Parent‐child conflict in Mexican‐origin families: Charting development from adolescence to young adulthood

Abstract

AbstractGrounded in developmental and cultural‐ecological perspectives, the current study examined trajectories of parent‐youth conflict regarding everyday issues across adolescence and into young adulthood. Data came from 246 Mexican‐origin families in the southwestern United States with younger siblings (51% female, Mage = 12.8, SD = 0.58), older siblings (Mage = 15.5, SD = 1.57), mothers (Mage = 39.0; SD = 4.6), and fathers (Mage = 41.7; SD = 5.8) and were collected at four time points over an 8‐year period. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed linear declines in mother‐youth and father‐youth conflict across ages 12–22. Youth, but not parent, familism values were associated with variation in parent‐youth conflict. This study extends understanding of culturally and developmentally salient processes of mother‐youth and father‐youth relationships in Mexican‐origin families.