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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Int J Intercult Relat. 2015 Mar;45:24–35. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.12.007

Remote Acculturation of Early Adolescents in Jamaica towards European American Culture: A Replication and Extension

Gail M Ferguson a,b, Marc H Bornstein c
PMCID: PMC4335718  NIHMSID: NIHMS655508  PMID: 25709142

Abstract

Remote acculturation is a modern form of non-immigrant acculturation identified among early adolescents in Jamaica as “Americanization”. This study aimed to replicate the original remote acculturation findings in a new cohort of early adolescents in Jamaica (n = 222; M = 12.08 years) and to extend our understanding of remote acculturation by investigating potential vehicles of indirect and intermittent intercultural contact. Cluster analyses replicated prior findings: Relative to Traditional Jamaican adolescents (62%), Americanized Jamaican adolescents (38%) reported stronger European American cultural orientation, lower Jamaican orientation, lower family obligations, and greater conflict with parents. More U.S. media (girls) and less local media and local sports (all) were the primary vehicles of intercultural contact predicting higher odds of Americanization. U.S. food, U.S. tourism, and transnational communication were also linked to U.S. orientation. Findings have implications for acculturation research and for practice and policy targeting Caribbean youth and families.

Keywords: globalization, tridimensional acculturation, immigration, Caribbean/West Indian, media, fast food

Many of today's Caribbean adolescents gravitate towards cultures outside the Caribbean region, primarily to those of North America (CARICOM Commission on Youth Development, 2010). Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) conceptualized this orientation as a modern type of acculturation occurring across distance, which they termed remote acculturation. They found that one-third of non-migrant early adolescents living in Kingston, Jamaica, scored high on several indicators of acculturation towards European American culture in a manner that closely resembled a comparison sample of Jamaican immigrants actually living in the United States. Here we attempted, first, to replicate Ferguson and Bornstein's findings in a new cohort of early adolescents in Jamaica and, second, to extend that work by examining the contributions of several potential vehicles to remote acculturation.

Remote Acculturation

The scholarly literature on psychological acculturation has focused primarily on migration research (see Sam & Berry, 2006) wherein acculturation follows inter-group contact in the settlement area, although much more attention has been paid to the migrants (e.g., immigrants, refugees) than non-migrants (e.g., indigenous people, national majority group). However, the closing half of the 20th and the opening of the 21st centuries have witnessed unprecedented globalization (i.e., flow of people, goods, and ideas across cultures: Jensen, Arnett, & McKenzie, 2011), which has prompted new forms of intercultural contact outside the context of migration and opened possibilities to new forms of acculturation. Meaningful interpersonal interactions facilitated by social media and tourism are now commonplace, and cultural practices, values, and goods are now transported across soil, sky, and sea rapidly and with ease. Remote acculturation proposes that intermittent and/or indirect contact with a geographically and historically separate culture, as facilitated by modern globalization mechanisms, can also produce acculturation (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012). Remote acculturation therefore expands the classical definition of acculturation which required “continuous first-hand contact” between culturally different individuals or groups (Redfield, Linton, & Herskovitz, 1936, p. 149).

Remote acculturation may be prominent among early adolescents due to newfound developmental capabilities and needs. Maturational and socially prescribed developments in the early adolescent years manifest in several realms including: cognitive (more abstract thinking), social (forging new peer relationships, increased need for autonomy and resulting parent-adolescent conflict), and identity (identity construction, including cultural identity, is a major new developmental task) (Adams & Berzonsky, 2003; Erikson, 1968; Jensen et al., 2011; Phinney, 1990). In addition, non-native cultures and modern modes of intercultural contact that are first nature to early adolescents (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) are adopted more readily when introduced during childhood or adolescence (Jensen et al., 2011; Schwartz, Patin, Sullivan, Prado, & Szapocznik, 2006). So, for example, Jamaican early adolescents are newly able to imagine culturally different possible selves, seek interactions with culturally different peers, and consolidate these experiences into their evolving cultural identities.

Because of the significant contemporary influx of U.S. culture into the Caribbean island of Jamaica, it is a prime location to test the proposition of remote acculturation towards the United States. U.S. culture(s) are geographically and historically separate from Jamaica's, unlike British or Chinese cultures, which are not remote to Jamaica owing to strong historical linkages via colonization and migration, respectively. Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) investigated remote acculturation among non-migrant early adolescent-mother dyads in Jamaica compared to Jamaican emigrant, African American, and European American dyads in the United States. Cluster analyses revealed that 33% of early adolescents and 11% of mothers on the island fell into an Americanized Jamaican cluster (versus Traditional Jamaican clusters), and had a stronger orientation towards European American cultural practices and identity, weaker Jamaican orientation (adolescents not mothers), lower family obligations and larger intergenerational obligations discrepancies (known to be characteristic of European Americans: Phinney, Ong, & Madden, 2000), and higher parent-adolescent conflict associated with an intergenerational acculturation gap. In regard to the latter, adolescent-parent dyads mismatched in remote acculturation (i.e., wherein one partner was Traditional Jamaican where the other was an “Americanized” Jamaican) reported significantly higher conflict that did matched dyads. Clusters did not differ in socioeconomic status as indexed by parental education. Moreover, on most acculturation indicator scores, Americanized Jamaican Islanders resembled Jamaican immigrants and European Americans in the United States. (The term “America” is used colloquially in Jamaica and the Caribbean to refer to the United States of America; therefore, quotation marks will not be used for the term Americanization henceforth.)

