Coparenting around siblings' differential treatment in Mexican-origin families.
- 1 January 2011
- journal article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Family Psychology
- Vol. 25 (2), 251-260
- https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023201
Abstract
In this study we examined patterns of mothers' and fathers' differential affection and discipline toward 2 adolescent offspring in 243 Mexican-origin families. Grounding our work in a family systems perspective, we used interparental patterns of differential treatment as an index of the coparental alliance and tested their associations with parents' reports of familism values, traditional gender role attitudes, and cultural orientations. We also sought to replicate prior research on European American samples linking interparental patterns of differential treatment to marital qualities (coparenting satisfaction, love, and conflict) and adolescent depressive symptoms and risky behaviors. Three interparental patterns emerged: families in which both mothers and fathers treated their 2 offspring equally, incongruent families in which 1 parent treated both offspring equally while the other parent favored 1 offspring, and congruent families in which both parents favored the same offspring. Most parents reported equal treatment, but others fell into the incongruent affection (30%), incongruent discipline (45%), and congruent discipline (16%) groups. Mixed model analyses of variances revealed that in families in which mothers and fathers both treated their offspring equally, parents reported higher familism values, more traditional gender role attitudes, and relatively stronger orientations to Mexican than Anglo culture. Consistent with previous research, interparental incongruence was associated with less positive marital qualities and more adolescent adjustment problems. Discussion focuses on the role of culture in shaping coparenting and the processes through which these coparenting dynamics are linked to marital and youth adjustment.Keywords
Funding Information
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R0l–HD39666)
- Cowden Fund
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Mexican American Cultural Values Scale for Adolescents and AdultsThe Journal of Early Adolescence, 2009
- Processes linking adolescent well-being, marital love, and coparenting.Journal of Family Psychology, 2007
- A family process model of marital hostility, parental depressive affect, and early adolescent problem behavior: The roles of triangulation and parental warmth.Journal of Family Psychology, 2007
- Adolescent sibling relationships in Mexican American families: Exploring the role of familism.Journal of Family Psychology, 2005
- Couple power dynamics, systemic family functioning, and child adjustment: A test of a mediational model in a multiethnic sampleDevelopment and Psychopathology, 2004
- Associations Between Coparenting and Marital Behavior From Infancy to the Preschool Years.Journal of Family Psychology, 2004
- Parental reports of coparenting and observed coparenting behavior during the toddler period.Journal of Family Psychology, 2000
- Family relationships and children's emotional adjustment as correlates of maternal and paternal differential treatment: a replication with toddler and preschool siblings.1998
- An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children1996
- Marital Conflict and Differential Treatment of SiblingsFamily Process, 1996