Subject(s)
Clinical Clerkship , Education, Dental , Boston , Child , Dental Care for Children , Ecuador , Humans , School Dentistry/educationABSTRACT
The links between youth's daily activities and adjustment and the role of cultural practices and values in these links were studied in 469 youth from 237 Mexican American families. In home interviews, data on mothers', fathers', and two adolescent-age siblings' cultural practices (language use, social contacts) and values (for familism, for education achievement) were collected, along with data on youth risky behavior and depressive symptoms. In 7 nightly phone calls, youth reported on their day's free time activities (i.e., sports, academics, religious activities, television viewing, and hanging out). Analyses revealed that youth who spent more time in unsupervised hanging out reported more depressive symptoms and risky behavior, and those who spent more time in academic activities reported less risky behavior. Results also indicated that more Anglo-oriented youth spent more time in sports, that more Mexican-oriented youth spent more time watching television, that fathers' familism values were related to youth's time in religious activities, and that parents' educational values were linked to youth's time in academic activities. Some evidence indicated that parents' cultural practices and values, particularly fathers', moderated the links between daily activities and youth adjustment.
Subject(s)
Acculturation , Adolescent Behavior/ethnology , Leisure Activities , Mexican Americans , Social Adjustment , Adolescent , Culture , Depression/ethnology , Female , Humans , Leisure Activities/psychology , Male , Peer Group , Risk-Taking , Socioeconomic Factors , Sports/statistics & numerical data , Television/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
This study examined the nature and correlates of Mexican American mothers' and fathers' involvement in adolescents' peer relationships along four dimensions: support, restriction, knowledge, and time spent with adolescents and peers. Mexican American adolescents and their parents in 220 families described their family relationships, cultural orientations/values, and experiences with adolescents' peers in home interviews. In addition, time-use data were collected during a series of seven phone calls to measure parents' time spent with adolescents and peers and parents' knowledge of adolescents' daily experiences with peers. Multi-level models revealed connections between parents' involvement in adolescents' peer relationships and both parents' Mexican and Anglo orientations and familism values and adolescents' peer experiences (e.g., deviant peer affiliations, friends' ethnic orientation). Findings further revealed some evidence that parent and adolescent gender moderated the patterns, with mothers' (but not fathers') restrictions on peer relationships being associated with adolescents' deviant peer affiliations and parents placing greater restrictions on daughters' than on sons' peer relationships when they had more frequent deviant peer affiliations.