Unidimensional Model Of Acculturation

Unidimensional Model of Acculturation suggests that the process of acculturation is a movement along a single direction, people change from deeply involve in their culture of origin to acquire the values, practices and beliefs of the new culture they are now settling in. Both of these processes are claimed to occur only in the immigrant group and do not have any influence adjusting the dominant culture. This theoretical perspective indicates that the aculturation process involve the loss of one culture as an individual moves toward a different cultural domain (insert reference here). The unidimensional model was the main theory of acculturation in the early 20th century in the United States, indicate the idea that when newcomer is moving into

(2008) to investigate the acculturation, drinking and alcohol abused and dependance among Hispanics in the Texas-Mexican border. Researchers asked participants – over 1000 Hispanics adults from El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley and colonias living along the Texas-Mexican border, to answer a survey. Participants were then sorted into 4 categories: “very Mexican oriented”, “Mexican bicultural”, “Anglo bicultural”, and “very Anglo/Anglicized”. The results found out that among male participants, those who were “very Mexican oriented”, “Mexican bicultural”, “Anglo bicultural”, and reported heavy episodic drinking were more at risk of alcohol abuse and/or dependance in compare to the “very Anglo/Anglicized” group. This result is evidence that the Unidimensional Model of Acculturation is effective in explaining the process of acculturation in relation to immigrant’s well-being, through drinking behaviours, since only participants who fully adapted the Anglo culture had a lower risk of abusing alcohol. The reasons and meaning behind drinking alcohol are discuss in greater details of the study

The main themes that caused participants to drink were: changing social worlds, socially isolated, language barrier, boredom, and nostalgia. People reported feeling restricted, because they could not doing many things that they took for granted in their home country, due to lacks of money, information and language ability. As a results, participants also reported feeling lonely, depressed, sad and stressed. Their drinking behaviour also change while in the US, most of them reported drinking alone a lot more often than they would in their home country. Nostalgia was a major reason for drinking and was express by 100% of focus groups and drinking alcohol was seen as a way for them to recreate the times when they were with their families, friends and loved one in their native