INTRODUCTION
The United States is currently experiencing an influx of immigrants akin to the historic boom at the beginning
of the 20th century. Moreover, one quarter of foreign-born U.S. residents now live in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan
areas. As these families become part of our communities, schools, and society, the need to understand how they adapt to U.S.
lifestyle and the problems they encounter becomes ever more apparent. Recent research suggests that acculturation and ethnic
identity are influenced by a variety of factors…(Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002, p. 346).
Within the last 20 years, the population within North America has diversified extensively from the once predominantly European
descent at the beginning of the 20th century to now being a continent full of Japanese, Filipino, Indians, Hispanics,
Chinese, Koreans, and other groups (Gurung & Mehta, 2001). The Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing groups
within the United States with reportedly more than 32.8 million Hispanics living in the U.S. in 2002 (Sharma & Kerl, 2002).
In reality, Hispanics constitute the second largest minority group living in the United States today with its children being
the nation’s youngest subpopulation with1 out of every 5 children in the U.S. being an immigrant child (Negy & Snyder,
1997; McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos, 1998; Lau, McCabe, Yeh, Garland, Wood, & Hough, 2005). In 2002, Mexican Americans
accounted for 61% of the total Hispanic population within the country with more than 7 million Mexican immigrants residing
within its borders in 2003; this number decreased slightly with only 58% of the Hispanic population consisting of Mexican
immigrants in the following year (Sharma & Kerl, 2002; Sue & Sue, 2003; Castillo, Conoley, & Brossart, 2004).
Government census projections believe that the number of immigrants filling the U.S. population will grow from 10% today to
being more than 15% of this country’s inhabitants by 2020 (Sharma & Kerl, 2002).
According to Phinney, Chavira, and Williamson (1992), as the racial and ethnic makeup of the United States continues to
become more diverse, the process of acculturation will likely bring conflicts and stress to the people within these growing
minority groups, as well as members of the dominant American society. More and more research are showing that acculturative
stress is a risk factor for mental health problems, such as self-esteem and self-identity, for immigrants (Lau, McCabe, Yeh,
Garland, Wood, & Hough, 2005). As it is, some of the regular problems that Hispanic immigrants face today are high unemployment,
30 percent of Latino children live without health insurance, there is an overrepresentation of Hispanics in substandard housing,
a grand number of Latinos are suffering from obesity, AIDS, and tuberculosis, as well as Latinos being the ethnic group with
the highest out-of-wedlock births within the country (Sue & Sue, 2003). All of these problems are effected by Hispanic
Americans understanding of the dominant English language which can best be described by these words by Baptist:
Significant numbers of immigrants, adults and children, arrive in American with minimal to no fluency in English. Because
of the inability to communicate effectively in English, such immigrants, especially the adults, are restricted in their involvement
with the society and its institutions. As a result, they remain marginally involved in the society because they rarely, if
ever, improve their English language fluency” (Baptiste, 1993, p. 346).
Research has shown that immigrants tend to deny the existence of transitional problems within their families from emigrating,
probably because of the fact that they are focused most on surviving in the new environment (Baptiste, 1993). Yet studies
have indicated that a satisfactory adjustment to the new environment with time is most probable when the family’s expectations
of the United States matches their eventual reality; sadly, though, most families look to the move with high optimism and
expectations while ignoring negative information about the new place so that they experience difficulties when they emigrate
to the foreign land without knowing the language well (Baptiste, 1993).
Self-esteem is a topic that is spoken of much in the field of psychology for its major effects on all aspects of human
life, no matter the age of the person in question. Many psychologists believe that a strong self-esteem is key to enjoying
a happy and healthy life (Twenge & Campbell, 2001). Social psychology has shown that a person’s self-concept, originating
from personal introspection in conjunction with one’s culture and life experiences, has a strong affect on one’s
level of self-esteem (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005). How a person believes others view him- or herself can also have a
great effect on personal self-esteem. In truth, self-esteem has been found to be such a powerful agent that it is said to
be the best predictor of psychological and physical health per life satisfaction for Americans (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001).
