Mexican American and Anglo Single Mothers: The Influence of Ethnicity,Generation,and Socioeconomic Status on Social Support Networks

Abstract

Differences between Mexican Americans and Anglos on four measures of network morphology were studied using a sample of single mothers in San Jose, California After adjustment for socioeconomic status (SES), ethnic differences remained significant for the total size of the networkandforthedensityofthefriendnetworkbutnotforproportion of kin in the network. Within the MexicanAmerican subsample, after adjustmentfor SES, generation was associated with significant and nonlinear differences in the proportion of kin and the size of the friend network Implications are discussedfor understanding discrepant results in the body of research on ethnic differences in network morphology and for methodological requirements forfurther inquiry in this area.

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