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This article lists the effects that sexual violence can have on a person and how it can alter your perception of the world. It describes how sexual assault can cause isolation, fear, and distrust. This is especially important to Esperanza because before her sexual assault she already had no trust for those around her. After her experience she blames her friend Sally for not being there to help her and puts most of the blame on society in general instead of her attackers.

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The most immediate person affected by sexual violence is the victim/survivor, but the effects of sexual violence also go far beyond individual survivors, impacting their closest relationships as well as impacting communities and our society at large.

Impact on the survivor*

Each survivor reacts to sexual violence in their own unique way. Personal style, culture, and context of the survivor's life may affect these reactions. Some express their emotions while others prefer to keep their feelings inside. Some may tell others right away what happened, others will wait weeks, months, or even years before discussing the assault, if they ever choose to do so. It is important to respect each person's choices and style of coping with this traumatic event. Whether an assault was completed or attempted, and regardless of whether it happened recently or many years ago, it may impact daily functioning. A wide range of reactions can impact victims. Some common emotional, psychological and physical reactions follow.

Some health outcomes can be fatal such as suicide, homicide, maternal mortality and AIDS related deaths.

Impact on loved ones

When someone is a victim of sexual violence, it affects not only the survivor, but also all of the people around them. Sexual violence can affect many people in a victim/survivor's life: parents, friends, partners, children, spouses, classmates and/or co-workers.

Part of what makes it so difficult for loved ones is not knowing what to say or do, but there are ways to offer constructive help as well as for you to get support. In addition to the information below, RVA offers free confidential services to anyone who has been affected by sexual violence, including loved ones.

Let them know that you believe them

All too often, disclosure is met by skepticism or outright disbelief. Simply letting a survivor know that you believe them and that you stand behind them is meaningful. Remember that although you may be having a strong reaction to what happened, it's important to focus on the feelings and reactions of the survivor rather than your own.

Allow the survivor to make his or her own decisions

This point can be very difficult, it can be very tempting to "take over" for a while in an attempt to help the survivor deal with the rape. It is important to remember that because of the rape, the survivor felt a loss of control over their life. Reestablishing that control is very important. Try to defer to a survivor's decisions, even if they decide to let you make some decisions. Then at least that was their choice and not yours. If a survivor wants to talk, try to be an open listener. If they prefer not to talk about the assault, then try to be supportive in other ways, letting them know that you care about him/her and are willing to listen at a later time if so desired.

Educate yourself about the myths of rape

A great deal of harm is done, often unintentionally, to survivors because the people around them believe the myths that surround rape. Rape is never the fault of the survivor, but rather the fault of the rapist. Although this sounds like a simple, even obvious, fact, much of the misinformation that exists points to the victim as being responsible for the rape. Educating yourself allows you to provide informed, compassionate support. Learn more about the most common myths about sexual violence.

Be ready to listen

Being a willing listener, who acknowledges the feelings of a person, makes a significant positive impact. Sometimes it's very useful to simply be with a person and create a safe silence. Non-judgmental support helps survivors tremendously as they recover from this traumatic event. If the victim/survivor you care about or you are in need of support, RVA provides counseling services free of charge. You can also call the 24-hour Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline at any time at 1-888-293-2080.

Help Resilience to help others
Your tax deductible donation to Resilience will help to continue providing services to victims/survivors of sexual violence and their loved ones.

Impact on communities**

As with any form of violence, sexual violence tears at the fabric of community well-being. Schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, campuses, and cultural or religious communities may feel fear, anger, or disbelief if a sexual assault happened in their community.

Additionally, there are financial costs to communities. These costs can include medical and mental health services, legal expenses, lost work time and productivity, theft and damage to property, and the incalculable lost contributions of individuals affected by sexual violence.

Although the economic costs of rape and sexual assault are hard to quantify and the data is limited, the existing research indicates that the costs are great. Various research studies have examined the quantifiable cost per rape, accounting for such costs as medical and victim services, loss of productivity, and law enforcement resources. Researchers also generally agree that intangible costs, such as decreased quality of life, though difficult to monetize, are also a necessary part of the cost calculus for sexual assault. (Many researchers, in fact, believe the intangible costs are especially high in cases of sexual assault, due to the serious physical and mental health consequences for survivors.) Each of the studies examined in the White House Council on Women and Girls 2014 Report Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action used a somewhat different methodology, but all found the costs to be significant -ranging from $87,000 to $240,776 per rape. ( Miller, T.R., Cohen ,M.A. & Wiersema, B.(1996). Victim costs and consequences: A new look. National Institute of Justice.)

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (1996) the cost of crime to victims is an estimated $450 billion per year. Rape is the most costly to its victims, totaling $127 billion annually. According to the 1995 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, sexual harassment alone cost the federal government an estimated $327 million in losses associated with job turnover, sick leave, and individual and group productivity among federal employees.

Fifty percent of rape victims lost or were forced to quit their jobs in the year following their rapes due to the severity of their reactions (Ellis, Atkeson & Calhoun, 1981). Scholars at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health indicated that development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is likely in 50 to 95 percent of rape cases (1999). Lifetime income loss, due to sexual violence in adolescence, is estimated at $241,600 (MacMillan, 2000).

In another study, the National Crime Victimization Survey found that between 2005-2010, 58% of female sexual assault victims were injured, 35% of whom received medical treatment.

For women who are raped by an intimate partner, about 36.2% are physically injured and, of those, 31% receive some type of medical care. NCIPC (2003). Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 2003. The injuries for intimate-partner rapes range from scratches, bruises, or welts to lacerations, broken bones, dislocated joints, head or spinal cord injuries, chipped or broken teeth, or internal injuries. (NCIPC 2003) Nearly 80% of those who receive medical care are treated in a hospital, and 43.6% of those victims spend one or more nights there. (NCIPC 2003)

A 2003 CDC report on the costs of intimate partner violence found that the average medical cost for victims who received treatment was $2,084 per victimization. In half of these cases, private or group health insurers were the primary source of payment; survivors bore most of the financial burden one-fourth of the time. Many survivors incur at least some out-of-pocket costs for their medical care.

Also among intimate-partner rape survivors, more than one-fifth lose time from paid work, with an average loss of 8.1 days. Additionally, over one-eighth report losing time from household chores, with an average of 13.5 days lost. Nationally, rape survivors lose an estimated 1.1 million days of activity each year. (NCIPC 2003)

Together, we can help

A 2006 study found that when victims receive advocate assisted services following assaults, like the 24-hour crisis response RVA provides to 14 hospitals across Chicago, they receive more helpful information, referrals, and services and experience less secondary trauma or re-victimization by medical and legal systems (Campbell, 2006). Furthermore, the same study found that when advocates are present in the legal and medical proceedings following rape, victims fare better in both the short-and long-term, experiencing less psychological distress, physical health struggles, sexual risk-taking behaviors, self-blame, guilt, and depression. Rape survivors with advocates were 59% more likely to have police reports taken than survivors without advocates, whose reports were only taken 41% of the time.

Your support, too, makes a difference. How you respond to a victim/survivor can positively impact their healing process. In studies of sexual assault survivors, receiving social support has been associated with many positive outcomes, including positive life change and growth as well as reduced PTSD and depressive symptoms ( Borja, Callahan, & Long, 2006; Filipas & Ullman, 2001; Schumm, Briggs-Phillips, & Hobfoll, 2006). Some of these studies found that the greater the amount of support survivors reported receiving, the fewer PTSD symptoms they had.

*Taken from Impact of Sexual Violence Fact Sheet, 2010, National Sexual Violence Resource Center

**Adapted from Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action, 2014, White House Council on Women and Girls Report, and Economic Costs of Sexual Assault, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault

References

Borja SE, Callahan JL, Long PJ. Positive and negative adjustment and social support of sexual assault survivors. J Trauma Stress. 2006 Dec; 19(6):905-14.

Ellis, E.M., Atkeson, B.M., & Calhoun, K.S. (1981). An assessment of long-term reaction to rape, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90:3, 263-266.

Erdreich, B.L., Slavet, B.S., & Amador, A.C. (1995). Sexual harassment in the federal workplace: Trends, progress, continuing challenges. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

Filipas, HH, Ullman SE. Social reactions to sexual assault victims from various support sources. Violence Vict. 2001 Dec; 16(6):673-92

MacMillan, R. (2000). Adolescent victimization and income deficits in adulthood: Rethinking the costs of criminal violence from a life-course perspective. Criminology, 38, 553-577.

