Acculturation Among Immigrants

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Acculturation is a multidimensional and continuous process of adjustment and adaption following sustained contact (direct or indirect) between different cultures. Adjustment and adaptation can involve cultural learning, maintenance, integration (biculturalism), fusion or synthesis and cultural loss or shedding of cultural behaviors, values, cognitions, attitudes, beliefs, customs, traditions, and identities. Acculturation occurs at different levels (group & individual) and speeds, and is affected by internal (personal traits) and external (environmental/social) factors contributing to varied psychological and social outcomes. With acculturation being a part of an immigrant’s daily life, it is inevitable that this process interferes and has …show more content…

This ethnic minority group remains to be undereducated when compared to the general population due to the lack of their educational attainment. With this, it is important to analyze and understand why education is something that is not easily being achieved by this minority group. Although there are many factors, which contribute to the lack of educational attainment and achievement, this study emphasizes the relationship between acculturation among teens of Mexican descent and their college-related planning behaviors. In this study, 410 Mexican American and Euro-American juniors and seniors in high school participated to examine the associations between college planning and college attendance, and the role of parental education and family income in this process (Hurtado & Gauvain, 1997). The mean age of the sample was 16.7 years old. The participants used the college planning survey and the ARSMA in order to fully encompass their process of engaging in both their acculturation process and education involvement. In order to fully see how acculturation was related to college aspirations and planning behaviors for Latinos, they were given an acculturation scale and a college-planning survey. The subjects were then requested to follow-up 10 months post completing the survey in order to see the progress that was made. 116 senior high school students participated in an additional survey by mail or telephone, which assessed if they had entered college and what resources helped them to reach their set goal. The results indicated that acculturation among Mexican American youth was not related to either wanting to go to college or engaging in practical actions to get there. Moreover, acculturation was highly correlated with one’s actual college attendance among Mexican American

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