Family Stability Within Hispanic CultureJaniece CantuOur Lady of the Lake UniversityFor centuries, the term family has been used specifically to refer to a group of people consisting of two parents and of their children. . The word comes from the Latin Familia, meaning home or family. Although this word is known all over the world, it can have a different context depending on each person. In the United States only, family can refer to two adults and their children, a single-parent household, extended relatives, and a structure of more than two parents. Whatever the family structure looks like within a household, it plays a major role in life, directly or indirectly. Family stability is a term that is defined in various ways, but has been shown to play a vital role in society. Overall stability within a family refers to the occurrence of changes in family structure, such as divorce, remarriage, or death of a parent, as well as changes in family life, such as changes of residence, non-normative changes in schools or changes in household composition. . Molecular family stability, on the other hand, is defined as daily family activities and routines (Israel and Roderick, 2001; Israel, Roderick, and Ivanova, 2002). These family activities and routines may vary from family to family. Defining the concept of molecular family stability in this way encompasses the notion that any family can achieve stability in multiple ways, and one family's method may differ from another's (Israel et al., 2002 ) (cited in Malatras and Israel, 2013). When focusing on Hispanic culture in America, family instability in a global and molecular context results in divorces, changes...... middle of article......y suggest a continued erosion of family support for children across generations in the United States (Landale, Oropesa, Noah, 2014). Even though this study only shows the effects on preschool children, it is important to realize that this is a vital part of a child's life that will affect their adult life. Immigration affects the stability of the family as a whole due to the transition they face. These immigrant families are beginning to face challenges that non-immigrant families in the United States face when they divorce. Results from the binational longitudinal study showed that children of immigrants were less likely to live with married parents (59% vs. 53%) and more likely to live with cohabiting parents (29% vs. 20%) than children in the United States (Landale, Oropesa, Noé, 2014). Due to immigration, family stability is non-existent.