Miller, T.R., Cohen, M.A., & Wiersema, B. (1996). Victim costs and consequences: A new look. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice

Population Information Program. (1999). Population reports: Ending violence against women. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

Schumm, JA, Briggs-Phillips M, Hobfoll SE. Cumulative interpersonal traumas and social support as risk and resiliency factors in predicting PTSD and depression among inner-city women. J Trauma Stress. 2006 Dec; 19(6):825-36.

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The most immediate person affected by sexual violence is the victim/survivor, but the effects of sexual violence also go far beyond individual survivors, impacting their closest relationships as well as impacting communities and our society at large. Each survivor reacts to sexual violence in their own unique way.

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The Struggle of Not Speaking English in America

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The Struggle of Not Speaking English in America

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This article from the LA Times explains the struggles of immigrants who come to America for a better life but are unable to speak English. Though Esperanza and her friends grow up speaking English I believe that it is important to highlight the hurdles that other Mexican-Americans in her community, including her father had to face when they do not know the language. Esperanza's father worked hard to become a part of American society while others, like Mamacita, shut themselves off from society, not wanting to belong to any part of it.

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When Irais Flores came to Santa Ana from Mexico two years ago, she envisioned earning a decent living by cleaning other people's homes or taking care of their children. But month after month, she found herself unable to find work because she does not speak English.

Now, she and her husband, Luis, carve their daily living from selling pumpkin seeds, hair ribbons and yo-yos to passersby in a grocery store parking lot. Flores, 35, the mother of two teen-agers, said she learned from others that non-English speakers fortunate enough to find work seem to get paid less for the same work than those who speak English.

"You want to learn English, but it is very difficult because you have to work hard to support the household," said Flores, who sat on a milk carton under a tree as herhusband measured a cup of pumpkin seeds for a customer. "One has to work hard, long hours because life is so hard. I just don't have the time."

Getting through each day can be a struggle for immigrants who come to the United States with a This story was reported by Times staff writers Rose Kim, Thuan Le, Gebe Martinez and Catherine Gewertz. It was written by Gewertz.

limited command of English, like trying to tie a shoelace with one hand. But Flores' story is hardly unique; the immigrant influx into Southern California makes such tales increasingly common.

In Orange County, a veritable symphony of languages is spoken. Newly compiled 1990 U.S. Census figures show that of the 2.2 million Orange County residents over 5 years old, nearly one in three speaks a language other than English at home. Of those, more than half say they speak English poorly. Among the non-English speakers, 61% speak Spanish, one in four speak an Asian or Pacific Island tongue and nearly 14% speak other languages. These patterns roughly parallel those for California as a whole.

Lack of English skills creates challenges for immigrants as well as the English-speakers who interact with them. It can spawn awkward divisions in families, as generations reach for a language both young and old can understand. It triggers a call for bilingual teachers in the schools--where thousands of non-English-speaking students enter each year--and for a tremendous multilingual overhaul of the English-speaking bureaucracy. Difficulty in speaking English can also create barriers between communities, with many immigrants remaining among those who understand them, and hostility in judgmental or impatient English-speakers.

While the census numbers frame the portrait of immigrant life here, the real texture of the immigrant experience, with its daily frustrations, rewards and absurdities, comes from the people who live it. People like Flores, and like Ji Yun Kim.

Kim, a Garden Grove homemaker who emigrated from Korea, said her limited English dashed her plans for a vacation to Mexico recently. Stopped by border police, Kim was unable to explain that the name on her green card was different from the name on her driver's license because she was recently divorced. Frustrated and out of options, she drove home.

Speaking English is less of a worry in Garden Grove's Koreatown, the commercial and residential center for the county's Koreans. Here, Koreans can find many of the familiar sounds, sights and tastes of their homeland. A local market stocks raw, marinated oysters, Korean pancakes, an entire octopus wrapped in cellophane, and kimchi, a spicy, pickled cabbage. Even the local Ramada Inn coffee shop features Korean dishes.

"Days go by when I don't speak any English," said Seon D. Kim, Orange County bureau chief for the Korea Times. "Many of the first-generation Korean immigrants do the same things they do in Korea. They eat the same food and follow the same customs."

About 700 Korean merchants have been drawn to the area, many relieved they do not have to worry about speaking English, Kim said.

Although the familiarity of a common language and customs are reassuring, many still go out of their way to learn English. Ji Yun Kim said she is enrolled in an English class so she can gain a measure of self-sufficiency.

"If something unjust happens, like a traffic ticket I'm not supposed to get, I want to be able to defend myself, not just spend a lot of money to hire an attorney to help me," she said.

Those who do not speak English well can find themselves the target of hostility from English-speakers. Flores, for instance, said she is all too familiar with the angry looks of store clerks who seem to "look down" at those who do not speak English.

"Maybe they talk about you, but you don't understand," she said. "But you look at their face and you can tell you did not sit well with that person, as though they are saying, 'Oh, those people,' in a disrespectful tone."

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the county Human Relations Commission, said he has heard stories of such prejudice time and time again.

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Immigrants Face Struggle to Live Without English

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When Irais Flores came to Santa Ana from Mexico two years ago, she envisioned earning a decent living by cleaning other people's homes or taking care of their children. But month after month, she found herself unable to find work because she does not speak English.

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This article by NPR explores the many benefits of poetry and describes how valuable it can be, especially for those going through a rough time. One story from the article particularly stands out to me which is the story of Ruth Berman. Ruth picked up writing poetry to cope with the death of her husband and feels that it has done wonders to help her deal with her loss. I think this is especially important to Esperanza in "The House on Mango Street" because she faces deaths of those close to her in her life as well. Though she may not realize it at the time I believe poetry really helps Esperanza face the trials and tribulations that life throws at her throughout the book and gives her a great sense of comfort in a world that she feels so withdrawn from.

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Creating some form of art is commonly believed to help older people stay mentally and physically healthy. Scientific research hasn't quite caught up with that belief.

But that hasn't deterred the dozen or so older adults in Janet Hoult's poetry workshop. She refers to them all as "my poets." They meet weekly at the Culver City Senior Center in Culver City, Calif. Hoult is 80. Her eldest pupil, Ruth Berman, is 91.

Like everyone in the class on the day I visit, Berman's brought some new work to share. It's a sweet poem about a gift from her granddaughter, expressed in rhyming couplets.

"My jewelry that's real is hidden out of sight," she reads, "but my butterfly necklace, I wear day and night." Another member of the class has a more meditative piece. Terry Dicks' poem is about her spiritual struggles - her choice between "mud," as she puts it, and her quest for the place "where miracles flow and all rain is holy water."

Regardless of age or subject matter, everyone here is serious about becoming a better poet. Ruth Berman says she works on each assignment all week.

"As soon as I leave the class, I go home and all these thoughts come into my mind," says Berman. "I write and I rewrite and I write. I must do it about 30 times before I get it the way I want it to be."

You wouldn't guess, from Berman's cheerful enthusiasm, what led her to start writing poetry. She took it up just last year after her husband died.

"It was sudden," she says of his death. "Very sudden. And I knew that I had to keep busy in order to focus and live again."

Researchers say there's no scientific proof that poetry - or any other artistic pursuit - actually helps older people live longer or live better.

"We still have a long way to go in understanding physical health outcomes," says Sunil Iyengar, the director of research and analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts.

It would be great to know for sure, Iyengar says, because compared to other kinds of health interventions, engaging in the arts is pretty inexpensive.

But it can be difficult to study. Making art is a complex process. Sometimes it's done alone. Sometimes in a group. And singing might have a different impact than painting or writing.

"We're not talking about a pill," says Iyengar. "We're not talking about [testing] a device. We're talking about something that is so deeply embedded in our culture and our society, and that contains ... many factors."

So far, research findings on the relationship between the arts and health have been all over the map. A roundup of some 30 studies shows that while most found benefits, they didn't measure the same things. Some looked at physical effects, like fewer falls or less use of medication. Others looked at effects on the mind - like improved memory or decreased depression. Unfortunately, many of the studies had no control groups, and were often too small to draw meaningful conclusions.

Iyengar says federal agencies are now funding more rigorous research and the results are just starting to come in. The early evidence suggests that the arts have positive cognitive, social, and emotional impacts on older adults.

For Hoult, the leader of the poetry workshop in Southern California, the emotional sustenance she gained from writing her first poems was profound. That was in 1999, after her son was killed in an accident.

