Stress In Latino Families Research Paper
Stress in Latino Families Following an Adolescent’s Childbearing: Effects on Family Relationships and Siblings
Evelyn Ramirez
Psych 3350
Professor Petranovich
September 12, 2013
Stress in Latino Families Following an Adolescent 's Childbearing
BACKGROUND
In this study, it shows how teen childbearing can increase stress, effects family relationships and siblings in Latino families. The theory from this study was to see the behavior of young siblings and interactions with the mother and older sister. However, some of the socio-cultural theory impacts young children because it is deals with their environment and how living in the stressful household can influence them. Some behavior from this study shows how younger siblings, mostly …show more content…
girls, have a higher chance of getting pregnant at early age like their pregnant sister. This behavior is because the younger siblings are curious about being sexual active, thus getting pregnant themselves. Family stress can impact on the younger siblings by causing them to get depression, use drug, and do poorly in school.
In the study, there were 243 Mexican American youth; 121 youth live with a pregnant sister, 72 are girls and 49 are boys. While 122 youth live without a pregnant sister, 78 of them are girls and 44 boys. All younger siblings were between 11 to 18 years of age and older sisters were between 15 to 19 years of age. The families with the pregnant teen were studied when the teen was in her third trimester. The children and their mother were studied 4 times point across 15 months: 2 months, 6 months, and 12 months postpartum. The families with no pregnant teen were studied at like intervals. However, researcher lost participants over the 15 month period, which in the end they had 196 participants. During the studied, the mother and siblings did a short in-person interview about background information and basic descriptive and a self- administered questionnaire in their homes during the 15 months. For the interview and questionnaire, the researcher use two Latino females research assistants to translate for the mothers. The questionnaire had third-grade reading level for the mothers while the children complete the survey and interview in English. The survey and interview took about one hour to complete.
In the studies, there were four measurements: Time 1; all study constructs were included in the modeling analyses, Time 2; the family disruption score, Time 3; mother 's harshness and mother-sibling conflict score and Time 4; siblings adjustment. In the family disruption, mothers complete the Family Inventory of Life Events, which is the occurrence of disruptive family events such as; family moving, lose or addition to the family member household, or change in a parent 's employment status and child 's school. In mother 's harshness, there were 8 questionnaire asking the mother "how often they yell at", "nagged" and "hit or slapped" each of their participating children within the last month. “Response options ranged from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very often), with high scores indicating mother’s frequent harsh treatment” (187). Mother-sibling conflict, mothers were asked to rate how much arguments occurred with their children and if they had talk about it within the past month. For sibling adjustments, 18 questionnaires asked how often, in the last month, had they used alcohol and drugs, problems at school; such as, ditching, expelled, gotten in trouble, etc., and their own behaviors; feeling depressed, lying to their parents, running away from home, etc.
The results confirm that family disruption and mother’s harsh treatment was higher in families with pregnant teen. Siblings with pregnant teen were more engaged in drug use and delinquent behavior during the 15 month period. The researcher’s hypotheses were correct because teen’s childbearing leads to increase in family stress. Family stress leads to increase mother’s harsh parenting and mother-siblings conflict. Therefore, younger sibling’s problem behaviors increase, which had more effect on the younger sister than the younger brother.
CRITICAL REVIEW
In the article, the author did a wonderful work on explaining the study thoroughly.
They make sure Latino mothers can understand what is happening by having translators and make the surveys third grade level because most mothers had low education. The question they asked the mother and siblings were not bias and relevant to their lives. Although, there were some flaws in the study such as, the family disruption can be father of the baby moving in, financial problems, and teenager transition to parent. Since the researcher stated that younger sister had more impact than younger brother, they should have calculated between the siblings and difference of gender. Also, the loss of participants could have affected the result because they still included 243 participants instead of the 196 participants. In the future studies, the research should considered more of the age of the parenting teen and younger siblings. They should examine changes in father- sibling relationship. Instead of using low income Mexican Americans, they should study middle class Mexican Americans because would it be the same as low income? Even though adolescent’s childbearing affects the family, can the sibling’s friends also affect them as
well?
This study would be beneficial for the families with pregnant teenagers to expect stress and helping the teenager’s transition to parenting. The families can help out each other to decrease stress and sibling’s behavior problems. Since the results indicate that mother-siblings appear to cause the sibling into bad behavior, mother should learn how to control their harshness towards their children. This study can inform mothers about their children’s usage to drugs, delinquency, and depression. Therefore, mother can understand the need to be supportive of their younger children.
PERSONAL REACTION
This study was interesting to read because some of the information was reliable. When the family gets stress out, it impacts the children’s behavior and thinking. I chose this article because change in the family, like teen pregnancy, can have an effect on younger children. Most young siblings will follow the same foot-step as their older siblings because they look up to them more than parents, if they get along well. For example, I have two younger brothers, one is in middle school and the other is in elementary school. These kids look up to me more than my parents because I am a role model to them. The middle schooled follows my foot-step by doing well in school, such as: joining a club, doing homework, wins trophies, and gets good grades. Coming from Mexican roots, I know most Mexicans parents do not have time to watch their children, which leads to teen pregnancy. I believe parents should be more supportive to their children and helping them with their needs. For example, my parents might overwork, I’m not pregnant because my parents have support me throughout middle school till now. It is an important topic to study because most mothers harsh words or yelling can impact on the younger siblings by doing poorly in school or depression. Older siblings can impact on younger siblings by showing them what is right and wrong from their past experience.
References
East, L. P. (2013). Stress in Latino Families Following an Adolescent’s Childbearing: Effects on Family Relationships and Siblings. Journal of Family Psychology, 27(2), 183-193.
