Marisol Navas Luque

Acculturation Strategies and Attitudes of African Immigrants in the South of Spain: Between Reality and Hope

This research is based on the work of Berry, Bourhis, Piontkowski, and their colleagues on general immigrant acculturation attitudes. The main purpose is to show that the division of the general acculturation attitude into different areas provides more complete information on the acculturation process undergone by immigrants. A new acculturation model, Relative Acculturation Extended Model, (RAEM) has been designed and tested. The model establishes seven areas of acculturation and differentiates among the acculturation strategies adopted (real situation) and the acculturation attitudes preferred (ideal situation) by immigrants. Eight hundred thirteen African immigrants (residents in the south of Spain, Andalusia) who responded to a questionnaire participated in the study. The results show that the general acculturation attitude is one of integration; however, the strategies adopted and the attitudes preferred vary depending on the areas of acculturation considered.

Prejudiced Attitude Measurement Using the Rasch Rating Scale Model

There have been two basic approaches for the study of minority group prejudice against the majority: to adapt instruments from the majority group, and to use qualitative techniques by analyzing the content of the discourse of the groups involved. Neither of these procedures solves the problem of measuring intergroup attitudes of majorities and minorities in interaction. This study shows the result of a prejudice scale which was developed to measure the attitude of both the minority and majority groups. Prejudice is conceived as an attitude which requires the beliefs or opinions about the out-group, the emotions it elicits, and the behavior or intentional behavior toward it to be known for its evaluation. The innovation in this work is that the psychometric development of the scale was based on the item response theory, and more specifically, the rating scale model.

Similitud percibida y actitudes de aculturación en autóctonos e inmigrantes

The aim of the work is to evaluate if there are differences in similarity perceived depending on the acculturation option of natives and immigrant. It will also be taken into account the Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM) sociocultural domains (public and private). This study involved two samples of Spaniards (499 Spaniards rating Romanians group, and 493 Spaniards rating Ecuadorians group) selected by polietapic sampling. The minority group comprised 500 Romanians and 475 Ecuadorians selected by incidental sampling. All participants, Spaniards and immigrants, were residents in 12 municipalities in four autonomous regions in the Mediterranean (Spain) with high rates of immigration. All the samples completed a questionnaire with RAEM acculturation indicators (both public and private domains). They completed a perceived similarity test as well. The results show differences in acculturation-preferred options for both public and private domains in all the samples. In the same way, differences between perceived similarities of the samples, depending on the attitudes of acculturation, were found. In future research it should be attended also to variables as the group identification as moderating of the intergroup processes.