Potential Vehicles of Remote Acculturation in the Caribbean

What ‘vehicles’ transport remote cultures into local spaces for remote acculturation to occur? Many potential vehicles of Americanization for resident Caribbean youth have been proposed (CARICOM, 2010; Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012). They vary according to continuousness and directness in acculturative contact. In decreasing order of continuousness, these vehicles fall into three broad categories: 1) consumer products of U.S. media, goods, and food (omnipresent and continuous contact, although indirect and impersonal); 2) inter-country communication and transnationalism (intermittent and indirect contact, although personal or impersonal); and 3) interactions with U.S. tourists on the island (sporadic contact, although direct and personal). These proposed vehicles of remote acculturation are consistent with Jensen and colleagues’ (2011) suggestion that globalization of media, diet, and language may have implications for youth cultural identity.

Consumer Products: U.S. media and food

Like teenagers in many other parts of the world (Jensen et al., 2011), young Caribbean adolescents find television (TV), internet, and music to be important parts of their lives (13-country Caribbean study: CARICOM, 2010). Mass media originating from the United States, including social media, is a potential vehicle which transports U.S. culture(s) and allows Caribbean youth to participate in U.S. cultural events remotely (e.g., twitter discussion of a U.S. celebrity event). In 2008 U.S. cable reached 50% penetration in Jamaica after its 1998 introduction, and there was 55% internet access across the island in 2007 (Dunn, 2008). Reality TV programs, talk shows, and even websites/blogs allow adolescents to form intimate one-sided ‘para-social’ relationships with media personalities (Hoerner, 1999; Horton & Wohl, 1956). Music can be considered both a socialization agent (social learning theory: Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961) and a self-socialization agent (interactionist perspective: Swann, Rentfrow, & Gunn, 2003; uses and gratifications theory: Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974). Both media socialization processes may work in tandem (Coyne, Padilla-Walker, and Howard, 2013) – adolescents may seek out media to meet their developmental needs for identity, intimacy, and so forth, then may learn the values and messages of the media as they consume it. Indeed, there is evidence that media consumption is associated with values and attitudes, including family values (Brown & Bryant, 1990), and merely recounting memories of U.S. TV shows can bolster young people's American identity (Cheryan & Monin, 2005).

Caribbean countries import and consume much U.S. food and beverages (e.g., fast food/restaurant chains, packaged snacks/beverages). Given that adolescents have a sharper memory for advertisement content and brand names than do adults (Dubow, 1995), their exposure to U.S. food on the island, much of which is also advertised in U.S. media, constitutes another important potential vehicle of Americanization. Acculturation in the domain of food preferences and consumption has been demonstrated in cross-sectional studies among Latino immigrants in the United States. Ayala, Baquero, and Klinger's (2008) review of 34 quantitative and qualitative studies showed that overall greater acculturation (measured by greater U.S. culture orientation or higher immigrant generation) is associated with consuming more dietary sugar and fast food and less traditional foods (e.g., beans and rice). Experimental research supports this connection between food and acculturation processes – in two experiments with U.S. college students, Guendelman, Cheryan, and Monin (2011) found that Asian American bicultural immigrant youth use their food choices to reinforce their American identity.

Communication and transnationalism: Information technologies and remittances

Because many Caribbean adolescents have relatives and friends who have emigrated to the United States, cell phone and email/VOIP/Skype technologies used to keep in contact may function as vehicles of Americanization. In addition, social networking sites allow adolescents to forge new friendship bonds across distance (Parks & Floyd, 1996). Receipt of gifts and remittances from family/friends in the United States is another potential vehicle of Americanization because it provides an opportunity for intermittent contact with known senders and may foster a strong connection with and fondness for the United States in general. Caribbean people are documented as having a high level of transnationalism (i.e., maintaining connections in the home and host nations: Glick Schiller, Bach, & Blanc-Szanton, 1992) and approximately $1 billion in remittances were sent to Jamaica annually from the United States in the late 2000s (Bank of Jamaica, 2010). Close social, monetary, and practical connections to family and friends in the United States may facilitate remote acculturation and the development of a type of transnational identity. Although less personal and direct, these forms of intercultural contact allow island youth vicarious experiences with U.S. values and ways of life.

Tourism

Tourism far outstrips migration as the “the most common setting for first hand intercultural contact” (Ward, 2008, p. 111), and this circumstance could not be more evident than in the Caribbean. Tourism is a prime industry in Jamaica owing to its year-round temperate climate, sandy beaches, and clear blue waters; and Jamaica pioneered the ‘couples only’ and ‘all-inclusive’ resort concepts in the late 1970s (Holy Cross Magazine, 2011). U.S. residents comprise the largest proportion of visitors to Jamaica (63% of just over 2 million visitors in 2013: Caribbean Tourism Organization, 2014), meaning that over 1.25 million annual U.S. tourists visit this small island of under 3 million residents. As a result, many islanders have brief and sporadic but frequent face-to-face interactions with U.S. visitors, which may have appreciable cultural impact over time. Tourists have been conceptualized as an acculturating group (Ward, 2008); however, this may be the first study to conceptualize tourists as potential agents of acculturation.

