Journal of Latinx Psychology, Vol 13(4), Nov 2025, 343-358; doi:10.1037/lat0000288
This study examined how culture, generational status, and mothering intersect to influence constructions of gender among first-generation rural Mexican American mothers and their second-generation emerging adult daughters. We conducted dyadic interviews with five dyads of Mexican American mothers and daughters (N = 10) who were living in the same household. Thematic analysis revealed one major theme, investing in ourselves through motherwork, and two subthemes: (1) balancing community survival with the self and (2) making sense of motherhood. Mothers and daughters engaged in a bidirectional process in which they identified new ways of doing gender in the United States that empowered women to pursue their individual goals while ensuring that Mexican culture would survive among future generations of Mexican American children and communities. Results were interpreted and discussed through an emerging adulthood, Chicana feminist lens. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)