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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Sep 2.
Published in final edited form as: Child Dev. 2015 Mar 2;86(4):1241–1252. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12358

Parental Cultural Socialization of Mexican American Adolescents’ Family Obligation Values and Behaviors

Kim M Tsai 1, Eva H Telzer 2, Nancy A Gonzales 3, Andrew J Fuligni 1
PMCID: PMC4558414  NIHMSID: NIHMS655384  PMID: 25726966

Abstract

The current study examined how parents’ cultural socialization efforts contribute to adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors and how these processes may depend upon the relational climate at home. Utilizing survey and daily diary methodologies, 428 Mexican American adolescents (50% males; MAge=15 years) and their parents (83% mothers; MAge=42 years) participated in the study. Adolescents reported on their family obligation values and engagement in family assistance tasks across 14 days. Parents reported on their cultural socialization practices. Results indicated that parental cultural socialization was associated with adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors when parent-child relationships were low in conflict and high in support. Findings suggest that the transmission of cultural values and practices is best facilitated through positive parent-child relationships.

Mexican families in the U.S have been characterized by their strong sense of family obligation values centered on the importance of supporting and respecting their family (Fuligni, Tseng, & Lam, 1999; Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 1995). Family obligation values also translate into concrete behaviors through children’s engagement in daily family assistance tasks, such as cleaning the home, running errands for parents, and caring for siblings. It is well established that Mexican American adolescents have stronger family obligation values and spend more time assisting their families than children from Asian and European backgrounds (Hardway & Fuligni, 2006; Telzer & Fuligni, 2009). However, little is understood about how Mexican American adolescents come to develop such strong orientations towards the family, especially during the adolescent years when goals towards autonomy and individuation tend to become increasingly salient (Grotevant & Cooper, 1985; Kagitcibasi, 2005; Phinney, Kim-Jo, Osorio & Vilhjalmsdottir, 2005). In the current study, we draw from research on parents’ socialization of children’s values to examine how parents’ cultural socialization practices are linked to adolescents’ endorsement of family obligation values and behaviors, and how this association may depend on the relational climate at home (i.e., adolescents’ perceived parental support and conflict) among Mexican American families.

Parental Cultural Socialization Practices Among Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Families

The increasing rates of immigration to the U.S. have contributed to growing scholarly interest on the intergenerational transmission and maintenance of cultural knowledge, values and practices. Parents are key socialization agents from whom children learn important beliefs and skills (Grusec, 2011; Maccoby, 1992; Parke & Buriel, 2008). For immigrant families in the United States, parents’ transmission of important values and beliefs can be a particularly challenging socialization process because the norms and customs that they endorse at home may differ from those that their children encounter in the larger American mainstream society (Parke & Buriel, 2008; Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 1995). For instance, families from Mexican backgrounds place strong emphasis on values related to interdependence, which can be reflected in their family obligation values and behaviors, whereas American mainstream traditions place greater value on independence (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Indeed, one of the primary socialization goals of ethnic minority and immigrant parents is for their children to grow up with both a strong connection to their ethnic heritage and understanding of important cultural values (Hughes, et al., 2006; Parke & Buriel, 2008). To carry out these socialization goals, a salient form of parenting that immigrant parents practice includes their engagement in cultural socialization behaviors that involve communication about various dimensions of their ethnic heritage with their children. Parents’ cultural socialization practices include talking to their children about their country of origin, celebrating cultural holidays and historical events, and exposing children to culturally relevant books, arts and music, in efforts to cultivate children’s knowledge and sense of membership to their ethnic heritage (Hughes & Chen, 1997; Knight, Bernal, Garza, & Cota, 1993). These diverse cultural socialization behaviors are embedded in family activities and every day routines, thereby reflecting the salience of these parenting practices among immigrant families. Although, empirical studies have linked parental cultural socialization practices to adolescents’ development of ethnic pride and identification (Rivas-Drake, Hughes, & Way, 2009; Umaña-Taylor, Bhanot, & Shin, 2006; Umaña-Taylor & Guimond, 2010), we know less about how parental cultural socialization practices may also be associated with adolescents’ internalization of cultural beliefs, which are equally important cultural socialization goals among immigrant families. The current study offers a unique contribution to the literature on cultural socialization by focusing specifically on Mexican American adolescents’ endorsement of family obligation values and behaviors, irrespective of their ethnic identity.