The Current Study

The aims of this study were two-fold: replication and extension. First, to consolidate the notion of remote acculturation and ensure that the earlier findings were not due to chance or cohort idiosyncracies, we aimed to replicate the findings of Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) in a second cohort of Jamaican early adolescents. Accordingly, we expected to find two remote acculturation clusters – Americanized and Traditional – differentiated by scores on acculturation indicators identified in 2012 (i.e., European American orientation, Jamaican orientation, and family obligations). We also expected remote acculturation clusters to differ in parent-adolescent conflict, although conflict is treated as an outcome variable in the current study because acculturation-related conflict can be conceptualized as a byproduct of acculturating gaps which exacerbate normative parent-adolescent disagreements (see Birman, 2006). Moreover, Americanized Jamaican adolescents were expected to resemble Jamaican immigrant adolescents in the United States on these acculturation indicators/correlates. Second, we aimed to extend the findings on remote acculturation by investigating contemporary associations between adolescents’ acculturation and potential vehicles of Americanization. We expected Americanization to be positively associated with all potential vehicles of remote acculturation outlined earlier. Replication is the gold standard in scientific inquiry and replication-extension studies (which fold in results from a prior study), although rare, are especially needed in developmental science to assess generalizability and robustness of findings, and extend results in theoretically relevant directions (Bonett, 2012; Duncan, Engel, Claessens, & Dowsett in press).

Method

For the purposes of replication, the methods in this study mirrored those of the Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) unless otherwise noted.

Participants and Procedure

A total of 238 early adolescents from Grade 8 were recruited from two traditional secondary schools in Kingston, Jamaica. Data from the 222 Jamaican-born participants were used in analyses (M = 12.08 years, SD = .50, 19% girls, 84% Black). Approximately 97% of the sample had lived in Jamaica their entire lives, and the remaining 3% had lived in Jamaica for at least half of their lives. The mean education level of the primary household earner was 4.49 (i.e., between 4 = ‘high school graduate’ and 5 = ‘some college’; SD = 1.64) on a 7-point scale ranging from “Less than 7th Grade” to “(Post-) Graduate or professional degree, e.g., Ph.D., M.D.” (Hollingshead, 1975). We employed a self-report questionnaire methodology to assess adolescents’ intrapsychic and intrapersonal acculturation-related experiences; questionnaires were administered in group format outside of class time by an experimenter who remained in the room to answer questions. IRB approval, parent/guardian consent, and adolescent assent were obtained before data collection. Each student received a movie voucher valued at no more than U.S. $10 after participating, which was not redeemable for cash. Given the participation rate of around 33%, this incentive was not considered coercive.

Data from two sets of adolescents from Ferguson and Bornstein's original 2012 study were included as reference groups: Jamaican islander adolescents (n = 245, M = 13.27 years, SD = 2.11, 40% girls, 88% Black) and Jamaican immigrant adolescents in the United States (n = 38, M = 14.21 years, SD = 2.30, 45% girls, 92% Black). The mean education levels of the primary household earners of these two references groups on the same 7-point scale used in the current study were 4.76 and 5.43 (SDs = 1.54 and1.17), respectively. Therefore, the original (2012) and replication (current) samples of islander adolescents were similar in many respects except that the replication cohort contained more boys.

Measures

Tridimensional acculturation

Adolescents completed the 34-item Acculturation Rating Scale for Jamaican Americans (ARSJA; Ferguson, Bornstein, & Pottinger, 2012; see Appendix A). The Acculturation Rating Scale for Jamaican Americans is a tridimensional acculturation measure which contains a 16-item Jamaican Orientation Scale (JOS Cronbach's α = .71), a 9-item African American Orientation Scale (AAOS α = .75), and a 9-item European American Orientation Scale (EAOS α = .76). Participants responded to items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (None or not at all) to 5 (Very much or always), and subscale means were calculated with higher scores indicating stronger cultural orientation. One item from the Jamaican Orientation Scale (“I like to identify myself as Jamaican American”) was excluded from the scale mean to optimize scale reliability.

Adolescent rights and obligations

Adolescents completed the 14-item Family Values Scale (Phinney & Vedder, 2006) by rating their agreement or disagreement with 4 statements about adolescent rights in the family (e.g., “It is alright for girls over the age of 18 to decide when to marry and whom to marry”), and 10 statements about adolescent obligations in the family (“Boys should share in the work at home without payment”) on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). Subscale means were calculated with higher scores reflecting stronger values; subscale αs = .82 and .70, respectively.

Parent-adolescent conflict

Adolescents completed the 20-item true/false Conflict Behavior Questionnaire Short-Form (CBQ-20; Robin & Foster, 1989). Positively worded items were reverse scored, and the number of items reported to be true was summed (possible range = 0-20; α = .83). Thus, higher scores reflect higher levels of reported parent-adolescent conflict.

Consumer products: Media and food

Adolescents rated how often they consumed U.S. and local cultural products on a 5-point Likert scale: 1 “Never”, 2 “Once every couple months”, 3 “Once every other week”, 4 “Once or twice per week”, 5 “Every day or most days”. Items included frequency of consuming U.S. and Jamaican TV shows (U.S. examples: “American Idol”, “CSI”), U.S. and Jamaican televised or live sports (local Jamaican example: “football”, i.e., soccer), U.S. and Jamaican fast food (U.S. examples: “Burger King”, “KFC”), and U.S. and Jamaican food and beverages at school (local Jamaican examples: “patty”, “bun-and-cheese”). In addition, adolescents reported their total minutes of TV viewing during 4 segments of a typical weekday and weekend, and a sum score was created.

