Hispanic Acculturation

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There are many factors that play into adolescent substance use in Hispanics, some of which are related, while others are not. For example, in comparison to young adults in Mexico, Mexico-origin adolescents in the United States are at a higher risk of early substance and illicit drug use. Also, U.S. born adolescents with immigrant parents are more at risk compared to foreign-born ones. Because of this, acculturation to the U.S. culture is associated with the stronger likelihood of risky health behaviors. Another reason is that adolescent substance use is more common in the U.S. culture, and because of this, acculturated Hispanics tend to forget about the risks associated with substance use, which leads to them being less able to resist peer pressure. Studies involved in linguistic acculturation found that Mexican-origin adolescents living in the United States, who speak English often, can mingle more easily, and therefore be influenced by youths who smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or use other drugs. They also found that linguistic acculturation may influence social self-control development, which can be bad, because a lack of social self-control is directly associated with higher levels of substance use. In this particular study, psychologists were attempting to support or reject multiple hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that greater U.S. acculturation, in Hispanic adolescents, is associated with higher substance use because of poor social self-control, hanging out with substance using peers, and already have a higher substance use to begin with (baseline). The second hypothesis states that poorer social self-control is associated with higher substance use, due to hanging out with substance using peers and having a higher... ... middle of paper ... ...urated, are more likely to hang out with substance users. This is because of the indirect effect that acculturation has on individual users. On the other hand, acculturation’s direct effect on peer substance users was weaker in comparison to its effects on social self-control, as well as the effects of social self-control on peer substance use. This helped determine that social self-control may be linked to substance use through peer association. This study was the first to even suggest that acculturation to the United States might go hand-in-hand with the self-control abilities, or lack there of, of Hispanic youth. This study ultimately found that the effects, whether indirect or direct, of greater acculturation on the future substance use of the Hispanic youth, might be facilitated through low self-control and the affiliation with peers who use substances.

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