Only a few studies have addressed how parents’ cultural socialization efforts contribute to adolescents’ adoption of cultural values (Knight et al., 2011; Umaña-Taylor, Alfaro, Bamaca & Guimond, 2009). Compared to research on parents’ cultural socialization of ethnic identity development, research results regarding the association between parental cultural socialization and adolescents’ adoption of cultural values have been inconsistent. Although Umaña-Taylor and colleagues (2009) found that adolescents’ perceptions of parental cultural socialization were moderately associated with their endorsement of familistic values, Knight et al., (2011) did not find that parents’ reports of their cultural socialization practices were directly related to children’s Mexican cultural values. In the current study, we investigated whether the link between parents’ cultural socialization practices and family obligation values and behaviors may vary according to important family factors, such as the relational climate at home.

Furthermore, research on parental cultural socialization has been extensively based on adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ socialization practices (e.g., Supple, Ghazarian, Frabutt, Plunkett, & Sands, 2006; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2009). In the current study, we utilized parents’ reports of their cultural socialization efforts, which provide a more precise examination of the cultural socialization processes that parents intend and believe they are enacting and their association with the cultural behaviors and values reported by their children. Use of different reporters provides a more conservative test because of the potential for this association to be inflated when based on a single reporter. In the current study, we tested the association between parents’ report of their own cultural socialization practices and adolescents’ report of family obligation values and family assistance behaviors.

The Role of Parent-Child Relationship Quality in the Socialization of Values

Within the theoretical and empirical literature on parents’ socialization of children’s values, significant attention has focused on the role of parents’ relational qualities with their children that aid in promoting children’s internalization of values, motives and behaviors (Grusec, 2011; Knafo & Schwartz, 2003; Kuycnski, 1984; Kochanska, Forman, Aksan & Dunbar, 2005; Parke & Buriel, 2008; Soens, Duriez, Vansteenkiste & Goossens, 2007). Children’s adoption of parental values and behaviors is thought to be optimized when children come from supportive and warm family environments. Positive parent-child relationships contribute to children’s greater willingness to accept parental values as a means to identify with their parents and sustain positive parent-child relationships (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994; Grusec, Goodnow & Kuczynski, 2000; Kochanska et al., 2005). Empirical studies have shown that children who receive positive affect from parents during parent-child interactions are highly compliant to parental goals (Kochanska & Aksan, 1995; Kochanska et al., 2005). These findings suggest that children are most receptive to parental messages under conditions marked by positive relational qualities.

However, research on ethnic minority and immigrant parents’ cultural socialization practices to promote the internalization of important cultural identities, values and practices among their children have placed little attention on the role of parent-child relational quality in parents’ socialization efforts. Recent studies provide evidence that positive parent-child relationships promote adolescents’ ethnic identity development. Parental warmth appears to moderate the relation between parental cultural socialization and Mexican American adolescents’ ethnic identity (Hernandez, Conger, Robins, Bacher & Widaman, 2014). In contrast, harsh parenting weakened the link between parents’ cultural socialization and adolescents’ ethnic identity (Supple et al., 2006). In this study, we examined the role of adolescent perceived parental support and parent-child conflict in the link between parents’ cultural socialization practices and adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors. We hypothesized that among adolescents who perceived high levels of parental support and low levels of parent-child conflict, parents’ cultural socialization would be more strongly related to adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors compared to adolescents who have less supportive and more conflictual parent-child relationships.

Adolescent and Family Characteristics as Control Variables

Research has indicated some group differences in family obligation values and assistance behaviors according to adolescent and family characteristics, and as such, we treated these adolescent (i.e., gender, birth order, immigrant status, ethnic identity) and family (i.e., household size, parental education) characteristics as control variables in our models. Females, older siblings and children from immigrant homes tend to have stronger orientations towards the family and greater care-taking responsibilities than do males and children of later generations (Azmitia & Brown, 2002; Fuligni & Pedersen, 2002; Telzer & Fuligni, 2009; Tsai, Telzer, Gonzales & Fuligni, 2013). Prior research has also reported that adolescents’ ethnic identity is related to stronger familism values (Kiang & Fuligni, 2009; Knight et al., 2011). Additionally, based on recent findings indicating a positive link between parental cultural socialization and adolescents’ ethnic identity, the inclusion of ethnic identity as a covariate strengthens our analyses and allows us to understand how parents’ cultural socialization is related to family obligation values and behaviors above and beyond effects that may be explained by ethnic identity. Lastly, adolescents with more siblings have endorsed stronger family obligation values and parental education has been associated with weaker family obligation values and lower rates of family assistance (Hardway & Fuligni, 2006).