Communication and transnationalism: Information technology and remittances

Adolescents reported the frequency of phone/text and internet contact with individuals in the United States on the 5-point Likert scale described above. They also reported whether relatives/friends in the United States had ever brought back gifts to the island for them (Y/N). Using a different 5-point Likert scale, they also indicated how often in the past year their family had received a monetary remittance from the United States: 1 “Not since [this month last year]”, 2 “Once...”, 3 “A few times...”, 4 “About once a month...”, 5 “About once a week...”.

Interaction with U.S. tourists

Adolescents reported how often they interact with U.S. tourists in their everyday lives using the 5-point Likert used to assess consumption of media and food.

Covariates

Participants completed the 11-item true/false Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Short-Form A (Reynolds, 1982). After reverse-scoring, a scale score was created by summing the number of items reported true (possible range = 0-11). Adolescents also reported the total number of lifetime days spent vacationing in the United States and the length of time gift-bearing friends/relatives spend in the United States annually.

Plan of Analysis

To accomplish the first aim (replication), a confirmatory cluster analytic procedure was used to confirm the presence of the cluster solution from Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) in this replication sample. The aim of cluster analyses is to identify clusters of individuals with similar patterns of scores, but whose patterns of scores differ from those of individuals in other clusters (Everitt, Landau, Leese, & Stahl, 2011; Mooi & Sartsedt, 2011). Cluster analysis is often used in an exploratory manner but also has confirmatory capabilities when the expected solution is theoretically justified and clear, such as in a replication study (Bacher, 2002). The following recommended three–step procedure was followed. 1) A hierarchical cluster analysis was computed using standardized remote acculturation indicators from the original Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) sample, after excluding parent-adolescent conflict to be treated as an outcome variable. The agglomeration schedule and dendogram from this analysis were examined to determine the recommended cluster solution or range of solutions to retain (e.g., 2- and 3-cluster solutions). 2) The hierarchical cluster analysis was re-rerun specifying the recommended cluster solution or range of solutions from Step 1, and results were examined for interpretability and theoretical fit to select the best solution. 3) The centroids of the clusters in the selected solution from Step 2 (original sample) were used in a K-means cluster analysis in the replication sample, inputting the available standardized acculturation indicators that were significant in Step 2 and specifying the anticipated number of clusters based on Step 2. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) controlling for social desirability were then used to confirm differences in acculturation indicators (ARSJA, family values) and acculturation outcomes (parent-adolescent conflict) across clusters. A Bonferroni correction was applied to account for multiple comparisons

To address the second aim (extension), hierarchical binary logistic regression analyses were used to assess the likelihood that adolescents would fall into the “Americanized” Jamaican cluster based on the proposed vehicles of remote acculturation. To reduce the number of predictors (Peduzzi, Concato, Kemper, Holford, & Feinstein, 1996), only variables which were significantly correlated with EAOS scores were included as predictors in the regression analyses. In addition, to avoid inflated odds ratios, each group of predictors (e.g., media, food, inter-inter-country communication, tourism) was tested in a separate analysis, although a full regression with all predictors showed a near identical pattern of significant predictors. For each analysis, social desirability was entered into step 1, gender and potential vehicles of remote acculturation were entered into step 2, and relevant two-way interaction terms (i.e., Gender X Vehicle) were entered into step 3. All continuous variables were standardized, all dichotomous variables were effect coded, and separate regression analyses for each gender were computed to decompose significant gender interactions.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Relatively small amounts of data (≤ 6% per variable) were missing completely at random, Little's MCAR test, χ2(8017) = 8187, p = .12, and were imputed using the Expectation-Maximization algorithm (Dempster, Laird, & Rubin, 1977). Although the African American Orientation Scale and European American Orientation Scale shared some variance (R2 = .27), the Jamaican Orientation Scale shared miniscule variance with the African American Orientation Scale (R2 = .07) and was unrelated to the European American Orientation Scale (R2 = .00). Acculturation subscales were treated separately in analyses given the independence of some subscales and the fact that Jamaicans have reported different levels of orientation towards African American and European American cultures in prior work (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012; Ferguson et al., 2012).

Aim 1: Replication of Remote Acculturation Clusters

A hierarchical cluster analysis using the standardized scores of the three ARSJA scales, Obligations, Rights, Obligations discrepancies, and Rights discrepancies was performed using Ferguson and Bornstein's (2012) sample. The agglomeration schedule and scree plots were inconclusive, which is not uncommon (Mooi & Sartsedt, 2011); however, the dendogram indicated that 2-cluster and 3-cluster solutions were viable and should be investigated further. A second hierarchical cluster analysis specifying 2- and 3-cluster solutions was computed and the results showed that the 2-cluster solution had better interpretability and theoretical fit (e.g., JOS and obligations levels were either both high or both low across clusters in the 2-cluster solution but not the 3-cluster). Based on the pattern or scores, the two clusters derived from this hierarchical 2-cluster solution were easily identified as the ‘Americanized Jamaican’ and ‘Traditional Jamaican’ clusters from Ferguson and Bornstein's (2012) K-means cluster analysis.

