Ethnic Pride, Traditional Family Values, and Acculturation in Early Cigarette and Alcohol Use Among Latino Adolescents

Purpose

In general, cultural identity factors may operate as sources of cultural strength and are thus hypothesized to contribute to lower levels of cigarette and alcohol use (healthier outcomes). For Latinos and other ethnic minority youth, cultural variables such as ethnic pride and family traditionalism may confer protective effects against certain health risk behaviors including early alcohol and cigarette use, although within the context of other key variables including level of acculturation. Thus, well specified systems model analyses would be useful to provide further insights into the sociocultural mechanisms that influence risk and protection among Latino youth (Pantin, et al, 2005; Locke, Newcomb & Goodyear, 2005). The present study examines the inter-related effects during early adolescence of specific cultural variables on the occurrence of two risk behaviors: alcohol use and cigarette smoking, among Latino adolescents who live within a metropolitan community in the Southwest.

Methods

Participants in this study were 945 Latino youth from 14 middle schools from an urban community located within the Southwest. These schools were chosen for their large proportions of Latino youth. Sixty percent of these youths reported having parents who were born in Mexico; 34.3% of these youths were immigrants from Mexico and another 60.3% were US native-born youth of Mexican heritage. A structural model analysis was conducted with the EQS structural equations program (Bentler, 2006). Using a theory-based model, the specific variables described above modeled a three-stage process with variables having the specified roles of predictors, mediators or outcome variables within this structural model (Cohen, Cohen, West & Aiken, 2003). The closeness of the hypothetical model to the empirical data was evaluated statistically through various goodness-of-fit indices.

Results

A structural equations model examined the influence of three cultural variables: ethnic pride, traditional family values and acculturation, along with the mediating variables of avoidance self-efficacy and perceptions of the “benefits” of cigarette smoking. Higher ethnic pride and traditional family values exerted indirect effects on less cigarette smoking and alcohol use, when mediated through greater self-efficacy and less endorsement of the “benefits” of cigarette smoking. Also, greater acculturation directly predicted greater cigarette and alcohol use.

Implications for Practice

An intervention that relies solely on enhancing certain cultural factors, i.e., enhancing ethnic pride and traditional values, would not necessarily be effective in preventing early tobacco and alcohol use among Latino youth. These cultural factors, while potentially protective for Latino youth, should be presented as complements of a core program for the development of self-efficacy and refusal skills for avoiding tobacco and alcohol. Within this context, the addition of cultural variables such as ethnic pride and a traditional value orientation could enhance the cultural sensitivity and appeal of a prevention intervention for Latino youth, ideally increasing youth involvement and participation, and in this manner ideally enhancing the intervention's efficacy and effectiveness.