Transcript Slide 1

Do you know where your children are?:
Parental monitoring in Mexican American
families as a function of parent gender,
child gender, and reporter
Melinda E. Baham (ASU), Sanford L. Braver (ASU),
Michele Adams (TU), Scott Coltrane (UCR), Eric Vega
(UCR), Delia Saenz (ASU), Jeffrey T. Cookston (SFSU),
& Karina R. Horowitz (ASU)
Arizona State University (ASU), Tulane University (TU), University of
California, Riverside (UCR), & San Francisco State University (SFSU)
Fathers are Important
Fathers have traditionally been
understudied
 Research with European Americans
has found that fathering makes a
substantial difference in child
outcomes over and above the
influence of mothering
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Importance of studying
Mexican-Americans
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Mexican American (MA) families,
particularly fathers, are traditionally
understudied in the literature
This is an especially important omission
given that MA families are the largest
minority group in the U.S.
However, researchers have recently
begun to investigate the parenting
practices of MA and the implications of
such practices on various outcomes
Parenting Practices in MA
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One such practice is that of parental monitoring: the
knowledge a parent has about his child’s
whereabouts and activities
Several researchers (McNeal, 1999, Amato & Fowler,
2002) have found that higher levels of parental
monitoring were associated with lower drop-out rates
and lower levels of later deviance among Latinos
Authoritative parenting, characterized in part by
parental monitoring, related positively to academic
success in Latino adolescents (Steinberg, Mounts,
Lamborn, & Dornbusch, 1991).
Related to parental monitoring is the extent of the
parent’s knowledge of the child’s nightly whereabouts
Do MA Dads Treat Sons and
Daughters differently?
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A common anecdotal belief among many MA families is
that fathers have stricter rules for their daughters as
compared to their sons
Mothers are not thought to have such a bias
Research on families in Mexico during the 1960s
suggested that although men had a large amount of
autonomy, women were restricted (Cauce & DomenechRodriguez, 2000)
Additional research indicates that MA parents may be more
resistant in allowing their daughters to attend college
(Lopez, 1995)
Taken together, these suggest that MA fathers may be
more concerned with the nightly whereabouts of their
daughters than with their sons’ locations
Current Study
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Very little prior research has been
conducted to test the veracity of the belief
that MA fathers treat their daughters
differently
The current study examines:
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Whether Mexican-American fathers treat their
daughters differently from their sons with
respect to their knowledge of the child’s nightly
activities
Whether this differential treatment occurs
among mothers
Method – Sample and Recruitment
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Parents and Youth Study (PAYS) is a twosite, 5 year longitudinal study that is
investigating the role of fathers in adolescent
development
Also focused on potential mediators that may
influence the effects of fathers’ behaviors on
adolescent outcomes and the influence of
various family characteristics (culture; intact
vs. step-families)
Method – Sample and Recruitment con.
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Adolescents in the 7th grade were recruited
from various schools in the Phoenix, AZ and
San Bernardino/Riverside, CA areas
Approximately 100 families in each of the 4
populations of interest:
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Anglo Intact (both biological parents) families
Anglo Step-father families
Mexican-American Intact families
Mexican-American Step-father families
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All 3 family members must be of the same ethnic background
Method – Sample and Recruitment ASU
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For the Arizona site, adolescents from 8
participating schools filled out information
cards to determine study eligibility
A ‘school recruiter’ reviewed the cards and
sorted them into eligible and ineligible
families
Randomly selected families who met
eligibility requirements were contacted by the
recruiter and invited to participate
Method – Sample and Recruitment UCR
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For the California site, a school recruiter made
telephone calls and sent mailers to adolescents from
12 participating schools
For 6 schools, the recruiter made phone calls to
families and if they were eligible and interested in
the study, their contact information was forwarded to
the UCR staff, who then contacted the family
For the other 6 schools, the UCR staff mailed
families information about the project and interested
families contacted UCR and were briefly interviewed
to determine eligibility
Method – Final Overall Sample
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392 adolescents, mothers, and fathers (or
step-fathers) participated in the overall study
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110 Anglo Intact families
89 Anglo Step-father families
107 Mexican-American Intact families
86 Mexican-American Step-father families
Method – Procedures
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Interviews were conducted in the family’s
home; each family member was interviewed
individually by a different interviewer
Interviews were conducted in the participant’s
preferred language
Prior to the interview, children gave assent,
and mothers and stepfathers gave informed
consent
Families were financially compensated for
their time
Method - Participants
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This study includes 214 MA and EA
adolescents and their parents (intact families)
Adolescents were in the 7th grade at the time
of interview
103 boys (111 girls)
107 EA (48.6% male), 107 MA (47.7% male)
Average Ages:
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Adolescent: 12.4 years (SD=0.54), range 11-14
Mom: 40.1 years (SD=5.98), range 27-59
Dad: 41.6 years (SD=7.17), range 29-66
Method – Participants con.
