Mexican-American Boys’ Positive Outcomes and Resilience: Importance of Social Support and Individual Attributes

Qualitative interviews with 12 Mexican-American adolescent boys and two adult professionals contributed to understanding positive outcomes and resilience using a grounded theory approach. This study provides a cultural and contextual understanding of what it means to grow up well and the processes involved for the current population of Mexican males growing up in the US, who are at greater risk for poor outcomes compared to girls and other ethnic groups. First, the boys provided a definition of positive outcomes, which broadly involved becoming a good family provider. They saw themselves being able to provide by graduating from high school, going to college, and getting a good job. Next, the participants identified several aspects of the resilience processes that helped them to achieve. Support from family and friends were important to the boys because they provided direct help in reaching goals, they were indirect role models, and they could talk about problems. Finally, the boys also displayed individual attributes that were important to resilience and were related to being successful in school and getting a good job. Three individual attribute emerged: emotion regulation, confidence, and adaptability.