Conflict Resolution in Mexican-Origin Couples: Culture, Gender, and Marital Quality (original) (raw)
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Cultural dynamics and marital relationship quality in Mexican-origin families
Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 2014
Prior research suggests that acculturation may influence relationship outcomes among Mexican-origin married couples, including marital adjustment and distress. Despite much theory and research on parent-child cultural differences and disruptions in the parent-child relationship, no previous research has investigated possible associations between husband-wife cultural differences and marital relationship quality. With a sample of Mexican-origin married couples (N = 398), the current study investigated the relations between husband-wife differences in acculturation (American orientation) and enculturation (Mexican orientation) with husband and wife reports of positive marital qualities (warmth and relationship satisfaction). To clarify and extend previous research, the current study also investigated within-person models of cultural orientation domains as related to positive marital quality. Results provide partial evidence showing that dyadic cultural differences are associated with ...
Informed by dyadic approaches and culturally informed, ecological perspectives of marriage , we applied an actor–partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) in a sample of 120 Mexican-origin couples to examine (a) the associations linking Mexican immigrant husbands' and wives' gender role attitudes to marital satisfaction directly and indirectly through marital processes (i.e., warmth and negativity) and (b) whether the associations between spouses' gender role attitudes and marital processes were moderated by wives' employment. Although previous research has identified spouses' gender role attitudes as potential predictors of spouses' marital satisfaction, no study has examined these links in a dyadic model that elucidates how gender role attitudes may operate through processes to shape marital satisfaction and conditions under which associations may differ. We found that when spouses reported less sex-typed attitudes, their partners reported feeling more connected to them and more satisfied with the marriage, regardless of whether wives were employed. Our results suggest that marital satisfaction was highest for those Mexican-origin couples in which marital partners were less sex-typed in their attitudes about marital roles to the extent that partners' attitudinal role flexibility promoted spouses' feelings of warmth and connection to their partner.
Informed by Peplau’s theory of roles, this study examined the complex interplay between spouses’ gender role attitudes and wives’ employment status as a predictor of Mexican-origin husbands’ marital satisfaction. Dissonance between spouses’ gender role attitudes toward marital roles and wives’ employment status within couples was hypothesized to be inversely related to husbands’ marital satisfaction. Data were gathered during in- home interviews with 120 Mexican-origin couples living in North Carolina. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses identified a three-way interaction between wives’ employment and spouses’ gender role attitudes, indicating that in couples with nonemployed wives, wives’ more sex-typed gender role attitudes were more negatively associated with the marital satisfaction of husbands with more sex-typed attitudes than husbands with less sex-typed attitudes. Specifically, the three-way interaction showed that for couples with nonemployed wives, husbands’ marital satisfaction was lowest in marital contexts in which both spouses endorsed more sex-typed gender role attitudes.
Mexicans’ Emotion Regulation Strategies and Relationship Satisfaction by Gender
Vater and found that suppressing expression can potentially interrupt couple communication, therefore producing negative interpersonal behavior and diminishing satisfaction in the relationship. Considering that emotional regulation and relationship satisfaction have shown cultural variations, the object of the study was to assess the relationship of these two constructs in 166 male and 231 female Mexican young adults. Sánchez-Aragón's (2012) Emotional Regulation Strategies Scale, adapted for couples, and Córtes, Reyes, Díaz-Loving, Rivera-Aragón, and Monjaraz's (1994) Relationship Satisfaction Inventory were administered to the sample. Negative and significant correlations were found between both expressive suppression strategies and relationship satisfaction. Data is discussed in terms of the Mexican culture and in terms of gender differences, emphasizing the importance of acquiring skills and abilities to regulate emotions in close relationships. Emotion regulation becomes essential as it fulfills an important social function: it encourages the use of adequate strategies that allow couples' better communication skills, better interpersonal resources and the possibility of solving and/or managing any conflict that may arise in a relationship. Therefore, the use of proper emotion regulation strategies becomes essential in promoting relationship satisfaction, diminishing the odds of deteriorated relationships, and promoting well-being and quality of the relationship.
1985
Mexican American women have higher fertility rates and higher divorce rates than does the general population of the United States. In light of these data and the documented negative effects of marital distress and divorce on spouses, Mexican American women appear to be at risk for psychological stress. To provide some insight into the marital problems of Mexican American women, the relationship of interethnically and intraethnically married Mexican American women was compared in terms of cultural background or level of acculturation, level of marital satifaction, and marital problems. Interculturally married Mexican American women (N=15) married to Anglo American men and intraethnically married Mexican American women (N=12) married to Mexican American men participated in individual interviews and completed: (1) an acculturation questionnaire that assessed their level of identification with the Mexican American culture and with the Anglo American culture; (2) a Problem Inventory that asked them to identify problems in their marriages due to cultural differences; and (3) a marital satisfaction questionnaire. The results revealed that, compared to intraethnically married women, interethnically married women mere more acculturated toward the Anglo American culture than toward the Mexican American culture and showed a trend that asked them to identify problems in their marriages due to cultural differences, and (3) a marital toward a higher level of marital satisfaction. Correlational analyses revealed that for both groups, levels of acculturation were significantly correlated to marital problems, marital satisfaction, and social support systems. The results also provided evidence for a greater degree of traditionality in the intraethnic marriages, consequently leading to marital distress and dissatisfaction.