Poetry "helped me begin to focus how I felt about losing my son," she says. "When you lose, you also remember what you had before the loss. And so poetry allows you to begin to look at a relationship, at what was of value to you."

In Hoult's workshop, Marsha Wilde reads a poem expressing a sense of loss on a global scale.

"How many words for murder do we already have in our North American language?" she asks. "Are there enough? Should we invent more? Would we write better poems if we invented more words that mean destruction? "

It was a long poem and there was silence in the room when she finished reading it. Most of the poems that are read aloud here tend to be lighter. But that doesn't matter. The people in this room all support each other. Ruth Berman says she loves each and every poem and all of the poets, too.

"I find them all fascinating," she says. "I want to get up and hug each one of them. They bring me such joy."

Even though science can't yet tell us if this poetry workshop is improving Ruth Berman's health, it's clearly doing her heart a lot of good.

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Can Poetry Keep You Young? Science Is Still Out, But The Heart Says Yes

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Creating some form of art is commonly believed to help older people stay mentally and physically healthy. Scientific research hasn't quite caught up with that belief. But that hasn't deterred the dozen or so older adults in Janet Hoult's poetry workshop. She refers to them all as "my poets."

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This article published by the PMC underlines the importance of gender roles in Hispanic culture. It describes how Hispanic cultures tend to be very traditional in their attitude towards the roles that women play in a relationship/marriage. This attitude places women in a position of obligation towards time consuming housework and menial tasks instead of having the opportunity to pursue a career. In the book Esperanza feels that the women in her neighborhood are tied down by their husbands and children and she does not want to meet the same fate as a majority of these women. Esperanza seeks a feeling of "home" in society but her version of "home" is quite different from the other women in her neighborhood.

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Abstract

Gender development has long term implications for education and career endeavors and family formation behaviors, but we know very little about the role of sociocultural factors in developmental and individual differences. In this study, we investigated one domain of gender development, gender role attitudes, in Mexican American adolescents ( N = 246; 51% female), using four phases of longitudinal data across eight years. Data were collected when adolescents averaged 12.51 years ( SD = 0.58), 14.64 years ( SD = 0.59), 17.72 years ( SD = 0.57), and 19.60 years of age ( SD = 0.66). Mothers' and fathers' gender role attitudes also were assessed in Phases 1, 3, and 4. Findings revealed that gender attitude development varied as a function of the interaction between adolescents' nativity and gender. Among Mexico-born adolescents, females exhibited significant declines in traditional attitudes from early to late adolescence, but males' attitudes were stable over time. U.S.-born females and males, in contrast, did not differ in their gender attitude trajectories. Examining the links between mothers', fathers', and adolescents' gender role attitudes revealed within-person associations between mothers' and adolescents' gender role attitudes: on occasions when mothers reported more traditional attitudes relative to their own cross-time average, adolescents also reported more traditional attitudes than usual. In addition, fathers' more traditional gender role attitudes were associated with daughters', but not sons', more traditional gender role attitudes at the between-person level. The discussion focuses on the interpretation of Mexican American adolescents' gender role attitude development from a cultural ecological perspective.

Keywords: adolescence, gender role attitudes, Mexican American, mothers and fathers, longitudinal, sociocultural context

Introduction

Adolescence is a developmental period when youth are exploring their identities and beginning to form more realistic future goals and plans for education and work ( Grotevant, 1998), and the development of gender role attitudes is central to this process ( Galambos, Berenbaum, & McHale, 2009). Because traditional gender role attitudes define distinct roles for women and men, they have implications for adolescents' aspirations and choices about educational and occupational pathways ( Eccles, 2009). Among females, for example, more traditional gender role attitudes have been associated with lower educational and career aspirations in late adolescence (e.g., Crockett & Beal, 2012; McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos, 1998), and lower job earnings in adulthood ( Judge & Livingston, 2008). Findings for males are slightly more complex, as more traditional gender attitudes have been linked to lower occupational and educational aspirations in adolescence (Crockett & Beal), but also to higher job earnings in adulthood (Judge & Livingston). Together, these findings underscore the importance of gender role attitudes in adolescents' and young adults' educational and occupational outcomes.

Traditional gender role attitudes refer to beliefs that social roles should be differentiated by gender, including that responsibilities for childrearing and household tasks be designated to women and educational achievement and economic provision be assigned to men ( Hoffman & Kloska, 1995). Most research on adolescents' gender role attitudes focuses on European American youth, with longitudinal analyses showcasing adolescence as a time of substantial change, and different trajectories emerging as a function of the interplay among individual, family, and context characteristics ( Crouter, Whiteman, McHale, & Osgood, 2007). In contrast to research on European American youth, less is known about the development of gender role attitudes among ethnic minority youth.

The gap in our knowledge about gender attitude development in racial/ethnic minority youth is significant for at least two reasons. First, cultural ecological frameworks ( Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983; García Coll et al., 1996) posit that human development unfolds within a larger sociocultural context and that development influences and is influenced by the characteristics of individuals and the contexts in which their lives are embedded. As such, findings based on studies of European American youth may not generalize to youth from other sociocultural backgrounds, who must be studied directly. Second, research on ethnic/racial minority youth in the U.S. has paid limited attention to normative development ( Cabrera & The SRCD Ethnic and Racial Issues Committee, 2013; Umaña-Taylor, 2009), including the development of gender role attitudes. To move the field beyond its current focus on their adjustment problems and dysfunction, it is important to expand our understanding of the normative developmental processes of ethnic/racial minority youth.

This study investigated trajectories of traditional gender role attitudes among Mexican American adolescents, the largest and most rapidly growing subgroup of Latinos in the U.S. ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). Mexican culture is characterized by an emphasis on traditional gender role socialization ( Cauce & Domenich-Rodríguez, 2002), but also by substantial within-culture variability ( Baca Zinn & Wells, 2000). As such, new insights about adolescents' gender role attitude development-- and insights that may have significant implications for the future of US society-- may emerge from studying this sociocultural group. Some cross sectional research has shown, for example, that Mexican American adolescents' and young adults' traditional gender role attitudes were linked to their educational and career aspirations and attainment ( Judge & Livingston, 2008; McWhirter et al., 1998). Such findings are important given that Mexican American youth lag behind other U.S. youth in their educational ( National Center for Education Statistics, 2013) and occupational ( U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012) attainment. A better understanding of gender role attitude development in Mexican American youth may inform efforts to improve this group's educational and occupational outcomes. Toward these ends, the goals of this study were twofold: (a) to examine changes in Mexican American adolescents' gender role attitudes from ages 13 to 20 years, and to test the role of person (i.e., adolescent gender) and context (i.e., nativity) characteristics as moderators of patterns of change; and (b) to investigate how mothers' and fathers' traditional gender role attitudes were linked to adolescents' attitudes across time, and the roles of adolescents' gender and nativity as moderators of these linkages.

Trajectories of Adolescents' Gender Role Attitudes

Theories of gender development suggest several potential patterns of change in gender role attitudes across adolescence ( Galambos et al., 2009). Cognitive developmental perspectives propose that the emergence of more sophisticated and nuanced social cognitive skills in adolescence allows for greater flexibility in the understanding of gender-linked constructs (for reviews, see Galambos et al., 2009). From this perspective comes the prediction of linear declines in traditional gender role attitudes beginning in early adolescence. Longitudinal data on European American youth provide some support for this prediction, with evidence of declines in traditional attitudes over the course of early to middle adolescence for girls ( Galambos et al., 1990) and for youth with less traditional parents ( Crouter et al., 2007). The gender intensification perspective ( Hill & Lynch, 1983), in contrast, emphasizes that the transition to adolescence, and particularly the emergence of secondary sex characteristics, is the impetus for adolescents to experience increased pressure from socialization agents (e.g., parents, peers, teachers) to conform to gender-typed role expectations and behaviors. As a result of these socialization pressures, girls and boys are expected to endorse increasingly more traditional gender role attitudes beginning in early adolescence (Hill & Lynch). Consistent with a gender intensification hypothesis are findings of increases in traditional gender role attitudes that begin in early adolescence among European American boys ( Galambos et al., 1990) and European American youth from families with more traditional parents ( Crouter et al., 2007). Taken together and interpreted through an ecological lens, these findings suggest that trajectories of gender role attitude development vary as a function of interactions among individual, family, and contextual characteristics. Below we elaborate on our perspective on Mexican American adolescents' gender role attitude development, as informed by cultural ecological models of development ( Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983; García Coll et al., 1996).