Thus, it is the intent of this author to provide an overview of completed research regarding both self-esteem and acculturation
issues for Mexican-American immigrants. This topic addresses a growing need within the United States, and though some research
has been completed to date, there is much more information that needs to be acquired and studied regarding this part of our
population. For this reason, a research proposal for a new study, apparently never researched before, will be proposed at
the conclusion of this paper.
SELF-ESTEEM
Self-esteem has been described variously as a predictor of human behavior,
a cue to how others react to us, and a fundamental human motive. Moreover, there is substantial belief and
moderate evidence that self-esteem is an index of psychological well-being. Although increased attention is being devoted
to the assessment of specific facets of self-esteem, self-esteem is most often considered a general judgment of personal worth
or value (Gray-Little & Hafdahl, 2000, p.29).
Self-esteem has been negatively correlated with both hopelessness and depression (Phinney, Cantu, Kurtz, 1997). Self-esteem
is skewed by the manner one evaluates his or her own thoughts, behaviors, and feelings (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005).
Life stress has been shown to erode one’s feelings of personal control and thus lower one’s self-esteem (Krause,
Bennett, & Van Tran, 1989). Thus, it would be reasonable that the stress of moving to a foreign country and not knowing
the dominant language would negatively affect one’s self-esteem. Furthermore, De, Carsten, & van Knipperberg (2005)
have stated that conflict in life is threatening to one’s self-concept, or the manner in which a person views him- or
herself. In truth, accurate self-perception has been dubbed as particularly important to the psychological health of a being
while low self-esteem has been linked to persons with poor health (Hoza, et. al., 2004; Wood, Heimpel, Newby-Clark, &
Ross, 2005). Conversely, persons who possess high self-esteem experience less anxiety, helplessness, and depression with better
health, more positive emotions and an overall greater satisfaction with his or her life (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001; Twenge
& Campbell, 2001).
The overall esteem a person has in his- or herself in comparison to others is referred to as global self-esteem (Schmitt
& Allik, 2005). In order to meet the expectations of other people, persons will present themselves in one of two manners,
either through self-verification (trying to make others see oneself as one sees him- or herself) or strategic self-presentation
which involves selling oneself to others in order to become more powerful, better liked, or to receive a promotion of some
aspect from others (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005). The two ways that people use self-presentation is through either self-deceptive
enhancement or via impression management (Pauls & Crost, 2005). According to the self-verification theory, people choose
to interact with other persons who see him or her as he or she sees him- or herself (Cassidy, Aikins, & Chernoff, 2003).
And Gest, Domitrovich, and Welsh (2005) believe that the people one chooses to interact with socially can influence one’s
social self-concept.
Ethnic Identity
According to Gurung and Mehta (2001), a strong group identification and ethnic pride are critical for developing positive
self-esteem and self-efficacy for persons in the minority. Achieving such a strong self-identity through group affiliation
has been shown to be particularly important to adolescents in ethnic groups within the United States (Farver, Narang, &
Ghadha, 2002). When persons identify themselves as a member of a group, they take on the beliefs, standards, and rules of
the group which works to maintain or bolster self-esteem (Gurung & Mehta, 2001). However, when people are exposed to new
social groups, they experience a time of re-categorizing themselves to find a way to merge somehow with this new social group
(Gramzow & Gaertner, 2005). This author is sure that this re-categorization is doubly hard for persons who newly move
to an area, such as in the lives of Mexican-American immigrants.
