Development of a Social Network Measure of Acculturation and its Application to Immigrant Populations in South Florida and Northeastern Spain

文化适应被广义地定义为两种文化接触的结果。文化适应最初是人类学家用来解释文化之间特征相似性的一种方式，现在被用来解释政策制定者感兴趣的现象，如公民参与或发展中国家移民的危险和非法行为。最近的移徙模式发生了变化，因此许多来自发展中国家的移徙者在原籍国和东道国之间来回移动。该项目将开发各种方法来衡量对东道国文化的适应，这种适应超越了个人文化差异，并捕捉到来自原籍国和东道国的影响。个人网络研究适合于此，因为它量化了移民认识谁，他们如何认识他们，以及网络成员如何互动。该项目将测试个人网络组成和结构是否存在跨文化和地理的规律性，以及个人网络组成和结构是否解释了文化适应的行为和态度结果的显著差异，这些差异不能单独由文化适应量表解释。总共将进行700次访谈，其中100人来自七个不同的移民群体：前往美国南佛罗里达的古巴、尼加拉瓜、波多黎各和巴西移民以及前往西班牙加泰罗尼亚的柏柏尔、赤道几内亚和冈比亚移民。在理解移民个人网络的构成和结构基础以及它们与文化适应策略的关系方面取得进展的更广泛影响是，这种理解将有助于政策制定者确定潜在的社会干预点。可以针对移徙社区中已知存在的具体问题设计干预措施，例如与非法活动有关的危险行为，或获得保健和儿童保育等社会服务的机会。

Acculturation is broadly defined as the consequences of two cultures coming into contact. Originally conceived by anthropologists as a way to explain the similarities of traits between cultures, acculturation is now used to explain phenomena of interest to policy-makers, such as civic participation or risky and illegal behaviors of migrants from developing countries. Recent migration patterns have changed so that many migrants from developing countries move back and forth between their origin and host countries. This project will develop ways to measure adjustment to a host culture that transcends individual cultural differences and captures influences from both origin and host countries. Personal network research is suited for this because it quantifies who a migrant knows, how they know them and how network members interact. The project will test whether there are regularities across cultures and geography in personal network composition and structure, and whether personal network composition and structure explain a significant fraction of variance in the behavioral and attitudinal outcomes of acculturation that are not accounted for by acculturation scales alone. A total of 700 interviews will be conducted, 100 from each of seven different migrant groups: Cuban, Nicaraguan, Puerto Rican and Brazilian migrants to South Florida, USA and Berber, Equatorial Guinean and Gambian migrants to Catalonia, Spain. Broader impacts of advances in understanding of the compositional and structural basis of the personal networks of migrants, and how they relate to acculturation strategies, are that this understanding will help policymakers identify potential social intervention points. Interventions could be designed for specific problems known to exist in migrant communities, such as risky behavior related to illegal activities, or access to social services such as health and child care.