Associations of Multiple Acculturation Domains with Smoking Status among Latino Adults

Few efficacious interventions for tobacco use exist for Latinos. Identification of cultural factors relevant to smoking among Latinos can inform the development of efficacious interventions for Latino smokers. Acculturation is associated with smoking, especially among Latinas, but extant research is limited by operationalization of acculturation with unidirectional, single-domain proxies. We examined associations of multiple domains of acculturation with gender and smoking status among Latino adults. Cross-sectional data from 140 bilingual Latino adults was utilized. Acculturation was measured with the 4 subscales of the Multidimensional Acculturation Scale II (MAS-II). Logistic regression analyses tested interaction effects between MAS-II American and Latino Cultural Identification subscales, English and Spanish Proficiency subscales, and their interactions with gender, on smoking status. Higher English Proficiency was associated with greater odds of being a smoker at Spanish Proficiency scores of 4.5 or higher. Higher Latino Cultural Identification was associated with lower odds of being a smoker among women, but not men. Acculturation toward American culture, per se, may not be a risk factor for smoking; rather, its influence depends on Latino culture maintenance. Unlike in other areas of mental/behavioral health among Latinos, biculturalism may not be protective against smoking. The association between acculturation and smoking among Latinas may be a function of loss of Latino culture identification. Intervention programs should consider targeting these at-risk individuals. Longitudinal work that corroborates current findings and identifies mechanisms underlying these associations is needed.

Validation of the Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory on adolescents of Mexican origin

The Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory (MASI), a 36-item measure that assesses acculturative stress among people of Mexican origin living in the United States, was tested on 331 adolescent (14-20 years of age) high school students (204 female, 127 male) of Mexican origin. Exploratory factor analyses yielded 4 factors: bicultural practices conflict (9 items), Spanish competency pressures (8 items), English competency pressures (8 items), and bicultural self-consciousness (2 items). These factors accounted for 59.5% of the variance and correlated in the expected directions with criterion measures of acculturation and the Psychological General Well-Being Schedule. Bicultural practices conflict and bicultural self-consciousness emerged as the first and fourth factors for adolescents, which differed from the last 2 factors observed in a previous study of adults by Rodriguez, Myers, Mira, Flores, and Garcia-Hernandez (2002)--pressure to acculturate and pressure against acculturation. Comparisons of the MASI factor structures between adolescents and adults also revealed that English competency pressures and Spanish competency pressures played a prominent role for both adolescents in this study and adults in the study by Rodriguez et al. (2002). The congruence and difference in factor structure of the MASI between adolescents and adults indicates that both groups experience acculturative stress because of English- and Spanish-language competency pressures, but adolescents differentially experience difficulties in negotiating between American and Latino practices and identities. The results highlight the importance of assessing acculturative stress from both Latino and American culture and recognizing the varying levels of these sources of acculturative stress by generation.