Acculturation, Biculturalism and Familism among Hispanic and Mainstream Navy Recruits

摘要

Familism, that is emphasis on family relationships and family interdependence, was studied in samples of Hispanic and Mainstream recruits. It was found to be lower among highly acculturated Hispanics than among Hispanics who were moderately acculturated. The moderately acculturated are also more bicultural than the highly acculturated, so that bi-culturalism is positively linked to familism. The more modern Hispanics were less familistic, and there was no correlation between socioeconomic level and familism in the Hispanic sample. In the Mainstream sample none of these correlations were obtained. However, there was a trend for the higher socioeconomic level Mainstream recruits to be less familistic. Thus familism is a traditional Hispanic cultural attribute, unrelated to social class, while for the Mainstream it may be an attribute of a lower socioeconomic level. Interpretation of these relationships must take into account the restricted range of the modernity and socioeconomic status level variables, which is bound to occur when studying Navy recruits. (Author)