Cultural adaptation congruence in immigrant spouses is associated with marital quality
Journal of Marriage and Family, 2021
Objective and backgroundPrevious research suggests that cultural adaptation is associated with Mexican‐origin couples' marital outcomes, including marital distress and rates of dissolution. However, research on the marital implications of different types of spousal differences in cultural adaptation often omits important dyadic dynamics (i.e., incongruence between couples and with their partners); this, coupled with existing methodological issues, might contribute to the pattern of mixed findings in the literature.MethodUsing data from 273 Mexican‐origin couples, we conducted response surface analyses to examine how spousal congruence in four adaptation domains (acculturation, enculturation, English proficiency, Spanish proficiency) is associated with wives' and husbands' marital warmth, hostility and satisfaction.ResultsHigher, versus lower, levels of couple matches (except for enculturation) were associated with better marital quality. Mismatches in American (accultura...
Marital Satisfaction, Conflict Resolution Styles, and Religious Attendance Among Latino Couples
The Family Journal, 2017
Research related to the process of communication among couples is central to the work of couple and family therapists. This study examines the relationship between couple’s conflict resolution styles, weekly church attendance, and marital satisfaction. Specifically, we surveyed 191 Latino couples using Gottman’s typology of conflict resolution styles (e.g., validator, avoidant, and volatile) to identify which style predicted marital satisfaction for both partners. Using the actor–partner interdependence model, we find a multifaceted picture of how partner’s conflict resolution style influences theirs and their partner’s marital satisfaction.
Journal of Family Psychology, 2015
Informed by socioecological and dyadic approaches to understanding marriage, the current study examined the patterning of gender-typed attributes among 120 Mexican immigrant opposite sex couples and the subsequent links with spouses' reports of marital satisfaction. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify typologies of couples based on spouses' self-reported masculine and feminine attributes. Three couple profiles were identified: (a) Androgynous Couples, (b) Undifferentiated Couples, and (c) Mismatched Couples. Results from a mixed model ANCOVA showed profile differences in couples' marital satisfaction based on profile membership, suggesting that spouses in the Undifferentiated Profile were the least satisfied. Findings illustrate a lack of gender-typing at the individual and couple levels that challenge stereotypical and patriarchal depictions of Latino marital relationships and propose a more complex understanding of Mexican-origin spouses' gender-typed attributes than has yet been portrayed in the literature. The finding that couples with 1 androgynous partner (i.e., wives in the Mismatched Profile) reported similar levels of marital satisfaction to couples in the Androgynous Profile offers additional insights regarding how these qualities operate under the unique socioecological niches that Mexican immigrant couples inhabit-contexts that may place demands on spouses that challenge gendered and culturally bound depictions of marriage.
2015
Based on data from a sample of 120 Mexican immigrant couples, this study tested an estimated actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) in which the linkages between spouses’ perceptions of marital quality (i.e., marital warmth and marital negativity), spousal incongruence in familism attitudes, and spouses’ coparenting satisfaction were examined. The model simultaneously explored the moderating effects of spouses’ incongruence in familism attitudes, a key Latino cultural value that reflects family cohesion, obligations, and interdependence. Results showed significant actor effects from marital warmth to coparenting satisfaction. Wives’ marital warmth was associated with higher levels of wives’ coparenting satisfaction and husbands’ marital warmth was associated with higher levels of husbands’ coparenting satisfaction. A significant interaction qualified the actor effect for wives’ marital warmth to her coparenting satisfaction. Spouses’ incongruence in familism attitudes moderated ...
Economic Pressure, Cultural Adaptation Stress, and Marital Quality Among Mexican-Origin Couples
Based on data from a sample of 120 first-generation Mexican immigrant couples collected at the start of the Great Recession in the United States, this study tested an actor–partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) in which spouses' perceptions of stress related to economic pressure and cultural adaptation were linked to their own and their partners' reports of marital satisfaction through spouses' depressive symptoms and marital negativity. As hypothesized, results supported indirect links between economic and cultural adaptation stressors and spouses' marital negativity and satisfaction: (1) contextual stress was associated with depressive symptoms, (2) depressive symptoms were positively associated with marital negativity for both husbands and wives and negatively associated with marital satisfaction for wives only, and (3) marital negativity was inversely associated with marital satisfaction for both spouses. Two partner effects emerged: (a) husbands' depressive symptoms were positively associated with wives' reports of marital negativity and (b) husbands' marital negativity was inversely related to wives' marital satisfaction. From these findings, we can infer that the psychological distress that arises for Mexican-origin spouses as they respond to the challenges of making ends meet during difficult economic times while they simultaneously navigate adapting to life in a new country is evidenced in their marital quality. Specifically, this study found that contextual stress external to the marital relationship was transmitted via spouses' psychological distress and negative marital exchanges to spouses' marital satisfaction. Wives' marital satisfaction was shown to be uniquely vulnerable to their own and their husbands' depressive symptoms and marital negativity.