Familismo in Mexican and Dominican-Origin Families: When Is It Protective?

Background and Purpose. Attention to cultural buffers, or aspects of traditional culture such as values that may protect youth from the negative effects of sociodemographic risk, has increased over the past two decades in tandem with a growing interest in identifying sources of resilience among Latino children and adolescents with disproportionately negative developmental outcomes.  While there is tremendous appeal in categorizing traditional cultural values, and familismo in particular, as protective, few empirical studies have explored its association with children’s functioning, and those that have, have yielded mixed findings.  The present study sought to contribute to understanding of the role of familismo in the functioning of Latino families of 4 – 6 year old children. Methods. Participants were 750 mother-child pairs who took part in a prospective longitudinal study of Latino early childhood development.  To be eligible, mothers had to identify as Mexican (MA; n=414) or Dominican (DA; n=336) and their child had to be newly enrolled in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten in one of 24 public elementary schools in New York City that partnered with the project.  MA and DA students differed on most characteristics: mothers of DA students were more likely to be US-born, single, high school graduates, and working for pay, and they were less likely to be living in poverty compared to mothers of MA students. Through participant interviews, mothers completed the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale along with an extensive demographic form and measures of acculturation/enculturation, parenting, social support and child functioning.  Teachers completed measures of child functioning as well.  Results. Relative to MA mothers, DA mothers had higher levels of familismo, and higher levels of acculturation, authoritative parenting and social support; their children had lower rates of externalizing and internalizing behavior problems by mother report but not teacher report.  Familismo was positively correlated with poverty for DA but not MA mothers.  For all mothers, familismo was negatively correlated with acculturation, positively correlated with enculturation, and positively correlated with authoritative parenting and social support.   Model testing showed that familismo predicted children’s functioning in ways that suggested protective effects against externalizing and internalizing problems and mediation by authoritative parenting and social support.  Importantly, though, these effects were more robust in DA families than in MA families.  Before the presentation, data will be reanalyzed using multiple time points to establish prospective associations. Conclusions and Implications. The present study suggests a complex interplay of familial characteristics and cultural values in shaping the developmental functioning of young MA and DA children.  For DA children, familismo appears to offset numerous risks such as those associated with poverty.  For MA children, familismo appears to have a limited protective role, perhaps due to the higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., lower English language proficiency; larger family size) experienced by MA families.  By exploring culturally-specific dimensions (e.g., familismo) along with universal dimensions (e.g., authoritative parenting) that are relevant to Latino child development, our study provides a more complete and nuanced view of this population and the diversity that characterizes it.