Acculturation, Family Stress and School Performance of Latino Children
Katherine Elliott & Merith Cosden (UC Santa Barbara)

As the number of Latino families immigrating to this country has increased, so have the number of Latino children entering the school system. While there is great variability in the school performance of these students, many are doing more poorly than desired. Some of these difficulties can be accounted for by initial differences in language and culture; however, a disproportionate number of Latino students acculturated to the majority culture, including second generation children, continue to have serious, school-based problems.

Acculturation is a process that occurs when an individual from one culture comes into contact with another culture. Models for studying acculturation have changed over the past decade. Current models consider multidimensional aspects of acculturation (e.g., cultural awareness, ethnic loyalty) and view identification with both ethnic groups as orthogonal possibilities.

Further, Gil, Vega and Dimas (1994) differentiate between acculturation (cultural change) and acculturation stress (stress resulting from this process). Some stress may be endemic to the acculturation process, the result of communication problems, differences in cultural values, and discrimination. However, some families appear to be able to move through the acculturation process with less stress than others.

One factor that has been implicated in acculturation stress is the development of a high discrepancy in the acculturation between parents and children. These acculturation gaps, caused either by children's increased identification with American culture, or decreased identification with Hispanic culture, may exacerbate existing family difficulties, resulting in communication problems and child-parent conflicts (Szapocznik, Rio, Perez-Vidal, Kurtines, Hervis, & Santisteban, 1986).

Early studies used unidimensional measures of acculturation, in which affiliation with Anglo or Hispanic cultures was assessed as opposite ends of a continuum. Recently, however, investigators have developed and tested scales which measure acculturation to Hispanic and Anglo cultures separately. This allows individuals to score high (or low) with regard to their affiliation with either or both cultural groups. These scales provide a stronger measure of biculturality, as well as alienation for those who have limited affiliations with either group.

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between acculturation of parents and children, family stress, and school performance. The following hypotheses were tested:

1) Families in which children and adults report strong bicultural affiliations will report less family stress than families with one or no strong cultural affiliation; these children are expected to do relatively well in the schools.
2) Families in which there is a match in acculturation level between parent and child will report less stress than families in which there is a discrepancy in acculturation. School performance will be better for children for whom there is little discrepancy between their level of acculturation and that of their parents.

Methods
Sample
Data are being collected in the Santa Barbara School District on Latino families who have at least one child age 11 or older (at least in the 6th grade). Approximately one-third of the 50 target families will have been interviewed at the time of the presentation.

Assessments
A modified version of the Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire (Szapocznik et al., 1980) is being used to measure affiliation to Anglo and Hispanic culture. The scale was developed on Cuban-Americans; it has been reworded so that items reflect identification with Mexican-American culture. The 33 item scale has two subscales, one measuring Americanism and one Hispanicism. Biculturalism scores, and Cultural Involvement scores, can be obtained. Report reliability and validity are adequate.

Family problems are being assessed via the Parental Stress Index (PSI; Abidin, 1990) or its Spanish translation, (Solis & Abidin, 1991). The PSI is a self-report instrument which is used to assess situational stress, and stress related to child characteristics and parent characteristics. Both English and Spanish versions of the PSI have adequate reliability and validity (Lloyd & Abidin, 1985; Solis & Abidin, 1991) and have been used in numerous studies on family functioning.

School performance will be measured through a review of attendance and grade reports for the current academic year.

Procedures
Interviews are being conducted with parents and children in either Spanish or English in their homes. Each family is paid for their time and participation.

Results
Preliminary analyses will be presented on the families for whom we have conducted interviews to date. Scores on the Biculturalism scale and discrepancies in acculturation scores between parents and children, will be assessed. The correlations between Biculturalism discrepancy scores and reports of family stress will be reported.

Discussion
This study is designed to increase our understanding of the impact of acculturation, bicultural affiliation, and discrepancies in acculturation between Latino children and their parents, family stress and school performance. It is our hypothesis that school performance may be effected as much by family stress, resulting from cultural schisms between parents and children, as by the childÕs ability to understand English and the culture of the schools. As the public schools develop new plans to speed the English acquisition of their non-English speaking students, the impact this may have on other aspects of cultural affiliation, and on family functioning, needs to be considered

References
Abidin, R.R. (1990). Parenting Stress Index Manual. Charlottesville, VA: Pediatric Psychology Press.

Gil, A.G., Vega, W.A. & Dimas, J.M. (1994). Acculturation stress and personal adjustment among Hispanic adolescent boys. Journal of Community Psychology, 22, 43-54.

Lloyd, B.H. & Abidin, R.R. (1985). Revision of the Parenting Stress Index. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 10, 169-177.

Solis, M.L. & Abidin, R.R. (1991). The Spanish version Parenting Stress Index: A psychometric study. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 20, 372-378.

Szapocznik, J., Rio, A., Perez-Vidal, A., Kurtines, W., Hervis, O. & Santisteban, D. (1986). Bicultural effectiveness training (BET): An experimental test of an intervention modality for families experiencing intergenerational/intercultural conflict. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 8, 303-331.