Remote Acculturation and Cigarette Smoking Susceptibility Among Youth in Mexico

Many adolescents in majority world countries emulate U.S. American culture, which can influence their development. Globalization allows adolescents from majority world countries to learn about U.S. American culture through mass media and the exchange of information via the Internet and other forms o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cross-cultural psychology 2019-01, Vol.50 (1), p.63-79
Main Authors: Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I., Arillo-Santillán, Edna, Unger, Jennifer B., Thrasher, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acculturation
Adolescent development
Adolescent girls
Adolescents
American culture
Confirmatory factor analysis
Cultural change
Globalization
Mass media
Mexican Americans
Mexican culture
Policy making
Popular culture
Smoking
Structural equation modeling
Structural Equation Models
Structural models
Susceptibility
Teenagers
Youth culture
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Summary:Many adolescents in majority world countries emulate U.S. American culture, which can influence their development. Globalization allows adolescents from majority world countries to learn about U.S. American culture through mass media and the exchange of information via the Internet and other forms of communication. As such, youth in Mexico may experience remote acculturation, which can influence their smoking behaviors. We developed and tested a measure of remote acculturation (i.e., orientation to U.S. American and Mexican culture) among adolescents in Mexico and examined the association of remote acculturation with adolescents’ smoking-related cognitions. Data came from a school-based survey of 5,492 never-smoker, urban adolescents (51% female, M age = 14.07 years). Confirmatory factor analyses supported two latent factors—one for U.S. American and another for Mexican cultural orientation. Structural equation models revealed that stronger Mexican cultural orientation was associated with lower positive smoking-related attitudes, which were related with lower smoking susceptibility. Consistent with research on acculturation among U.S. Hispanic youth, findings indicate that stronger orientation toward U.S. culture may put adolescents in Mexico at risk of cigarette smoking, whereas greater orientation toward Mexican culture may prevent youth smoking in Mexico. We discuss directions for future research and policy-making strategies to prevent youth smoking in Mexico.
ISSN:0022-0221
1552-5422
DOI:10.1177/0022022118807578