Transcript Myth or reality in Mexican American families

Deconstructing the “acculturation gap”
in Mexican American families
Tanya Nieri, PhD and Matt Grindal, MA
Department of Sociology
University of California at Riverside
Acknowledgements: Data were collected as part of the Parents and Youth Study,
funded by NIH, S. Coltrane & R. Parke, PIs, University of CA at Riverside
Background
 Acculturation: process of cultural change as a result of encounters with
a new or mainstream culture
 Acculturation associated with higher risk of delinquency
 Effect often attributed to “acculturation gap” – parent-child differences
in acculturation – that undermines family functioning
 Some research supports this conclusion, but current research is limited
 Acculturation differences not always measured
 Direction of differences often assumed (child more American)
 Nature and effects of other differences unexplored
 Any difference taken to indicate a “gap”
 Analyses do not reflect current theoretical understanding of acculturation
as bidimensional
Research questions
 Using a categorical approach to acculturation measurement,
what are the nature and extent of parent-child acculturation
differences?
 How do the different patterns of parent-child acculturation
relate to delinquent behavior?
Data
 Parents and Youth Study – study of fathering
effects in European American and Mexican
American families in CA and AZ
 392 families: 1 Middle school child and both
parents
 Recruited through the schools, screened for
eligbility, then randomly selected
 3 waves of interview surveys: 2004 (7th
grade), 2005, 2006
Sample
 193 Mexican American families
 Youths
 52% female
 Mean age: 13 years
 27% foreign born
 12% took survey in Spanish
 Moms
 Mean age: 37 years
 69% foreign born
 56% took survey in Spanish
 Mean time in US: 17 years
 Dads
 Mean age: 38 years
 70% foreign born
 58% took Survey in Spanish
 Mean time in US: 19 years
Measures
 Acculturation
 Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (Saenz &
Knight, 2010)
 Mexican Acculturation subscale
 American Acculturation subscale
 Values range from 1- 5
 50 items
 Total acculturation
 Categorical version formed thru crosstabulation of two
subscales
 Mexican, American, Lo Bicultural, Hi Bicultural, Unidentified
 Measured separately for youth, mom, and dad
Measures
 Parent-child acculturation difference
 Categorical version formed thru crosstabulation of youth acculturation
and parent (mom or dad) acculturation
 Parent-child match (reference group)
 Child more American than parent
 Parent more American than child
 Neither parent nor child more American (excluded from analysis)
Parent acculturation
Unidentified
American
Match
Par more Am
American
Child more Am
Match
Mexican
Neither more
Am
Child more Am
Par more Am
Match
Par more Am
Par more Am
Par more Am
Child more Am
Match
Parent more
Am
Child more Am
Par more Am
Child more Am Child more Am
Unidentified
Child
acculturation
Lo
Bicultural
Hi
Bicultural
Mexican
Lo Bicultural
Hi Bicultural
Neither more
Par more Am
Par more Am
Am
Child more Am Child more Am Child more Am
Match
Measures
 Delinquency
 Last month substance use, fighting, stealing, physically harm
someone
 Dichotomous
 45% report some delinquency at baseline
Measures
 Controls
 Age
 Gender (female reference group)
 Socioeconomic status – mother’s education
 Generation status – native-born parents vs. at least 1 foreign-
born parent
Results: Acculturation
LO
BICULTURAL
HI
BICULTURAL
AMERICAN
MEXICAN
Unidentified
Youth (N=193)
Number
%
73
38
Mother(N=193)
Number
%
55
29
Father (N=192)
Number
%
31
16
115
60
125
65
153
80
0
3
2
0
2
1
0
12
1
0
6
1
0
7
1
0
4
1
Note: %s may total to more than 100 due to rounding.
Results: Acculturation differences
Match (i.e., no difference)
Parent more American than child
Child more American than parent
Neither parent nor child more Am
Mother-child
Number
%
94
49
50
26
48
25
1
1
Note: %s may total to more than 100 due to rounding.
Father-child
Number
%
103
53
62
32
27
14
1
1
Results: Delinquency
Odds ratios
Dad
W1
W2
W3
Par more Am
than child
1.327
1.063
1.078
Child more Am
than par
.655
.687
1.401
Age
1.542
1.673
1.075
Male gender
1.538
1.041
1.148
Mother’s
education
1.000
.920+
1.089+
Foreign-born
parent
1.343
.760
1.153
Baseline
delinquency
na
2.899**
1.470
N
186
186
186
Nagelkerke r2
.053
.144
.050
Results: Delinquency
Odds ratios
Mom
W1
W2
W3
Par more Am
than child
.938
.875
1.132
Child more Am
than par
1.125
.409*
.696
Age
1.575
1.778+
1.075
Male gender
1.511
1.028
1.165
Mother’s
education
.992
.930
1.106*
Foreign-born
parent
1.508
.759
1.061
Baseline
delinquency
na
3.151***
1.459
N
186
186
186
Nagelkerke r2
.039
.174
.054
Results: Delinquency
 Results don’t change when




we account for partial matches (eliminate hi vs. lo bicultural)
we dichotomize match vs. any mismatch
we drop generation status
we control for potential mechanisms: family factors
 Results relative to traditional linear version of parent-child
acculturation difference
 Mean is Parent more Am than child (i.e., negative difference)
 Absolute value of mean difference is small (.5)
 DAD: Effects (ns) in direction of protection for children more Am than par
 MOM: Effects (significant at p<.10) in direction of protection for children
more Am than par
Discussion
 Patterns of individual acculturation run counter to the
“acculturation gap” narrative
 No American-identified in sample
 Not due to sampling; Biculturalism is the norm and increasingly so
 Large numbers of biculturals – can/should distinguish between high
and low bicultural
 Patterns of parent-child acculturation difference run counter to
the “acculturation gap” narrative
 Most common parent-child pattern: match
 Not surprising given developmental stage; may change over time
 Parent-child differences, where present, not only in one direction
 Parent-child differences are small – not a “gap”
Discussion
 No effects of parent-child differences in delinquency
 Exception: Children more American than moms have lower
odds of delinquency
 Both results counter the “acculturation gap” narrative
 Perhaps due to absence of American-identified in sample
 No differences big enough or too few in the expected direction (Child more
Am than parent)
 Again, possibly developmental
 Perhaps due to delinquency measure
 Perhaps due to measuring acculturation in terms of values –
mechanism of effect may be something other than cultural values
 Or…perhaps because parent-child differences are not as
problematic in Mexican American families as prior lit would
suggest
Conclusions
 No definitive proof, but this is a call to attention!
 Acculturation and parent-child acculturation differences in
Mexican American families are more complex than past
research would suggest
 Different operationalizations of acculturation=different
pathways to delinquency (e.g., language and monitoring)
 Need to consider operationalization when hypothesizing and modeling
 Differences are not necessarily gaps – label is inaccurate and
unnecessarily pathologizes family relationships
 Differences are different – need further exploration
 E.g., exceptional effect may signal whole different mechanism…access
to/integration in American society
 “Gap” narrative is inaccurate and unnecessarily pathologizing;
needs revision
Thanks for your attention.
 Tanya Nieri, [email protected]
 Matthew Grindal, [email protected]