household tasks in the family unit (Greenstein, 2009). Researchers have long tried to understand why housework is divided in gender-biased ways and, to a lesser extent, how such arrangements may affect youth gender development (see Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010 and McHale, Crouter, & Whiteman, 2003 for reviews of studies conducted mainly with European American samples in the Us on the division of housework and youth gender development, respectively). Almost of this work, withal, is based on European American families in the U.s.. Although Mexican Americans plant the largest and fastest-growing indigenous minority group in the Us (United states of america Demography Agency, 2010), their everyday family experiences, including how they assign household tasks, remain under-explored (Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010). Spouses' routine involvement in housework could be conceptualized every bit behavioral enactment of their attitudes about marital roles (Thompson & Walker, 1989). Still, a growing body of research shows that gender is complex and multidimensional, and that different facets of gender are not necessarily tightly related to one another (come across Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006 for a review of related studies conducted mainly with European American samples in the US).

Indeed, in a study based on national representative samples from 5 European countries, Cromption and Lyonette (2006) were able to classify married couples into singled-out groups divers by spouses' housework allocation and gender ideologies (see Figure 1), including coinciding traditional, congruent egalitarian, and incongruent labor (i.eastward., traditional divisions of household labor but egalitarian gender function attitudes). Possibly because many household tasks are perceived past Anglo individuals to exist tedious and boring (Coltrane, 2000) and favorable attitudes, on a conceptual level, are particularly important in motivating voluntary involvement in undesirable tasks (Ajzen, 2001), an insufficient number of families in Cromption and Lyonette's study vicious under the incongruent attitudes category (i.e., egalitarian divisions of household labor just traditional gender role attitudes) to class a distinct grouping. Building on this classification framework, we drew on questionnaire and telephone diary data collected from mothers, fathers, and youths from Mexican American families in the southwestern U.s. and used cluster analysis every bit a preliminary step to classify these families into congruent traditional, congruent egalitarian, and incongruent labor groups. Our written report goals were to place the conditions under which these congruent and incongruent patterns of parents' gendered practices and beliefs emerged and to assess the implications of these patterns for youth gender development, using MANOVAs and a series of follow-up, mixed- and between-group ANOVAs. In developing our arguments, we simply relied on empirical studies that were US-based to make sure that they were contextually relevant in agreement our sample. We also noted the ethnic groundwork of the samples when the studies were conducted with a item ethnic group, as cultural orientations, as we describe below, play an important part in shaping spouses' segmentation of household labor.

Classification framework of parents' divisions of household labor and gender function attitudes.

Parents' Fourth dimension Constraints, Socioeconomic Resources, and Cultural Orientations

Our starting time goal was to identify the conditions nether which parents' patterns of gendered behaviors and attitudes emerged. An ecological perspective suggests that family roles, socioeconomic factors, and enculturation and acculturation processes are closely linked to family dynamics amidst ethnic minorities (García Coll et al., 1996). In a parallel way, the literature on the division of household labor points to the importance of fourth dimension constraints, socioeconomic resources, and cultural orientations in understanding mothers' and fathers' gendered practices and behavior (Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010).

First, time constraints theory posits that couples brand rational decisions to assign more than household tasks to the spouse with more free time (Coverman, 1985). Previous studies based on European American (eastward.m., Blair & Lichter, 1991; Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992) and Mexican American (Golding, 1990; Pinto & Coltrane, 2009) families in the US have shown that husbands with wives who piece of work more hours outside homes contribute more to household responsibilities. Petty is known about how work hours are related to gender function attitudes, only employed immigrant women, as compared to their non-employed counterparts, are more exposed to the dominant US civilisation and meliorate able to build social networks in the workplace (Vega, 1990), both of which may empower women and atomic number 82 to the liberalization of their gender ideologies (Kroska & Elman, 2009). Therefore, we expected that mothers in congruent traditional families would piece of work fewer hours as compared to mothers in congruent egalitarian families. Still, the behavioral expression of attitudes is often limited by environmental constraints (Ajzen, 2001). Fifty-fifty when both parents prefer an egalitarian partitioning of household labor, when the mother has more than gratuitous time than does the male parent, it may be rational for her to have on more household tasks. Therefore, we too expected that mothers in incongruent labor families would piece of work fewer hours as compared to mothers in congruent egalitarian families, and that inter-parental differences in work hours (with fathers working more) would exist greater in incongruent labor than in coinciding egalitarian families.