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Mother’s education:
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Father’s education:
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23% < high school degree
19% = high school degree
28.5% had some college
29.5% had completed an associate’s, bachelor’s, or
advanced degree
29% < high school degree
16% = high school degree
29% had some college
26% had completed an associate’s, bachelor’s, or
advanced degree
Median household income = $55K (range $4.2K –
$430K)
Method - Measures
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Mothers and fathers were asked to report how
much they knew about their child’s nightly
whereabouts
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Adolescents also reported how much their mothers
and fathers knew about their location at night
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“In the last three months, how often did you have no idea
of where your child was at night?”
Responses ranged from 0 (Never) to 4 (Most of the time)
Item was reverse scored so that higher values indicated
more knowledge
“In the last three months, how often did your
mother/father have no idea of where you were at night?”
This is referred to as the “11 o’clock” item
Results
Goal: To examine whether MA fathers monitor
their daughters and sons differently, if the
same is true for mothers, and to investigate
the role played by reporter
 A 2 (adolescent’s gender: male vs. female)
× 2 (reporter: parent vs. adolescent)
× 2 (target parent: about father vs. about
mother)
mixed-model ANOVA was conducted
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Results continued
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A significant two way interaction between child
gender and reporter
According to the parents, they knew slightly
(non-significant) more about their boy’s
whereabouts as opposed to their girl’s
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F(1, 210) = 2.81, p = .10, Mboys = 3.86, Mgirls = 3.74
According to the children themselves there was a
highly significant difference, with the
whereabouts of the girls being much more well
known
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F(1, 210) = 6.04, p =.02, Mboys = 3.20, Mgirls = 3.58
Fig. 1: Monitoring by gender and reporter
Moniotoring of MA adolescents by Reporter and Gender
3.9
3.8
3.7
monitoring
3.6
3.5
boys
girls
3.4
3.3
3.2
3.1
3
parent report
adolescent report
reporter
Results continued
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This finding, however, was further qualified by a
significant three-way interaction, F(1, 210) =
3.67, p = .05, which indicated that the
previously discussed pattern varied by target
parent.
Girls report that both parents know more about
their whereabouts than boys report (F(1, 210) =
6.04, p = .02, Mdads monitor girls = 3.5,
Mmoms monitor girls = 3.66, Mdads monitor
boys = 3.06, Mmoms monitor girls = 3.33)
Fig 2: Child’s Report
MA child reports of being monitored
3.8
3.7
3.6
3.5
monitoring
3.4
3.3
Male
Female
3.2
3.1
3
2.9
2.8
2.7
dad monitoring
mom monitoring
target parent
Results continued
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According to parent report, fathers know
much more about their boys whereabouts
than their girls
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(F(1, 210) = 6.11, p = .02, Mboys = 3.85,
Mgirls = 3.52)
Mothers showed similar levels of
knowledge regardless of gender
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(F(1, 210) = 1.35, p = .25, Mboys = 3.86,
Mgirls = 3.95)
Fig 3: Parent’s Report
MA Parents' reports of monitoring
4
3.9
monitoring
3.8
3.7
Male
Female
3.6
3.5
3.4
3.3
dad monitoring
mom monitoring
target parent
Discussion
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Overall, parents have substantial knowledge
about their children’s whereabouts at night
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(lowest mean was 3.06 which indicates that
parents don’t know where their children are on
only a few rare occasions)
However, parents and adolescents disagree
about the extent of the parent’s knowledge of
the child’s nightly whereabouts
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It is of interest to continue to ask both parents and
adolescents about their perception of the parent’s
knowledge
Discussion continued
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Gender differences:
Specifically, girls perceive that both their fathers
and their mothers know more about their nightly
whereabouts compared to boys
Interestingly, fathers and daughters agree on
how much dads are aware of their girls
behavior (Ms= 3.52, 3.50)
However, fathers perceive knowing much
more about their sons whereabouts than their
daughters, and sons report their dads knowing
much less about their whereabouts than girls
Future Directions
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Taken together, these finding suggest the
complexity of Mexican-American families
Underscore the importance of future research
examining differences in parental knowledge
as perceived by adolescent and parent
Additional research should focus on how
these differences might influence various
outcomes
THANK YOU!