The meaning of family storytelling among Mexican American adults: A phenomenological study on the construction of reality through the transmission of multigenerational family structure, traditions, values, and wisdom

Although much research has examined ethnicity and family stories and the use of family stories to better comprehend a wide variety of phenomena, there has been no qualitative study performed in the area of Mexican American family storytelling. This study consisted of a phenomenological inquiry into the understanding of how Mexican American adults experience family stories and how those stories impacted them. Eight university students were selected to participate in this study and were asked to share a family story. The interviews were audio taped and served as the data for the study. Because this study consisted of two research questions, the verbatim transcripts were analyzed separately using Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological psychological method. The qualitative software program NVivo was also utilized during analysis to store and manage the data. Three themes emerged that disclosed how the participant's experienced family stories while two themes revealed how the participant's were impacted by family stories. This study will add to the current body of the professional literature. Also, the previous lack of scholarly exploration in the area of Mexican American family storytelling may propagate future qualitative inquiry.