Social Identity in Puerto Rico*

Abstract

This study examines the social identity of 384 high school students from four age levels (10, 12, 15 and 17 years‐old) in Puerto Rico. This complex society represents an interesting context because of the potential relevance of a number of dimensions for identity including language, cultural heritage, economic status, religion and political beliefs. An important methodological refinement is introduced in order to permit simultaneous examination of these various dimensions in terms of Puerto Rican identity. Three major dimensions of the students' social identity emerged from multidimensional scaling analyses and these were seen to contrast with previous research on ethnic identity in Canada, the United States and Wales.

Ethnicity and Ethnic Identity: A Comparative Study of Greek‐, Italian‐, and Anglo‐australian Adolescents

“…Most studies of ethnic identity have dealt with the former, some including measures of the extent to which members of an ethnic group consider their ethnic identity to be a crucial part of their own self-definition. While many studies focussed on language as the critical feature of ethnic identity (e.g., Sotomayer 1977;Taylor et al 1973), the concern of others has shifted to its multidimensional nature identifying, in addition to language, factors such as cultural background, religion, physical appearance, and family characteristics (Giles et al 1976;Giles et al 1979;Kozhanov 1977;Taft 1973).…”

Island Puerto Rican and Continental American Responses to Critical Incidents: An Intercultural Study of Language, Norms, and Values

“…Conversely, Anglo-Americans sometimes experienced the "long greeting" of Latinos to be less than considerate when they were in a hurry. Differences such as these have been documented by other researchers (see Giles, Llado, McKirnan, & Taylor, 1979;Velez, 1993;Garcia, 1994). Distinctions between Continental American and Puerto Rican communicative strateaes have also been found to be crucial in diagnosing and treating emotional disturbances among Puerto Rican Americans (Malgady, Rogler, & Cortes, 1996).…”

Explicating ethnicity in theory and communication research

“…Ethnic identity therefore results from intergroup relations äs do cognitive and affective representations of its dimensional constituents (see, for example, Garza and Herringer 1987;Giles, Llado, McKirnan, and Taylor 1979). More specifically, social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979;Turner and Giles 1981) proposes that individuals seek a positive social identity, a positive self-concept based on their group memberships through social comparisons between their own and other groups.…”