Leisure among Second-Generation Mexican-American Youth Residing in Underprivileged Communities in Southern California

Abstract

The study explored leisure among second-generation Mexican-American youth residing in low-income communities in Southern California with a particular focus on how neighborhood features influenced their leisure participation; the strategies parents adopted to keep their children safe during leisure, and the effects of parental negotiation strategies on youth’s leisure. The study was framed by the Family Systems Theory and the socio-ecological model. Data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews with six families, including four fathers, six mothers, and six children of middle-school age. The findings revealed that two main neighborhood-level factors influenced youth’s participation in leisure: safety and space limitations. These features led to parents’ imposing restrictions on children’s leisure and adopting coping and negotiation strategies, which led to youth engaging mostly in passive, home-based activities, clustering of friends, and spending time with the family.

Keywords:

• family
• leisure
• Mexican-American
• neighborhood

Notes

1 The focus of this study is on Mexican-American youth. Much of the existing research reviewed in this paper, however, examines Latinos of different cultural backgrounds or does not specify the ethnic background of their sample beyond identifying them as “Latinos.”