Next, to assess the degree to which the current sample replicated the original remote acculturation findings from Ferguson and Bornstein (2012), a K-means cluster analysis specifying a 2-cluster solution was computed using as starting points the centroids derived from the original sample hierarchical analysis. The three significant predictors from the prior 2012 study that were present in the current replication study were used as input variables – standardized EAOS, JOS, and Obligations scores. Results revealed two clusters differing on all three acculturation indicators and replicating the original results by Ferguson and Bornstein (2012). That is, relative to the Traditional Jamaican cluster (62%), the Americanized Jamaican cluster (38%) in this current replication sample had higher EAOS, lower JOS, and lower Obligations scores (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Figure 1

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Spider Graph showing Remote Acculturation Clusters in Current Replication Sample

A oneway MANCOVA controlling for social desirability confirmed these cluster differences in acculturation indicators (ARSJA X 3, Obligations, Rights) and acculturation outcomes (parent-adolescent conflict) in the replication sample. There was a significant multivariate main effect of remote acculturation cluster, Wilks’ λ = .37, F(6, 214) = 60.37, p ≤ .001 with an observed power level of 1.0 to detect the effect. Univariate ANCOVAs revealed that, relative to Traditional Jamaican adolescents, Americanized Jamaican adolescents had higher European American Orientation, F(1, 219) = 3.78, p ≤ .05, η2 = .02, lower Jamaican Orientation, F(1, 219) = 108.78, p ≤ .001, η2 = .33, lower Family Obligations, F(1, 219) = 168.83, p ≤ .001, η2 = .43, and higher Conflict scores, F(1, 219) = 12.79, p ≤ .001, η2 = .06 (see Table 1 for means and standard deviations). African American Orientation, Adolescent Rights, and parental education scores were unrelated to cluster membership, which mirrored the findings of Ferguson and Bornstein (2012). Unlike the prior study, remote acculturation clusters did not differ in gender composition or age. In addition, total number of lifetime days vacationing in the United States and the length of time spent in the United States by gift-bearing friends/relatives were unrelated to cluster membership. Americanized Jamaicans in the current replication sample bore a closer resemblance to Jamaican immigrants from 2012 study on JOS, Obligations, and Conflict scores than to their Traditional Jamaican peers in the current replication sample (see Table 1). A post hoc repeated-measures analysis with a between-subjects factor showed a significant interaction between remote acculturation cluster and ARSJA scale score, F(1,219) = 10.48, p ≤ .05, η2 = .02. Traditional Jamaican adolescents were equally oriented to European American culture and African American culture; however, Americanized Jamaicans showed a preference for European American culture, F(1,83) = 5.86, p ≤ .01, η2 = .11 (see means in Table 1).

Table 1.

Acculturation Indicators for Traditional and Americanized Jamaican Islanders and a comparison sample of Jamaican Immigrants in the United States

Traditional Jamaican (n = 138) Americanized Jamaican (n = 84) Jamaican Immigrant (n = 38) ANCOVAs across groups (n = 260) Effect Size
M SD M SD M SD F η 2
JOS 4.04a .41 3.41b .48 3.45b .79 46.86*** .27
AAOS 2.64a .92 2.49a .73 4.01b .71 29.21*** .19
EAOS 2.57a .79 2.77b .72 3.14c .82 4.87*** .04
Rights 3.90a 1.10 3.72a 1.12 3.61a 1.05 1.98ns .02
Obligations 4.22a .43 3.28b .64 3.69c .73 76.12*** .38
CBQ-20 6.11a .23 8.23b 2.43 7.19b 5.30 6.55** .05
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Note. JOS, AAOS, EAOS = Jamaican, African American, and European American Orientation Scales, respectively; Rights, Obligations = Adolescent Rights and Obligations in the family mean scores, respectively; CBQ-20 = parent-adolescent conflict mean score. Hypothesized acculturation indicators are bolded. Data from Jamaican Immigrant adolescents in the United States (Jamaican-born parent, M = 14.21 years, SD = 2.30) are included from Ferguson and Bornstein's study (2012) as a reference point. ANCOVAs controlled for age, parent education, and social desirability. For each variable in each row, significant differences between the means of various groups (e.g., AJ vs. TJ) are indicated with superscripts of differing letters, except for EAOS in which JI>AJ>TJ, p ≤ .075.

*p ≤ .05

**

p ≤ .01

***

p ≤ .001.

Aim 2: Exploration of Potential Vehicles of Remote Acculturation

First, to probe initial associations, bivariate correlations were computed between all potential vehicles of remote acculturation and EAOS scores (N = 222 unless otherwise noted). Higher EAOS scores were associated with more frequent consumption of U.S. TV (r = .20, p ≤ .01) and U.S. sports (r = .25, p ≤ .01) and less frequent consumption of Jamaican TV (r = −.15, p ≤ .05) and sports (r = −.16, p ≤ .05). Higher EAOS scores were also associated with more frequent consumption of U.S. food for lunch at school (r = .17, p ≤ .05), U.S. beverages (r = .19, p ≤ .05), and U.S. fast food (r = .24, p ≤ .001) and less frequent consumption of Jamaican food for lunch at school (r =.−.17, p ≤ .05). Additionally, EAOS scores were associated with more frequent internet communication with family/friends/acquaintances in the United States (r = .24, p ≤ .001), more frequent interactions with U.S. tourists (r = .45, p ≤ .001), and the receipt of gifts from relatives/friends in the United States (r = .15, p ≤ .05). These significant correlates of EAOS were then used as predictors in binary logistic regressions to predict the odds of placement in the Americanized Jamaican cluster (dummy-coded: Americanized Jamaican = 1, Traditional Jamaican = 0).

