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Family and Neighborhood Fit or Misfit and the Adaptation of Mexican Americans
Author(s) -
Roosa Mark W.,
Weaver Scott R.,
White Rebecca M. B.,
Tein Jenn-Yun,
Knight George P.,
Gonzales Nancy,
Saenz Delia
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/s10464-009-9246-8
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , immigration , latent class model , health psychology , social class , poverty , psychology , ethnic group , acculturation , demography , geography , sociology , social psychology , public health , medicine , population , economic growth , political science , economics , statistics , mathematics , nursing , archaeology , anthropology , law
In this study, a person‐environment fit model was used to understand the independent and combined roles of family and neighborhood characteristics on the adjustment of adults and children in a sample of 750 Mexican American families. Latent class analysis was used to identify six qualitatively distinct family types and three quantitatively distinct neighborhood types using socioeconomic and cultural indicators at each level. The results showed that members of single‐parent Mexican American families may be particularly at‐risk, members of the lowest‐income immigrant families reported fewer adaptation problems if they lived in low‐income neighborhoods dominated by immigrants, members of economically successful immigrant families may be more at‐risk in integrated middle class neighborhoods than in low‐income neighborhoods dominated by immigrants, and members of two‐parent immigrant families appear to be rather resilient in most settings despite their low socioeconomic status.