The Social Identity Theory
In 1986, Taifel and Turner introduced to the field of Social Psychology the principal of the Social Identity Theory (Phinney,
Cantu & Kurtz, 1997). This principal states that each person tries to boost their self-esteem with many in-group affiliations
and by enhancing their personal identity through one’s achievements (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005). Phinney, Cantu,
& Kurtz (1997) state that this theory would make one believe that affiliation with such a powerful country as the United
States would pump up self-esteem for different ethnic groups but they found in their studies of both African- and Mexican-American
students that this theory holds true only to the point that being an “American” is important to each individual.
Their research further showed that in-group affiliation with an ethnic minority group can be sorely hurt by how the overarching
American society views that group; this is a negative fact for Mexican-Americans who have very negative stereotypes in this
country (Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997).
Group Categorizations
In-group categorizations such as cultural group, faith affiliation, or gender group can bolster self-esteem just by one
being able to claim membership to the group itself and creating feelings of “us” and “them” which
can detach the pain of negative statements made by out-groups for one’s memberships as it is only “their”
opinions and not “ours” (Conway & Schaller, 2005; Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005). This detachment has been
shown to be a powerful deterrent for discrimination and prejudice in the United States for the different minority groups,
such as the Mexican-Americans, with one’s identity as a minority group member being quite important to both self-image
and global self-esteem (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005; Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997).
Gender Effects on Self-Esteem
There is a definite gender difference in some aspects of male and female self-esteem (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005).
For example, boys tend to find more esteem in their physical prowess while girls seem to place more importance on their social
popularity and social relationships (Shapka & Keating, 2005; Gest, Domitrovich, & Welsh, 2005). Though the difference
of esteem is not substantial between the sexes, there are transitions that each group seems to experience with girls’
esteem lowering during junior high and raising progressively from then through the college years and boys esteem increasing
most during the high school years (Twenge & Campbell, 2001). Wood, Heimpel, Newby-Clark, and Ross (2005) recently stated
their hypothesis that success is a tough experience for women as females tend to worry about how to maintain that level of
success experienced. Additionally, Scharts, Waldo, and Daniel (2005) completed studies that showed that men who were abusive
in their relationships during life were typically suffering from low self-esteem and gender-role conflicts.
Racial Group Affiliation and Self-Esteem
Beyond gender, racial group affiliation has been shown to directly affect one’s self-esteem. For example, a meta-analysis
by Twenge and Crocker (2002) showed that different races have different levels of esteem overall, with generally the racial
groups having the highest to lowest self-esteem levels in the following order: Blacks in America have the highest esteem followed
by Whites with Asian- and Latino-Americans following afterwards with the lowest overall racial self-esteem. Mexican Americans
have been found to have the lowest esteem beyond all other groups in the country (Twenge & Crocker, 2002), making research
regarding this subgroup within the U.S. population quite necessary. Rather interesting is the fact that Blacks living in the
most persecuted part of the U.S., in the American South, were shown to have the highest self-esteem of all racial groups,
with positive racial identity believed to be the protective barrier to prejudice‘s negative effects (Brehm, Kassin,
& Fein, 2005). Of all the aforementioned groups, men of the Asian-, Hispanic-, and African-American groups reportedly
have less self-esteem than White females (Twenge & Crocker, 2002). However, a positive fact is that ratings of self-esteem
have been increasing steadily since the 1960s across all races (Twenge & Campbell (2001).
Racial self-esteem consists of how one evaluates members of his or her racial group in difference to persons of other races
(Gray-Little & Hafdahl, 2000). Twenge and Crocker’s (2002) meta-analysis further revealed that minority status,
positive racial identity, and one’s culture all can effect individual self-esteem. A positive racial identity is believed
to act as a wall to the harsher negative effects of racial affiliation, such as stereotypes and prejudice (Gray-Little &
Hafdahl, 2000). Research by both Twenge and Crocker (2002) support this theory, yet the majority of research has been completed
on Black-White differences, indicating that other subgroups like Mexican-Americans need to be further studied on the subject
of positive racial identity.
