Familism In The Latino Culture

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The Latino culture places high value on family and relationships as the most important units of support, which contradicts the U.S. cultural value of individualism and self-sufficiency (Garcia et al., 2005). Familism, which refers to the feelings of loyalty, reciprocity, and solidarity towards members of the family, especially elders, serves as a protective factor for immigrant families as it is associated with prosocial behavior, lack of child abuse, and psychological well-being (Altschul and Lee, 2011; Arbona et al., 2010; Caplan, 2007; Ferrari, 2002; Sabina et al., 2015). Ferrari (2002) administered a demographic questionnaire and seven scales and checklists to 150 Latino, African American, and Caucasian parents. Findings showed that fathers who held familism in low regard were more likely to use physical punishment to discipline their children than fathers who valued familism more highly. This same study …show more content…

It is defined as the strong adherence to rigid gender roles, apathetic towards women, being aggressive, dominant, and authoritarian (Ferrari, 2002). Ferrari (2002) found that families who subscribe to machismo attitudes have higher verbal and physical punishment and lower levels of nurturing and reasoning with children. This was especially true for fathers who were authoritarian and inflicted corporal punishment upon the child as a form of ensuring obedience and respect (Fontes, 2002). Using ANOVA to analyze the data, Ferrari (2002) found that there is no correlation between mother’s adherence to machismo and an increase of physical abuse by the mother. This finding can be clarified by Altschul and Lee (2011) who found through their longitudinal study, that Latinos bring with them less violent cultural norms to the U.S., it is thus possible that foreign-born Latino mothers subscribe to different norms with regards to use of aggression in parenting than native-born

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