Ethnic Identification, Attitudes, and Group Relations in Guatemala

Abstract

Despite many studies that address relations between the two major ethnic groups-Indigenous and Ladino-in Guatemala, there are no scales devised specifically to measure ethnic attitudes. Participants (196 university students) indicated agreement or disagreement on a four-point scale with a large pool of items expressing positive and negative attitudes towards the two groups, and, on a line from pure Indigenous to pure Ladino, their own ethnic identification (the label they use to describe their ethnicity). Reliable scales measuring Attitudes toward Indigenous (AIG) and Attitudes toward Ladinos (ALG) were constructed, and 35% of the participants claimed mixed ethnic identification. Ethnic identification was related to attitudes, with groups demonstrating in-group favoritism; that is, participants expressed more positive attitudes toward their own ethnic group. The results imply that the dichotomous categories of Ladino and Indigenous are inadequate for measuring ethnicity in Guatemala. The newly developed attitude scales may be used to advance knowledge about ethnic relations in Guatemala and to test the generality of findings relating to relations between dominant and subordinate groups.

Ethnic and adoption attitudes among Guatemalan University students

“…Responses are made on a 4-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree to items, such as “The majority of the Indigenous population is hardworking.” Higher scores represent more positive attitudes. Cronbach’s alpha in the development of the scale was 0.84 (Gibbons and Ashdown 2010) and in the present study was 0.83.…”

“…Higher scores represent more positive attitudes. Cronbach’s alpha in the development of the scale was 0.79 (Gibbons and Ashdown 2010) and in the present study it was 0.68.…”

“…The AIG (Attitudes toward Indigenous of Guatemala) is a 23-item scale (Ashdown et al 2011; Gibbons and Ashdown 2010) that was developed to measure attitudes toward Indigenous persons of Guatemala. Responses are made on a 4-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree to items, such as “The majority of the Indigenous population is hardworking.” Higher scores represent more positive attitudes.…”

Does Fitness Priming Influence Self- and Other-Judgements of Personal and Physical Characteristics?

“…It would be noteworthy to explore these topics in Guatemala because it is a location where the relative ethnic fluidity of the population is easily observable and because of the history of conflict between the two main ethnic groups of Ladinos and indigenous Maya people (Gibbons & Ashdown, 2010;Little, 2004). For example, some vendors may present themselves as indigenous in order to improve sales of their handicrafts in the market, but present themselves as Ladino in other situa tions.…”

Measuring Gender Identity and Religious Identity with Adapted Versions of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure—Revised

“…For example, some methods simply rely on the element of self-categorization by asking research participants to mark a box that indicates the ethnic, gender, or religious group with which they identify (Burton, Nandi, & Platt, 2010). Recently, in an attempt to acknowledge the issue of mixed identities (e.g., those who make a claim to two or more ethnicities), Gibbons and Ashdown (2010) developed a way to measure (ethnic) identity by asking participants to place a mark on a line between two ethnicities in order to allow the participants to claim a mixed identity. Some researchers measure group identity by exploring involvement in group related activities, such as asking participants how often they attend religious services and using that as a measure of the behavioral involvement element of religious group identity (Ashdown, Hackathorn, & Clark, 2011;Hill & McCullough, 2008) or level of commitment to a group (e.g., Leak, 2009).…”