The Role of Mexican American Adolescents' Individual and Cultural Characteristics

Cultural ecological models hold that development occurs via interactions between the characteristics of the developing person and of the larger family and sociocultural contexts ( Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983; García Coll et al., 1996). As such, how gender role attitude development unfolds across the period of adolescence is likely to depend on the interplay among individual characteristics (e.g., gender), family processes (e.g., parental models and socialization pressures) and context characteristics (e.g., family structure; sociocultural setting)-termed person X process X context interactions ( Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983). Illustrating these ideas, longitudinal research on European American youth revealed that different trajectories of gender role attitudes emerged as a function of interactions among gender, parental attitudes and sibling structure ( Crouter et al., 2007). The findings revealed, for example, that in families with boy-boy sibling dyads, firstborn sons whose parents displayed more traditional attitudes exhibited a linear increase in traditionality. In contrast, in families with older brother-younger sister sibling dyads, secondborn girls whose parents displayed more traditional attitudes showed stable levels of attitudes in middle adolescence, but increases in traditionality thereafter. These findings highlight the complexity of factors that interact to shape gender role attitude development across adolescence among European American youth.

Scholars who study ethnic minority and immigrant youth also have called for research that takes into account individual, family, and context characteristics that may lead to different patterns of development and adjustment ( Fuligni, 2001; Gonzales, Fabrett, & Knight, 2009). In this study, we examined the role of adolescents' gender and nativity in their gender role attitude development as these characteristics may be particularly relevant to trajectories of gender role attitude development among Mexican American youth. Beginning with gender, research reveals that boys typically endorse more traditional gender role attitudes than girls ( Crouter et al., 2007; McWhirtier et al., 1998). Some research also shows that these gender differences become more pronounced over time, although findings are inconsistent in whether the divergence occurs in early ( Galambos et al., 1990) or middle adolescence ( Crouter et al., 2007) among European American youth.

In Mexican culture, where there is a strong emphasis on the traditional roles of males and females ( Cauce & Domenech-Rodríguez, 2002; Raffaelli & Ontai, 2004), endorsement of traditional gender role attitudes may benefit males but not females because of the privileges that are inherent in the traditional male role (e.g., educational affordances, economic resources, decision-making and authority figure; Hoffman & Kloska, 1995). To address the prediction that gender differences are more pronounced when ties to Mexican culture are strong, the current study tested whether adolescents' nativity interacted with their gender to predict trajectories of gender role attitudes (i.e., a person x context interaction). Nativity represents one potential source of within-group variability, as immigrants have stronger ties to Mexican culture relative to those born in the U.S. From a sociocultural perspective, Fuligni (2001) argued for the importance of longitudinal designs to chart trajectories of development as a function of adolescents' cultural background-including nativity-- as a means of disentangling developmental from cultural adaptation processes. Generally, models of cultural adaptation predict overall declines in gender role attitude traditionality across adolescence as a result of exposure to U.S. culture, given that attitudes in the U.S. are generally less traditional than in Mexico (e.g., Valentine & Mosley, 2000). This leads to the expectation that the declines in traditional attitudes observed in European American adolescents may be more likely to characterize the trajectories of U.S.-born than Mexico-born adolescents, given their relatively greater exposure to U.S. culture. We further expected that adolescents' gender and nativity would interact to explain trajectories of gender role attitudes, such that the divergence in males' and females' attitudes would be more pronounced for Mexico-born than for U.S.-born adolescents to the extent that Mexican-born females would have the most to gain, and Mexican-born males, the most to lose.

The Role of Parents' Traditional Gender Role Attitudes

Families are a proximal setting for socialization ( Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983), and parents are key gender socialization agents within families ( McHale, Crouter, & Whiteman, 2003). In Mexican American families, where there is a strong emphasis on family interdependence and on gender-typed roles ( Cauce & Domenich-Rodríguez, 2002), adolescents may be particularly likely to look to their parents as models for gender development. Despite the potential importance of Mexican American parents in their adolescents' gender socialization, we know little about how parents', and particularly fathers', gender role attitudes are linked to Mexican American adolescents' gender role attitude development ( Adams, Coltrane, & Parke, 2007). Lack of attention to fathers is surprising given that the majority of Mexican American youth (66%) are living in two-parent households ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). From a social learning perspective ( Mischel, 1966), parents who endorse more traditional gender role attitudes would be expected to provide socialization messages that support the development of more traditional attitudes among their offspring.

A strength of the longitudinal design of the current study, which included four phases of data from adolescents and three phases from mothers and fathers, is that it allowed for a stringent test of how parents' and adolescents' gender role attitudes were linked across adolescence. Specifically, by using a multi-level modeling approach, we were able to test the typically addressed, between-individual question of whether parents' gender role attitudes were related to adolescents' gender role attitudes, on average; and we also were able to test, at the within-person level, whether controlling for stable individual differences, on occasions when parents reported more traditional attitudes than usual (relative to their own cross-time mean), adolescents also reported more traditional attitudes than usual. Our within-person analysis enabled us to focus on the link between parents' and adolescents' attitudes, ruling out stable characteristics as alternative explanations of this linkage. Because our sample included two parents from each family, we also were able to test the links between the attitudes of both mothers and fathers and those of their adolescents. In the face of substantial within-group variability among Mexican American families, Mexican American mothers are more likely to assume the primary role in caregiving/childrearing than fathers ( Umaña-Taylor & Updegraff, 2012). Thus, we expected that mothers' attitudes would be more tightly linked to adolescents' gender role attitudes than fathers'.

In line with a cultural ecological perspective, we further expected that parents' socialization efforts, and thus the associations between their own and their offspring's gender role attitudes, would vary as a function of adolescents' gender and nativity (i.e., a person x process x context interaction). Given that gender role attitudes are likely to be more traditional in immigrant families, and that an emphasis on traditional attitudes may be more pronounced in families with sons due to the higher status that traditionality imbues in boys and men, we tested for a possible interaction between parents' gender role attitudes, adolescents' gender, and adolescents' nativity in predicting Mexican American adolescents' gender role attitudes.

Present Study

The first goal was to chart the trajectories of Mexican American adolescents' gender role attitudes from 13 to 20 years of age and, applying a cultural ecological framework, test whether the development of gender role attitudes varied as a function of adolescents' gender and nativity, that is, a person (gender) X context (nativity) interaction. Consistent with results from European American samples and cross sectional data, we expected that girls would endorse less traditional attitudes than boys, and that traditionality would decline across age overall, with declines in girls' traditionality being more pronounced than declines in boys' (e.g., Galambos et al., 1990). Advancing the study of gender role attitude development to incorporate the role of the sociocultural context, we also tested the prediction that the divergence over time between females' versus males' attitudes would be more pronounced for Mexican-born than U.S.-born adolescents.

The second goal was to test the links between parents' and adolescents' gender role attitudes. We expected that, at the between-person level, adolescents whose mothers and fathers reported more traditional attitudes on average, would exhibit more traditional gender role attitudes, on average. We also tested the prediction that, at the within-person level, on occasions when parents reported more traditional attitudes than usual, adolescents would correspondingly report more traditional attitudes than usual. Finally, we explored whether associations between parents' and adolescents' gender role attitudes varied by adolescent gender and nativity and their interaction, which represents a person (gender) x process (parents' gender role attitudes) x context (nativity) interaction.

Method

Participants

Data came from a longitudinal study of 246 Mexican American families focused on gender, culture, and family socialization processes in adolescence and emerging adulthood ( Updegraff, McHale, Whiteman, Thayer & Delgado, 2005). Participating families were recruited from schools in and around a southwest metropolitan area. Eligible families included those with (a) 7 th graders and an older sibling living at home with biological mothers and biological or long-term adoptive fathers (i.e., at least 10 years), (b) mothers who were of Mexican origin, and (c) fathers who worked at least 20 hours/week for pay. Ninety-three percent of fathers also were of Mexican descent. The current analyses focused on 7 th graders (target child in this study) as they participated in four phases of data collection that spanned early to late adolescence (i.e., 13 to 20 years of age).

To recruit families, letters and brochures describing the study (in both English and Spanish) were sent to families, and follow-up telephone calls were made by bilingual staff to determine eligibility and interest in participation. Families' names were obtained from junior high schools in five school districts and from five parochial schools. Schools were selected to represent a range of socioeconomic situations, with the proportion of students receiving free/reduced lunch varying from 8% to 82% across schools. Letters were sent to 1,856 families with a Hispanic 7th grader who was not learning disabled. For 396 families (21%), the contact information was incorrect and repeated attempts to find updated information through school personnel or public listings were unsuccessful; 146 families (10%) refused to be screened for eligibility. Eligible families included 421 families (23% of the initial rosters and 32% of those we were able to contact and screen for eligibility). Of those eligible, 284 (67%) agreed to participate, 95 (23%) refused, and we were unable to re-contact the remaining 42 families (10%) who were eligible to schedule an interview. Interviews were completed by 246 families.

