Understanding the roles of masculinity and transnationality in family formation for a Mexican-American adolescent father
- PDF / 699,071 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 35 Downloads / 164 Views
Understanding the roles of masculinity and transnationality in family formation for a Mexican‑American adolescent father Diana Cedeño1 · Autumn M. Bermea2 · Brad van Eeden Moorefield3 · Rachael R. Doubledee3 · Michelle L. Toews4 Received: 22 May 2020 / Accepted: 15 October 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Although adolescent parents experience unique challenges (e.g., economic hardship) related to early parenthood, little is known about the gender roles and transnationality of Latino adolescent fathers. Additionally, their experiences and traditional ethnic roles (e.g., machismo) also need more attention within the literature. To fill these gaps, the following qualitative case study applied an intersectional lens to understand how a Mexican-American adolescent experiences and understands the unique intersection of his transnationality and fatherhood identities. Findings uncovered that hegemonic machismo within the father’s family of origin was reinforced through transnational relationships. Influences from platonic female peers led to the construction of a more flexible development of his gender role. This reinforcement provided an understanding of how he conceptualized his ideal family, which in turn influenced how he viewed his future. Practitioners and researchers should consider how unique intersections of identity in multicultural contexts shape expressions of cultural values when developing culturally competent practices within Latino communities. Findings suggest some potential areas of focus (e.g., developing strategies to foster healthy family relationships and fathering practices) that, if addressed, could help reduce family conflict and enhance healthy family functioning for this population. Keywords Adolescent parents · Case study · Identity development · Intersectionality · Latino youth · Narrative analysis * Diana Cedeño [email protected] 1
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 1263 Lincoln Dr, Wham 327, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
2
College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
3
Family Science and Human Development, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA
4
College of Health and Human Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KA, USA
Vol.:(0123456789)
13
Page 2 of 18
SN Soc Sci
(2021) 1:13
Literature regarding parenthood during adolescence typically focuses on the following broad categories: mother identity development (Derlan et al. 2016), transitioning into adulthood (Cohler and Musick 2018), and school experiences of mothers during and after adolescent pregnancy (Peterson and Bonell 2018). There is less focus, however, on how parenthood develops among adolescent minority fathers, in particular, among Mexican-American transnational families. Transnationality can be conceptualized as having physical and emotional placement in multiple countries (McCarthy and Edwards 2010) and recognizes that placement in one country is not necessarily permanent, but those individ
Data Loading...
