Everyday Disputes and Negotiations: A Video Observational Analysis of Mexican-origin Mother-Daughter Conversations.

Little is known about the nature of normative mother-daughter everyday disagreements in Mexican family contexts in which daughters are socialized to avoid conflict out of respect and deference to authority. Observations of videotaped conversations of 130 Mexican-origin mothers and their adolescent (13- to 16-year-old) daughters discussing their disagreements were systematically coded. Analyses of the conversations showed that the most frequently recurring conflicts involved autonomy privileges (appearance, friendships, going out, media use), household responsibilities (chores, sibling caretaking), and family dynamics (sibling tensions, sibling differential treatment, mutual respect in communication). Daughters from traditional immigrant families who had lived longer in Mexico were just as assertive in expressing their viewpoints as daughters from less traditional families, although they were less likely to display negative affect.