At Phase 1, families represented a range of socioeconomic levels. The percentage that met federal poverty guidelines was 18.3%, similar to the 18.6% of two-parent Mexican American families living in poverty in the county from which the sample was drawn ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Annual median family income was $40,000. Parents had completed an average of 10 years of education ( M = 10.34; SD = 3.74 for mothers, and M = 9.88; SD = 4.37 for fathers). Seventy percent of parents had been born outside the US; this subset of parents had lived in the US an average of 12.37 ( SD = 8.86) and 15.17 ( SD = 8.77) years for mothers and fathers, respectively. Almost 70% of the interviews with parents were conducted in Spanish. With respect to adolescents, the sample included 125 girls and 121 boys who averaged 12.51 ( SD = .58) years of age at Phase 1. Adolescents were born in the US (62%) or Mexico (38%) and were primarily interviewed in English (83%).

Two years later, Phase 2 interviews were conducted with target adolescents when they were in the 9 th grade and averaged 14.64 years of age ( SD = .59). Phase 3 interviews were completed about three years after Phase 2, when adolescents were 17.72 years of age on average ( SD = .57), and Phase 4 interviews were conducted two years after Phase 3, when adolescents averaged 19.60 years of age ( SD = .66). Retention rates were 91%, 75%, and 70% for Phases 2 through 4, respectively. Those who did not participate: could not be located ( n = 10 at Phase 2; n = 43 at Phase 3; n = 45 at Phase 4), had moved to Mexico ( n = 0 at Phase 2; n = 2 at Phase 3; n = 4 at Phase 4), could not presently participate or were difficult to contact ( n = 0 at Phase 2; n = 8 at Phase 3; n = 4 at Phase 4), or refused to participate ( n = 13 at Phase 2; n = 8 at Phase 3; n = 8 at Phase 4). Because participating families reported higher maternal education and family income at Phase 1 as compared to non-participating families at Phase 3 (maternal education M = 10.62; SD = 3.80 versus M = 9.48; SD = 3.45; family income M = $59,517; SD = $48,395 versus M = $37,632; SD =$28,606, respectively) and Phase 4 (maternal education M = 10.75; SD = 3.75 versus M = 9.35; SD = 3.53; family income M = $59,136; SD = $46,674 versus M = $41,635; SD =$39,095, respectively), we controlled for parent education and family income in all analyses.

Procedures

Data were collected via home interviews at Phases 1, 3, and 4, and by phone at Phase 2, using the same procedures as the home interviews. After obtaining informed consent/assent, interviews were conducted separately with adolescents and their parents. Bilingual interviewers read all questions aloud in the language of each participant's choice, and entered responses into laptop computers. Families received $100 for in-home interviews with all four family members at Phase 1, target adolescents received $40 at Phase 2, families received $125 at Phase 3, and each family member received $75 at Phase 4. The University's Institutional Review Board approved all procedures.

Measures

The measures were forward-translated to Spanish and back-translated to English by separate individuals for the local Mexican dialect. Final versions were compared and discrepancies were resolved by the research team.

Traditional Gender Role Attitudes

Adolescents' ratings of their traditional gender role attitudes at Phases 1 through 4, and mothers' and fathers' reports of their gender role attitudes at Phases 1, 3, and 4 were included in this study. Adolescents and parents completed an adapted version of Hoffman and Kloska's (1995) scale. The original scale was developed for European American and African American samples, but it has since been validated with Mexican Americans ( Adams et al., 2007). Psychometric analyses of the current data revealed that three of the original items (all reverse coded items) had low factor loadings. Results of psychometric analyses with this measure in a different sample revealed similar results ( Adams et al., 2007). Thus, we omitted these three items and calculated the mean of the remaining 10 items to create the scale score. The ten items (e.g., "Men should make the really important decisions in the family,") were rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 ( Strongly Agree) to 4 ( Strongly Disagree). Items were reverse coded such that higher scores reflected more traditional gender role attitudes. Cronbach's alphas were .84, .90, .92, and .89 for adolescents at Phases 1 through 4, respectively. Cronbach's alphas were .89, .90 and .88 for mothers and .86, .86, and .89 for fathers at Phases 1, 3, and 4, respectively.

Individual Characteristics and Family Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Adolescents reported on their own gender at Phase 1 (0 = male; 1 = female), and mothers reported on adolescents' nativity at Phase 1 (0 = Mexico-born; 1 = U.S.-born). Mothers and fathers also reported on their education in years and their annual household income at Phase 1. A log transformation was applied to household income to correct for skewness. We created a composite family SES score by standardizing and averaging mothers' and fathers' education levels and household income (α = .76). Family SES was used as a control variable in all analyses to account for differential attrition as a function of parent education and family income.

Results

Analytic Plan

To examine trajectories of adolescents' gender role attitudes (our first goal), we conducted growth models in a multilevel modeling (MLM) framework ( Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) using PROC MIXED in SAS 9.2. Growth modeling takes into account the nested nature of the data and allows for an unbalanced design (i.e., assessments can be unequally spaced across time and/or individuals can differ in age at the initial assessment). Maximum likelihood estimation was used to account for missing data ( Enders, 2010). For all models, we specified a 2-level growth model with time nested within individuals. Adolescents' age at each assessment was used as the metric of time given interest in development, the precision of the measure, and the unequal spacing across assessments. Individuals' exact age was computed by subtracting the birth date from each of the four interview dates. Time was centered at 13 years old (the average age at Phase 1). Growth models proceeded in the following order. First, a preliminary growth model was run to examine the samples' average growth trajectory in gender role attitudes, controlling for family SES at Phase 1. Next, to test our hypothesis that girls would endorse less traditional attitudes than boys, and that girls' declines in traditionality would be more pronounced over time than boys', we estimated a growth model in which adolescent gender was included (both the main effect and the gender X time interaction). To test our hypothesis that the divergence in girls' versus boys' gender role attitudes over time would be more pronounced for Mexico-born than U.S.-born youth, both nativity and gender were included in the model. Specifically, a three-way interaction (and all possible two-way interactions) between nativity, gender, and time were modeled.

To address our second goal, we examined the role of mothers' and fathers' attitudes in adolescents' gender role attitudes. Given that parents' attitudes were measured at three phases, they were treated as time-varying predictors. The inclusion of time-varying predictors allows for the disaggregation of within- and between-person effects; within-person effects represent how fluctuations in predictors relate to changes in the dependent variable, controlling for the cross-time mean, whereas between-person effects represent the typically studied aggregate relation between the predictor and the dependent variable across time ( Hoffman & Stawski, 2009). We followed recommended centering techniques (Hoffman & Stawski) and group-mean centered mothers' and fathers' gender role attitudes (e.g., mothers' attitude minus mothers' cross-time mean). Thus, a significant positive within-person effect of mothers'/fathers' gender role attitudes would suggest that, on occasions when a mother/father reported more traditional gender role attitudes (compared to her/his own cross-time average), her/his adolescent also reported more traditional gender role attitudes. The between-person effect was created by averaging mothers'/fathers' gender role attitudes across all time points and was grand-mean centered (mothers'/fathers' cross-time mean minus overall sample mean). A significant positive between-person effect would suggest that, on average, in families with more traditional mother/father gender role attitudes, adolescents reported more traditional gender role attitudes. Given our interest in differences by adolescent gender and nativity in the role of parents' gender role attitudes, we also examined differences in within-person and between-person mother/father effects by adolescents' gender and nativity, and the interaction between gender and nativity. Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all study variables are in .

