Acculturation, Perceived Social Support, Self-Esteem, and Pregnancy Status Among Dominican Adolescents

Abstract

In this study I explore whether pregnancy status and mainland acculturation can be used to predict perceived social support or self-esteem in 49 nulligravida and 41 primigravida adolescents of Dominican background. Self-administered questionnaires containing the Dominican American version of the Acculturation Rating Scale (DARS), the Personal Resource Questionnaire-85 (PRQ85), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and a pregnancy-specific demographic sheet were completed in the participant's choice of Spanish or English. Neither perceived social support or self-esteem could be predicted from pregnancy status and mainland acculturation. However, mainland acculturation was found to be significantly higher among nulligravida adolescents, while no significant differences were found between the groups in relation to perceived social support or self-esteem.

The effect of acculturation and social support on change in mental health among young immigrants

“…The results contradicted prior assumptions that acculturation, in terms of host culture competence, should disrupt ethnic sources of social support (Contreras et al, 1999;Elder et al, 2000;Orshan, 1996Orshan, , 1999. The correlation between host competence and all sources of support was in the positive direction, if not always significant.…”

Perceived social support, self esteem, and pregnancy status among Dominican adolescents

“…Recently researchers reported coefficient alpha values ranging from .76 to .92 in samples of adolescents (Ayres, 2008;Cantrell, 2006;Mahat et al, 2002;Mahon et al, 2004;Yarcheske et al, 2001). This instrument has also been translated into Spanish and used with adolescents reporting alpha coefficients ranging from .84 to .89 (Orshan, 1999;Yarcheske et al, 1992). The alpha coefficient in this study for the PRQ85 was α = .87.…”

“…Fleming and Courtner (1980) reported an internal consistency coefficient of .88 with for a similar sample. In studies with Dominican adolescents using the Spanish version of the scale, Orshan (1999) reported an alpha coefficient of .64 and Babington et al (2009) reported a coefficient of α = .71. The alpha coefficient for the RSES in this study was α = .87.…”

“…The RSES has been used extensively with different ethnic groups, particularly Spanish speaking adolescent groups (Banos & Guillen, 2000;Fernandez & Castro, 2003;Lorenzo-Hernandez & Oullette, 1998;Orshan, 1999;Phinney, Cantu & Kurtz, 1997). From a sample of 120 Mexican American teenagers, Joiner and Kashubeck (1996) reported a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .87.…”

Self-esteem and Risk Behaviors of Dominican Adolescents

“…Fleming and Courney (1980) reported an internal consistency coefficient 0f .88 with for a similar sample. Orshan (1999), in a study with Dominican adolescents, reported an alpha coefficient of .64 for the Spanish version of the RSES. In the present study, the reliability estimate was a = .71.…”