Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: El Poder de la Familia: Understanding the role of familism on Latino environmentalism

拉丁美洲人是美国增长最快的少数族裔群体，与其他有色人种群体一样，他们继续承受着不成比例的环境危害。虽然研究一再发现，拉丁美洲人比白人更关注环境问题、对风险的认知和对环境政策的支持，但很少有研究调查推动拉丁美洲人环保主义的机制。本研究通过考察在拉丁美洲文化中发挥核心作用的家庭价值观（即家庭主义）如何与拉丁美洲人的环境风险认知和参与相关，扩展了我们对拉丁美洲环境主义的理解。这个项目不仅提高了我们对美国边缘化种族群体如何感知和应对环境问题的科学知识，而且还为环境组织的教育和推广工作提供了信息，这些组织旨在减少拉美裔和其他社区或有色人种因环境问题而面临的高风险。采用混合方法，学者们开发并实证检验了拉丁裔家庭主义价值观如何与拉丁裔环境主义相关的理论框架。首先，该研究采用扎根理论的方法，对居住在拉丁裔人口众多的美国选定城市和地区的自认为是拉丁裔的人进行采访。参与者被问及一系列开放式问题，包括1)与他们有关的环境问题/问题，2)解决这些环境问题的方法，3)参与者及其家庭成员的观点和行动的相似性，以及4)参与者家庭，社区和关系的其他方面。通过访谈、编码和备忘录写作的迭代过程，该研究开发了一个理论框架，解释了拉丁裔家庭主义价值观与拉丁裔环境主义之间的关系。这些访谈结果为设计一个更大的实验调查提供了信息，该调查旨在研究家庭主义和其他价值观对生活在美国的拉丁裔和非拉丁裔环境结果的影响。这些研究通过提高我们对家庭主义的哪些因素与各种环境结果相关的理解，为未来的研究和实践提供了重要的见解。家庭主义和环保主义之间的关系如何在不同的拉丁裔人群中发生变化，以及如何改善拉丁裔社区的环境宣传和教育。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Latinos are the fastest growing racial-ethnic minority group in the United States, and along with other communities of color, they continue to be disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards. While research has repeatedly found that Latinos report greater environmental concern, perceptions of risk, and support for environmental policy than Whites, few studies have examined the mechanisms that drive Latino environmentalism. This research expands our understanding of Latino environmentalism by examining how family values (i.e. familism), which play a central role in Latino culture, relate to environmental risk perceptions and engagement among Latinos. This project not only advances our scientific knowledge of how marginalized racial-ethnic groups in the U.S. perceive and respond to environmental problems, but it also informs the education and outreach efforts of environmental organizations that aim to reduce the heightened risks that Latinos and other communities or color face as a result of environmental problems.Using a mixed methods approach, the scholars develop and empirically test a theoretical framework for how Latino familism values are related to Latino environmentalism. First, the research uses a grounded theory approach to conduct interviews with self-identified Latinos living in select cities and regions of the U.S. with large Latino populations. Participants are asked open-ended questions about a range of topics including 1) the environmental issues/problems that concern them, 2) ways to address these environmental problems, 3) the similarity of the views and actions of participants and their family members, and 4) additional aspects of participants’ families, communities, and relationships. Through an iterative process of interviewing, coding, and memo-writing, the research develops a theoretical framework that explains how Latino familism values relate to Latino environmentalism. These interview findings then inform the design of a larger experimental survey that examines the effects of familism and other values on the environmental outcomes of Latinos and Non-Latinos living in the U.S. Together, these studies provide crucial insights for future research and practice by improving our understanding of what elements of familism are related to various environmental outcomes, how the relationship between familism and environmentalism may change across different Latino populations, and how to improve environmental outreach and education within Latino communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.