Parenting Practices Among Dominican and Puerto Rican Mothers.

To date, there have been relatively few empirical studies of parenting practices among Latino families. Family-based research has paid too little attention to potential variation in culturally based parenting practices (Amato & Fowler, 2002; Hill, Bush, & Roosa, 2003; Ruiz, Roosa, & Gonzales, 2002; Zayas & Solari, 1994). The limitations of current research in addressing ethnic diversity may lead to a depiction of Latino parenting practices in the context of a social-deficit model. Existing studies of Latino parenting practices have yielded inconsistent findings (Martinez, 1999; Solis-Camara & Fox, 1996). For example, some studies have found Latino parents to be authoritarian, overly directive, and disciplinarian with their children (Cardona, Nicholson, & Fox, 2000; Schulze, Harwood, Schoelmerich, & Leyendecker, 2002; Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992). By contrast, other studies have noted the warmth and closeness that characterize Latino parenting (Calzada & Eyberg, 2002; Julian, McKenry, & McKelvey, 1994; Molina & Chassin, 1996; Raffaelli & Green, 2003). Some have suggested that Latino and white parents are more similar than they are different (Fox & Solis-Camara, 1997; Lindahl & Malik, 1999; Medora, Wilson, & Larson, 2001), especially those at comparable socioeconomic levels (Solis-Camara & Fox; Uno, Florsheim, & Uchino, 1998). Despite the rapid growth of the Latino population in the United States, which is expected to reach one-quarter of the population by 2050, the role of Latino culture in understanding the parenting practices of Latino families has remained largely understudied. This descriptive, qualitative study integrates the uniquely Latino cultural constructs of familismo, respeto, personalismo, and simpatia, and the gender roles of machismo and marianismo, with the parenting domains of demandingness and responsiveness conceptualized by Baumrind (1983, 1987, 1991). We used these Latino cultural constructs in an open hut structured focus group format to elicit insights about how Dominican and Puerto Rican mothers and their adolescents identify parental control and warmth in their relationships.