 Should "acculturation" be a variable in health research? A critical review of research on US HispanicsL.M.Linda M. Hunt, Suzanne Schneider and Brendon Comer Social Science & Medicine, 2004, vol. 59, issue 5, 973-986 Abstract: Acculturation has become a popular variable in research on health disparities among certain ethnic minorities, in the absence of serious reflection about its central concepts and assumptions. Key constructs such as what constitutes a culture, which traits pertain to the ethnic versus "mainstream" culture, and what cultural adaptation entails have not been carefully defined. Using examples from a systematic review of recent articles, this paper critically reviews the development and application of the concept of acculturation in US health research on Hispanics. Multiple misconceptions and errors in the central assumptions underlying the concept of acculturation are examined, and it is concluded that acculturation as a variable in health research may be based more on ethnic stereotyping than on objective representations of cultural difference. Keywords: Acculturation; Research; methods; Hispanic; Americans; Ethnic; groups; Health; inequalities; Mexican-Americans (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:59:y:2004:i:5:p:973-986 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.