Table 1

Adolescents' Gender Role Attitude Trajectories

The initial growth model, which accounted for family SES (Phase 1), revealed that on average, adolescents scored slightly under the midpoint of the five-point scale at age 13, b intercept = 2.13, standard error ( SE) = .03, p < .001, and that attitudes declined across time, b slope = −0.03, SE = .01, p < .001 (not shown). An additional analysis was examined in which the variance of Time was examined across individuals. The model revealed that the variance was not statistically significant; thus, in line with Hoffman and Templin (2011), the effect was fixed. Our next model (, Model 1) examined gender differences in adolescents' gender role attitudes and revealed differences at age 13 (intercept) and in the rate of growth by adolescent gender. Specifically, as predicted, boys demonstrated significantly more traditional attitudes at age 13 than girls, b = −.14, SE = .06, p < .05, and girls displayed steeper declines in traditionality across time than boys, b = −.05, SE = .01, p < .001. Model 2 () further revealed significant nativity by gender, b = −.37, SE = .14, p < .01, and time by nativity by gender interactions, b = .07, SE = .03, p < .01. To follow up on these interactions, we obtained the estimates of gender role attitudes at age 13 (intercept) and of growth in gender role attitudes (slope) by running a series of analyses in which gender and nativity were recoded to allow for each group to serve as the reference group (i.e., Mexico-born females, Mexico-born males, U.S.-born females, U.S.-born males; see ). The analyses were then conducted to test for gender differences in the intercept and slope separately by nativity (i.e., Mexico-born only model with gender interactions and U.S.-born only model with gender interactions). This approach enabled us to test our hypothesis of greater divergence between males' versus females' trajectories among Mexico-born adolescents as compared to U.S.-born adolescents. For Mexico-born adolescents, there was no significant gender difference in gender role attitudes at age 13 (the intercept), b = .10, SE = .11, ns, but there was a significant difference in Mexico-born males' versus Mexico-born females' slopes, b = −.09, SE = .02, p < .001, such that declines in traditionality were evident for Mexico-born females, = −.08, SE = .02, p < .001, but not for Mexico-born males, = .01 SE = .02, ns (see ). For U.S.-born adolescents, gender differences in the form of boys' greater traditionality were evident at age 13, b = −.27 (.08), p < .01, females' traditionality declined significantly over time, = −.05, SE =.01, p < .001, and males' declines approached significance, = −.02, SE =.01, p = .07. In the case of U.S.-born adolescents, males' and females' slopes were not significantly different.

Table 2

The Role of Mothers' and Fathers' Gender Role Attitudes

To address our second goal, we examined the within- and between-person effects of mothers' and fathers' gender role attitudes on adolescents' gender role attitudes. For mothers' gender role attitudes, there was a significant within-person effect (, Model 3a): controlling for the cross-time average of adolescents' attitudes, on occasions when mothers reported more traditional gender role attitudes, adolescents also reported more traditional gender role attitudes than usual. A significant between-person effect also emerged suggesting that, on average, mothers' gender role attitudes were positively related to adolescents' gender role attitudes. Next, we examined if the within- and between-person effect differed by adolescents' gender and nativity, and the interaction between gender and nativity (, Model 3b). We found no significant differences in the links between mothers' and adolescents' attitudes for males and females and for U.S.-born and Mexico-born adolescents.

For fathers, there were no significant overall within- or between-person effects (, Model 4a). There was, however, a significant between-person effect X gender interaction. Specifically, among females, there was a positive association between fathers' gender role attitudes and adolescents' gender role attitudes, b = .20, SE = 1.0, p < .05. For males, however, there was no significant association, b = −.04 (.09), ns.

Discussion

Gender role attitudes shape adolescents' identity and the decisions they make about current and future educational and occupational pursuits, making them an important focus of study ( Eccles, 2009). Research on how gender role attitudes change across adolescence has focused on European American youth ( Galambos et al., 2009), and we know little about their development in Mexican American youth in the U.S. -- who lag behind in educational and occupational attainment ( National Center for Education Statistics, 2013; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). This study advanced our understanding of the development of gender role attitudes by examining trajectories of gender role attitudes in a sample of Mexican American adolescents. Grounding the study in a cultural ecological perspective ( Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983; García Coll et al., 1996), we documented different trajectories as a function of adolescents' gender and nativity, thereby illuminating factors that explained within-group variability in the normative process of gender role attitude development within this sociocultural context. Using data from mothers, fathers, and adolescents, our findings further documented links between adolescents' and parents' gender role attitudes across time, advancing research on this domain of gender development by examining both within and between individual differences. Taken together, our results are consistent with ecological tenets in illustrating how interactions among person, process, and context explain gender role attitude development; significant effects involving mothers' and fathers' gender attitudes were consistent with the sociocultural emphasis on illuminating the factors that underlie variability within racial/ethnic groups ( Updegraff & Umaña-Taylor, 2010; Parke & Buriel, 2006).

Trajectories of Mexican American Adolescents' Gender Role Attitudes

As predicted, the development of Mexican American adolescents' gender role attitudes varied as a function of gender, nativity, and their combined "person X context" interaction. In line with research on European American youth ( Crouter et al., 2007; Galambos et al., 1990) and our first hypothesis, females reported less traditional gender role attitudes than males at age 13 and exhibited significantly greater declines from 13 to 20 years of age. These main effects, however, were qualified by a person X context interaction, such that Mexico-born but not U.S.-born females and males diverged in their levels of traditionality across time. These findings were consistent with our predictions and may be due to Mexico-born adolescents' potentially greater exposure to Mexican culture wherein attitudes about men's and women's roles are generally more traditional ( Cauce & Domenich-Rodriguez, 2002). The differences in males' versus females' gender role attitudes are potentially important as they may have implications for future romantic relationship and marital dynamics. Some research shows, for example, that couples with more similar gender-linked attitudes report more satisfying marriages (e.g., Helms, Walls, Crouter, & McHale, 2010), and that when husbands report more traditional attitudes than wives they also report lower quality marriage relationships (e.g., Stanik & Bryant, 2012). Such findings underscore the implications of male-female differences in gender role attitudes for individuals' future romantic relationships.

The findings for Mexican American females, both Mexico-born and U.S.-born, conform to the predictions of cognitive developmental perspectives and to prior research on European American females ( Galambos et al., 1990) and European American youth from less traditional family contexts ( Crouter et al., 2007). Specifically, cognitive developmental theorists argue that advances in social cognitive skills allow for greater flexibility in adolescents' ideas about gender-stereotyped beliefs and attributes ( Galambos et al., 2009). The pattern of change for Mexican American females also is consistent with acculturation perspectives, which suggest that, over time, exposure to U.S. culture should lead to declines in traditional attitudes, as U.S. mainstream culture is characterized as less traditional in gender role attitudes than Mexican culture ( Cauce & Domenich-Rodriguez, 2002). Given research linking adolescent and young adult females' less traditional gender role attitudes to higher educational and occupational aspirations and attainment ( Crockett & Beal, 2012; Judge & Livingston, 2008), less traditional attitudes in late adolescence may be advantageous for Mexican American females as they make important decisions about post-secondary educational pursuits and future occupations. It is also possible, however, that the declines in gender role attitudes, and as a result, the less traditional attitudes of Mexican American girls at age 20 come after important educational decisions have been made (e.g., the decision to attend college). Whether attitudes in early adolescence or changes in attitudes across adolescence are more influential in the choices these young women make about their educations and careers is an important direction of future work.

Mexico-born males were the only group of adolescents in this sample whose traditional gender role attitudes were stable from ages 13 to 20. This pattern is consistent with gender scholars' suggestion that boys may be less susceptible to cognitive developmental influences on gender stereotypical thinking ( Galambos et al., 2009). In addition, the differences in Mexico-born males' versus females' trajectories also suggest that males may be less influenced by acculturation processes, which should lead to less traditional gender role attitudes. Why might Mexico-born males maintain their traditional gender role attitudes across adolescence? One possibility is that traditional gender role values in Mexican American families are advantageous for males. Traditional gendered values in Latino culture have been associated with status and privilege (e.g., freedom to spend time outside the home) and fewer responsibilities (e.g., less involvement in housework) for adolescent and young adult males ( Raffaelli & Ontai, 2004). Such values may make egalitarianism in gender role attitudes of boys and young men difficult to foster. It is also possible that attitudes will continue to develop into adulthood and that declines in traditional gender role attitudes will emerge later on.

