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Relationships among Acculturation, Sociodemographic Characteristics and Social Supports in Mexican American Adults

Claremont Graduate School

Sandra Villavicencio

California State University-Long Beach

The relationship of acculturation and sociodemographic characteristics to social supports was studied in a representative sample of adult Mexican Americans. The relationship between network characteristics and personal distress was also examined for subgroups who had varied in acculturation. Mexican American adults (N=259) living in one of three suburban communities in Southern California were selected by way of a multistage, random-digit telephone sampling method. Respondents named those persons on whom they depended when personal problems arose, and provided responses to a standardized measure of psychological distress. More acculturated (English-speaking and later-generation) Mexican Americans reported larger support networks, more contact with network members, more reciprocal helping, and more often cited primary kin, friends, and neighbors as support providers than did less acculturated (Spanish-speaking-only and earlier-generation) Mexican Americans. Variations in sociodemography primarily accounted for the observed differences in social supports across the acculturated subgroups. Increased number of friends and neighbors in networks was accompanied by more personal distress in only the Spanish-speaking subgroup. Results are discussed in relation to findings of previous studies investigating social supports among Mexican Americans.

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