Implicit Orientation Toward Family and School Among Bilingual Latino College Students

Abstract

The authors examined the associations that underlie the orientations of bilingual Latino college students toward family and school. Participants completed, in English or Spanish, 3 implicit association tests assessing their attitude toward family vs. school, identifications with these concepts, and self-esteem. Results revealed a more positive attitude toward, and stronger identification with, family than school. Identification with family was stronger among participants who completed the study in English, suggesting self-definition in terms of distinctions from the context. Last, the more participants valued family over school and identified with family rather than school, the higher was their self-esteem. These findings shed light on the subtle, yet crucial, mechanisms by which cultural knowledge is incorporated in the self-concept of bilingual Latino college students.Keywords bicultural identity; bilingualism; culture; implicit attitude; self-concept; self-esteem At the juncture of different cultures, a growing number of people live. They are immersed in multicultural environments and are likely to define themselves, and likely to be defined, along multiple ethnic or cultural boundaries (Hermans & Kempen, 1998;LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993). Contemporary research on ethnic identity, acculturation, and cultural orientation has revealed that individuals can successfully internalize more than one culture (Berry, 1990;Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006;Devos, 2006;Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martínez, 2000;Padilla, 1994). In the present study, we focused on the experiences of bilingual Latino college students. Fluent in Spanish and English, these individuals have been immersed both in their culture of origin and in what is commonly referred to as the dominant culture. Thus, the experiences of Latino college students are often characterized by the need to negotiate the conflict between the values of their culture of origin and dominant cultural values (Segura, 1993;Vásquez, 1982;Vega, 2008). In this research, we examined the orientation of bilingual Latino college students toward family and school, two constructs that are often described as having cultural significance among Latinos. Understanding how Latinos reconcile their seemingly contradictory orientations Address correspondence to Thierry Devos, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4611, USA; tdevos@sciences.sdsu.edu. HHS Public Access Importance of Family and School in the Latino CultureResearchers have described beliefs and practices that promote close relationships, family support, and interdependence among family members as core aspects of the Latino culture in general and Mexican American culture in particular (Marín & Marín, 1991;Zinn, 1982). Researchers use the multidimensional construct of familism to capture this reality (Cauce & Domenech-Rodríguez, 2002;Valenzuela & Dornbusch, 1994; Zinn, 1994). Several scales have been developed to measure familism, enabling a growing numb...

Undergraduate Latina/o Students

“…For instance, work from social psychologists (e.g., Devos, Blanco, Munoz, Dunn, & Ulloa, 2008;Devos & Torres, 2007) could be better incorporated within current frameworks to improve understanding of Latina/o students' relationships, values, and perceptions. For instance, work from social psychologists (e.g., Devos, Blanco, Munoz, Dunn, & Ulloa, 2008;Devos & Torres, 2007) could be better incorporated within current frameworks to improve understanding of Latina/o students' relationships, values, and perceptions.…”

“…We also concur with Chen and DesJardins's ( 2010) recommendation for theory that integrates multiple perspectives and approaches. For instance, work from social psychologists (e.g., Devos, Blanco, Munoz, Dunn, & Ulloa, 2008;Devos & Torres, 2007) could be better incorporated within current frameworks to improve understanding of Latina/o students' relationships, values, and perceptions. Although not included in the reviewed studies, segmented assimilation theory (e.g., Zhou, 1997), as well as other empirical research on Latina/os (e.g., V. Torres, 2003), would suggest that generational status should also be incorporated into future work predicting academic outcomes.…”

Implicit Self and Identity

“…Also relevant to the aims of the present chapter, studies showed that priming the construct "equality" decreased implicit ingroup favoritism, whereas priming the construct "loyalty" enhanced it (Zogmaister, Arcuri, Castelli, & Smith, 2008). In addition, contextual effects on implicit self-definitions were found for bilingual Latino college students (Devos, Blanco, Muñoz, Dunn, & Ulloa, 2008): Participants who completed the IAT in English showed stronger identification with family than with school, but there was no difference in identification with these two constructs for those who completed the IAT in Spanish. Once again, the difference between the two language conditions (English vs. Spanish) suggests that implicit identities are anchored in the parameters of the social context.…”

Motivational pathways to problematic drinking among Latinx college drinkers.

“…In addition, assessing factors that are more closely related to drinking behaviors such as parental approval of college drinking (Neighbors et al, 2007; Varvil-Weld et al, 2014) may capture the role of the family in collegiate drinking for Latinx students more clearly. Nevertheless, given the importance of traditional family values for this group (Devos et al, 2008; Morgan Consoli & Llamas, 2013), more research is needed to clarify their role in motivational models among Latinx college students.…”