Acculturation and Daily Smoking Behavior among Mexican American Youth: The Moderation Effect of Executive Function

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Despite the stressors experienced by Mexican Americans, many show resilience including lower prevalence of smoking (Bui, 2013). However, Mexican American youth are more likely to smoke in the process of adapting and incorporating to the U.S. culture and norms, known as acculturation (Lorenzo-Blanco et al., 2011). Yet, maintaining heritage culture, known as enculturation, may protect Mexican American youth from smoking. Although acculturation/enculturation is often considered as a stable trait, it is a dynamic process influenced by the ecological environment that may fluctuated on a day-to-day basis (Ward & Geeraert, 2016). Therefore, investigating how youth actively navigate their acculturation and enculturation beliefs and behaviors on a day-to-day basis is important for revealing culturally salient risk/protective factors for smoking among Mexican American youth.
The association between acculturation/enculturation and smoking behavior may vary by individual differences factor. Executive function, a cognitive control process including inhibitory control and mental cognitive switching ability, is a robust protective factor for smoking among youth (Pharo et.al., 2011). Inhibitory control refers to ability to suppress external lure, and switching ability refers to cognitive flexibility of shifting attention between different consequences of risky behaviors (Diamond, 2013). However, little is known about how executive function is related to smoking behavior among Mexican American adolescents.
The current study aims to illustrate the within-person association for daily acculturation/enculturation and daily smoking behavior and the moderating effect of between-person executive function. We captured the daily fluctuations of acculturation/enculturation and smoking behavior by utilizing a 4-day daily diary research of adolescents from Mexican immigrant families (N = 298, 45% male; Mage = 17, range from 14 to 20). Executive function was measured by E-Prime based Simon task (inhibitory control) and color shape task (switch ability), respectively.
Multilevel logistic moderation model revealed that higher daily acculturation is related to greater odds of daily smoking only for adolescents with weak executive function. Specifically, for adolescents producing long reaction time for inhibitory control (Figure 1) or switch cost (Figure 2), they were more likely to smoke on days that they reported higher levels of acculturation, illustrating the protective role of strong executive function on the association for acculturation and daily smoking behavior. For adolescents producing short reaction time for inhibitory control or switch cost (strong executive function), there was no significant relation between daily acculturation and odds of daily smoking behavior. The same set of analyses was conducted for enculturation, showing that within-person enculturation was not related to the odds of daily smoking behavior. Although acculturation has often been studied as a stable trait in prior literature, the results indicated that Mexican American adolescents with weak executive function are particularly vulnerable to smoking on the days they reported higher levels of acculturation. Results also shed light on further inventions by suggesting that improved executive function may protect the harmful impact of acculturation on smoking among Mexican American youth.

Authors

• Wen Wen, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Priscilla Lui, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ka I Ip, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Su Yeong Kim, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author