Mexican American Parenting Styles

One time in high school I drove to one of my close friends homes. I walk in through the front door only to find my friend’s father yelling at him because he did not pick her up from work the day before and was now being punished by not being allowed to drive the car for the rest of the week. Just two weeks later I went to a different friend’s home and when I came in the house, his mother was discussing with him very calmly that she was disappointed that he came home so late the night before, told him he should not do it again, forgave him and let him come with me to get lunch. The difference between these parenting styles are very clear but, which is a better way to raise a child? What other kinds of styles of parenting are their? There …show more content…
This experiment consisted of 69 Mexican American mothers and their child (originally 80 but 11 left the experiment).Researchers took a 4-year study longitudinal study and took data on the family’s backgrounds with consent. The first session of each year the parent came in and a bilingual interviewed them (in Spanish or English) and read question aloud and used visual cues to represent response choices (a full dark circle to represent ‘‘always’’). The second session of every year the parent and child came in to a laboratory to take measurements of both their height and weight. This time parents answered a different questioner. These parents were offered $40 to ensure participation. The parents were assessed by using a PDI test which assessed which parenting style they were classified under. The children were measured using the BMI standard. “Children with a BMI from >5th to <85th percentile for age- and gender-specific were classified as normal weight, a BMI from the 85th to 94th percentile age and gender specific were classified as overweight, and a BMI greater than the 95th percentile age and gender specific were classified as obese”. The results of the weight gain were that at year 1, 65% (52) of children were classified as normal weight, 14% (11) were overweight, and 21% (17) were obese. Over the next 3 years 16% of subjects were put in a heavier category. The PDI test came out to a conclusion that their were 37% uninvolved and 28% permissive, 19% authoritative and 16% authoritarian. The researchers saw that between the uninvolved parent and especially the permissive parents were where took place most of the children’s weight gains. In the end of the experiment the researchers found that in low-income, Mexican American populations, children of indulgent mothers may be at highest risk