Current Study

In the current study, we employed diverse methods to examine the cultural transmission of both family obligation values and family assistance behaviors. We obtained adolescents’ reports of their daily family assistance behaviors using diary checklists across 14 days, which have been shown to provide reliable and valid estimates of adolescents’ family assistance behaviors (Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003). Adolescents also reported on their perceptions of parental support and parent-child conflict. Rather than relying on adolescents’ perception of parental cultural socialization, parents reported on their socialization behaviors, thus reducing method variance as the potential explanation for cultural transmission effects on adolescents’ self-reported cultural values and behaviors.

We sought to address two research questions: 1) Is parental cultural socialization associated with adolescents’ family obligation values and family assistance behaviors? 2) Does the quality of parent-child relationships (i.e., parental support, parent-child conflict) moderate this association? We hypothesized that parents’ cultural socialization would be linked to adolescents’ family obligation values and family assistance behaviors, but that this association would be stronger within families characterized by high support and low parent-child conflict.

Method

Participants

Participants included 428 (50% males) adolescents (MAge = 14.99 years, SD = 1.10) and their primary caregivers (MAge = 41.93 years, SD = 6.75) from Mexican backgrounds. The primary caregiver was the person who self-identified as the adult who spent the most time with the adolescent. The majority of primary caregivers were mothers (83%), 13% were fathers, and the remaining 4% were other relatives. Given that 96% of the primary caregivers were mothers or fathers, we use the term “parents” throughout the paper for ease of presentation.

Most of the adolescents (81%) came from immigrant families which meant that the adolescent or one of their parents was born in Mexico, while the rest of the families (19%) included adolescents and their parents who were both born in the U.S. The majority of parents (73%) had at most some high school education, 13% completed high school, and 14% had more than a high school education. On average, households included 5.17 (SD = 0.57) individuals, including the adolescent and parent. The majority of our adolescents had at least one sibling living in the same home (only child: 12.8%, youngest child: 21.3%, middle child: 28%, oldest child: 37.8%).

Participants were recruited from two high schools in the Los Angeles area. Each school included significant proportions of students from Latin American backgrounds (62% and 94%) who were from lower- to lower-middle class families. In both schools, over 70% of students (72% and 71%) qualified for free and reduced meals, slightly above the average of 65% for Los Angeles County Schools (California Department of Education, 2011).

Classroom rosters were obtained from the schools. Across the year, a few classrooms were randomly selected each week for recruitment. Presentations about the study were given to students, letters were mailed to their homes, and phone calls were made to parents to determine eligibility and interest. Both the adolescent and the parent had to be willing to participate. The final sample represents 63% of families who were reached by phone and determined to be eligible by self-reporting a Mexican ethnic background. This rate is comparable to other survey and diary studies that followed similar recruitment procedures with Mexican families (Updegraff, McHale, Whiteman, Thayer & Degaldo, 2005).

Procedure

Interviewers visited the participants’ homes where adolescents completed a self-report questionnaire on their own and parents participated in a personal interview during which the interviewer guided parents through the questionnaire and recorded the parents’ responses. Adolescents and parents completed the questionnaires in separate rooms in their homes and participants agreed to respect the privacy of their family member during the duration of the home visit. Questionnaires included items that assessed for family background (e.g., household size), family obligation values, parental cultural socialization, and quality of parent-child relationships. Questionnaires took approximately 45–60 minutes to complete. Next, adolescents were provided with a 14-day supply of diary checklists to complete every night for the subsequent two-week period. Each diary checklist was three pages long and took approximately five to ten minutes to complete. To ensure timely completion of the diary checklists, participants were instructed to fold and seal each completed diary checklist and to stamp the seal with an electronic time stamper that imprinted the current date and time. At the end of the two-week period, interviewers collected the diary checklists. Adolescents received $30 and parents received $50 for participating. Additionally, participants were told that a pair of movie passes would be awarded if they completed the diaries correctly and on time. We had high rates of compliance, with 95% of diaries being completed and 86% of the diaries being completed on time (i.e., by 12:00 noon the following day). English and Spanish versions of the questionnaires and diaries were available. Six adolescents and 304 (71%) of parents completed the study in Spanish.

