Remote Acculturation's Association with Costa Rican Students' Educational, Civic, and Cultural Outcomes

• In Event: 1-019 - Implications of Remote Acculturation for Child and Youth Development in non-Western Contexts

Integrative Statement

Previous research has demonstrated that RA can have negative and positive effects on youth in majority world (developing) countries (Arnett, 2002; Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012; Jensen, 2003). This study examines the impact of RA on educational outcomes, civic development, and openness to diversity among undergraduate university students in Costa Rica. We hypothesized that RA would have mixed (both positive and negative) associations with student outcomes.

The sample comprised 304 late adolescents and emerging adult undergraduate students (Mage = 21.9, 54.2% male) from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) campuses in San José and Limón. RA was measured using an adapted version of the Ferguson & Bornstein (2012) RA scale to assess UCR students' engagement in everyday cultural practices from Costa Rica, the US, and Europe. Following a person-centered data analytic approach, cluster analysis was used to group students based on cultural orientation profiles.

Three clusters emerged: a "Cosmopolitan" profile (N = 169) with fairly equal engagement in all cultural practices; a "European-Americanized Costa Rican" profile (N = 59) with greater engagement in US and European cultural practices than Costa Rican cultural practices; and a "Disinterested" profile with low levels of engagement in all three cultures (N = 76). No profile with a distinctly Costa Rican cultural orientation emerged.

MANOVA results showed that while RA is associated with some positive effects on students' educational outcomes and civic development, certain types of RA can have negative effects on openness to diversity. Among educational outcomes, UCR students in the Cosmopolitan group scored significantly higher than students in the 'disinterested' group on achievement expectations, F (2, 285) = 4.41, p < .05); and together with students in the Euorpean-Amercanized Costa Rican group, also scored higher than 'disinterested' students on academic performance F (2, 285) = 7.07, p < .001). A similar pattern was observed for civic development outcomes (civic competence, civic value, and civic action).

The implications of this finding become clearer when one considers the ethnic composition of the cultural orientation profiles. Crosstab analysis showed that among majority ethnicity students (those who identified as blanco and mestizo), 56% had a cosmopolitan cultural orientation, which was associated with the most positive outcomes. In contrast, among students who identified as afrocaribeños—an ethnic minority in Costa Rica—50% had a 'disinterested' cultural orientation, which was associated with the least positive outcomes, χ2 = 14.11, df = 6, p < .05.

Additionally, the Euorpean-Amercanized Costa Rican group scored lowest, and significantly lower than the Cosmopolitan group on global identity F (2, 299) = 10.36, p < .01), and multicultural attitudes F (2, 299) = 3.53, p < .05), which could imply a sentiment of nationalism among majority ethnicity mestizo and blanco students with Euorpean-Amercanized Costa Rican profiles.

Together, these findings suggest that RA might result in certain educational and civic benefits for some UCR students of majority (blanco and mestizo) ethnicity but not necessarily for minorities such as afrocaribeños. Furthermore, these benefits occur together with potential costs to openness to diversity.

Authors

• Nadia Jessop, UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti
  Presenting Author

• Glenn Adams, University of Kansas
  Non-Presenting Author