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Parents’ wellbeing: perceptions of happiness and challenges in parenthood in Latin America

Urbina-Garcia, Angel

Authors

Profile image of Angel Urbina Garcia

Dr Angel Urbina Garcia M.Urbina-Garcia@hull.ac.uk
Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes and Lecturer in Early Childhood



Abstract

Traditional research on parenthood and wellbeing often employs a positivist perspective and focuses on non-LA samples -limiting our knowledge and understanding of the influence that strong components of the LA culture such as Machismo and Marianismo, have in parents’ wellbeing. This study explored how Latin American (LA) parents’ wellbeing is influenced by parenthood in a culture strongly influenced by such gender-based perspectives. An interpretative perspective was employed to explore fifteen LA parents’ lived experiences. An eight-questions interview was developed and data were analysed via Thematic Analysis. The American Psychological Association’s Journal Article Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research (JARS-Qual), was followed to compile this paper. Results showed that socio-economic factors such as crime, violence, and economic inequality, negatively influence parents wellbeing -emotions experienced and life satisfaction. Notably, parents seem to find joy in sharing their own personal experiences with their children and passing on gender-based models. However, parents perceive family pressure as a “burden” since they are expected to follow principles of Machismo/Marianismo. Similar to Asian, but unlike European parents, LA parents experience a mixture of positive and negative emotions throughout the parenting journey although strongly shaped by Machismo and Marianismo. This study makes a unique contribution by uncovering the unique influence of LA socio-economic challenges and cultural impositions and expectations and its influence on parental wellbeing.

Citation

Urbina-Garcia, A. (2025). Parents’ wellbeing: perceptions of happiness and challenges in parenthood in Latin America. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 20(1), Article 2454518. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2025.2454518

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 8, 2025
Online Publication Date Jan 20, 2025
Publication Date Jan 21, 2025
Deposit Date Jan 21, 2025
Publicly Available Date Jan 23, 2025
Journal International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being
Print ISSN 1748-2623
Publisher Co-Action Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 20
Issue 1
Article Number 2454518
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2025.2454518
Keywords Parental wellbeing; Latin American parents’; Happy parents; Parenthood; Parents’ Machismo/Marianismo
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/5006913
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482631.2025.2454518?scroll=top&needAccess=true

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.




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