Second, social exchange theory assumes that household tasks are undesirable and that the spouse with more than socioeconomic resources has more than power to buy her- or himself out of these chores (Huston & Burgess, 1979). Several studies based on European American (due east.g., Blair & Lichter, 1991; Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992) and Mexican American (Coltrane & Valdez, 1993; Pinto & Coltrane, 2009) families in the U.s.a. establish that couples had a more balanced partition of housework when the wives were more educated and had college incomes. Mod educational systems expose students to autonomous ideals and female role models, and not surprisingly, more educated individuals accept more egalitarian attitudes about marital roles (see Chatard & Selimbegovic, 2007 for a review of related studies conducted with samples from both individualistic and collectivistic countries). Higher didactics also leads to meliorate paying jobs. A longitudinal written report based on a national representative sample from the Us indicated that wives who contributed more to the household income had more than egalitarian gender role attitudes (Raley, Matting, & Bianchi, 2006). Therefore, nosotros expected that mothers in congruent traditional families would exist less educated and earn lower income as compared to mothers in coinciding egalitarian families. All the same, household tasks, specially core ones that have to exist done on a daily or regular footing, are commonly seen to be wearisome and dull (Coltrane, 2000). Fifty-fifty when both parents consider doing housework equally a gender-neutral responsibleness, if the father brings more resources to the family than does the female parent, he may have more power to avoid these undesirable tasks. Therefore, we expected that mothers in incongruent labor families would be less educated and earn lower incomes as compared to mothers in congruent egalitarian families, and that inter-parental differences in incomes (with fathers earning more) would be greater in incongruent labor than in congruent egalitarian families.

Finally, cultural orientations theory suggests that cultures provide social frames of reference that direct behaviors and attitudes (Triandis, 1989), and that in many cultures, traditions and values provide justification for the "natural" roles of women and men in the family unit (West & Zimmerman, 1987). Indeed, traditional Latino marriages are frequently shaped past the gendered cultural ideals of "marianismo" and "machismo" (McLoyd, Cauce, Takeuchi, & Wilson, 2000): The former highlights women's part equally mothers and encourages them to be loyal and self-sacrificing, whereas the latter stresses men'due south role as head of the household and celebrates their authority and sexual virility. Ayala's (2006) and Denner and Dunbar's (2004) qualitative research, for example, illustrates how Mexican American mothers in the US conform to the humble, selfless ideal and teach their daughters to melt and clean. The dominant United states of america culture, in dissimilarity, holds that individuals should be treated equally. Mexican American parents who have been extensively exposed to the dominant US culture may subscribe to Anglo practices and beliefs, and display a more egalitarian sectionalisation of household labor and gender role attitudes (Parrado & Flippen, 2005; Pinto & Coltrane, 2009). Therefore, nosotros expected that parents in congruent traditional families would have college Mexican and lower Anglo cultural orientations as compared to parents in coinciding egalitarian families.

Youths' Gendered Behaviors and Attitudes

Our second goal was to examine the implications of parents' patterns of the sectionalization of household labor and gender role attitudes for their youths' gendered behaviors and attitudes. Gender socialization in Mexican American families in the United states of america has typically been studied inside a framework of risks and pathology (Suárez-Orozco & Qin, 2006). As emphasized by an ecological perspective (García Coll et al., 1996), however, normative, day-to-day experiences with parents are also important for shaping youth gender development in indigenous minority families.

Parents are theorized to play roles as models, opportunity providers, and instructors in youth gender development (Parke & Buriel, 2006). As models, parents indirectly convey gendered letters by engaging in gender-typed activities. To the extent that mothers' and fathers' involvement in housework is differentiated, the distinct roles of women and men may exist particularly salient and easy to learn (Bussey & Bandura, 1999), and girls will be more involved in housework than will boys. As opportunity providers, parents orchestrate the daily activities of their children. Traditional parents have been shown to participate in more than joint activities with children of their own gender (run across McHale at al., 2003 and Suárez-Orozco & Qin, 2006 for reviews of related studies conducted with European American and indigenous minority samples in the U.s.a., respectively). To the extent that these parents also enforce a traditional division of labor, girls will have more opportunities to do housework with their mothers (merely not fathers) than will boys. Finally, every bit instructors, parents explicitly communicate their beliefs near gender roles by providing education and guidance to their youths, and such processes should lead youths with traditional parents to develop more traditional attitudes themselves (McHale at al., 2003).

Existing research based on European American (due east.thou., Cunningham, 2001; Marks, Lam, & McHale, 2009) and Mexican American (Denner & Dunbar, 2004; Raffaelli & Ontai, 2004) families in the US suggests that parents' division of household labor and gender function attitudes may influence youths' gendered behaviors and attitudes. In fact, the process of immigration and resettlement may intensify these socialization forces. For instance, due to the necessity for both parents to work outside the home and parents' lack of English proficiency, youths may have to increase their involvement in housework and human activity every bit language brokers. Some work shows that, in ethnic minority families in the U.s., girls are typically chosen over boys to accept care of younger siblings and to translate schoolhouse, medical, and legal documents (Suárez-Orozco & Qin, 2006). Moreover, in Mexican American families in the US, girls, more so than boys, are expected to preserve the ethnic civilization and aid maintain extended family unit networks (Ayala, 2006). Therefore, we expected that girls and boys in coinciding traditional families would show greater differences in housework participation and time with mothers versus fathers and would agree more traditional gender role attitudes as compared to youths in coinciding egalitarian families. It is important to note that modeling of gendered behaviors and tutoring of gender knowledge are facilitated by each other, with greatest adherence observed in the learner when what is modeled is congruent with what is taught by the instructor (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Therefore, we expected that girls and boys in incongruent labor families would differ more in their gendered behaviors and would display more traditional attitudes as compared to youths in congruent egalitarian families.