Faith and Self-Esteem
Crocker and Wolfe (2001) postulate that some minority groups, such as African Americans or Latinos, place more importance
on God’s love and acceptance for their persons to decide on their self-worth than on the beliefs of other people they
know. Cauce et al. (2002) support this belief as persons from minority groups often use prayer and spirituality to cope with
problems and social persecution such as prejudice.
Socioeconomic Status and Self-Esteem
The level of socioeconomic status (SES) that a person endures has been shown to effect self-esteem with White, Black, and
Hispanic-Americans who lived in the lower SES groups of the United States repeatedly reporting lower self-esteem than those
persons living in higher SES groups within the country (Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997; Twenge & Crocker, 2002). Before
the year 2000, U.S. Census showed that 34.5 million American citizens were living in poverty and fighting against the negative
effects that this lifestyle and low social class entails (e.g., little or no health insurance, negative social stigmatisms,
poor health, or increased occurrence of physical and substance abuse) (Buckner, Bassuk, Weinreb, & Brooks, 1999; APA,
2004). Data has shown that boys growing up in poverty are at a higher risk than girls for negative life outcomes for their
affiliation in this social group (Buckner, Bassuk, Weinreb, & Brooks, 1999). Currently, Whites are the largest group living
in poverty within the United States but minority groups, such as Mexican-American immigrants, are over represented in the
poor populations within the country (APA, 2004).
Latino-Americans and Self-Esteem
In the words of Phinney, Chavira, and Williamson (1992), “The ability to function normally in two cultures requires
interaction with people outside one’s own group, those who favor separation face added stress and may demonstrate lower
self-esteem in situations that require interaction with the dominant culture” (p. 302). Some other factors that
have been found to effect the self-esteem of Hispanic Americans include the fact that Latino females have lower self-esteem
than males, academic achievement and GPA scores positively correlate with the esteem of Hispanic-American adolescents, the
collectivistic goals and actions of the Latino culture helps protect esteem some from prejudice and stereotypes, and a strong
commitment and ethnic identity to the Latino membership has been shown to be quite a strong predictor of Latino self-esteem
(Phinney, Chavira, & Williamson, 1992; Mezulis, Abramson, Hyde, & Hankin, 2004).
ACCULTURATION
Cultural transition is a process that begins at the time individuals or families arrive in a new country and
end when they feel comfortable enough in the new country/culture (e.g., with a new language and values) to relinquish some
of their indigenous cultural values and become acculturated to the host culture (Baptiste, p. 342).
Though an official definition for “culture” has been elusive within the field of psychology, it has been defined
as the interaction between an individual and the social world around him or her and an identity of membership within that
ethnic group (Lafromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993; Hall, Nagayama, Andra, DeGarmo, Sue, & Stephens, 2005). A culturally
competent person is presumed to be one who knows, appreciates, and internalizes the basic beliefs of a given culture while
behaving in socially sanctioned ways, observing religious rituals, and communicating clearly in the given language of the
group (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002; LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993). Children are acculturated by their parents’
instruction and role modeling, by their interaction with other persons within their ethnic communities, as well as interacting
with the dominant cultural group (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002). Research by Gurung and Mehta (2001) has shown that
persons who felt the most “ethnic” and aligned with their culture had the highest self-esteem and overall sense
of personal well-being. Still, Phinney, Canut, and Kurtz (1997) demonstrated that ethnic minorities within America are uncertain
as to what “being American” means as many figure that their color and culture eliminates them from this grand
social category.
Acculturation occurs when someone moves to a new country or already coexists in a multicultural environment where one’s
culture is different from the dominant culture of the area, such as what happens when Mexican immigrants move to the United
States (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002). This process is necessary not only for immigrants to the country but is common
for persons born within the U.S. but whose parents or grandparents were natives of a different country than America (LaFromboise,
Coleman, & Geton, 1993). Here, Mexican-American persons must modify their actions, attitudes, and language, as well as
some beliefs and values, in order to achieve a comfortable existence between the two distinct cultures (Sharma & Kerl,
2002; Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002). The process of acculturation can take a very long time to achieve which can cause
chronic strain that has been linked with negative effects to self-esteem (Krause, Bennett, & Van Tran, 1989). Even Mexican-Americans
who have lived within the USA for many generations can face acculturation problems within their direct environments of work
opportunities, socioeconomic status, educational level, and location of residence (Sharma & Kerl, 2002).
