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. 2009 May;38(5):627-41.
doi: 10.1007/s10964-008-9321-8. Epub 2008 Aug 20.

Cultural orientations, daily activities, and adjustment in Mexican American youth

Susan M McHale  1 , Kimberly A Updegraff, Ji-Yeon Kim, Emily Cansler
Affiliations

Cultural orientations, daily activities, and adjustment in Mexican American youth

Susan M McHale et al. J Youth Adolesc. 2009 May.

Abstract

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.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Interaction between fathers’ acculturation and youth time spent hanging out in predicting youth risky behavior. Scores are transformed such that the Risky Behavior Scale ranges from 1 to 2
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Interaction between mothers’ education values and youth time in sports in predicting youth risky behavior. Scores are transformed such that the Risky Behavior Scale ranges from 1 to 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Interaction between fathers’ familism values and youth time spent viewing television in predicting youth depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms scale ranges from 1 to 4
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