Study Goals and Hypotheses

In sum, this study was designed to examine the sociocultural characteristics and developmental implications of coinciding and incongruent patterns of parents' housework allocation and gender ideologies in Mexican American families. Based on prior literature, we proposed the post-obit hypotheses:

• Hypothesis 1: Mothers in congruent traditional and incongruent labor families would piece of work fewer hours as compared to mothers in coinciding egalitarian families (1.i), and inter-parental differences in work hours would be greater in incongruent labor than in congruent egalitarian families (1.ii).

• Hypothesis 2: Mothers in coinciding traditional and incongruent labor families would be less educated (2.1a) and earn lower incomes (2.1b) as compared to mothers in coinciding egalitarian families, and inter-parental differences in pedagogy (2.2a) and income (2.2b) levels would exist greater in incongruent labor than in coinciding egalitarian families.

• Hypothesis 3: Parents in congruent traditional families would have college Mexican (3.one) and lower Anglo (iii.2) orientations as compared to parents in congruent egalitarian families.

• Hypothesis four: Girls and boys in congruent traditional and incongruent labor families would show greater differences in housework participation (4.1) and in time with mothers versus fathers (4.2) and would have more traditional gender office attitudes (4.3) every bit compared to girls and boys in coinciding egalitarian families.

Method

Participants

Data were fatigued from a study of family socialization and boyish evolution in Mexican American families. Families' contact information was obtained from schools in and around a southwestern metropolitan area of the U.s.. Recruitment messages in both Spanish and English were sent to 1,856 Mexican American families, and follow-up phone calls were made past bilingual staff to make up one's mind the interest in participation. Given the goal of the larger study, to examine normative experiences of two-parent Mexican American families, families were eligible for participation if (a) mothers were of Mexican origin; (b) at to the lowest degree one adolescent sibling lived at abode; (c) biological mothers and biological or long-term (> x years) adoptive fathers lived at home; and (d) fathers worked at least xx hours per calendar week (and thus families had a relatively stable source of income). Of those eligible families (N = 421), 284 families (67%) agreed to participate, 95 families (23%) refused, and we were unable to reconnect with the remaining 42 families (10%). Due to budget constraints, enrollment of families ended when nosotros completed home interviews with 246 families, surpassing the target sample size of 240 families. This written report was based on data from 236 families; we excluded ten families that did non provide data on parents' division of household labor or gender role attitudes.

The sample included mostly dual-earner (67% of mothers were employed) families of a range of instruction and income levels, from poverty to upper class. The average ages of mothers and fathers were 39.00 (SD = 4.63) and 41.70 (SD = 5.78) years, respectively. Most parents (71% of mothers and 69% of fathers) had been born outside the United states of america. Seventy percent of parents were interviewed in Spanish, and the rest were interviewed in English. The boilerplate age of youths was 15.72 (SD = i.55) years, and well-nigh half were female. Forty-six per centum of youths had been born outside the U.s.a., and 17% were interviewed in Spanish. The means and standard deviations of parents' piece of work hours, education and income levels, and cultural orientations, which provide additional information nearly the background characteristics of the sample, can be found in Table 1.

Table 1

Means (and Standard Deviations) of Parents' Time Constraints, Socioeconomic Resources, and Cultural Orientations

	Congruent traditional	Congruent egalitarian	Incongruent labor
Mothers' piece of work hours	24.41 (22.95) a	37.50 (17.03) b	25.21 (22.40) a
Fathers' piece of work hours	49.92 (15.45) a	52.63 (15.eighty) a b	56.63 (xvi.57) b
Parental differences in piece of work hours 1	25.51 (26.41) a b	15.13 (25.62) a	31.xv (27.72) b
Mothers' education (years)	8.83 (3.93) a	11.55 (three.24) b	eleven.32 (3.xviii) b
Fathers' education (years)	8.07 (iv.31) a	eleven.42 (three.38) b	11.03 (4.26) b
Parental differences in education one	-.77 (3.74) a	-.13 (2.74) a	-.29 (three.57) a
Mothers' incomes ($)	seven,743 (xi,694) a	21,537 (17,393) b	11,907 (xvi,228) a
Fathers' incomes ($)	31,423 (23,252) a	41,308 (29,143) a b	42,733 (24,670) b
Parental differences in incomes 1	23,680 (25,779) a b	19,771 (28,587) a	xxx,826 (26,325) b
Mothers' Mexican orientations	4.xx (.57) a	3.64 (.85) b	4.05 (.66) a
Fathers' Mexican orientations	iv.xv (.63) a	three.54 (.94) b	3.84 (.79) b
Mothers' Anglo orientations	2.62 (.89) a	iii.28 (1.05) b	3.02 (.86) b
Fathers' Anglo orientations	2.69 (.84) a	iii.41 (.86) b	3.06 (.90) b

