Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Hispanic Youth: A Study of Communication Patterns, Functional Fitness, and Psychological Health

Abstract

This study examined the role of communication in the adaptation of Hispanic youth to the dominant cultural values and practices embodied in US American public schools. Seven hypotheses predicted positive interrelationships among four theoretical constructs identified in Y. Y. Kim's integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation: host communication competence, host interpersonal communication, psychological health, and functional fitness. Structured, closed-ended questions were administered in face-to-face interviews with 112 Hispanic adolescents in the upper Midwestern United States. Structural equation modeling results supported all seven hypotheses, indicating Hispanic youth with greater host communication competence were more actively engaged in host interpersonal communication and enjoyed greater psychological health and functional fitness with respect to US public schools and the larger US society.

Keywords:

• Cross-cultural Adaptation
• Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Youth
• Host Communication Competence
• Host Interpersonal Communication
• Psychological Health
• Functional Fitness

Acknowledgements

This research was approved by two human subjects institutional review boards (IRBs), one at the first author's doctoral degree-granting institution (University of Oklahoma) and the other at her institution of employment at the time of data collection (University of South Dakota). The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance and collaboration of Balbina Valadez in conducting and transcribing all Spanish and dual-language (Spanish and English) interviews.

Notes

[1] The 45 Hispanic youth who participated in in-depth interviews were a convenience subsample of the total 112 participants.

[2] For the in-depth interviews, the closed-ended questions pertaining to some of the quantitative scales (English language ability, host interpersonal contact, host interpersonal ties, belonging, satisfaction, and school adjustment) were followed up with open-ended questions. These open-ended questions consisted of (1) a descriptive question asking participants to recall a specific instance of something in their lives related to the focal construct; (2) a magnitude or frequency question asking them to indicate how often and/or to what degree they have experienced the focal construct; and (3) an attributive or explanatory question asking them to assess the causes of, or explanations for, their reported successes or difficulties with regard to the focal construct. Developed as a way to integrate quantitative and qualitative measures (Y. Y. Kim et al., 1998), this design elicited in-depth information from participants about their adaptation experiences by strategically encouraging them to move from concrete examples of their direct experience (question 1) to more abstract descriptions of (question 2), and explanations for (question 3), their experiences.