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My explanatory-preventive model includes, therefore, the concept of “pro-active” acculturation, which describes the fact that immigrant families, as well as their members, are constantly making decisions (in a reflexive manner and within a more or less constrictive context) that best adjusts to their integration plans in the receiving society. The concept of “sense of coherence” of Antonovsky (1987) is probably associated with that pro-active disposition more than with socioeconomic status, since their dimensions (comprehensibility, significance, and manageability) tie the perception that a person has with its social support network. Such association could serve as a normative reference to immigrants in their options of pro-active acculturation. Also, the perspective of “training for the bicultural effectiveness” of Szapocnik (1986) and the “evolutionary-ecological perspective” of Pantin and cols. (2004) are located in the same line of pro-activity and their object is to alleviate parental-filial conflicts related to the acculturation process by offering social support to the parents.

Latino family concept and familiar cohesion

The Latino family, after several generations, has hardly been affected in the operation of its “internal system,” if we believe Rueschenberg and cols. (1995). This persistence of family nuclear values without a doubt is a source of strength and resistance to environmental difficulties. On the other hand, two specialists on Latino family, Baca Zinn (1989) and Tienda (1989), have rejected the model of “cultural deficiency” of the inferior classes, similar to the one of “culture of poverty” of the 1960s, for a lack of empirical evidence. It is not the consequent inertia of values inherited through generations, but the socioeconomic conditions that make the existence of motivations for social mobility in the Latino families unviable. Nevertheless, for the Chicano feminist critics, class, race, and gender continue being forces of oppression in the family and society. From these contrasting visions, Hurtado (1984) has coined the concept of “structural deficiency” divergent from the mere “cultural deficiency.” The characteristics of the ethnic Latino family would only be adaptations to the structural limitations that must be confronted and are sources of strength and resistance, not of devious conduct. Examples include, the intense interaction with the kinship network, the place of residence, trusting women with health problems and men with domestic repairs, and turning to one’s relatives of the same sex in economic and personal problems and as a source of social and emotional support (Hurtado, 1995).

Demography, family concept, and other values

Latino families are usually younger and generally have more children partly due to their Catholic roots that emphasize the value of the family, marriage, children, and the extensive family with their functions of mutual support networks. Latino families have 4.1 members on average, whereas non-Latino Whites only have 3.2 and African-American have 3.6 (Census, 1998).

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Source:  OpenStax, Immigration in the united states and spain: consideration for educational leaders. OpenStax CNX. Dec 20, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11150/1.1
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