Fostering Latino Cultural Self-Identity among Mexican American Adolescents

The goal of El Renacimiento is to increase Latino cultural self-identity among Mexican American adolescents in order to reduce the negative effects of acculturative stress. The curriculum, El Renaciemiento, was implemented after school hours in predominantly Mexican American middle and high schools in a U.S.-Mexico border community. Two-hundred and seventeen (217) Mexican American males and females ages 12-21 participated in the curriculum. The evaluation of the curriculum uses a pre-test post-test design to assess positive changes in Latino cultural self-identity. Self-administered pre-curriculum measures included acculturation level, acculturative stress, and Latino cultural self-identity. Measures were available in English and Spanish depending on the preference of the participant. One moth post-curriculum participants' repeated the Latino cultural selfidentity measure. The primary outcome measure was change in Latino cultural self-identity among Mexican American males and females who participated in El Renacimiento. Prior to the curriculum, students' acculturation level was negatively correlated with acculturative stress (r=-.228, p<.005). Mexican American females reported a more "Mexican-Bicultural" cultural orientation than Mexican American males, though not significantly so (p<.10). Those adolescents 14 years of age and younger reported a "Very Mexican" cultural orientation compared to those adolescents 15-17 and 18 and older who tended to report a more "Mexican-Bicultural" cultural orientation (p<.05). At Post-curriculum, Mexican American adolescents showed a statistically significant increase in Latino cultural self-identity (p<.01). Fostering Latino cultural self-identification among Mexican American adolescents is an important social and cognitive process that has the potential of decreasing acculturative stress and its negative health consequences.