Esmeralda Lopez - 2023
Files
Publication Date
11-10-2023
Digital Publisher
Digital Commons at St. Mary's University
Disciplines
Community Psychology | Race and Ethnicity | Sociology | Sociology of Culture | Substance Abuse and Addiction
Keywords
Cultural stresses; Hispanic Americans; Addiction
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Collection
McNair Scholars Symposium
Format
MOV
Medium
video
Description
Past research has shown that cultural stressors are associated with increased symptoms of depression as well as alcohol and drug use and aggressive behavior among Hispanic/Latinx. Cultural stressors are defined as stressors rooted in navigating multiple cultural streams at once. Despite research documenting the detrimental impact of cultural stress, limited research has identified factors, such as acculturative strategies, biculturalism, and familismo, that may diminish experiences of cultural stress. Utilizing a subset of 1189 (74.5% female, Mage = 20.43 years, SD = 3.858 years) college students from the MUSIC survey, we looked to identify how specific cultural assets uniquely impact cultural stressors (i.e., pressure to acculturation, pressure against acculturation, and discrimination). Results indicated that greater Bicultural Identity Integration (BII) was associated with reduced pressure to acculturate, pressure against acculturation and whether these individuals will perceive higher levels of discrimination. In addition, Heritage and U.S. Cultural Endorsement had a positive association with heritage in pressure to acculturate, while Americanism had a negative association with pressure to acculturate. Finally, findings indicated familismo had a positive association with pressure to acculturate. Our findings emphasize that cultural stressors are heavily dependent on Hispanic/Latinx own acculturative configuration (i.e., endorsement of heritage and US cultures and familismo) as well as how they feel about their two identities. These results are discussed in relation to specific cultural stressors that Hispanic/Latinx face in the U.S. and the need for understanding the relationship these individuals faced with competing cultures.