Family Functioning among Hispanic Families: Risks and Protective Factors

• In Event: Understanding Family Functioning From a Family Systems Perspective: Implications for Research and Practice

Abstract

Introduction. A strong body of research has shown that the accumulation of risk has a long-term negative effect on families’ wellbeing. This was particularly evident during the pandemic, especially the effect it had on Hispanics, one of the poorest groups in the U.S.A. The accumulation of risk compromise parents’ ability to provide supportive and loving environments for their children (Evans, 2007). But, low-income families also exhibit many strengths (e.g., optimism, economic support, information and services) to protect themselves from the negative effects of risk on their wellbeing (Cabrera et al., 2021). However, this literature is rather limited—there is less clarity about the protective factors that lessen the negative effect of hardships on families and help promote resiliency among Hispanic families (Feldman & Shaw, 2021) than there is about the negative effect of adversity on wellbeing. Thus, understanding the resources families can draw on to protect themselves can provide guidance to programs and policies to allocate resources in a way that actually meets the needs of families. This paper focuses on a sample of economically diverse Hispanic families, a group that is underrepresented in resilience research, and examines the unique consequence of economic risk (i.e., job, income loss and inability to make ends meet) and social risk (i.e., exposure to the virus and disruption in child care arrangements) experienced during the pandemic for parent stress, parent engagement, and children’s socioemotional skills.

Research Questions & Hypotheses. We address the following research questions: (1) How are economic and social risks experienced during the pandemic uniquely associated with mothers’ and fathers’ stress, parenting behaviors, and children’s socioemotional skills? (2) How do perceived coparenting support, parents’ positivity, and economic and social supports moderate the association between social and economic risks and parental stress, parenting behaviors, and children’s socioemotional skills? We hypothesize that parents who report higher risks will report lower family functioning and that families who support higher levels of risk and higher level of resources will report better functioning than those who do not.

Study Population & Methods. We used data from a parenting intervention with primarily Hispanic (74%) mothers and fathers (N=284) and their children (Table 1). BB2 participants responded to an additional survey during March 2020 about additional risks they experienced during the pandemic. A total of 292 parents were contacted and 247 consented and completed this survey (84.6% of response rate).

Preliminary Results. We report three sets of preliminary findings. First, we found that increases in economic risk was associated with more child competence skills whereas increases in social risk was associated with less parent engagement. Positivity and economic support moderated the effects of economic risk on parental stress and engagement. These findings show that to intervene effectively with low-income Hispanic families, we need to strengthen and support the resources they have to cope with adversity.

Authors

• Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Minxuan He, Mount Saint Mary’s University

• Stephanie M Reich, University of California - Irvine