Measures

Adolescent measures

The following are measures self-reported by the adolescents.

Family obligation values

Adolescents completed items from three subscales of the family obligation measure (Fuligni et al., 1999). The first subscale included 12 items that assessed adolescents’ attitudes about providing assistance to and spending time with their family, such as how often adolescents thought they should “run errands that the family needs done” (1 = almost never; 5 = almost always). The second subscale included seven items that measured adolescents’ beliefs about respecting and following the wishes and expectations of family members, such as “do well for the sake of your family” (1 = not at all important, 5 = very important). Lastly, six items assessed adolescents’ beliefs about providing support to their families in the future, such as “help parents financially” (1 = not at all important, 5 = very important). All three subscales were correlated with one another (rs = .48–.60, p < .001), therefore we created a general measure of adolescents’ family obligation values by averaging across all three subscales, a method used in prior work (Telzer, Masten, Berkman, Lieberman, & Fuligni, 2011). This measure had high internal consistency (α = .90).

Daily family assistance behaviors

Using the diary checklist, adolescents indicated whether they engaged in any of the following nine activities each day: helped clean the apartment or house, took care of siblings, ran an errand for the family, helped siblings with their schoolwork, translated for parents, helped parents with official business (e.g., completing government forms), helped cook a meal for the family, helped parents at their workplace, and did anything else to help their family. The list of activities was derived from focus groups with adolescents and has been used in previous studies (Hardway & Fuligni, 2006; Telzer & Fuligni, 2009). Overall, 99% of the adolescents helped on at least one day of the study and provided some type of assistance to their family on 79% (SD = 25%) of the days. An index of daily family assistance tasks was created to assess the average number of activities adolescents completed each day. On average, adolescents completed 1.86 (SD = 1.23) tasks each day. These rates of family assistance behaviors are comparable to other studies with youth from Latino backgrounds (Telzer & Fuligni, 2009).

Parental support

A nine-item scale measured the extent to which adolescents felt their parents supported and understood them in the past month (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987). Adolescents responded to items such as “My parents showed that he/she understands me” (1 = almost never, 5=almost always). This measure has been used in prior studies with adolescents from Latino backgrounds and has consistently demonstrated high levels of reliability and validity (e.g., Gonzales, Deardorff, Formoso, Barr & Barrera, 2006). Internal reliability (α = .94) was similarly high in the current study.

Parent-child conflict

A 10-item scale assessed the frequency of conflicts adolescents had with their parents in the past month (Ruiz, Gonzales & Formoso, 1998). Participants responded to questions such as “You and your parents had a serious argument or fight” (1 = almost never, 5 = almost always). This scale had good internal consistency (α = .86) and has been validated with children from Mexican backgrounds (e.g., Corona et al., 2012).

Ethnic identity

Adolescents completed two subscales of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992) that included five items on ethnic search (e.g., “I think a lot about how my life will be affected by being part of my ethnic group”) and seven items on ethnic belonging (e.g., “I feel a strong attachment towards my ethnic group”) on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). These subscales were highly correlated (r = .67, p < .001) and thus, were combined into one measure (α = .91). This measure has been extensively validated in studies with Latino American adolescents (e.g., Phinney, Romero, Nava & Huang, 2001).

Parent measures

The following are measures self-reported by the parents.

Parental cultural socialization

Four items adapted from the Cultural Socialization scale (Hughes & Chen, 1997) assessed the extent to which parents shared knowledge or encouraged their children to learn about their ethnic heritage, such as “Talked to child about important Mexican people or historical events” (1=never, 5=6 or more times). This measure had good internal consistency (English: α = .78; Spanish: α = .82) and has been used in studies with parents from Latino and African backgrounds (e.g., Hughes, 2003).

Results

Group Mean Differences

A series of t-tests were conducted to assess for group mean differences in key variables according to adolescent immigrant status and gender. Adolescents from immigrant families (immigrant: M = 1.92, SD = 1.25; non-immigrant: M = 1.61, SD = 1.07) completed more family assistance tasks on average, [t(417) = 2.083, p = .038] and reported higher levels of parent-child conflict (immigrant: M = 2.20, SD = 0.73; non-immigrant: M = 2.39, SD = 0.71) compared to their non-immigrant peers, t(422) = 2.14, p =.033. Whereas females (M = 2.35, SD = 0.79) reported higher levels of parent-child conflict than males (M = 2.11, SD = .0.65), [t(422) = 3.29, p = .013], males (M = 3.43, SD = 1.00) reported higher levels of parental support than females (M = 3.16, SD = 0.08), t(422) = 2.48, p = .014. There were no gender differences in adolescents’ endorsement of family obligation values and behaviors.

