Environmental, Attitudinal, and Social Environmental, Attitudinal, and Social Context Factors as Predictors of Context Factors as Predictors of

Immigrant Mexican Wives’ Personal and Immigrant Mexican Wives’ Personal and Marital Well-beingMarital Well-being

Yuliana Rodriguez & Jinni Su

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

The authors acknowledge Heather Helms, Jill Walls, and Monsy Bonilla. We also thanks the families for their time and participation. Funding provided by a UNCG Regular Faculty Grant and Agricultural Research Service Award (PI, Dr. Heather Helms).

FIGURE 1. ADAPTED THREE-LEVEL MODEL FOR VIEWING MARRIAGEFIGURE 1. ADAPTED THREE-LEVEL MODEL FOR VIEWING MARRIAGE11

1From “The Social Ecology of Marriage and Other Intimate Unions” by T. L. Huston, 2000, Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, p. 300. Adapted with permission of the author by Helms, Supple, & Proulx (under review).

B: Individuals

b1: Spouses’ personal qualities

b2: Spouses’ marriage-specific beliefs and attitudes

A: Marital Behavior in the Context of Parenthood

a1: Macrobehavioral patterns

a2: Microbehavioral patterns

C: Macroenvironment

c1: Macrosocietal context c1i: Sociohistorical c1ii: Cultural background cliii: Socioeconomic

c2: Spouses’ ecological nichec2i: Social environmentc2ii: Physical environment

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

1) Explore individual and environmental factors link to psychological and marital well-being

2) Specific interest in the relation between pressure to acculturate and well-being.

Hierarchical multiple regression analyses are used to address these question.

Variables M SD Range

Age

Wives 28.13 5.463 18– 47

Husbands 30.33 5.79 18 – 48

First born (in years) 5.87 3.88 .08 – 13.64

Years in US

Wives 8.81 4.41 <1 – 22

Husbands 11.40 5.26 2 – 27

Nuclear family size 4.06 .93 3 – 7

Total household size 4.82 1.39 3 – 10

Variables M SD Range

Marital duration (years) 7 3.96 1 – 15

Education (years)

Wives 9.66 3.17 0 – 16

Husbands 9.01 3.18 1 – 18

Work hours (per week)

Wives 38.21 6.35 16 – 60

Husbands 43.15 8.01 20 – 80

Income (annual)

Wives $15,138 $6,559 $2,500 – $31,600

Husbands $24,647 $8,713 $8,000 – $69,000

Family $33,297 $12,725 $8,000 – $83,4000

• Marital Status: 69.2% married, 30.8% cohabiting• Child Gender: 58.3% male, 41.7% female• Ethnicity:

– Wives: 95.8% Mexican, 1.7% Puerto Rican, 2.5% other Latin origin

– Husbands: 93.3% Mexican, .8% Puerto Rican, 5.8% other Latin origin

• Parents’ Birth Place:– Wives: 93.3% Mexico, 4.2% US, 2.5% other Latin country– Husbands: 90.8% Mexico, 3.3% US, 5.8% other Latin country

• Employment Status:– Husbands: 98.3% employed, 1.7% non-employed– Wives: 54.2% employed, 45.8% non-employed

• Acculturation Status:– Wives: 85% Mexican oriented, 13.3%

Mexican/bicultural, 1.7 % slightly Anglo oriented– Husbands: 69.2% Mexican oriented, 29.2%

Mexican/bicultural, 1.7% slightly Anglo oriented

Construct Measure Author Scale & Reliability

Wives’ Love and Conflict Marital Love and Conflict

Love subscale: 9 itemsConflict subscale: 5 items

Braiker & Kelley, 1979

9 point scale, higher scores indicate greater levels of love and conflictLove: α = .86 wivesConflict: α = .59 wives

Wives’ Personal Well-being

Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)12 items (shortened version)

Radloff, 1977 4 point scale, higher scores indicate higher levels of depressive symptomsα = .79 wives

Wives’ Marital Satisfaction

Domains of Satisfaction16 items

Huston, McHale, & Crouter, 1986

9 point scale, higher scores indicated greater levels of satisfactionα = .94 wives

Construct Measure Author Scale & ReliabilityMarriage Work Marriage Work

with FriendHelms, et al., 2003 16 point scale, higher

scores indicated greater levels of marriage work with friendα = .95 wives

Pressure to Acculturate Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory

Pressure to acculturate subscale: 7 items

Rodriguez, Myers, Bingham Mira, Flores, & Garcia-Hernandez, 2002

5 point scale, higher scores indicate greater levels of stressα = .85 wives

Economic Hardship Employment and Financial Information

Financial Strain subscale: 4 items

Conger & Elder, 1994 5 point scale, lower scores indicate a greater level of economic hardship in the past yearα = .88 wives

Construct Measure Author Scale & ReliabilityGender Role Attitudes Gender Role Attitude

ScaleHoffman & Kloska, 1995

13 point scale, higher scores indicated more gender sterotypingα = .73 wives

Familism Attitudes Mexican American Acculturation/Enculturation Scale (MAAS)

Support & emotional closeness, family obligations, and family as referrent subscale: 16 items

Knight, Gonzales, Saenz, German, Deardorff, Roosa, & Updegraff, in press

5 point scale, higher scores indicate greater familismα = .71 wives

Wives’ I II III IVEmployment Status .028 .014 .010 .012

Marital Status .181*.181* .091 .061 .891

Family Economic Hardship

.246**.246** .234**.234** .232**.232**

Pressure to Acculturate .226*.226* .214*.214* .203*.203*

Gender Role Attitudes .168+.168+ .174+.174+

Familism Attitudes -.065 -.050

Emotional Support -.147+-.147+

R2 .034 .154 .180 .201

Change in R2 .034 .120***.120*** .026 .021+.021+

Note: +p < .1.*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Wives’ I II III IV

Employment Status -.055 -.054 .019 -.022

Marital Status -.220*-.220* -.189*-.189* -.202*-.202* -.163+

Family Economic Hardship

-.046 -.053 -.049

Pressure to Acculturate

-.098 -.126 -.109

Gender Role Attitudes

-.098 -.098

Familism Attitudes .241*.241* .216*.216*

Emotional Support .244**.244**

R2 .053 .065 .118 .175

Change in R2 .053*.053* .012 .052*.052* .057*.057*

Note: +p < .1.*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Wives’ I II III IV

Employment Status -.117 -.113 -.088 -.091

Marital Status -.218*-.218* -.177+-.177+ -.186*-.186* -.144

Family Economic Hardship

-.090 -.096 -.090

Pressure to Acculturate

-.115 -.135 -.116

Gender Role Attitudes

-.068 -.078

Familism Attitudes .176*.176* .149

Emotional Support .263**.263**

R2 .065 .088 .116 .182

Change in R2 .065*.065* .023 .028 .066**.066**

Note: +p < .1.*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Wives’ I II III IV

Age .090 .072 .070 .040

Number of Kids .057 .061 .060 .059

Pressure to Acculturate -.145 -.162+-.162+ -.189*-.189*

Marriage Work with Friend

.146 .193*.193*

MPTACC*MMWORKF .190*.190*

R2 .015 .036 .057 .089

Change in R2 .015 .021 .021 .032*.032*

Note: +p < .1.*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.