Suchergebnisse

This study explores immigrant parents' experiences of raising children in the United States, using data from the Immigrant Parent Project, a larger study of immigrant parents from 6 nations. The authors conducted face-to-face qualitative interviews with 1 parent and 1 adolescent child from 30 families with at least 1 immigrant parent from Mexico. Findings suggest that parents experience several paradoxes related to freedom and control, American culture and Mexican culture, the provider and servant roles, and dreams of the future. Prior studies have typically examined immigrant parents' effects on child outcomes. This study fills the research gap related to parents' own experiences and outcomes and informs practitioners of Mexican immigrant parents' unique parenting objectives.

The prevention literature has given little attention to how parental influences affect substance use among Mexican origin adolescents, even though they form part of the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. This study explored the effects of three types of parental influences– parental monitoring of the child's whereabouts, degree of parental permissiveness, and the strength of parental injunctive norms discouraging substance use–on alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use and anti-drug norms. Results showed that parental permissiveness and parental injunctive norms, particularly anti-drug injunctive norms, had the strongest effects on the substance use outcomes, but parental monitoring generally was not a significant predictor. These results and implications for prevention are discussed in light of Mexican cultural norms toward substance use, gender roles, and family roles.