Bivariate Correlations

As indicated in Table 1, correlation analyses indicated that parental cultural socialization practices were positively related to adolescents’ family obligation values, although this association appeared to be small in contrast to the stronger, positive link between parental support and adolescents’ family obligation values. Parental support was positively related to adolescents’ daily family assistance tasks. Parent-child conflict was not associated with family obligation values or behaviors. Lastly, these indices of parent-child relationships were not related to parents’ cultural socialization practices.

Table 1.

Bivariate Correlations of Key Measures

Mean (SD) 1 2 3 4 5
1. Family obligation values 3.61 (0.65) 1
2. Family assistance behaviors 1.86 (1.23) .30*** 1
3. Parental cultural socialization 2.50 (1.07) .12* .06 1
4. Parental support 3.29 (1.12) .48*** .17*** −.00 1
5. Parent-child conflict 2.24 (0.73) −.08 .01 .05 −.33*** 1
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Note.

*

p < .05,

***

p <.001

Regression Models Testing the Association Between Parental Cultural Socialization and Family Obligation Values and Behaviors

To address our first research question, we examined whether parental cultural socialization predicted adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors, over and above the effect of the control variables (i.e., adolescent gender, immigrant status, primary caregiver, ethnic identity, parental education, family size, birth order), in two separate regression models. To control for who the primary caregiver was, we created a dichotomous variable to differentiate between mothers versus other primary caregivers (i.e., fathers and other relatives). A one-way ANOVA was conducted to examine birth order differences in the number of family assistance tasks and revealed that adolescents who were the youngest in the family engaged in a fewer number of family assistance tasks compared to their peers who were the only child or had younger siblings, F(3, 412) = 7.38, p < .001 (Bonferonni contrasts, ps < .01). Based on these group differences we created a measure of birth order that differentiated adolescents who were the youngest separately from those who were the only, middle or oldest child in the family (−1=only, middle or oldest child, 1=youngest child).

In the first model, parental cultural socialization and the control variables were simultaneously entered to separately predict adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors. Contrary to results from the bivariate correlations, findings with the control variables indicated that parental cultural socialization was not associated with adolescents’ family obligation values or family assistance behaviors.

Results from the regression models also indicated that adolescents with a stronger ethnic identity (b = 0.20, SE = 0.03, β = 0.31, p < .001) reported stronger family obligation values. No other relationships were found between any of the control variables and adolescents’ family obligation values or behaviors.

Quality of Parent-Child Relationships as Moderators

To address our second research question, we conducted analyses to determine whether the associations between parental cultural socialization and adolescent family obligation values and behaviors depended on adolescents’ report of parental support and parent-child conflict. That is, we tested whether the quality of parent-child relationships moderated the link between parental cultural socialization practices and adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors. Following the guidelines of Aiken and West (1991) to estimate the interaction effects using multiple regression, we computed interaction terms by centering the moderator variables (i.e., parental support, parent-child conflict) and multiplying them by the centered parental cultural socialization variable. In this second model of the regression analysis, we included the interaction term along with the centered moderator and parental cultural socialization to predict adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors.

As Table 2 illustrates, adolescent report of parental support moderated the association between parental cultural socialization and adolescents’ family assistance behaviors. In order to interpret the interaction, we followed procedures from Aiken and West (1991) and examined adolescents who scored low (one standard deviation below the mean) and high (one standard deviation above the mean) on parental support. We also tested for the significance of these individual slopes. Figure 1 shows that among adolescents who perceived high parental support, parental cultural socialization was related to greater participation in family assistance tasks, b = 0.27, SE = 0.09, β = 0.22, p = .002. Among adolescents who received low levels of parental support, parental cultural socialization was related to less participation in family assistance tasks, b = −0.23, SE = 0.09, β = −0.18, p = .016. Among adolescents who received mean levels of parental support, parental cultural socialization was not related to adolescents’ level of participation in family assistance behaviors.

Table 2.

