Stressors among Hispanic adults from immigrant families in the United States: Familismo as a context for ambivalence.

Objectives: Ongoing exposure to social stressors is widely believed to undermine the health of Hispanic immigrant families. The current work aims to explore and interpret expressions of familismo as a framework through which postimmigration experiences are interpreted and potentially given meaning.

Method: Qualitative data were obtained from 16 focus groups in California and Massachusetts (N = 93). Fifty-two percent of the participants identified as male and 59% primarily spoke Spanish.

Results: Analyses revealed 3 distinct forms of ambivalence specific to familismo among Hispanic adults from immigrant families. Give and take described experiences wherein immigrants turn their backs on family in the short term to realize a better long-term future for the family. Negative change explained family misfortunes that arise in the pursuit of a better future for the family and creates doubts about the vision that motivated migration. Forced shifts suggests the navigation of daily life necessitates the inversion or abandonment of culturally idealized family roles and responsibilities.

Conclusion: Hispanic adults from immigrant families described several situations in which competing views of familismo likely influenced the interpretation of unanticipated stressors. (PsycINFO Database Record