Much research has shown that the level of control a body feels they possess with such problems of acculturation can greatly
mediate the negative effects of acculturation stress (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993). As it is, acculturation has
been directly linked to such matters of personal health, financial stress, and fragile family relations (Krause, Bennett,
& Van Tran, 1989). The common assumption, according to LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gorton (1993), “is that living
in two cultures is psychologically undesirable because managing the complexity of dual reference points generates ambiguity,
identity confusion, and normlessness” (p.395). Study results are still mixed as to whether someone can be highly acculturated
but still have a strong ethnic identity (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002). Many social psychologists believe that if a
person is able to find a way to be grounded comfortably in both cultures than he or she will be able to balance his or her
cultural identities without much negative stress (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993).
Some of the more recent studies within the field have shown that one’s family dynamics have the greatest influence
on psychological adjustment, ethnic identity, and acculturation (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002). Here, parents and elders
have a strong influence on how their minority youth socialize and adapt in the acculturation process while reinforcing and
modeling the beliefs, traditions and values of their home culture. One of the models of greatest import are how adults within
the culture interact with, and their attitudes towards, persons from the dominant culture (Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997).
As persons in the minority often face discrimination, children within this ethnic group will be greatly influenced by whether
or not their elders are fazed by the minority label given by the dominant society (Hall, Nagayama, Andra, DeGarmo, Sue, &
Stephens, 2005).
A common problem for acculturated families is that children and adults often become acculturated at different rates with
children often adapting more quickly (Lau, McCabe, Yeh, Garland, Wood, & Hough, 2005). This difference of adaptation has
been known to cause much discord within ethnic minority families as children tend to learn English more quickly, form cross-racial
relations with more of an open mind, and adopt their lifestyle preferences and values to the American way of life more readily
than that of older persons within the family (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002; Lau, McCabe, Yeh, Garland, Wood, & Hough,
2005). This acculturation gap is further hindered by the fact that children were forced to emigrate but once they arrive in
America, their preferences differ greatly in what they what for their lives in the U.S. and what their families would desire
they maintain of their native culture (Baptiste, 1993). Immigrant parents thus report frustration and anger at what they refer
to as “rearing children in two cultures” (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002). Unfortunately, this intergenerational
difference noticed in the acculturation gaps has been found to be a risk factor for poor maladjustment of young Hispanic Americans
with behavioral problems, low self-esteem, conduct disorder, and academic conflicts (Lau, McCabe, Yeh, Garland, Wood, &
Hough, 2005). An important point is explained by the following:
In the U.S., many immigrant parents perceive their authority to have been circumscribed and report feeling that they function
less as parents and more as puppets, dependent upon their children to talk for them in situations requiring English fluency
and for much of their interaction with society. As a result, they express feeling that children are more in charge of them
than they of the children. For fathers, in particular, the reversal of roles and concomitant loss of absolute authority over
children is galling. Many express regret that parental authority seemed not as important to children in the U.S. as in their
native country (Baptiste, 1993, p. 348).
The act of emigrating to a new land can be a troublesome or exciting experience, depending on the family member in question
and the reason for moving (Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002). This action is confounded by the fact that some families move
together as a large unit while often others will have fathers leave first and then mother and children come later, with extended
family often emigrating a year or so after that (Baptiste, 1993). Data has indicated that all family members will go through
a grieving process from having left their safe and familiar home country for something foreign.
