According to 1998 statistics, married couples are constituent of sixty-nine percent of all Hispanic families, compared with 81.7 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander families, 80.8 percent of White families, and 46.6 percent of Black families in the United States.  In families of Mexican extraction, 72.1 percent of families include a married couple.

(Source: U. S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P20-509, P60-200, P60-201, P20-459, and earlier reports and unpublished data in U. S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1999 [119th edition] Washington, DC, 1999, p. 51-54.)

"By far the largest group of Latino adolescents consists of those who identify themselves as having a Mexican origin, although many of them were born in the United States.  ...[A] basic value in Mexico is represented by saying, 'As long as our family stays together, we are strong.'  Mexican children are brought up to stay close to their family, a tradition continued by Mexican Americans.  ...This emphasis on family attachment leads the Mexican to say, 'I will achieve mainly because of my family, and for my family, rather than myself.'"

(Source: John W. Santrock, Adolescence, 8th ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001, p. 278.)

For many Latino immigrants to the United States, learning to be an American means picking up some very bad habits, while losing some vital protections.  In order to determine how acculturation affects the behavior of adolescent Latinos, a team of researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles and California State University-Northridge recently interviewed 609 Latino teens recruited from two public health clinics in the LA area.  These interviews reveal that in maintaining, "'healthy lifestyles' ...less accultured Latino adolescents seem to fare better than those that are more accultured."    That is, compared to American-born Latinos who speak English as their primary language, foreign-born Latinos who speak Spanish as their primary language were "less likely to engage in problem behaviors and more likely to engage in select health-promoting behaviors."

The "problem behaviors" of particular interest to the California scholars were substance abuse and sexual intercourse.  Whether determined by primary-language use (Spanish vs. English) or nativity (foreign-born vs. U.S.-born), the more accultured Latino teens were significantly more likely to report sexual intercourse or the use of alcohol and cigarettes.  Highlighting a troubling pattern of intercorrelation, the authors of the new study stress that "adolescents who were sexually active or who had an arrest history were significantly more likely to have used alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana."  Given this intercorrelation, the researchers have good reason to assert, "the ability to avoid problem behaviors may improve the life trajectory of the adolescent."

In contrast to the harmful behaviors found among more accultured Latino youths, the California researchers found positive, health-promoting practices more prevalent among their less-accultured peers.  That is, it was the less-accultured Latino teens, and not their more-accultured peers, who were most likely to report getting sufficient nightly sleep, eating breakfast regularly, and using a seat belt.

What is going on here?  Acknowledging that Latino immigrants often "face economic hardships," the researchers nonetheless emphasize, "aspects of the immigrant's culture that contribute to a healthy lifestyle," may be dangerously compromised in the process of acculturation.

The researchers cite, for example, the higher religious commitment common among less-accultured Latinos, a commitment that entails a "less permissive attitude toward sex."  They also focus on the "close familial relationships [which] characterize Latino culture" among those less accultured to American ways.  These relationships "may place adolescents' behavior in the context of the family" in ways that cause teens to "take into consideration the impact of their behavior on their families."

If acculturation now requires immigrants to say good-bye to God and family and hello to drug-dealers and police officers, then Latino teens are paying a very high price indeed to become Americans.

(Source: Vicki J. Ebin et al., "Acculturation and Interrelationships Between Problem and Health-Promoting Behaviors Among Latino Adolescents," Journal of Adolescent Health 28[2001]: 62-72.)