Together, these findings contribute to research on the normative development of ethnic minority youth by documenting changes in gender role attitudes across the period of adolescence in a sample of Mexican American youth and by identifying individual and contextual characteristics that moderate patterns of change. Importantly, our findings revealed that moderators of these trajectories include factors that are consistent across sociocultural contexts (i.e., adolescents' gender) and ones that are specific to Mexican American youth (i.e., adolescents' nativity) and may be relevant to other immigrant groups. It will be important in future research to examine how gender role attitude development unfolds and identify how individual and context characteristics moderate these trajectories in adolescents from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

The Role of Mothers' and Fathers' Gender Role Attitudes

The family is a critical context for the socialization of gender ( Galambos et al., 2009; McHale et al., 2003), and may be particularly important for Latino youth given the emphasis on family in this sociocultural context ( Cauce & Domenich-Rodríguez, 2002; Parke & Buriel, 2006). Our findings are among the first to document the interrelations between Mexican American adolescents' and both their mothers' and fathers' gender role attitudes across time. Consistent with the idea that mothers are central in the daily caregiving activities of family life in this sociocultural context ( Adams et al., 2007; Umaña-Taylor & Updegraff, 2012), we found within-person associations between mothers' and adolescents' gender role attitudes. That is, on occasions when mothers reported more traditional attitudes (compared to their cross-time average) adolescents also reported more traditional attitudes than usual. These findings were not moderated by adolescent gender or nativity, suggesting the wide-ranging importance of mothers' attitudes. Identifying the specific mechanisms linking changes in mothers' and adolescents' attitudes will be an important next step. Social learning perspectives ( Mischel, 1966) point to modeling and reinforcement as potential processes through which mothers may socialize their adolescents' gender role attitudes and theorists also highlight the potential roles of coaching and direct instruction, which have rarely been studied ( McHale et al., 2003).

A different pattern emerged linking fathers' and adolescents' gender role attitudes: fathers with more traditional attitudes had daughters who also reported more traditional attitudes, but there were not significant links between the attitudes of fathers and sons. These findings are consistent with a person (i.e., adolescent gender) X process (father attitudes) interaction. Because traditional values imply freedom for boys, including for time spent in the world beyond the family, but keeping girls close to home ( Raffaelli & Ontai, 2004), paternal influences in this domain may be more salient for girls than for boys. That is, girls' greater involvement within the family context may increase the likelihood of parental influences on gender role attitude development. A next step is to extend these findings into adulthood to determine whether fathers become more influential for Mexican American sons as they transition into adult roles of father and husband. Also important is to learn whether gender differences in fathers' socialization influences extend to other domains. Relative to mothers, fathers are far less often included in studies of family socialization, particularly, among ethnic minority youth ( Parke & Buriel, 2006), and as such, our findings stand as an important contribution to the literatures on family socialization and youth development.

More generally, our findings stand in contrast to those with European American families, where mothers' and fathers' gender role attitudes were associated in similar ways with adolescents' trajectories of gender role attitude development (e.g., Crouter et al., 2007). The different roles of Mexican American mothers' versus fathers' attitudes in explaining adolescents' attitudes may be reflective of larger gender dynamics in this sociocultural context. In particular, more traditional socialization practices, including mothers' primary role in caregiving, daughters' greater responsibilities and involvement at home relative to sons', and fathers' roles as authority figures ( Adams et al., 2007; Cauce & Domenich-Rodríguez, 2002; Umaña-Taylor & Updegraff, 2012), may help explain the potentially unique roles of mothers and fathers in the socialization of adolescents' gender role attitudes in Mexican American families. Our findings point to the need for further research on how the roles of mothers and fathers in the socialization of gender-related attitudes may differ across sociocultural contexts.

Limitations and Future Directions

In the face of its contributions, the limitations of this study point to important directions for future research. First, our sample was drawn from one geographic region, characterized by a strong and established presence of Latinos (of predominantly Mexican heritage) and by close proximity to Mexico. Both of these factors may have implications for the strength of the effects of nativity on gender role attitude development that we observed. It will be important to test the role of nativity on gender role attitude development using a larger, nationally representative sample that includes geographic regions that are both established and new immigrant destinations and that vary in their proximity to Mexico. Second, our findings document how mothers' and fathers' gender role attitudes in two-parent Mexican American families were linked to adolescents' gender role attitudes. Although the majority of Mexican American households in the U.S. include two parents (66%; U.S. Census Bureau, 2013), it will be important to extend this work to examine the role of parents in gender role attitude development within different family structures (e.g., single-parent, divorced). The roles of mothers and fathers in their offspring's gender role attitude development may differ across these different family structures ( Galambos et al., 2009). Future research also is needed to document the mechanisms through which mothers and fathers transmit-or fail to transmit-- their attitudes to their offspring. Possible mechanisms to test include parents' modeling of work and family roles, rewarding children for gendered behavior, or providing instruction and advice. Together, these kinds of studies will increase our understanding of family influences on the development of gender role attitudes in different sociocultural contexts.

Extending the study of gender role attitude development into young adulthood and beyond also will be important in illuminating how gender role attitude development may shape key transitions in work, education, and family formation among Mexican American youth. Trajectories characterized by increases in traditional gender role attitudes in late adolescence among females, for example, may be associated with early transitions into family roles (e.g., marriage, parenthood) and less emphasis on the pursuit of post-secondary education. Less traditional gender role attitudes at critical points in adolescent and young adult development, such as the transition out of high school, may be associated with the greater likelihood of pursuing educational and career goals. Understanding the implications of different trajectories of gender role attitudes for the pursuit of education, family, and career goals will contribute to research on the transition to adulthood by identifying processes that may inform important decisions during this developmental transition.

Conclusion

This study advanced research on gender development in adolescence, specifically gender role attitude development, in three key ways. First, extending this area of research to ethnic minority youth, our study documented trajectories of gender role attitudes among Mexican American adolescents, a large and rapidly growing subgroup of U.S. youth ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). Studying Mexican American adolescents provides insights about gender role attitude development in a sociocultural context that has been characterized by an emphasis on the socialization of traditional gender roles ( Cauce & Domenich-Rodríguez, 2002), and illuminates sources of within-group differences ( Baca Zinn & Wells, 2000). Second, our findings provided support for cultural ecological models ( Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983; Garcia Coll et al., 1996), and were consistent with research on European American youth ( Crouter et al., 2007), in documenting the interplay among individual and contextual factors in shaping trajectories of gender role attitudes. Notably, it was the combination of adolescents' gender and nativity status that predicted Mexican American adolescents' trajectories, with Mexico-born males exhibiting the most stable and traditional attitudes across adolescence. Third, our findings demonstrated the potentially unique roles of mothers and fathers in the socialization of adolescents' gender role attitudes, and suggested that parental influences on gender development may differ across sociocultural contexts. Future efforts seeking to examine trajectories of gender role attitudes and their implications for development in adolescence and young adulthood will require attention to individual and contextual characteristics as these interact across time and within distinct sociocultural contexts.

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the families and youth who participated in this project, and to the following schools and districts who collaborated: Osborn, Mesa, and Gilbert school districts, Willis Junior High School, Supai and Ingleside Middle Schools, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Gregory, St. Francis Xavier, St. Mary-Basha, and St. John Bosco. We thank Ann Crouter, Mark Roosa, Nancy Gonzales, Roger Millsap, Jennifer Kennedy, Leticia Gelhard, Melissa Delgado, Emily Cansler, Shawna Thayer, Devon Hageman, Ji-Yeon Kim, Lilly Shanahan, Chun Bun Lam, Megan Baril, Anna Solmeyer, and Shawn Whiteman for their assistance in conducting this investigation. Funding was provided by NICHD grants R01HD39666 (Kimberly A. Updegraff, PI) and R01-HD32336 (Ann C. Crouter & Susan M. McHale, Co-PIs) and by the Cowden Fund to the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at ASU.

Biographies

Contributor Information

Kimberly A. Updegraff, Arizona State University.

Susan M. McHale, The Pennsylvania State University.

Katharine H. Zeiders, Arizona State University.

Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Arizona State University.

Norma J. Perez-Brena, Arizona State University.

Lorey A. Wheeler, Arizona State University.

Sue A. Rodríguez De Jesús, Arizona State University.

References

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Mexican American Adolescents' Gender Role Attitude Development: The Role of Adolescents' Gender and Nativity and Parents' Gender Role Attitudes

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Gender development has long term implications for education and career endeavors and family formation behaviors, but we know very little about the role of sociocultural factors in developmental and individual differences. In this study, we investigated one domain of gender development, gender role attitudes, in Mexican American adolescents ( N = 246; 51% female), using four phases of longitudinal data across eight years.

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This clip from PBS.org emphasizes the racism that Mexican-Americans have faced since the civil war and describes how Mexican-Americans did not fit into society's black and white view of race in America. Though you may have heard about the lynching of African-Americans, you may not have considered that many Mexican-Americans were also lynched and treated just as poorly by white Americans who thought themselves superior. This is important to the story because it stresses how hard it was for Esperanza to find a sense of belonging in society, especially when it seems like society is against her. A great example of this is when Esperanza first moves into her new neighborhood on Mango Street and makes friends with Cathy. Cathy says her family is moving out of the neighborhood because it is becoming sketchier and sketchier. Esperanza instantly realizes that this is because of the Mexican-American families moving in and is offended by Cathy's condescending attitude.