Parental Support Moderates the Link Between Parental Cultural Socialization and Adolescents’ Family Assistance Behaviors

Family Obligation
Values		 Family Assistance
Behaviors
B (SE) β B (SE) β
Intercept 3.54 0.12*** 1.72 0.26***
Adolescent gender 0.09 0.03 0.13** 0.10 0.06 0.08
Primary caregiver 0.02 0.08 0.01 0.27 0.16 0.08
Immigrant status 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.11 0.08 0.07
Ethnic identity 0.15 0.03 0.23*** 0.04 0.06 0.03
Parental education −0.00 0.01 −0.01 −0.04 0.03 −0.07
Family size 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.01 0.04 0.01
Birth order −0.01 0.03 −0.01 −0.33 0.07 −0.23***
Parental cultural
socialization (PCS)		 0.05 0.03 0.07 0.02 0.06 0.02
Parental support (PS) 0.30 0.03 0.45*** 0.17 0.06 0.14**
PCS x PS 0.04 0.03 0.06 0.22 0.06 0.18***
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Note. Gender and immigrant status were effects coded such that adolescents who were female, or from an immigrant background were coded as 1 and adolescents who were male and from a non-immigrant family were coded as −1. Primary caregiver was effects coded such that 1 = mom and −1 = father or other relative. Birth order was effects coded such that 1=youngest child and −1 = only, middle or oldest child. The interaction terms were created by multiplying parental cultural socialization X parental support and parental family obligation expectations X parental support.

**

p < .01,

***

p < .001

Figure 1.

Figure 1

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Parents’ cultural socialization practices were associated with higher rates of family assistance among adolescents who perceived high support from their parents.

*p < .05, **p < .01

Adolescents’ perceived parental support did not significantly moderate the association between parents’ cultural socialization practices and adolescents’ endorsement of family obligation values.

As Table 3 indicates, parent-child conflict moderated the associations between parental cultural socialization and adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors. We explored these interactions by examining adolescents who reported low (i.e., one SD below the mean) and high parent-child conflict (i.e., one SD above the mean). Figure 2a illustrates that among adolescents who experienced low parent-child conflict, parental cultural socialization was related to stronger family obligation values, b = 0.10, SE = 0.04, β = 0.15 p = .015. Similarly, Figure 2b shows that among adolescents who experienced low parent-child conflict, there was a marginally significant association between parental cultural socialization and greater completion of daily family assistance tasks, b = 0.13, SE = .08, β = .11, p = .10. For adolescents who experienced average and high parent-child conflict, the associations between (a) parental socialization and adolescent family obligation values and (b) parental socialization and daily assistance behaviors were not significant.

Table 3.

Parent-Child Conflict Moderates the Link Between Parental Cultural Socialization and Adolescents’ Family Assistance Values

Family Obligation Values Family Assistance
Behaviors
B (SE) β B (SE) β
Intercept 3.46 0.18*** 1.62 0.27***
Adolescent gender 0.06 0.03 0.10* 0.08 0.06 0.06
Primary caregiver 0.01 0.08 0.01 0.28 0.17 0.09
Immigrant status 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.12 0.08 0.08
Ethnic identity 0.19 0.03 0.30*** 0.06 0.06 0.05
Parental education 0.00 0.02 0.01 −0.04 0.03 −0.06
Family size 0.02 0.02 0.06 0.02 0.04 0.03
Birth order −0.04 0.04 −0.05 −0.33 0.07 −0.22***
Parental cultural
socialization (PCS)		 0.05 0.03 0.07 0.04 0.06 0.03
Parent-Child Conflict
(PC)		 −0.06 0.03 −0.09 0.01 0.06 0.01
PCS x PC −0.07 0.03 −0.11* −0.13 0.06 −0.10*
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Note. Gender and immigrant status were effects coded such that adolescents who were female, or from an immigrant background were coded as 1 and adolescents who were male and from a non-immigrant family were coded as −1. Primary caregiver was effects coded such that 1 = mom and −1 = father or other relative. Birth order was effects coded such that 1 = youngest child and −1 = only, middle or oldest child. The interaction terms were created by multiplying parental cultural socialization X parent-child conflict and parental family obligation expectations X parent-child conflict.

*

p < .05,

***

p < .001

Figure 2.

Figure 2

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a. Parents’ cultural socialization practices were associated with stronger family obligation values for adolescents who experience little conflict with their parents.

* p < .05

b. Parents’ cultural socialization behaviors were related to their children’s daily family assistance only among families where there is little parent-child conflict.

