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It is curious that the longer Cuban immigrant mothers in this study
lived in the U.S., the more help-seeking and less self-reliant they
became. Those mothers who appear to be less acculturated tend to
exhibit more neurotic personalities, and those with more neurotic
personalities are less acculturated. This neurotic adaptation con
flicts even more with the behavior of the adolescent sons, who are
also in the process of adjustment and who take on more uninhibited,
active, even acting-out behavioral patterns. Szapocznik (1979) finds
that frequently as the family problems progress, the members polarize
so that the older members embrace a more extreme Hispanic style and
the younger members a more exaggerated North American one.
Female Cuban-Americans
Richmond (1973) finds that in order to achieve economic goals
Cuban-American housewives have had to enter the labor force. This
adjustment from housewife to working mother has been a very stress-
producing one for most Cuban immigrant females. Gonzalez and Page
(1979) believe prescription drug use is an adaptive strategy to
alleviate tension produced by the cumulative clash between the female's
socioeconomic status in Cuba and in the U.S. A tradition of self-
medication through curative herbs and patent medicines has combined
with the addition of prescription tranquilizers to produce within the
Cuban immigrant community a drug use system outside the formal patterns
of U.S. drug acquisition.