Cultural influences on coping with parent-child conflict

The present study tested the role of traditional family values (familism) on the processes associated with coping with parent-child conflict among Mexican and Mexican American college students. It was hypothesized that traditional family values would moderate: 1) the relation between parent-child conflict and appraisals of threat and, 2) the relation between threat appraisals and psychological distress. Two additional hypotheses tested the mediating effects of threat on the relation between parent-child conflict and psychological distress and the mediating effects of coping on the relation between threat and psychological distress. Data were obtained from college students in El Paso, TX (n = 196) and Ciudad Juarez, MX (n = 199). Self-report measures were used to assess traditional family attitudes, general levels of parent-child conflict, threat appraisals, coping styles, and psychological distress. As predicted, familism moderated the relation between conflict severity and threat appraisals. Specifically, the relation between parent-child conflict and threat appraisals was stronger at high levels of familism than at low levels of familism. However, familism did not moderate the relation between threat and distress. Study findings suggest the need to assess familism among Mexican and Mexican American young adults because of its important implications for psychological distress