† p = .10*

Additional analyses were conducted to test whether the interaction effects, alone, significantly contributed to the models, over and above the main effects (e.g., parent cultural socialization, parental support, parent-child conflict). In order to test the significance of the interaction effects, we conducted a series of similar regression models, in which control variables and main effects were entered first to separately predict family obligation values and behaviors. Next, we included the interaction terms (i.e., parental cultural socialization X parental support, parental cultural socialization X parent-child conflict). Results indicated that all of our significant interaction terms contributed significantly to our models, over and above the main effects, R2 change = .01 – .03, ps = .000 – .045.

Follow-up analyses

Lastly, we conducted follow-up analyses to test whether the relations between parental cultural socialization, parent-child relationship quality, and adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors would differ by adolescent gender. We included a two-way interaction between gender and parental cultural socialization, two-way interactions between gender and both measures of parent-child relationship quality (i.e., gender X parental support, gender X parent-child conflict), and three-way interactions with parental cultural socialization, gender, and each measure of parent-child relationship quality separately in our regression analyses. None of these interaction effects were significant, indicating that these cultural socialization practices did not vary according to adolescent gender.

Discussion

Although it is well documented that family obligation values and practices are deeply embedded in Mexican American families (Hardway & Fuligni, 2006; Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 1995), less is understood about what type of familial conditions support the transmission of cultural values and behaviors across generations. In the current study, findings revealed that the link between parents’ cultural socialization practices and adolescents’ family obligation values and family assistance behaviors was dependent upon the quality of the parent-child relationship. Parents’ cultural socialization practices were associated with strong family obligation values and behaviors only among adolescents who reported supportive and low-conflict parent-child interactions. These key findings provide empirical support that positive relational qualities at home play a significant role in facilitating the intergenerational transmission of values and practices (Grusec, 2011; Knafo & Schwartz, 2003; Kuczynski, 1984).

Consistent with research that has linked parental cultural socialization to children’s ethnic identity (Hernandez et al., 2014; Rivas-Drake et al., 2009; Umaña-Taylor & Guimond, 2010) and Mexican cultural values (Knight et al., 2011; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2009), our findings show that parents’ efforts to teach their children about Mexican culture were associated with adolescents’ endorsement of family obligation values and daily family assistance behaviors, but only within low-conflict homes. Children who experience less conflict with their parents may be more responsive to parents’ cultural socialization messages and amenable to values and behaviors related to supporting their family. Similarly, findings suggested that parental support strengthened the association between parents’ cultural socialization and adolescents’ daily family assistance behaviors. Parents’ cultural socialization efforts were related to higher rates in adolescents’ family assistance behaviors, but only among adolescents who perceived their parents to be supportive. A warm and positive relationship with parents may encourage children to reciprocate the support by being more helpful around the home. These moderation effects coincide with other studies that similarly found cohesive relationships to enhance the association between parents’ cultural socialization and adolescents’ ethnic identity (Hernandez et al., 2014; Umaña-Taylor & Guimond, 2010). More generally, findings from the current study emphasize the significant impact that positive parent-child relationships have in promoting adolescents’ internalization of important values and goals that are similarly shared by their parents (Grusec, 2011; Knafo & Schwartz, 2003; Kochanska et al., 2005; Kuczynski, 1984).

Furthermore, the interaction between parental cultural socialization and parent-child relationship quality can also be interpreted such that cultural socialization, rather than relationship quality, can be conceived as the moderator instead. In this case, we would find that the association between parent-child relationship quality and adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors is more pronounced at high, rather than low, levels of parental cultural socialization practices. Altogether, interpretation of findings suggest that it is the combined effect of both parental cultural socialization and positive parent-child relationships that helps to better promote adolescents’ endorsement of important cultural values and behaviors.

It is interesting to note that although cohesive parent-child relationships (i.e., high parental support and low parent-child conflict) strengthened the link between parental cultural socialization practices and adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors, parent-child relationships marked by greater conflict did not necessarily weaken this association. For example, higher levels of conflict with parents did not reduce the level of actual assistance given by adolescents. The high levels of family assistance displayed by Mexican American youths in both the current study and prior research (e.g., Telzer & Fuligni, 2009) reflect the prevalence of this behavior in their day-to-day lives and the real need in Latino-American families for their children to contribute to daily functioning and well-being of their family. Mexican American families rely on and expect their children to help at home (Orellana, 2001; Tsai, Telzer, Gonzales & Fuligni, 2013). Thus, it is possible that adolescents continue to fulfill their familial responsibilities and expectations even if they may experience tension with their parents.