All hierarchical binary logistic regression models using standardized independent variables and controlling for social desirability were successfully estimated and converged in six or fewer iterations. Standard errors in all models were relatively low (< 1.5), and Hosmer and Lemeshow Goodness-of-fit tests indicated acceptable fit for all models (all ps > .05; see Table 2). A significant omnibus effect emerged when TV consumption was the predictor, χ2(6) = 27.00, p ≤ .001, for full model. Specifically, there was a main effect of local TV consumption (B = −.64, OR = .53) meaning that each additional SD in frequency of watching local TV was associated with 47% lower odds of being an Americanized Jamaican. There was also a significant interaction between Gender and U.S. TV consumption. Follow-up analyses revealed that for girls each additional SD in U.S. TV consumption made them nearly 15 times more likely to be Americanized (B = 2.69, OR = 14.66, p ≤ .05), whereas there was no effect for boys (B = −.24, OR = .79, ns). There was also a significant omnibus effect for the full model when sports consumption was the predictor, χ2(6) = 20.44, p ≤ .01. Specifically, there was a main effect of local sports consumption (B = −.72, OR = .49, p ≤ .001) such that each additional SD in frequency of watching local sports was associated with 51% lower odds of being Americanized.

Table 2.

Hierarchical Logistic Regressions Predicting “Americanized” Jamaican Cluster Membership

Predictor M SD B Wald χ2 p OR
Media
Step 1, χ2(1) = .05, ns
    Social Desirability - - .03 .05 .82 1.03
Step 2, χ2(3) = 12.76, p ≤ .01
    Gender - - −.24 .39 .53 .79
        Consume Local TV 4.27 1.07 −.64 11.38 .001 .53
    Consume U.S. TV 3.81 1.30 −.15 .70 .40 .86
Step 3, χ2(2) = 14.19, p ≤ .001
    Gender × Consume local TV - - .13 .05 .82 1.14
        Gender × Consume U.S. TV - - 3.10 6.64 .01 22.25
Sports
Step 1, χ2(1) = .05, ns
    Social Desirability - - .03 .05 .82 1.03
Step 2, χ2(3) = 19.36, p ≤ .001
        Gender - - −.89 4.59 .03 .41
        Consume Local Sports 3.49 1.44 −.72 14.80 .001 .49
    Consume U.S. Sports 2.83 1.57 −.04 .07 .79 .96
Step 3, χ2(2) = 1.20, ns
    Gender × Consume Local Sports - - .57 1.07 .30 1.77
    Gender × Consume U.S. Sports - - −.27 .21 .65 .77
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Note. OR = odds ratio. Non-significant models are excluded from this table and significant individual predictors are bolded. Gender coded boys = 1, girls = −1. Homer and Lemeshow Goodness-of-fit tests indicated adequate model fit for all steps in above analyses, all ps > .05.

Discussion

Replication of Remote Acculturation

Replication-extension studies are sorely needed in developmental science to assess generalizability and robustness of findings, and to extend results in theoretically relevant directions (Bonett, 2012; Duncan et al., press). The current study replicated remote acculturation toward European American culture in a second cohort of Jamaican adolescents, bolstering confidence that remote acculturation is a valid cultural phenomenon in Jamaica, and extended our understanding of its underlying mechanisms. Americanized Jamaican adolescents in this study had an identical profile of acculturation markers relative to those in Ferguson and Bornstein's original study (2012) and occupied a very similar proportion of the sample in both studies (33% in 2012 study; 38% in current replication study). Compared to Traditional Jamaican adolescents, Americanized adolescents reported stronger European American affiliations, identity, and entertainment preferences, weaker Jamaica orientation, weaker beliefs regarding adolescents’ obligations to participate in family and assist parents, and higher parent-adolescent conflict. The current findings demonstrate that Americanized Jamaicans experience greater parent-adolescent conflict whether conflict is treated as an acculturation indicator or an outcome.

That Americanized Jamaicans are more strongly oriented towards European American culture than African American culture is consistent with Jamaican adolescents’ construal of White American teenagers and parents as typical Americans (Ferguson & Iturbide, 2013). This finding is also testament to the power of remote acculturation given that there is more similarity between Jamaican culture and African American culture owing to similar African origins, whereas European American culture is more culturally distant for Jamaican adolescents. Adolescent rights in the family and African American culture orientation did not distinguish between Americanized Jamaican and Traditional Jamaican youth, and Americanization was not accounted for by parental education in the 2012 cohort or the current replication cohort.

These replicated findings underscore the observation that remote acculturation resembles immigrant acculturation. The fact that Jamaican Islanders remotely acculturate in two main ways – some endorsing both local and foreign cultures (Americanized Jamaican adolescents) and others adhering mostly to the local culture (Traditional Jamaican adolescents) – is consistent with patterns of acculturation found using traditional theory-driven analytic strategies among Jamaican immigrants living in the United States (Ferguson et al., 2012; Ferguson, Iturbide, & Gordon, 2014). However, as one would expect, Jamaican immigrants to the United States are more likely to combine Jamaican and American cultures than are Jamaican islanders.

Potential Vehicles of Remote Acculturation

Americanization of Jamaican islanders, particularly youth, seems inevitable to some extent because specific vehicles of Americanization have an increasingly strong presence in Jamaica. Indeed, the conclusion of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development (2010) based on its 13-country study was that: “external cultural forces...[are] not going away and will always remain as long as the United Sates remains...” (p. 82). Not surprisingly, remote acculturation was partly TV remote acculturation, especially for girls. Watching more U.S. TV, including sports, contributed to Americanization. Although U.S. media is an indirect and impersonal vehicle to U.S. culture into Jamaica, its ubiquity in Caribbean society affords the average adolescent consistent exposure to aspects of European American culture. Consuming less Jamaican T.V. and sports had the opposite association – lower odds of Americanization.