Process

We collected data through home and phone interviews. Trained bilingual interviewers visited families to comport home interviews. At the beginning of the interview, informed consent was obtained. Family members were individually interviewed about their family relationships and individual characteristics. Home interviews averaged between 2 to three hours in duration. In the three to iv weeks following the home interviews, parents completed iv (three weekdays, one weekend day) and youths completed 7 (five weekdays, two weekend days) nightly phone interviews. Trained bilingual interviewers called family members individually, and guided them through a list of 86 activities (e.g., laundry, gardening, listening to music) and probed for the elapsing and social contexts (i.e., with whom they engaged in the activities) of whatsoever activities completed during the solar day. Phone interviews were 10 to 15 minutes in duration. Families were given $100 for home interview and $100 for phone interview participation.

Measures

2 independent translators forrard and back translated all measures into Castilian for the local Mexican dialect. All final translations were reviewed and, discrepancies, resolved. For home interview measures, scores were averaged, and higher scores reflect higher levels of each construct. For phone interview measures, reports of activities were aggregated, and higher scores reflect more fourth dimension (in minutes) spent on each category of action.

Parents provided information about family members' gender, nativity, and age, and their work hours and education and income levels in the domicile interview. Other questionnaire measures described beneath were also collected in the home interview.

Parents' gender role attitudes were assessed using six items adult by Knight et al. (2010). Mothers and fathers rated such items as, "Las madres son la persona principal responsable por la crianza de los hijos/Mothers are the main person responsible for raising children," on a 5-point Likert calibration ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Cronbach alphas were .72 for mothers and .68 for fathers.

Parents' Mexican and Anglo orientations were assessed using 2 subscales of the thirty-particular Acculturation Rating Calibration for Mexican Americans II (ARSMA Two; Cuéllar, Arnold, & Maldonado, 1995). Mothers and fathers rated such items as, "Disfruto la televisión en Español/I enjoy watching Tv set in Castilian," and, "I speak English/ Yo hablo Inglés," on a five-point Likert scale ranging from not at all (1) to extremely often or nigh always (five). Cronbach alphas were .87 for mothers' and .91 for fathers' Mexican orientations and .90 for mothers' and .91 for fathers' Anglo orientations.

Youths' gender role attitudes were assessed using a 10-item calibration developed by Hoffman and Kloska (1995). Youths rated such items as, "El trabajo del esposo es más importante que el de la esposa/A husband'southward task is more important than a wife's," on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (4). Cronbach alpha was .87.

Parents' and youths' daily time utilize was assessed in the phone interview. To assess parents' housework participation, during each of their four calls, mothers and fathers reported independently how much fourth dimension they spent on 5 cadre household tasks (i.e., doing dishes, cooking meals, shopping for food, doing laundry, and cleaning the house), tasks that accept to be done on a daily or regular ground (Coltrane, 2000). The sectionalisation of household labor was calculated equally the percentage of full housework (done by either parent) that was done by the mother. This proportion score ranged from .25 to 1.00 in our sample.

To assess youths' housework participation, during each of their seven calls, youths reported how much time they spent on half dozen core household tasks (i.e., doing dishes, cooking meals, shopping for food, doing laundry, cleaning the business firm, and cleaning their own room).

To assess youths' fourth dimension with mothers and with fathers, during each of their seven calls, youths reported how much time their mothers and fathers spent with them on each of the activities youths completed during the day. The high correlations betwixt parents' and youths' reports of their shared time from their four common calls, r(229) = .86 for mothers and r(229) =.83 for fathers, provided strong evidence of inter-reporter reliabilities for our fourth dimension employ measures.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

To create groups that showed substantial variation in parents' partitioning of household labor and gender office attitudes and that were large enough for further comparisons, we conducted a cluster assay, equally outlined past Whiteman and Loken (2006). On the basis of interpretability, group sizes, and several other stopping criteria (east.g., dendrogram patterns, replicability using alternative clustering methods), we chose a three-cluster solution every bit the best representation of the data. Consistent with the classification framework of Cromption and Lyonette (2006), three distinct groups of families were identified: A congruent traditional grouping (N = 92), in which the female parent did almost (i.e., about ninety%) of the housework and both parents had traditional gender function attitudes (i.due east., averaging almost 4 on a 5-point scale of traditionality), a coinciding egalitarian grouping (North = 52), in which the mother and father more closely dissever the housework and shared egalitarian gender part attitudes (i.due east., averaging below the midpoint of the measure out), and an incongruent labor group (Northward = 92), in which the mother did most of the housework, but both parents had more egalitarian gender role attitudes. An incongruent attitudes group with an egalitarian sectionalisation of labor just traditional attitudes, however, was never identified.