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American Experience | The Birth and Growth of Racism against Mexican-Americans | Season 21 | Episode 4 | PBS

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Racist attitudes against Mexican-Americans intensified in the 20th Century.

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Growing Up in a Bad Neighborhood Can Greatly Hinder Your Success Later in Life

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Growing Up in a Bad Neighborhood Can Greatly Hinder Your Success Later in Life

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Throughout the book Esperanza envisions a life outside of Mango Street and makes it her goal to leave the run down neighborhood that her parents decide to settle in. She believes that the environment she is growing up in does not support a healthy lifestyle and that leaving will drastically increase her odds of having a successful adulthood and make her a contributing member of society. In this study cited by the New York Times, they state that "the neighborhood in which you grow up is a major determinant of your economic success as an adult". This brings truth to Esperanza's vision of broader horizons and gives cadence to her theory of escaping her run-down neighborhood for a better life.

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Economic View

The neighborhood in which you grow up is a major determinant of your economic success as an adult. That's been known for a while, but new research suggests that the effects may be much larger than social scientists previously understood.

These findings could fundamentally reshape national housing policy.

The new insight is that much of our best evidence about the effects of growing up in a bad neighborhood comes from examining children whose parents work particularly hard to protect them from the dangers around them. The negative effects of a bad neighborhood may be much larger for low-income families with less motivated parents.

A recent research paper by Eric Chyn, an economist completing his dissertation at the University of Michigan, explores this idea. Mr. Chyn's findings have received close attention from economists around the country. (Full disclosure: I am one of Mr. Chyn's thesis advisers.)

It has long been clear that children from troubled neighborhoods have worse outcomes as adults. But it has been much harder to disentangle whether these neighborhoods cause the later disadvantage, or whether the hardships that lead families to bad neighborhoods are the problem.

The federal government's Moving to Opportunity experiment has provided the clearest evidence yet on the effects of leaving a bad neighborhood. From 1994 to 1998, this large-scale social experiment invited low-income families living in public housing to enter a lottery that could reshape their lives. Echoing the approach that medical researchers take to clinical trials, the lottery randomly assigned a kind of experimental treatment to winners, while the losers served as a control group. The winners received housing vouchers that helped them pay the rent if they moved out of public housing. The losers stayed in public housing for as long as they remained eligible.

Lottery winners and losers were both tracked over the ensuing years, and an important study last year by the Stanford economist Raj Chetty, with Nathaniel Hendren and Lawrence F. Katz of Harvard - a study I've previously written about - found that children who moved when they were young went on to enjoy substantially higher earnings than people of similar ages whose parents lost the lottery. (Another disclosure: Mr. Katz was my Ph.D. adviser.)

The random assignment of slots in this program means that we can be confident that these differences result from moving. But Mr. Chyn argues that this experiment substantially understates the importance of neighborhoods. The problem, he says, isn't in comparing those who win the lottery with those who lose.

Rather, he argues that both the treatment and control groups had already partly inoculated their children against the effects of bad neighborhoods. Only a quarter of the families that were eligible for the lottery actually applied for it, and Mr. Chyn says the applicants were particularly motivated to protect their children from the negative effects of a bad neighborhood.

Indeed, qualitative and survey evidence from earlier research supports his conjecture. In-depth interviews by Jeffrey R. Kling, now with the Congressional Budget Office, and Jeffrey B. Liebman and Mr. Katz of Harvard revealed that these families "organized their entire lives around protecting their sons and daughters from the genuine dangers of ghetto life." These mothers were "intensely focused on their children," and as a result "younger children in particular were seldom allowed outside of the apartment, and never beyond the mother's watchful gaze."

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Part of the demolition of the Robert Taylor Homes, a public housing project on the South Side of Chicago. Credit Patricia Evans

The implication is that the housing experiment reveals the effect of moving from a bad neighborhood, for those least affected by the bad neighborhood.

In order to test his theory, Mr. Chyn would need to compare the results of a voluntary housing lottery with an experiment that essentially forces all families to enter the lottery.

Fortunately for Mr. Chyn, the demolition of many public housing projects in Chicago in the late 1990s effectively provides precisely this experiment. From 1995 to 1998, the Chicago Housing Authority demolished many high-rise public housing buildings, including the projects you might recognize from the 1970s sitcom "Good Times."

These demolitions were effectively a lottery, because they led to the dislocation of some families - those whose buildings were demolished - but not those whose buildings were left standing. Thus those families that left did so for essentially random reasons. And just as in the Moving to Opportunity lottery, those families that "won" the lottery - that is, those families whose building was set for demolition - were offered a housing voucher to help them pay the rent if they moved out of the projects. Those families whose buildings remained standing were effectively a control group, as they continued to live in public housing, undisturbed.

Importantly, this real-world natural experiment differs from the Moving to Opportunity experiment, because all families could be pushed to move, not just those who volunteered for a government relocation program.

Mr. Chyn finds that these demolitions had very large - and very positive - effects on the children who were forced to move out of the projects. The children forced out of public housing went on to have annual earnings that were 16 percent higher than those who remained, and they were 9 percent more likely to be employed. Over all, being kicked out of public housing might add about $45,000 to each child's lifetime earnings. The effects may be even larger for those who moved while they were young.

Around the same time, the Chicago Housing Authority also ran a small-scale lottery that gave the winners the same housing vouchers. Much like the Moving to Opportunity lottery, this one was optional, so only motivated public housing residents applied. Mr. Chyn's analysis of this alternative experiment finds that it yielded much less impressive results, and the children whose families won the lottery went on to register roughly similar adult outcomes as those whose families lost.

The contrast is rather striking, suggesting that housing policies that also aim to help those who would not otherwise apply may yield a much larger bang for the buck.

Of course, there remain a number of open questions. Both the demolition study and the Chicago lottery study are hampered by their relatively small sample sizes. And there are many factors - including statistical chance - that might explain why the different experiments yield different effects.

But the underlying logic - that there's good reason to think that a lottery may understate the true effects of housing programs - strikes me as sound. Moreover, Mr. Chyn has developed an elegant mathematical model to explore his logic, and it suggests that the effect of giving housing vouchers to a typical public housing resident may be many times larger than the effect on a lottery winner.

This important research also contains insights likely to extend beyond housing policy. For conservatives who are suspicious about the government's ability to enact useful social policy, the study highlights the difficulty in targeting government programs to those who are most likely to benefit, rather than those most likely to seek them out. And for liberals, the logic that Mr. Chyn applies to housing suggests that the experiments used to evaluate other social policy interventions may understate the effectiveness that these programs could have when rolled out to a broader population.

Justin Wolfers is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. Follow him on Twitter at @justinwolfers.

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A version of this article appears in print on , on Page BU3 of the New York edition with the headline: Bad Neighborhoods Do More Harm Than We Thought. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Growing Up in a Bad Neighborhood Does More Harm Than We Thought

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Economic View The neighborhood in which you grow up is a major determinant of your economic success as an adult. That's been known for a while, but new research suggests that the effects may be much larger than social scientists previously understood. These findings could fundamentally reshape national housing policy.

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Moving Locations Repeatedly Affects Ability to Form Relationships

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Moving Locations Repeatedly Affects Ability to Form Relationships

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This article published by the American Psychological Association suggests that moving locations repeatedly, especially at a young age, can drastically affect individuals abilities to form healthy long term relationships. This not only affects social well being but can also affect how well children do in school, and can cause behavioral problems. This study is especially important to the book because Esperanza moving so much when she was a child may contribute to her struggle of finding a sense of belonging in the world and highlights her inability to form a meaningful connection with those around her, especially the people she calls friends.

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Inspiration Behind "The House on Mango Street"

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Inspiration Behind "The House on Mango Street"

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This interview with the author of the book gives the reader an insight into many of the themes that the author, Sandra Cisneros, is trying to portray. She describes how the protagonist Esperanza is trying to find a place where she belongs or a "home" to call her own. Not a home in the physical sense but a home in an emotional and mental sense. She also describes how her life experiences translate into the book and the inspiration behind the location and characters in her story. This is useful to the reader so that they can get an overview of the message that Sandra is trying to get across.