As Hispanic families are known for their interdependent and supportive family networks, this continual separation of ranks
can be sorely felt. However, the tradition of interdependence within the Hispanic family will often clash with the independent
culture of America and its values (Sharma & Kerl, 2002; Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005). Sometimes connections or family
members are already living in the “new country” and can help the newcomers more quickly learn about the new culture,
as well as providing informational assistance on language and governmental programs that might help the family settle in more
quickly (Baptiste, 1993). The Hispanic connections or extended family within the new culture can have a negative effect as
the emigrated family may become dependent on their assistance and they do not interact much directly with the new environment,
inhibiting their acculturation progress. More problems arise as there is dissonance among family members who become acclimated
more quickly to the new culture and those who acculturate the fastest are often chastised for becoming “too American”
and “forgetting who they are and where they came from” (Baptiste, 1993).
Theories of Acculturation
Clinical experiences with immigrant families have shown that those whose native cultures are similar to the
new culture, whose members are more than marginally knowledgeable and familiar with the new culture and language, who possess
skilss that are transferable and marketable, are better able to cope with the usual and expected changed resulting from emigration
(Baptist, 1993) p.353.
Berry and his colleagues developed a famous model of acculturation that argued that people make one of four choices for
acculturation: integration (person is able to partake in activities with the dominant culture while maintaining his or her
relationships and identity in the native culture), assimilation (one possesses a strong identity to just his or her native
culture and severs ties with the other culture), separation (individual rejects the host culture and maintains reliance to
native culture), or marginalization (person rejects both the host and native culture) (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton,
1993; Farver, Narang, & Ghadha, 2002; Gurung & Mehta, 2001). Following are other theories regarding the process of
acculturation:
• The communication theory: the level of acculturation acquired is dependent
upon the language proficiency with the interpersonal, intrapersonal, and mass media communications in conjunction with the
general language of the dominant culture.
• Padilla’s theory of cultural awareness and ethnic loyalty: a person’s
preference and pride for the ethnic identity, cultural heritage, and language of his or her native culture will determine
his or her level of achieved acculturation.
• The Socioanalytic Model states that a person’s unique personality will
either facilitate or restrict the learning or expression of culturally appropriate behaviors per a given situation.
• The Alternation Model allows for an individual to understand and behave according
to two distinct cultures without compromising one’s sense of ethnic identity.
• The Fusion Model postulates that all different cultures within an area such
as America will fuse together in a collaboration of political, geographic, and economic space to form a completely new culture
(LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993).
Sherman, Stroessner, Conrey, & Azam (2005) recently stated that prejudice toward one’s minority affiliation may
influence the manner in which one interprets the social data in a given environment. Overall, though, research by Farver,
Narang, and Ghadha (2002) has indicated that of all the above acculturation modes, integration appears to be the best choice
for strong psychological adapting in the acculturation process and the choice of marginalization for acculturating produced
the most negative effects on subject’s self-esteem. Nonetheless, LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gorton (1993) speculate that
personality characteristics need to be considered for their unique effect on acculturation competence. Morever, Farver, Narang,
and Ghadha (2002) have stated that the greater the difference between the new culture and one’s native cutlure, the
greater the stress encountered, as well as the worse psychological functioning of the individual. Lastly, Phinney, Chavira,
& Williamson (1992) believe that later generations of immigrants, or older citizens, will have a hard time letting go
of their strong affiliation to the native culture they have known for so long while one’s social class may play a part
in the choice of acculturation mode as middle-class persons seem to favor assimilation. Irregardless,
Cultural Differences
There are many cultural differences that will play a part in the adaptation of Mexican citizens to the American, dominantly-White,
culture (Sue & Sue, 2003). For instance, Latino culture precedents that family and community are key to survival and happiness
while America tends to focus on the achievements of the individual beyond all others (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005). Mexican-American
families maintain that family loyalty and unity are highly valued and self-sacrifice for the betterment of the group is not
unusual (Castillo, Conoley, & Brossart, 2004). Parents and elders are respected with great power and authority over the
family with children knowing that they must honor and obey the wishes of their elders; men are viewed as the patriarch of
the family unit (Baptiste, 1993; Sue & Sue, 2003). Women, conversely, are expected to be the caretaker of the family,
self-sacrificing always, and submissive to male partners (Castillo, Conoley, & Brossart, 2004). Latino families also include
a wide extended family of close friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (Sharma & Kerl, 2002). Partly due to
their strong, primarily Catholic, faith, Hispanics enjoy having large families (Sue & Sue, 2003).