Confirming that these groups were different in terms of parents' division of household labor and gender role attitudes, a one-way MANOVA revealed a pregnant effect of grouping for the combined office of these variables, F(vi, 462) = 140.24, p < .01, ε = .65. Further confirming that the three groups reflected congruence and incongruence between parents' gendered practices and beliefs, a follow-up, one-way ANOVA revealed a meaning effect of group for parents' sectionalization of household labor, F(2, 233) = 193.64, p < .01, ε = .62. Tukey tests indicated that mothers in the coinciding egalitarian group were responsible for significantly smaller portions of household tasks than those in both the coinciding traditional and incongruent labor groups. A follow-up, 3 (Grouping) × 2 (Parent) mixed-model ANOVA (with parent equally the within-group factor) also revealed a significant effect of group for parents' gender role attitudes, F(2, 233) = 216.76, p < .01, ε = .65. Tukey tests indicated that both mothers' and fathers' gender role attitudes were more than traditional in the congruent traditional grouping than in the coinciding egalitarian and incongruent labor groups. Tabular array ii shows the means and standard deviations of parents' division of household labor and gender function attitudes of the sample.

Table two

Ways (and Standard Deviations) of Parents' Division of Household Labor and Gender Role Attitudes

	Congruent traditional	Coinciding egalitarian	Incongruent labor
The division of household labor	.89 (.09) a	.58 (.16) b	.92 (.07) a
Mothers' gender role attitudes	3.87 (.58) a	ii.53 (.63) b	2.41 (.64) b
Fathers' gender part attitudes	3.72 (.65) a	2.73 (.69) b	2.87 (.79) b

Tests of Study Hypotheses

Our report goals were to examine the sociocultural characteristics and developmental implications of coinciding and incongruent patterns of parents' housework allocation and gender ideologies in Mexican American families. To examine whether, overall, the iii groups of families differed in terms of parents' time constraints, socioeconomic resources, and cultural orientations likewise equally youths' gendered behaviors and attitudes, we conducted two 1-way MANOVAs. A significant group effect for the combined function of parents' work hours, instruction and income levels, and Mexican and Anglo orientations, F(xx, 448) = 3.94, p < .01, ε = .15, and for the combined office of youths' housework participation, fourth dimension with parents, and gender role attitudes, F(8, 448) = 3.84, p < .01, ε = .06, immune usa to apply a series of mixed- and between-grouping ANOVAs to follow up on the group differences and test each of our 4 hypotheses separately.

Parents' time constraints, socioeconomic resources, and cultural orientations

Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of parents' work hours, education and income levels, and Mexican and Anglo orientations, and the means and standard deviations of father-mother differences when Grouping × Parent interactions were tested.

Beginning with parents' work hours, a iii (Grouping) × 2 (Parent) mixed-model ANOVA revealed a significant effect of group, F(2, 233) = 5.81, p < .01, ε = .03, and a significant Group × Parent interaction, F(two, 233) = v.95, p < .01, ε = .04. Tukey tests indicated that, in support of Hypothesis 1.ane, mothers' piece of work hours were significantly higher in the congruent egalitarian group than in the coinciding traditional and incongruent labor groups. Paired t-tests and between-group comparisons further showed that, in support of Hypothesis 1.2, although fathers in all three groups worked significantly more hours than did mothers, this inter-parental difference was significantly greater in the incongruent labor than in the congruent egalitarian group.

Analysis of parents' education revealed a significant issue of grouping, F(2, 233) = nineteen.76, p < .01, ε = .14. Tukey tests indicated that, in partial support of Hypothesis two.1a, mothers' didactics levels were significantly lower in the congruent traditional than in the congruent egalitarian grouping. Mothers in the congruent egalitarian and incongruent labor groups, all the same, did not differ. Moreover, the Group × Parent interaction was non pregnant, leaving Hypothesis 2.2a, which predicted greater inter-parental differences in education levels in the incongruent labor than in the congruent egalitarian group, unsupported. Analysis of parents' incomes revealed a significant effect of group, F(2, 233) = 10.60, p < .01, ε = .07, and a significant Group × Parent interaction, F(two, 233) = three.26, p < .05, ε = .02. Tukey tests indicated that, in support of Hypothesis ii.1b, mothers' incomes were significantly college in the congruent egalitarian than in the congruent traditional and incongruent labor groups. Paired t-tests and betwixt-group comparisons showed that, in support of Hypothesis 2.2b, although fathers in all three groups earned significantly more than did mothers, this inter-parental difference was significantly greater in the incongruent labor than in the congruent egalitarian grouping.

