| This dissertation examines risk and resilience processes in single-parent and two-parent Mexican-origin families. Although we know a considerable amount about the challenges that Mexican-origin families face, relatively less is known about the factors that promote resiliency and success in these families. My dissertation addresses some of the gaps in this literature by examining protective factors that contribute to positive functioning in Mexican-origin families in two major domains of resilience research: individual characteristics and cultural factors. My first paper examines whether dispositional optimism is related to positive adjustment in single and two-parent Mexican-origin families. The results demonstrated that maternal optimism is an important psychological resource that reduces risk for internalizing symptoms and helps promote positive parenting behaviors for Mexican-origin mothers even in the face of economic and environmental adversity. My second paper investigates the relations between the cultural belief of familism and various aspects of family functioning and child adjustment, including interparental conflict, parenting, and children’s connectedness to school, in a sample of married Mexican-origin families. Results indicated that parents’ familistic values were negatively associated with marital conflict and were also indirectly associated with parenting through the marital relationship. Marital conflict was negatively associated with nurturant-involved parenting for both mothers and fathers, and had an indirect negative effect on children’s connectedness to school via nurturant-involved parenting. Nurturant-involved parenting was positively associated with children’s connectedness to school across two time points. These two studies contribute to a deeper understanding of important psychological and cultural contributions to resilience and positive adjustment in Mexican-origin families.;Keywords: Mexican-origin, resilience, family stress, optimism, familism. |
