Poster #34 - Mexican American Mothers’ Conceptions of “Family Communication” and Reported Parent-Child Conversational Practices

• In Event: Poster Session 16

Abstract

The proposed poster presentation focuses on the varied ways that Mexican American mothers conceptualized the general notion of “family communication” while discussing their parenting of young children and comparing their childrearing practices to their own parents’ practices. There is accumulating evidence of cultural variation in parenting styles such as authoritative vs. authoritarian styles (which include a family communication dimension) as well as cultural variation in the frequency and characteristics of parent-child emotion conversations (e.g., Daga et al., 2015; Qiu & Shum, 2022; Sorkhabi, 2012). However, this growing data base is relatively limited regarding research that focuses on Latinx families in the US. The proposed presentation will discuss qualitative interview data on Mexican American mothers’ conceptions of family communication and will link these conceptions to their cultural and family backgrounds. The interviewees were 24 low-income and working-class Mexican American mothers with 4- to 5-year-old children (12 boys, 12 girls). Most mothers were married, and their education levels ranged from 5 to 16 years, with an average of 12 years. They were interviewed about their beliefs and practices regarding children’s negative emotions, their general parenting opinions, and influences on their parenting. Most interviews were conducted in English.

Qualitative analysis of the interview data yielded interesting information about Mexican American mothers’ approaches to their young children’s negative emotions. However, the presentation will focus on the emergent, organizing theme of “family communication” in the interviews. This theme organized the mothers’ discussions about their parenting practices and their own childhood experiences (and how those experiences influenced their parenting). Most mothers mentioned the importance of having conversations with young children and contrasted their parent-child conversations with the infrequent family talk in their own childhoods. Many of them had grown up in large families with parents who did grueling farm or cannery work in the US and Mexico. Thus, these mothers understood that their parents were too busy, too tired, and too stressed to engage in frequent conversations with them. The discussion of these data will acknowledge the within-cultural variation in Mexican American mothers’ conceptions of family communication. For example, whereas all mothers endorsed the importance of family communication, they varied in their stated reasons for its importance and in how they wove it into their parenting practices.

Qualitative analysis also revealed four subthemes of “family communication”: (a) “open communication” (which was contrasted with their childhood experiences), (b) communicating love and affection to children (which was considered important in fostering close family relationships), (c) verbal communication as a supplement or alternative to physical discipline (which included explanations about transgression and punishment), and (d) discussing emotions to teach young children about emotions and emotional situations. The discussion of these four subthemes will link them to Mexican American mothers’ cultural values, childhood experiences (i.e., as children of immigrant parents), and parenting experiences (i.e., their experience with preschools and parent education). The conclusion will highlight the roles of culture, family history, and parent education in Mexican American mothers’ parenting beliefs and practices.

Author

• Christi A. Cervantes, California State University - Monterey Bay
  Presenting Author