Impact of gender and ethnic subgroup membership on Mexican Americans' use of mass media for cultural maintenance

Abstract

The authors studied whether 3 Mexican American subgroups (predominant Mexican heritage, bicultural, and low Mexican heritage) identified by S. E. Keefe and A. M. Padilla (1987) and by M. Ramirez (1983) could be obtained through cluster analysis of individual difference factors. They hypothesized that the 3 subgroups would differ significantly in the extent to which they found English‐ and Spanish‐language mass media useful for cultural maintenance purposes and that women would tend to find the media more useful for cultural maintenance than would men. The study replicated the 3 subgroups and found that they differed significantly in their use of the mass media for cultural maintenance. Gender alone was not a significant predictor of purposive use of the media. Significant or marginally significant 3‐way interactions were found among gender, language of medium, and type of medium and among ethnic subgroup, language of medium, and type of medium. Implications for the study of other Latino groups’ use of the mass media are discussed.

Key words:

• audience
• Chicana
• cultural maintenance
• gender
• Hispanic
• media uses and gratifications
• Mexican American
• Spanish‐language media