THE ECOLOGY OF FAMILY GUIDANCE IN LOW-INCOME MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES

This two-part study applied an ecocultural perspective to socializatio n of daily and long-term goals in low-income Mexican-American and Euro pean-American families with children in third fifth, and seventh grade s. The first part of the study examined family members' participation and parents' socialization goals and guidance strategies for their chi ldren's daily household chores and homework activities. The second par t of the study examined parents' long-term aspirations and guidance st rategies for their children's educational, vocational, and moral devel opment. For daily activities, results showed that in Mexican-American families both parents and siblings played important roles, whereas in European-American families parents were the primary socialization agen ts. As predicted, in both groups parents' expertise influenced their g uidance strategies. Finally, Mexican-American and European-American pa rents differed in their relative endorsement of gender, relational, an d self-reliance goals for household chores. For long-term goals, paren ts in both groups held high educational, vocational, and moral aspirat ions for their children. However, some parents of seventh-graders had lower educational and vocational aspirations than those of fifth- and third-graders. Although expertise consistently influenced Mexican-Amer ican parents' guidance strategies, the pattern for European-American p arents was mixed. The discussion highlights between- and within-group differences in daily and long-term socialization practices with an emp hasis on resources and vulnerabilities in the families.