Afro-Caribbean mother-adult daughter relationships and its association to risk communication and risk behavior
Abstract
Acculturation level is a predictor of risk outcomes for immigrant families. Parent-child
relationships have been shown to mediate the relationship between acculturation and risk
outcomes, but few studies have observed how these concepts differ between first and secondgeneration
Afro-Caribbean women. The following two manuscripts investigate the effect of
familial factors and assimilation processes on Afro-Caribbean immigrants’ risk health
behaviors and protective factors. Manuscript one addresses the Mother Adult Daughter
Measure (MAD) to determine the generalizability of mother-daughter relationships between
first and second-generation Afro-Caribbean women. The goal of this study was to determine 1)
if the MAD subscales are invariant across generational status, 2) If the MAD subscales can be
accounted for by one common underlying higher order construct called Mother Adult Daughter
Relationship Quality, and 3) if the higher order factor was also invariant across generational
status. Results suggest that MAD subscales (interdependence, trust in hierarchy, and
connectedness), as well as the higher order structure of Mother Adult Daughter Relationship
Quality, may apply to and may operate similarly across first and second-generation Caribbean
women. Manuscript two tested associations between daughters’ acculturation, transnational
behavior, risk behavior and protective outcomes. Only indirect associations were significant for
all models. Results indicate that transnational behavior was associated with positive motherdaughter
relationships and lower reports of risk behavior for first and second-generation Afro-
Caribbean women. Daughters’ report of high acculturation was associated with daughters’
report of lower risk behavior in the more parsimonious model (model that includes first and
second-generation women) and in the first generation model. Also, acculturation predicted
decreased connectedness and reports of increased interdependence to mother for secondgeneration
daughters. Chapter four will provide a summary of the two manuscripts, theoretical
considerations, and clinical implications for research and clinical work with this population.
URI
http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/muruthi_bertranna_a_201605_phdhttp://hdl.handle.net/10724/36278