Analysis of parents' Mexican orientations revealed a significant effect of group, F(ii, 233) = 13.56, p < .01, ε = .10. Tukey tests showed that both mothers' and fathers' Mexican orientations were significantly college in the coinciding traditional group than in the congruent egalitarian group, lending back up to Hypothesis 3.1. Assay of parents' Anglo orientations revealed a significant effect of group, F(2, 233) = 12.55, p < .01, ε = .09. Tukey tests showed that both mothers' and fathers' Anglo orientations were significantly higher in the coinciding egalitarian than in the congruent traditional group, lending support to Hypothesis 3.2.

Youths' gendered behaviors and attitudes

Table three shows the means and standard deviations of youths' gender role attitudes, and the separate ways and standard deviations of youths' housework participation and time with mothers versus fathers and for girls and boys (when Grouping × Gender interactions were tested).

Tabular array iii

Ways (and Standard Deviations) of Youths' Gendered Behaviors and Attitudes

	Congruent traditional	Congruent egalitarian	Incongruent labor
Time (minutes) on housework
Girls	397.17 (245.sixteen) ten	280.52 (142.13) x	306.27 (131.35) ten
Boys	173.81 (111.64) y	230.xiii (135.70) x	165.98 (94.14) y
Time (minutes) with mothers versus fathers 1
Girls	416.42 (345.55) ten	143.29 (300.88) x	366.88 (388.85) x
Boys	-101.49 (313.xc) y	29.37 (312.73) x	11.98 (339.lxxx) y
Gender role attitudes	2.30 (.53) a	1.90 (.54) b	ane.99 (.54) b

Beginning with youths' housework participation, a 3 (Group) × two (Gender) ANOVA revealed a significant effect of gender, F(ane, 231) = 41.60, p < .01, ε = .sixteen, and a significant Group × Gender interaction, F(2, 231) = 5.05, p < .01, ε = .04. Girls (M = 338.94, SD = 193.10), on boilerplate, spent more than time on housework than did boys (Yard = 185.75, SD = 114.83). Within-group, independent t-tests farther indicated that, in support of Hypothesis 4.1, although girls in the congruent traditional and incongruent labor groups spent significantly more than fourth dimension on housework than did boys, this gender difference was not evident in the coinciding egalitarian group. Turning to time with parents, a 3 (Group) × 2 (Gender) × 2 (Parent) mixed-model ANOVA (with parent every bit the within-group factor) revealed a significant Grouping × Gender × Parent interaction, F(2, 225) = v.61, p < .01, ε = .04. Inside-group, independent t-tests indicated that, in support of Hypothesis 4.2, although girls in the congruent traditional and incongruent labor groups spent significantly more than time with mothers than with fathers as compared to boys, this gender difference was not evident in the congruent egalitarian group. Finally, a 3 (Group) × two (Gender) ANOVA revealed a meaning effect of gender, F(one, 235) = six.13, p < .01, ε = .03, and a significant effect of group, F(2, 235) = 12.15, p < .01, ε = .10, for gender part attitudes. Girls (1000 = ii.00, SD = .58), on average, had less traditional gender function attitudes than did boys (M = two.19, SD = .53). Tukey tests indicated that, in partial support of Hypothesis iv.3, youths in the congruent traditional group had significantly more than traditional gender function attitudes than did youths in the congruent egalitarian group. Youths in the incongruent labor and congruent egalitarian groups, still, did not differ.

Give-and-take

Despite extensive evidence showing that Mexican Americans in the US contain a highly heterogeneous group (Landale & Oropesa, 2007), a considerable amount of research continues to use indigenous comparative designs to document greater gender traditionality in these families. Our study, in dissimilarity, adopted an ethnic homogeneous design to examine within-grouping differences among Mexican American families across different facets of gender. Such an approach allows researchers to capture the variety that exists within cultural groups, and avoids the pathologizing of ethnic minority families that can emerge from some ethnic comparative studies, when practices of the host civilization are used as the standard for comparisons and any difference from these norms is understood as scarce (García Coll et al., 1996). Our analyses revealed that Mexican American families could be traditional or egalitarian in their divisions of household labor and/or gender role attitudes, posing challenges to the stereotypical view of Latino families equally universally traditional in their gender dynamics. Instead of solely focusing on betwixt-group variation, hereafter researchers should also consider within-group variation when studying indigenous minority families (Suárez-Orozco & Qin, 2006).