A number of other potential vehicles of Americanization were associated with European American orientation (behavioral acculturation) in expected directions although they did not predict remote acculturation cluster membership in the logistic regression analyses. Consumption of U.S. food and sports, interaction with U.S. tourists, and internet communication and gifts from known U.S. individuals were all correlates of European American orientation and can be cautiously considered as vehicles of remote behavioral acculturation, although not remote values acculturation. This discrepancy between correlational and cluster analytic findings is explained by the fact that these variables were only correlated with the EAOS and not the other two remote acculturation indicators – Family Obligations values and the JOS. It is also possible that some of these modes of intercultural contact may be too indirect and impersonal (i.e., food, sports) or infrequent to produce remote values acculturation (e.g., on average, internet communication with U.S. individuals was once every other week).

Taken together, the current findings support our a priori predictions regarding vehicles of remote acculturation, and Jensen and colleagues’ (2011) proposal that globalization of media and diet has implications for youth cultural identity. The current findings regarding media build on those of the 13-country study of Caribbean youth (CARICOM, 2010) by demonstrating that U.S. media consumption is associated with Jamaican youth's remote acculturation to European American culture. High U.S. cable penetration and internet access across the island (Dunn, 2008) allow the connectivity which facilitates remote acculturation via media. Using new media (e.g., social media, blogs, TV) and certain old media (e.g., fashion magazines), Jamaican and Caribbean adolescents readily participate in U.S. culture remotely. This new era of 24/7 intimate media coverage of celebrities and so-called everyday people on reality shows facilitates the formation of ‘para-social’ relationships with media personalities (Hoerner, 1999; Horton & Wohl, 1956). Adolescents may seek out media to meet their developmental needs for social connection, identity, and intimacy, and then come to adopt the values and messages of the media they consume (Coyne et al., 2013). Experimental research shows that this is not a far-fetched idea – merely recalling U.S. TV shows watched in the past can bolster the American identity of bicultural Asian American youngsters (Cheryan & Monin, 2005).

In regard to diet, our findings are consistent with those of Ayala and colleagues’ (2008) review of food acculturation studies among Latino immigrants in the United States. Across 34 studies, greater acculturation (measured by greater U.S. culture orientation or higher immigrant generation) was associated with consuming more dietary sugar, and in some studies more fast food, as well as consuming less traditional foods (e.g., beans, rice, fruit). The link between Americanization, diet, and media merits further in-depth investigation given the potential implications for adolescent health and the immigrant paradox, especially in developing countries.

The finding that tourist exposure is associated with stronger U.S. orientation among Jamaican adolescents is of significance because over 1.25 million U.S. tourists visit this small island of under 3 million residents annually (Caribbean Tourism Organization, 2014). Given that adolescents in this sample resided in and around Kingston, rather than in the tourism-dominant regions of the country (such as the second city, Montego Bay), this finding appears to reflect remote acculturation based on accumulated intermittent interaction with tourists rather than traditional acculturation based on continuous interaction. Tourists have been conceptualized as an acculturating group (Ward, 2008); however, this may be the first study to conceptualize them as potential agents of acculturation for hosts. Tourist-related Americanization may be a natural consequence of the expanding tourism industry in Jamaica. Boxill (2011) found that most Jamaican adults are welcoming of tourists they meet (71%), believe that more tourism will improve their quality of life (75%) and bring financial gain (66%), and think that the positives of tourism (e.g., employment, economic development) outweigh the negatives (e.g., crime, environmental damage) (65%).

Implications of Remote Acculturation for Caribbean Society

The fact that Americanized Jamaican youth are culturally integrated rather than shedding their own culture to assimilate into European American culture supports prior Caribbean findings that Americanization is not a threat to Caribbean culture as far as early adolescents’ loyalties are concerned (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012; Ferguson, Desir, & Bornstein, 2013). The biculturalism of Americanized Jamaicans also affirms the bi/multi-dimensional acculturation framework, which holds that participation in more than one culture is not a zero-sum endeavor (i.e., more of culture A does not mean less of cultures B or C: Berry, 1997; Ferguson et al., 2012). Findings also complement the conclusions of the CARICOM (2010) report in that Americanization is neither a loss nor rejection of Caribbean culture but a modern reformulation of an already dynamic culture:

...It is precisely the openness to external influences that has led to, and enabled the development of new cultural forms that have made the Caribbean unique....The concern, therefore, should be less about the influence of the North, per se, and more about the processing of this influence into new forms... (pp. 82-83).

