Description
This dissertation examined Mexican American individuals' romantic relationships within two distinct developmental periods, adolescence and adulthood. Study 1 used latent class analysis to explore whether 12th grade Mexican Americans' (N = 218) romantic relationship characteristics, cultural values, and gender created unique romantic relationship profiles. Results suggested a three-class solution: higher quality, satisfactory quality, and lower quality romantic relationships. Subsequently, associations between profiles and adolescents' adjustment variables were examined via regression analyses. Adolescents with higher and satisfactory quality romantic relationships reported greater future family expectations, higher self-esteem, and fewer externalizing symptoms than adolescents with lower quality romantic relationships. Similarly, adolescents with higher quality romantic relationships reported greater academic self-efficacy and fewer sexual partners than adolescents with lower quality romantic relationships. Finally, adolescents with higher quality romantic relationships also reported greater future family expectations and higher academic self-efficacy than adolescents with satisfactory quality romantic relationships. To summarize, results suggested that adolescents engaged in three unique types of romantic relationships with higher quality being most optimal for their adjustment. Study 2 used latent growth modeling to examine marital partners' (N = 466) intra- and inter-individual changes of acculturative stress, depressive symptoms, and marital quality. On average across the seven years, husbands' acculturative stress remained steady, but wives' significantly decreased; partners' depressive symptoms remained relatively steady, but their marital quality significantly decreased. Although partners' experiences of acculturative stress were less similar than their experiences of depressive symptoms and marital quality, overall their experiences were interconnected. Significant spillover and crossover effects emerged between partners' initial levels of acculturative stress and depressive symptoms and between depressive symptoms and marital quality. Moreover, changes in husbands' depressive symptoms were negatively associated with changes in their marital quality. Overall, results suggested that partners' experiences were interconnected across time.
Details
Title
- An examination of Mexican American adolescent and adult romantic relationships
Contributors
- Moosmann, Danyel A. V (Author)
- Roosa, Mark W. (Thesis advisor)
- Christopher, F. Scott (Committee member)
- White, Rebecca M B (Committee member)
- Millsap, Roger E (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2014
Subjects
- Developmental Psychology
- Adolescent
- dyadic latent growth modeling
- Latent Class Analysis
- Marital quality
- Mexican American
- Romantic Relationships
- Man-woman relationships
- Marriage
- Mexican American youth--Sexual behavior.
- Mexican American youth
- Mexican American youth--Psychology.
- Mexican American youth
- Mexican Americans--Sexual behavior.
- Mexican Americans
Resource Type
Collections this item is in
Note
- thesisPartial requirement for: Ph. D., Arizona State University, 2014
- bibliographyIncludes bibliographical references (p. 73-88)
- Field of study: Family and human development
Citation and reuse
Statement of Responsibility
by Danyel A. V. Moosmann