Evelyn Ramirez
Psych 3350
Professor Petranovich
September 12, 2013
Stress in Latino Families Following an Adolescent 's Childbearing
BACKGROUND
In this study, it shows how teen childbearing can increase stress, effects family relationships and siblings in Latino families. The theory from this study was to see the behavior of young siblings and interactions with the mother and older sister. However, some of the socio-cultural theory impacts young children because it is deals with their environment and how living in the stressful household can influence them. Some behavior from this study shows how younger siblings, mostly …show more content…
girls, have a higher chance of getting pregnant at early age like their pregnant sister. This behavior is because the younger siblings are curious about being sexual active, thus getting pregnant themselves. Family stress can impact on the younger siblings by causing them to get depression, use drug, and do poorly in school.
In the study, there were 243 Mexican American youth; 121 youth live with a pregnant sister, 72 are girls and 49 are boys. While 122 youth live without a pregnant sister, 78 of them are girls and 44 boys. All younger siblings were between 11 to 18 years of age and older sisters were between 15 to 19 years of age. The families with the pregnant teen were studied when the teen was in her third trimester. The children and their mother were studied 4 times point across 15 months: 2 months, 6 months, and 12 months postpartum. The families with no pregnant teen were studied at like intervals. However, researcher lost participants over the 15 month period, which in the end they had 196 participants. During the studied, the mother and siblings did a short in-person interview about background information and basic descriptive and a self- administered questionnaire in their homes during the 15 months. For the interview and questionnaire, the researcher use two Latino females research assistants to translate for the mothers. The questionnaire had third-grade reading level for the mothers while the children complete the survey and interview in English. The survey and interview took about one hour to complete.
In the studies, there were four measurements: Time 1; all study constructs were included in the modeling analyses, Time 2; the family disruption score, Time 3; mother 's harshness and mother-sibling conflict score and Time 4; siblings adjustment. In the family disruption, mothers complete the Family Inventory of Life Events, which is the occurrence of disruptive family events such as; family moving, lose or addition to the family member household, or change in a parent 's employment status and child 's school. In mother 's harshness, there were 8 questionnaire asking the mother "how often they yell at", "nagged" and "hit or slapped" each of their participating children within the last month. “Response options ranged from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very often), with high scores indicating mother’s frequent harsh treatment” (187). Mother-sibling conflict, mothers were asked to rate how much arguments occurred with their children and if they had talk about it within the past month. For sibling adjustments, 18 questionnaires asked how often, in the last month, had they used alcohol and drugs, problems at school; such as, ditching, expelled, gotten in trouble, etc., and their own behaviors; feeling depressed, lying to their parents, running away from home, etc.
The results confirm that family disruption and mother’s harsh treatment was higher in families with pregnant teen. Siblings with pregnant teen were more engaged in drug use and delinquent behavior during the 15 month period. The researcher’s hypotheses were correct because teen’s childbearing leads to increase in family stress. Family stress leads to increase mother’s harsh parenting and mother-siblings conflict. Therefore, younger sibling’s problem behaviors increase, which had more effect on the younger sister than the younger brother.
CRITICAL REVIEW
In the article, the author did a wonderful work on explaining the study thoroughly.
They make sure Latino mothers can understand what is happening by having translators and make the surveys third grade level because most mothers had low education. The question they asked the mother and siblings were not bias and relevant to their lives. Although, there were some flaws in the study such as, the family disruption can be father of the baby moving in, financial problems, and teenager transition to parent. Since the researcher stated that younger sister had more impact than younger brother, they should have calculated between the siblings and difference of gender. Also, the loss of participants could have affected the result because they still included 243 participants instead of the 196 participants. In the future studies, the research should considered more of the age of the parenting teen and younger siblings. They should examine changes in father- sibling relationship. Instead of using low income Mexican Americans, they should study middle class Mexican Americans because would it be the same as low income? Even though adolescent’s childbearing affects the family, can the sibling’s friends also affect them as
well?
This study would be beneficial for the families with pregnant teenagers to expect stress and helping the teenager’s transition to parenting. The families can help out each other to decrease stress and sibling’s behavior problems. Since the results indicate that mother-siblings appear to cause the sibling into bad behavior, mother should learn how to control their harshness towards their children. This study can inform mothers about their children’s usage to drugs, delinquency, and depression. Therefore, mother can understand the need to be supportive of their younger children.
PERSONAL REACTION
This study was interesting to read because some of the information was reliable. When the family gets stress out, it impacts the children’s behavior and thinking. I chose this article because change in the family, like teen pregnancy, can have an effect on younger children. Most young siblings will follow the same foot-step as their older siblings because they look up to them more than parents, if they get along well. For example, I have two younger brothers, one is in middle school and the other is in elementary school. These kids look up to me more than my parents because I am a role model to them. The middle schooled follows my foot-step by doing well in school, such as: joining a club, doing homework, wins trophies, and gets good grades. Coming from Mexican roots, I know most Mexicans parents do not have time to watch their children, which leads to teen pregnancy. I believe parents should be more supportive to their children and helping them with their needs. For example, my parents might overwork, I’m not pregnant because my parents have support me throughout middle school till now. It is an important topic to study because most mothers harsh words or yelling can impact on the younger siblings by doing poorly in school or depression. Older siblings can impact on younger siblings by showing them what is right and wrong from their past experience.
References
East, L. P. (2013). Stress in Latino Families Following an Adolescent’s Childbearing: Effects on Family Relationships and Siblings. Journal of Family Psychology, 27(2), 183-193.