Machismo, Religiosity, Spirituality, and Parental Discipline Among Mexican University Students: How Are They Related?

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE: Concepts of gender refer largely to how a society constructs gender (social attributes and opportunities) and how expectations, norms, and traditional institutions (family, school, religion) prescribe particular gender roles. One of the important and widely misunderstood concepts in interpreting gendered behavior in Latin America is machismo. This concept is often related to negative male characteristics and behaviors, such as hypermasculinity, aggressiveness, violence, and sexism. However, scholars have redefined this conception identifying two dimensions: negative (Traditional Machismo) and positive (Caballerismo or chivalry). Using Arciniega et al. (2008)’s Machismo Scale, religiosity and spirituality scales, and Strauss and Fauchier (2007)’s Dimensions of Disciplines, this study seeks to: a) assess the prevalence of types of discipline, and b) understand the relationship between the endorsement of machismo, religiosity, spirituality and types of disciplines.

METHODS: A stratified and proportional sample by school, gender, and number of students from undergraduate programs of a public university in Mexico was employed (N=891; 46.7% female, 53.3% male; M=19.7; SD=2.2). The survey instrument was translated from English into Spanish by bilingual researchers in the United States and pilot tested in Nicaragua. Data were collected in two of the main campuses of the university between July and October of 2013. Descriptive statistics were employed to gauge levels of spirituality, religiosity, and the endorsement of machismo. Independent samples T-test and chi-square tests were used to assess gender differences related to the prevalence of types of discipline. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression models were utilized to explore the association between the endorsement of traditional machismo, spirituality, religion and types of discipline.

RESULTS:  Positive Discipline and Penalty were the most prevalent factors used by parents when the students were 10 years old.  Non-significant differences were observed between female and male students and mothers and fathers regarding the most prevalent types of discipline. Significant differences were observed in less prevalent types of discipline between female and male students, specifically in terms of Corporal Punishment, Diversion, Ignore Misbehavior, and Monitoring. In all cases, the discipline was exercised higher in male than in female students. Regarding the variables associated with machismo for male students, Deprivation of Privileges and Religion were positively associated with higher endorsement of Machismo from the fathers’ perspective and Corporal Punishment and Religion from the mothers’ perspective. Penalty Tasks and Restorative Behavior and Spirituality were positively associated with caballerismo from the fathers and mothers’ perspectives.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Understanding cultural patterns is an important component of social work intervention and research. This study illuminates a complex aspect of the Latin American culture, analyzing the prevalence of types of discipline, religion and spirituality, and their association with the endorsement of machismo. More importantly, this study suggests the positive relationship between machismo and religion and spirituality and caballerismo for male students. These preliminary associations between machismo and type of discipline have important implications for social work programs, specifically for interventions seeking to increase the empowerment of women and change stereotypes about masculinity and feminism in Latin America and the Latino culture in the US.