Even more differences in the typical American culture and that of the Latinos exist. For example, Americans tend to focus
on future goals or special events while Hispanics enjoy living in the present and valuing traditions of the past (Sharma &
Kerl, 2002). Additionally, while most native Americans have their individual faiths they still prefer to visit knowledgeable
medical facilities when they are ill; Mexican descendents, however, often rely on home remedies, family care, Espiritismo
(reliance on help from saints or spirits of deceased relatives), or curanderos--special faith healers within the community,
when they are ill or troubled (Borravo & Jenkins, 2003; Baez, 2001; Applewhite, 1995). These beliefs and practices affect
the lives of Mexican-Americans greatly as many illegal immigrants will not seek medical attention for fear of deportation
and male members often will not divulge sickness as it is admitting personal weakness which is against the machismo role of
their culture (Sue & Sue, 2003).
Mexican-American Research
Different studies have produced some interesting data regarding Hispanic Americans within the United States. Such as the
fact that the level of acculturation has been found to be extremely important to the occupational and career goals, expectations,
and opportunities for this group within the country (McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos, 1998). One’s ethnic identity
appears to be directly affected by one’s level of acculturation for Mexican-Americans (Castillo, Conoley, & Brossart,
2004). Statistics show that Mexican-Americans have the lowest high school and college completion rates of any group within
the country with females apparently feeling there are distinct barriers to any occupational or educational goals for themselves
(Flores & O’Brien, 2002; McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos, 1998). Additionally, LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gorton
(1993) found that youth who could develop bicultural skills within the US were better adjusted, less likely to have academic
or family problems, and drug usage was less likely. These results are not too surprising as Farver, Narang, and Ghadha (2002)
indicated that Mexican-American parents who had strong ethnic identities were better able to role model positive bicultural
skills to their children. More so, Schmitt and Allik (2005) established that persons from collectivistic groups experience
higher levels of self-liking and acceptance. Still, Latinos do not feel connected to the “American” identity and
this part of their existence has no contribution to Hispanic self-esteem whatsoever (Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997). Ultimately,
two more interesting facts show that older Mexican-Americans experience the most stress in acculturation and, sadly, Hispanics
are the least likely of any group in the United States to obtain higher level skilled jobs in their lifetime (Krause, Bennett,
& Van Tran, 1989; McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos, 1998).
Language Acculturation
According to LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gerton (1993), communication ability refers to one’s ability to communicate
ideas, needs, and feelings to other members of a given culture in both verbal and nonverbal manners, with language competency
being a major factor to achieving bicultural competence. Language acculturation refers to the ability to speak the dominant
language of a given location, such as Mexican-Americans speaking English well on top of speaking their native Spanish (Krause,
Bennett, & Van Tran, 1989). Research on language acculturation shows that relying more on the English language produces
more psychological stress on Mexican-Americans but decreases financial stress in older immigrants and increase one’s
feelings of personal control and may bolster self-esteem while reliance on the Spanish language producing feelings of less
personal control and self-worth. Negy & Snyder (1997) found that Mexican-American wives experienced greater marital satisfaction
and harmony when they became more acculturated with wives who did not learn English being unhappy and feeling isolated and
alienated in their environment. Mexican-American immigrants who are less acculturated will have trouble communicating outside
their own group and will then have less diverse relationships, with this acculturation stress often producing a decrease in
self-esteem (Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997). And interestingly, an inverse relationship has been found between the length
of time a Mexican-American lives in the United States and their use of the Spanish language and the level of their ethnic
pride (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993).