Our results differ slightly from prior work that has shown parents’ cultural socialization, itself, to foster adolescents’ ethnic identity development (e.g., Rivas-Drake et al., 2009; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2006), such that, in our study, parental cultural socialization, alone, was modestly associated with adolescents’ family obligation values and not directly linked to family assistance behaviors. Perhaps the socialization of family obligation values and behaviors differs from that of ethnic identification because family obligation and behaviors are, in and of themselves, relational in nature; they emphasize support and respect for family members and as such, the transmission of these values and practices may be more contingent upon other familial factors, such as positive parent-child interactions. It could also be possible that ethnic identity may mediate the relation between cultural socialization practices and family obligation values. A direction for future research is to assess whether cultural socialization practices cultivate a strong ethnic identity, which in turn, promotes adolescents’ endorsement of family obligation values and behaviors. The exploration of mediational models can expand our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of important cultural values.

Furthermore, strong effects are more difficult to detect when associations are made between two separate reporters (i.e., parents’ report of cultural socialization and adolescents’ report of values and behaviors). Indeed, small and null direct effects in the socialization of cultural values have also been documented in prior research. Knight et al., (2011) did not find a direct link between parental reports of cultural socialization and their children’s Mexican cultural values, whereas Umaña-Taylor et al., (2009) reported a moderate association between adolescents’ report of parents’ cultural socialization and their own familistic values. Adolescents who report stronger cultural values are likely to be receptive to and perceive greater occurrence of their parents’ cultural socialization practices. However, utilizing parents’ own reports on their socialization practices provides a more direct and potentially less confounded examination of whether their efforts are indeed promoting cultural values and behaviors as reported by their children. As such, the examination of parent reports of cultural socialization may actually be a more conservative test of the cultural transmission process. Due to the potential differences in findings as a function of the reporter, it would be valuable for research to further examine how parents’ and children’s perspectives on cultural socialization processes may differ.

Although our models tested the association between parents’ cultural socialization and parent-child relationship quality on adolescents’ values and behaviors, it is important to acknowledge that these socialization processes can be bidirectional and reciprocal (Kuczynski, Marshall & Schell, 1997). It is possible that adolescents’ values and behaviors can also shape parents’ cultural socialization efforts or influence the quality of the parent-child relationship. For example, adolescents’ assistance at home can facilitate more positive relationships with parents. Parents may be more likely to be supportive and be in less conflict with their children who meet their family obligation expectations. Future research should investigate the bi-directionality and reciprocal effects in the transmission of cultural ideologies and practices across generations.

Despite key methodological strengths, including cross-informant reports from our families and utilization of both survey and daily diary methods, there were limitations in our study. Given that the majority of our primary caregivers were mothers, we did not have a large enough sample of fathers and other caregivers to examine how adolescents’ development of cultural values and behaviors may be similarly or differently shaped by various family members (e.g., mother, father, grandparents). Additionally, we did not have reports of the amount of time adolescents engaged in family assistance each day. Because family assistance is a common routine for many Mexican American adolescents, there may be great variability in the amount of time children assist their families. It is possible that parents’ socialization efforts and the nature of family climate can influence how much time children spend helping their families, thus unmasking some of the variability we may not have been able to capture. Furthermore, it would be valuable for future research to assess parents’ socialization practices that are more specific to family obligation values and behaviors. Lastly, it can also be argued that peers have a significant impact on adolescents’ social development during this period and future research should explore how peers can also shape adolescents’ identification with cultural backgrounds and values.

The current study provides support for the idea that although parental cultural socialization is important towards children’s internalization of cultural values and practices, cohesive parent-child relationships significantly influence how effectively these cultural messages are communicated to children. Under positive conditions characterized by high levels of parental support and low levels of conflict, parents’ cultural socialization practices were linked to a stronger sense of family obligation and higher rates of family assistance behaviors among their children. This is among the first studies to begin to explain how adolescents from Mexican backgrounds vary in how they come to internalize and display differing levels of family obligation values and family assistance behaviors.

Acknowledgments

Author Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD057164). Many thanks to the families who participated in the study and to Thomas S. Weisner for his assistance with the study design and valuable feedback on prior drafts of this article.

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