Inadaptación social e inmigraciónun estudio en adolescentes latinoamericanos y marroquíes

Resumen

Nowadays the global phenomenon of immigration involves millions of people in a large number of countries. This situation is contributing to the creation of intercultural societies (Sobral et al., 2010). In our country, foreign residents represent 10.9% of the total population (INE, 2014). The main objective of this work is to study the different variables that may be influencing the acculturation of adolescents, both Spanish and immigrant (Latin American and Moroccan). Specifically, we analyze how ethnic identity is influenced, chosen attitudes toward acculturation and perceived discrimination in the manifestations of psychosocial maladjustment, both internalized behaviors (self-esteem and depression) and externalized behaviors (vandalism, school maladjustment, theft, assault and alcohol and drugs consumption). The study was conducted on a sample of 794 subjects, of which 517 were Spanish, 117 Latin American and 132 Moroccan, with an average age of M = 14.27; dt = 1.30. They were selected from four second level schools in the Region of Murcia, in years 1 to 4 of ESO. The following variables were analyzed: Family, sociodemographic and personal aspects, ethnic identity, identification with the ingroup and host group (four items taken from the original scale of Piontkowski et al. (2000) by Navas et al.( 2004)), general attitudes toward acculturation (two items based on the model of acculturation by Berry, 1989), identity with the inherited culture and the dominant culture (VIA, Ryder et al. (2000;. 2002), spanish adaptation by Briones (2010), perceived discrimination (Berry et al. (2006); adaptation by Calderón (2010), internalized behavior, esteem (Rosenberg, 1965) and depression (Children's Depression Inventory-Short, Kovacs (1999), adapted by del Barrio, Roa, Colodrón and Olmedo (2002) and externalized behavior (five subscales of the Normative Deviance Scale, NDS (Vazsonyi et al. 2001;. 2002; Torrente and Vazsonyi, 2012), in particular, vandalism, school maladjustment, theft, assault and drug and alcohol consumption. All instruments were adequate reliability indexes. The main conclusions were as follows: the group of Moroccan teenagers is the group which most strongly identified with their culture of origin; the Latin American group is the group with a greater identity with the host culture vis a vis the Moroccan group; in relation to attitudes toward acculturation, the Spanish teenage group choose Assimilation as the best option for the immigrant groups; the Latin American adolescent group choose Integration. This group values biculturality and the Moroccan teenage group choose Separation as the best option for acculturation. Regarding internalizing behavior, in the case of self-esteem, the Latin American group is positively influenced by the degree of belonging to their group of origin and the Moroccan group is influenced by the perception of discrimination. Also, this group is influenced by identity with their culture of origin and pride in belonging to it. Concerning depression in the Latin American group, identification with their culture of origin appears again as a predictor. In the Moroccan group it positively influences the perception of discrimination. Regarding externalized behavior, in the case of vandalism, the greater the discrimination perceived the greater the degree of vandalism the Moroccan group committed and the greater the degree of belonging to the host group the less vandalism manifested itself. In relation to the use of alcohol and drugs in the Latin American group, they identified more with Spanish culture which favours lower consumption of same. But for the Moroccan group, there is a higher incidence of alcohol and drug consumption when the degree of identification with the culture of origin is greater. Also, they appear as predictors, in a negative sense, of the degree of belonging to their group of origin and to the Spanish group. Study limitations and future research are discussed.