Cultural Values and Romantic Relationship Satisfaction in Mexican Adolescents: The Moderating Effects of Parental Psychological Control and Gender

Guided by a developmental contextual (Chen & Rubin, 2011; Ford & Lerner, 1992) and Collins’s (2003) five-feature framework on adolescent romantic relationships, the goal of this study was to examine whether perceived mothers’ and fathers’ psychological control and gender moderated the associations between cultural values (i.e., machismo, caballerismo, views of female virginity) and romantic relationship satisfaction in Mexican adolescents. Self-report survey data collected from 214 adolescents (M = 14.59 years old; 50.5% girls) from two public schools in Mexico reported on their age, gender, endorsement of cultural values (i.e., machismo, caballerismo, views of female virginity), perceived parental psychological control, and romantic relationship satisfaction. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on a romantic relationship satisfaction scale, as this scale has yet to be validated in a sample of Mexican adolescents. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the interactions between cultural values, mothers’ and fathers’ psychological control, and gender on romantic relationship satisfaction. Findings revealed adolescents who endorsed caballerismo reported higher relationship satisfaction. These associations were strongest for female adolescents reporting low maternal psychological control and male adolescents reporting high maternal psychological control. No main effects or interactions were found with machismo, views of female virginity, psychological control, and gender on romantic relationship satisfaction. These findings may be useful to practitioners working with Mexican adolescents such as school mental health counselors, as romantic relationships are a common but overlooked component to normative adolescent development