Abstract
This study examined the associations between remote acculturation to European American culture of the United States (U.S.), and physical activity levels among Jamaican mother-adolescent dyads. Remote acculturation, a modern type of globalization-facilitated acculturation to a distant non-native culture, is a demonstrated risk factor for some health outcomes, but the association with physical activity has not previously been examined. Mothers and adolescents (N = 660; 330 dyads) were recruited from schools in Kingston, Jamaica. Actor-Partner Interdependence Moderation Models tested hypotheses about actor and partner effects of U.S. cultural orientation on moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and the moderation of these effects by developmental stage, socioeconomic status (SES), and gender. We observed a contrast pattern of moderation consistent with increased autonomy granting across adolescence, such that the signs (positive/negative) of the actor and partner effects depended on adolescent developmental stage. The actor effect of adolescents’ U.S. orientation on their own MVPA was negative for early adolescents (unexpected) and positive for mid-adolescents (expected); by contrast, the partner effect of mother’s U.S. orientation on adolescents’ MVPA was positive for early adolescents (expected) and negative for mid-adolescents (unexpected). SES and gender did not moderate the associations. This study contributes to an emerging body of literature on the health correlates of remote acculturation. Our results suggest that whether remote cultural orientation is a risk or protective factor varies based on the health domain in question, developmental stage, the remote culture, and the context.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 643-658 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Culture, Health, and Family Life Study, on which this paper is based, was partially funded by an International Seed Grant awarded to Dr. Gail M. Ferguson (PI) from the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Preparation of this manuscript was funded by the Provost Fellowship from the University of Minnesota and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to the first author and a National Institute of Mental Health T32 Fellowship for the second author. The authors gratefully acknowledge the students and staff at the participating schools in Jamaica, research assistants on this project, and collaborators on the larger study. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding institutions.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- Jamaican/Caribbean
- actor partner interdependence model
- adolescence
- physical activity
- remote acculturation
