Bicultural Competence and the Latino 2.5 Generation

Abstract

The 2.5 generation refers to individuals who have one parent born in the United States and one born in another country. The presence of both native-born and foreign-born parents has the potential to enhance bicultural adaptation. Across two studies with Latino young adults, we examine the extent to which the 2.5 generation is distinct from members of other generations with regard to cultural orientation, acculturative stress, and parent ethnic socialization. Results suggest that the 2.5-generation individuals report greater native cultural orientation, ethnic identity, and parental socialization compared with third-generation individuals, along with greater American orientation than first-generation individuals. The 2.5 generation also reports less language use and more acculturative stress due to Spanish competency pressures than first- and second-generation individuals. These results demonstrate that the 2.5-generation individuals may have some bicultural advantages compared with third-generation individuals; however, they may also experience similar challenges with regard to language maintenance.

Longitudinal effects of acculturation and enculturation on mental health: Does the measure matter?

“…This lack of psychometric evaluation of the BIQ-S and the ARSMA-II is particularly problematic given that these scales were developed over 20 years ago. Although both the BIQ-S and the ARSMA-II have been adapted for use across Latino national subgroups (e.g., Birman, 1998; Dennis, Fonseca, Gutierrez, Shen, & Salazar, 2016), establishing psychometric validity is a necessary first step for addressing measurement variability issues within the field of acculturation. Contrary to the original two-factor structure with which the BIQ was designed, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on BIQ-S scores in a sample of Latino respondents in Miami (Guo, Suarez-Morales, Schwartz, & Szapocznik, 2009) yielded a four-factor model composed of comfort with Spanish, comfort with English, enjoyment of Latino cultural activities, and enjoyment of American cultural activities.…”

The socio-cultural integration of immigrants in Germany: changes across generations

“…It is also assumed that these generations are in the process of achieving equality with the native population, a process that would lead to the complete integration of future generations. Dennis et al . (2016) argue that compared to the first and second generations, migrants from the 2.5 generation report higher levels of integration, cultural orientation to the native’s values and identity to their ethnic origins.…”

Dyadic bicultural competence: A new way of conceptualizing patterns of cultural competence in close relationships

“…Although we recognize that there are theoretical distinctions between cultural competence and cultural orientation, the literature around these constructs often uses these terms interchangeably. For example, theoretical definitions of both competence and orientation often include individuals' beliefs and attitudes related to culture (Dennis et al, 2016; Lopez‐Class et al, 2011). As an additional example, Karan and Park (2022) define individuals' cultural orientation as “a sense of cumulative connectedness to their host culture and ethnic culture” (p. 660), whereas Carbajal et al (2021) define cultural competence as “the ability to negotiate between U.S. mainstream culture and one's own heritage culture” (p. 1).…”