ABSTRACT
The experience of growing up in poverty is a significant part of the lives of many Hispanic children in the United States. The poverty rate in 1991 was 40% for children of Hispanic origin compared to 17% for Caucasian children. In order to assess the impact of poverty on Hispanic children and their families, people cannot assume that the conceptualization, operationalization and measurement of the phenomenon is the same as in any other population. Studies of mother-infant interaction patterns with Hispanic or Latino mothers in the United States have found differences in the mode of interaction not only in play or face to face interactions, but also in teaching interactions. Chicana mothers tend to use modeling, visual cues, directives, and negative physical control. Grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. are integral parts of the child’s care giving environment in general and even more so in so called single head of households and when the mother is an adolescent.
