Mother–Daughter Conflict and Adjustment in Mexican-Origin Families: Exploring the Role of Family and Sociocultural Context

摘要

This study examined the role of mother–daughter conflict in both mothers’ and daughters’ adjustment. Drawing from ecologically oriented and person–environment fit models, the authors investigated how the family context, as defined by the transition to adolescent motherhood, and the sociocultural context, as measured by mother–daughter discrepancies in cultural orientations, shaped the associations between conflict and adjustment in Mexican-origin families. Overall, conflict was positively related to mothers’ and adolescents’ depressive symptoms and adolescents’ risky behaviors. This relation was strongest when daughters were more Mexican-oriented than their mothers, and weakest when mothers were more Mexican-oriented than their daughters.