Liabilities of Americanization

A relatively high level of parent-adolescent conflict is a notable liability of being an Americanized Jamaican adolescent. Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) found that this conflict was related to the acculturation gap with parents: dyads mismatched in remote acculturation (i.e., one partner was Americanized whereas the other was Traditional) reported significantly higher conflict than did matched dyads. These findings are consistent with the person-context fit perspective (Lerner, 1982): A remotely bicultural adolescent will be poorly matched to the values and expectations of a culturally traditional mother/home, and this mismatch can create problems. Although parent-adolescent conflict may not be inherently tied to acculturation in immigrant families, for whom both parents and adolescents are immersed in the new context, conflict is more likely to be tied to remote acculturation in non-immigrant families because in most cases, only the adolescent and not the parent is immersed in the new culture. Professionals serving Americanized Jamaican youth and families should keep in mind that normative parent-adolescent conflicts are exacerbated by intergenerational acculturation gaps due to remote acculturation (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012). The literature on counseling immigrant families from the developing world who have settled in industrialized countries may be particularly helpful in conceptualization and intervention for Americanized Jamaicans (e.g., Kagitcibasi, 2007). Parents and adolescents in Americanized Jamaican families may need assistance in understanding and adjusting expectations of each other to facilitate smoother interactions.

Potential assets of Americanization

The potential assets of Americanized Jamaican youth may be undervalued and should be given more attention to fulfill the CARICOM's recommendations to optimize the Caribbean “region's advantage in...culture” (CARICOM, 2010, p. 134). One such asset lies in musical innovations. For example, Shaggy, the only reggae artist to have a multi-platinum album in the United States alone, is a Jamaican American crossover artist who successfully fuses Jamaican Dancehall with U.S. Pop. Is it also possible that Americanized Jamaican youth may be uniquely equipped to be future leaders of the tourism industry, precisely because their remote acculturation affords them a lived understanding of the culture, values, and lifestyles of U.S. tourists? Another potential asset is that Americanized Jamaican adolescents may adapt more easily to the United States should they emigrate in the future. Successful and well-adjusted Caribbean immigrants in the United States are an asset to the receiving country as they add to the diverse and productive citizenry, and they are also an asset to sending countries as they give back to the Caribbean in tangible (e.g., remittances) and intangible (e.g., promote a positive Caribbean image) ways.

Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research

This study had a number of weaknesses. Results are most applicable to urban Jamaican adolescents in traditional high schools and may not generalize to rural or out-of-school youth. Future research in diverse Jamaican adolescent samples and in other countries can assess generalizability of the findings. Another limitation was the blunt single-item measurement of some potential vehicles of Americanization created specifically for this study. Some null or unexplained findings may have stemmed from constricted or imprecise measurement, and future studies should refine measures of remote acculturation vehicles. Given the gender imbalance of the sample, gender effects were not predicted. Nonetheless, a provocative gender interaction emerged. A future study should include a larger sample of girls and measures TV content and consumption habits to substantiate and further explore current findings. Based on prior findings (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012), we presume that the parent-adolescent conflict of Americanized Jamaican adolescents in this study is associated with the parent-adolescent acculturation gap; however, this was not directly tested given that mothers did not participate. Finally, longitudinal and creative experimental research is needed to inform our understanding of the direction of remote acculturation effects (i.e., does engagement with identified vehicles drive Americanization or vice versa or are there bidirectional effects?).

Conclusions

New forms of intermittent and indirect intercultural contact with the United States (i.e., consumption of U.S. media and food) are associated with a new form of acculturation – remote acculturation – among Jamaican early adolescents. Remotely acculturated Americanized Jamaican adolescents have a hybrid cultural identity which is not limited by national boundaries but blends Caribbean and European American culture in such a way that resembles Caribbean immigrant adolescents in the United States. Americanization of Caribbean youth does not represent a rejection of Caribbean culture but a dynamic reformulation of it. Rather than ignore or deny this new cultural reality for Caribbean youth, it behooves Jamaican and Caribbean society to acknowledge it, understand it, and work to exploit its assets while minimizing its liabilities to island family life.

Appendix

Appendix A.

Acculturation Rating Scale for Jamaican Americans (ARSJA)

Scale: (1) none or not at all, (2) a bit or at times, (3) moderate(ly), (4) much or often (5) very much or always
1. I speak Jamaican Patios.
2. I enjoy speaking Jamaican Patois.
3. I associate with Black Americans.
4. I associate with White Americans.
5. I associate with Jamaicans and/or Jamaican Americans.
6. I enjoy listening to Jamaican music.
7. I enjoy listening to White American music.
8. I enjoy listening to African American music.
9. I enjoy Jamaican TV/movies.
10.I enjoy African American TV.
11.I enjoy African American movies.
12. I enjoy White American TV.
13. I enjoy White American movies.
14. I enjoy reading Jamaican books/newspapers/magazines.
15. I enjoy reading White American books/newspapers/magazines.
16. I enjoy reading African American books/newspapers/magazines.
17. I write (letters, emails, and other correspondence) in Jamaican Patois.
18. My thinking is done in Jamaican Patois.
19. How much contact have you had with Jamaica?
20. How much contact have you had with Black America?
21. How much contact have you had with White America?
22. My father identifies/identified himself as Jamaican.
23. My mother identifies/identified herself as Jamaican.
24. My friends, while I was growing up, were of Jamaican origin.
25. My friends, while I was growing up, were of White American/European American origin.
26. My friends, while I was growing up, were of Black American/African American origin.
27. My family cooks Jamaican foods.
28. My friends now are of White American/European American origin.
29. My friends now are of Black American/African American origin.
30. My friends are now of Jamaican origin.
31. I like to identify myself as Black American/African American.
32. I like to identify myself as White American/European American.
33. I like to identify myself as Jamaican American.
34. I like to identify myself as Jamaican.
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Note. Scoring: JOS score = mean of 16 items referring to Jamaican culture; EAOS = mean of European American items; AAOS = mean of African American items

Footnotes

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