Further, Mexican-American children often learn English in school and thus learn the dominant language more quickly than
the adults in their ethnic group; this often creates problems and tension within the family as children are frequently asked
to translate for their parents out in the English-speaking society which upsets the traditional Latino family roles (Lau,
McCabe, Yeh, Garland, Wood, & Hough, 2005; Sue & Sue, 2003). It is intriguing, though, that Mexican-American boys
and not girls who prefer the English language experience higher self-esteem and senses of personal control (Krause, Bennett,
& Van Tran, 1989). Additionally, it has been learned that students who participate in bilingual programs will perform
better on credits attempted and earned and GPAs in school than students who work only in monolingual programs while another
study learned that a subject’s proficiency in a second language was conversely related to his or her increased fear
of losing one’s ethnic identity (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993).
Ultimately, the following comment sums up the topics inherent within this paper:
Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that the acculturation process is very complex and that failure to
be assimilated into the host culture can exert both positive as well as negative effects on the psychological well-being of
Mexican-American immigrants (Krause, Bennett, & Van Tran, 1989, p. 326).
DISCUSSION
Considering all of the above information, it seems necessary for a new study to be created and completed regarding how
one’s level of acculturation, as measured by level of competency of the primary English language, effects the self-esteem
of Mexican-American immigrants. It would appear that completing such a proposed research study may provide pivotal data regarding
how to help Mexicans to better emigrate to the United States without high levels of psychological dissonance, as well as indicating
possible strategies that American citizens could employ to aide these persons in their adaptation to the new country.
This author has yet to study how to create research studies nor their execution, but she can provide some starting points
for this needed future study. For example, much research has shown the strength of using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES)
to assess global self-esteem, as well as the fact that this test has already been translated into numerous other languages
and takes only about 2 minutes for study participants to complete (Schmitt & Allik, 2005). Using the RSES would monitor
the subject’s level of self-esteem necessary for the case study at hand and it has been shown to have high internal
reliability and is proven to be a valid measure of self-esteem (Gurung & Mehta, 2001). Next, such a study would need to
assess the acculturation level of the Mexican-American immigrants of varying ages. Krause, Bennett, and Van Tran (1989) stated
that whatever acculturation test applied with this population, it should always include scales for language use, observance
of Mexican-American holidays, national origin, and preferences for elements of Mexican-American culture, like music or food.
Therefore, it would seem sensible to use the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans, or ARSMA, which can classify
participants as “Very Mexican”, “Mexican-Oriented”, “True Bicultural”, “Anglo-Oriented”,
or “Very Anglicized” in only 20 questions (Sharma & Kerl, 2002)! The ARSMA would be a good instrument to use
as it also has high internal consistency, though some have criticized the tool for indicating more the socialization levels
of its subjects rather than indicating acculturative stress or bicultural conflicts (Negy & Snyder, 1997). A newer form
of the ARSMA has been created, being the ARSMA-II which has 30 items and can assess participants on their association with
and identity to Anglo or Mexican cultures on two separate subscales (Castill, Conoley, & Brossart, 2004; Flores &
O’Brien, 2002). According to Flores and O’Brien (2002), both the ARSMA and the ARSMA-II are widely used to measure
Mexican-American acculturation and has been proven to be a valid and reliable measuring tool. The last suggestion for this
future study would be to compare these findings with the Short Acculturation Scale which has been shown to be a useful quick
tool for assessing levels of acculturation to the dominant culture for Mexican- Americans (McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos,
1998).
Using such tools as indicated above should be a great start to such an important future research study. This author hopes
that she will have the opportunity to complete part of this proposed study as her Master’s Integrative Project with
Capella University in one year’s time.
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