In addition to inside-group variation, our analyses also revealed within-family variation in parents' gendered practices and behavior. Consistent with a multi-dimensional perspective of gender (Ruble et al., 2006) and Crompton and Lyonette's (2006) nomenclature framework, in some Mexican American families, parents had egalitarian gender office attitudes but yet engaged in a traditional division of household labor. Simply as individuals can be gender-typical and atypical in different aspects, couples, and presumably families (Marks et al., 2009), can be traditional in 1 way and egalitarian in another. Nearly prior work on housework has been variable-oriented, that is, directed at identifying correlations between variables, such as housework allocation and gender ideologies, that hold for the "average" private. A pattern analytic arroyo contrasts with a variable-oriented approach in bold that individuals are unique, and that variables may be correlated in unlike ways for different individuals (von Centre & Bogat, 2006). Possibly more than importantly, a pattern analytic approach also assumes that it often requires but a minor number of patterns to describe different, but lawful, configurations of variables in reality, and that it is the overall pattern, not the isolated variables, that defines the meaning of the involved factors. As we describe below, family roles and socioeconomic factors may operate to motivate congruent and incongruent inter-parental patterns of gender dynamics, and these, in plough, may accept important implications for youth development.

Parents' Time Constraints, Socioeconomic Resources, and Cultural Orientations

Every bit predicted by Hypotheses i.1 and 2.1b, mothers in the congruent egalitarian group were characterized by higher piece of work involvement and higher socioeconomic ability as compared to mothers in the coinciding traditional and incongruent labor groups. Inter-parental comparisons farther revealed that, as predicted past Hypotheses i.2 and 2.2b, although fathers worked more than hours and earned higher incomes than did mothers in all the three groups, inter-parental differences were smaller in the congruent egalitarian than in the incongruent labor group. The emergence of the incongruent labor group was linked to social and economical processes embedded within the household: Although parents in both egalitarian and incongruent groups had egalitarian gender part attitudes, when fathers had relatively less time available at home (Coverman, 1985) and brought relatively more financial resources to the family (Huston & Burgess, 1979), mothers took on a larger portion of household responsibilities. On a theoretical level, the idea that two spouses may have different interests in their marriage and that they each may use their own responsibilities and resource to achieve their individual goals is consistent with a systems perspective on families (Parke & Buriel, 2006). On a methodological level, the findings that the congruent egalitarian and incongruent labor groups varied not only in parents' individual characteristics, merely also in inter-parental differences in these characteristics, underscore the importance of drawing information from both wives and husbands to capture dynamic processes inside the marital relationship.

Hypotheses 2.1a was only partially, and Hypothesis two.2a was not, supported by our results: Although mothers in the congruent egalitarian group were improve educated as compared to mothers in the congruent traditional grouping, mothers in the coinciding egalitarian and incongruent labor groups did not differ. Moreover, inter-parental differences in education did not vary betwixt the latter two groups equally nosotros expected. Taking besides into account the significant findings on parents' incomes (Hypotheses ii.1b and 2.2b), our findings may advise that, at least in our sample, education levels tapped more into parents' previous exposures to democratic ideals and female role models (and thus endorsement of egalitarian gender role attitudes; Chatard & Selimbegovic, 2007) than into socioeconomic power. In fact, many immigrants report experiencing a pregnant loss of capacity to translate the education levels achieved in their home land into earning power in the US (García Coll et al., 1996), pregnant that a better educational background may non be able to give them more leverage in negotiating for a more self-favoring division of household labor. More work is needed to sympathise the atmospheric condition nether which educational attainment undergirds socioeconomic power in ethnic minority families. Finally, as predicted by Hypotheses 3.i and 3.2, parents in the coinciding traditional group were more enculturated and less acculturated as compared to parents in the congruent egalitarian grouping, confirming that cultural traditions and values may serve to back up family gender dynamics (Triandis, 1989; W & Zimmerman, 1987).

At that place has been a stiff trend for researchers to make reference to traditional cultural concepts when explaining family processes amid Mexican Americans in the U.s.a. (Landale & Oropesa, 2007). However, as elaborated by McLoyd et al. (2000), an over-reliance on cultural interpretations of gendered practices and beliefs may obscure the influences of other social contextual factors. Individuals in society are differentially stratified forth a hierarchical system based on multiple social position factors, including social form, ethnicity, and gender (García Coll et al., 1996). One's position in such a social hierarchy, in turn, affords and constrains access to various social and economic resources. Our results show that family roles and socioeconomic factors are equally important as cultural processes in understanding variation in gender dynamics within Mexican American families. Instead of relying on cultural heritage every bit a monolithic explanation for marital and family interactions, future research on ethnic minority families should also have into account the immediate socioeconomic contexts and explore the relations between social position, socioeconomic resources, and gender dynamics.

