The purpose of this study is to explore maternal resiliency patterns regarding family health behaviors and outcomes in vulnerable populations. With increasing rates of Hispanic childhood obesity and disproportionate health disparities, this is an issue that must be better understood. Altogether, 100 Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrant mothers from Illinois and California completed questionnaires reporting their stressors, protective mechanics, and family health behaviors. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher perceived stress levels for mothers predicted mealtime distractions, non-nutritive snacking reasons, and child’s diet quality. The interaction between stress and social support was a significant predictor of non-nutritive snacking reasons, and the results indicate that high levels of social support more so than average and low levels of support predict a higher frequency of non-nutritive snacking. Stress and chaos also predicted non-nutritive snacking, particularly when chaos levels were high and average compared to low levels of chaos. There were no significant findings for food insecurity as a predictor of these health behavior adjustment outcomes. Taken together, maternal stressors play a role in family health behaviors, and further studies should take these factors into account when trying to understand protective mechanisms for families
