Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 29, 2026

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Cohabitation and Children's Externalizing Behavior in Low-Income Latino Families
1University of Colorado Denver, Department of Sociology, Campus Box 105, P.O. Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217-3364, paula.fomby@ucdenver.edu.
Abstract:
We consider the association of cohabitation experience with externalizing behavior among children of Latina mothers whose ethnic origin is in Mexico, Puerto Rico, or the Dominican Republic. Data were drawn from three waves of the Three-City Study (N=656 mother-child pairs). Children of Mexican-origin mothers had higher externalizing problems in childhood and adolescence when their mothers were born in the United States or immigrated as minors. For children of Caribbean-origin mothers, being born to a cohabiting or married mother had a statistically equivalent association with externalizing behavior when mothers were born outside the mainland United States (Dominican and island-born Puerto Rican mothers). Children of mainland-born Puerto Rican mothers had more behavior problems when their mothers cohabited at birth.
Related Concept Videos
Close Relationships and Culture
Conduct Disorder
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Parenting
This style is strict and controlling, with little room for open dialogue. Authoritarian parents demand obedience and often enforce rules with minimal warmth. Children raised this way may lack social skills and initiative, usually comparing themselves to others unfavorably.
Authoritative Parenting
This...
Family Therapy
Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic family therapy emphasizes resolving communication barriers and improving problem-solving abilities...
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Impact of Social Context on Individuals