Youths' Gendered Behaviors and Attitudes

In partial support of Hypothesis 4.3, although youths in the congruent egalitarian group had more egalitarian gender role attitudes as compared to youths in the egalitarian traditional group, youths in congruent egalitarian and incongruent labor groups did non differ. These findings may suggest that parents' didactics and guidance lonely are powerful enough to shape youths' gender role attitudes (Parke & Buriel, 2006). Fifty-fifty though parents in the incongruent labor group did not "walk the talk," youths appeared to agree with their parents' views about female and male roles. Recent studies on persuasion have institute that it is easier to initiate an attitudinal change, which often but involves heuristic cognitive restructuring, than a behavioral change, which ever requires breaking one-time habits and/or establishing new ones (see Bohner & Dickel, 2010 and Prochaska, Redding, & Evers, 2008 for reviews of studies conducted mainly with European American samples in the United states on attitudinal and behavioral changes, respectively). Applying this work to parental socialization, it may take more than attitude egalitarianism for parents to gear their youths' activities to certain directions. In fact, in support of Hypotheses 4.1 and 4.two, gender singular behaviors (i.due east., girls and boys exhibiting more similar interest in household duties and girls spending more similar amounts of time with mothers and fathers) were only observed in families in which parents had both an egalitarian division of household labor and egalitarian gender role attitudes. Despite what they might have been told by their parents nearly gender roles, youths in the coinciding labor grouping seemed to be more inclined to model what they saw in the family (i.e., women did more than housework than did men) and to spend more time with parents of their ain gender. Although social learning theorists accept long proposed that incongruence between what is modeled and what is taught by the instructor may undermine the adherence of the learner (Bussey & Bandura, 1999), parents' roles equally instructors and opportunity providers in general, and the potentially contradictory influences every bit instructors versus role models and opportunity providers, proceed to be neglected in the family unit and developmental literature (Parke & Buriel, 2006). A direction for future studies will be to measure other facets of parental gender socialization and examine their links with youth gender outcomes.

It is worth noting that, although parents' gendered practices and behavior establish part of the larger family context that shapes youth development, youths also play an agile role in constructing their environments (García Coll et al., 1996). Ayala's (2006) and Denner and Dunbar's (2004) qualitative studies clearly showed that mother-girl interactions in Mexican American families in the Us were reciprocal: As mothers engaged their daughters in household responsibilities, daughters likewise challenged their mothers to change family gender norms. 1 way to translate our findings, for example, is that gender singular youths introduced new gender dynamics to their parents. Another management for future studies will be to examine youths' initiatives to influence their parents' gendered characteristics.

Because migration entails many transitions and may be accompanied by an unwelcoming host environment, ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty and experience adjustment challenges. Non surprisingly, much of the existing work on indigenous minority youths in the The states concentrates on problematic family processes and negative private outcomes (McLoyd et al., 2000; Vega, 1990). Given that an emphasis on risks and pathology reinforces negative stereotypes, some researchers have chosen for investigation of resilience and well-beingness that arise from migratory or ethnic experiences (Suárez-Orozco & Qin, 2006). Exam of gender dynamics and socialization among ethnic minorities through the lens of normative family processes likewise contributes to this effort. Because gender operates as a major organizing strength in the lives of ethnic minorities (Suárez-Orozco & Qin, 2006), continued inquiry on gender and family dynamics volition shed light on the complex confluence of gender, migration, and adaptation.

Limitations and Conclusions

This study was not without limitations. Beginning, cluster analysis, as a preliminary step in our study to course groups characterized past congruence and incongruence betwixt parents' housework allocation and gender ideologies, is exploratory in nature. Although the 3 identified patterns were consistent with multiple theories (Coverman, 1985; Huston & Burgess, 1979; Ruble et al., 2006; West & Zimmerman, 1987) and prior research (Crompton & Lyonette, 2006), the cluster structure should exist replicated in other samples before conclusions can be drawn about the division of household labor and gender role attitudes in Mexican American families. A related consequence virtually generalizability is that our sample only included two-parent Mexican American families with employed fathers, and thus our results may not be able to capture the gender dynamics in other family structures (due east.g., single-parent, mother-headed). Of particular interest here is recent evidence, based on nationally representative samples from Commonwealth of australia and the US, that husbands who are unemployed or neglect to fulfill the provider part really contribute less to housework, perhaps in an endeavor to reaffirm their dominance as head of the household (Bittman, England, Sayer, Folbre, & Matheson, 2003). Hereafter enquiry should be directed at examining why and how women and men may "overdo" gender for reasons of compensation when their gender expectations are violated. Second, our cross-sectional pattern did not allow for analysis of direction of effect. A panel pattern that captures longitudinal changes in parents' housework allotment and gender ideologies, family socioeconomic atmospheric condition, and cultural orientations, and youths' gendered characteristics would help to pinpoint the casual relations of these factors.

In face of these limitations, our study's use of a inside-family design and its inclusion of social contextual correlates and multiple measures of gender provide new insights into gender research and highlight the importance of contextualizing the report of ethnic minority families. On an ideological level, our findings as well contribute to correcting the stereotypes that Latino families are universally traditional in their gender dynamics, that family dynamics among immigrants and ethnic minorities are solely determined past cultural values, and that Mexican American parents in the United states invariably socialize their children in gender stereotypical ways.

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Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3638960/

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