Publication Date

2012

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department

School for Social Work

Keywords

Mexican American families, Fathers-Psychology, Families-Cross-cultural studies, Families, Family cohesion, Father involvement

Abstract

This quantitative research study is a preliminary assessment of family cohesion and father involvement in two cultural groups: Mexican American and non-Latino white American families with children between the ages of one to seven years old and of low to medium socioeconomic status. The line of inquiry is whether or not culture influences family cohesion and father involvement in this sample. The variables of family cohesion and father involvement were measured along with an examination of the effects of culture and acculturation on Mexican American families. The Family Circles instrument is a pictorial assessment tool used in this study to measure parents' individual perceptions of family cohesion and father involvement in their family-of-origin and current nuclear family. The population studied was a subset of the California-based longitudinal Supporting Father Involvement study's total sample. This study's sample consisted of 86 mothers and 99 fathers who in total were 45.6% non-Latino white American (English monolingual) and 54.4% Mexican American (English or Spanish monolingual, and Bilingual). The findings of this study demonstrated that family cohesion and father involvement in depictions of family-of-origin and current nuclear family were more predominant in one of our study cross-cultural groups than the other.

Language

English

Comments

69 p. : ill. Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2012. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-63)

Limited Access until August 2017

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