In attempting to help the Mexican American adult and elderly population, the
relationship between psychological well-being and cultural factors was investigated in this
dissertation study. Primarily, the dynamics of acculturation and ethnic identity were
considered as measures of cultural adjustment; while, physical, intellectual, emotional,
social, and spiritual dimensions were used to measure well-being and mental health in adult
and elderly cohorts. In regard to these relationships, the following research questions were
addressed: 1) How does psychological well-being in older Mexican Americans relate to
acculturation and ethnic identity? 2) Do these three variables interact differently among
adult and elderly cohorts? 3) What is the relationship between the variables for this
particular sample of Mexican Americans when considering moderating variables of
spirituality and religiosity?
In addressing the first two questions, multiple regression analyses were used to
understand the distribution of the variance in the dependent variable, psychological wellbeing.
Although both variables were contributing to the regression weight, neither of the
two, acculturation or ethnic identity, were significant predictors of psychological well-being in this sample. In the last question, confirmatory and exploratory structural equation model
(SEM) analyses were employed to determine how each of the variables were loading and
relating to one another. Only a few of the items selected for these analyses, (i.e., none of
the mediating variables, select acculturation items, and select scales on the measure for
psychological well-being) were used and found to be significant in the complete model and
diagram. Using newly clustered item parcels, the mediating variables of spirituality and
religiosity were again analyzed in the (SEM) analysis. While the variable religiosity was
dropped from the model diagram, the newly generated spirituality variable was found to be
empirically and conceptually significant in the model diagram.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1275 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Rivera, Saori |
| Contributors | Duffy, Michael |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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