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11-1-2009

Latino Definitions of Success: A Cultural Model of Intercultural Competence Lucas Torres Marquette University, [email protected]

Accepted version. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 31, No. 4 (November 2009): 576-593. DOI. © SAGE Publications 2009. Used with permission.

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Latino Definitions of Success: A Cultural Model of Intercultural

Competence

Lucas Torres1

Abstract: The present study sought to examine Latino intercultural competence via two

separate methodologies. Phase 1 entailed discovering and generating themes regarding the

features of intercultural competence based on semistructured interviews of 15 Latino adults.

Phase 2 included conducting a cultural consensus analysis from the quantitative responses of

46 Latino adults to determine the cultural model of intercultural competence. The major results

indicated that the participants, despite variations in socioeconomic and generational statuses,

shared a common knowledge base regarding the competencies needed for Latinos to

successfully navigate different cultures. Overall, the cultural model of Latino intercultural

competence includes a set of skills that integrates traditional cultural values along with attributes

of self-efficacy. The findings are discussed within a competence-based conceptualization of

cultural adaptation and potential advancements in acculturation research.

Strong waves of immigration along with relatively high birthrates have resulted in large

numbers of Latinos living in the United States. These individuals are faced with having to

navigate the mainstream U.S. culture as well as their growing and changing ethnocultural

enclaves. In order to successfully negotiate these different cultural contexts, individual must

develop a set of skills that promotes effective adaptation. This process can be stressful, with

uncertain ends, and therefore carries a mental health risk. Current assessments of cultural

adaptation, particularly acculturation, have not fully captured the complexities that occur when

interacting with various cultures and/or have not adequately defined “successful adaptation,” let

alone identified the requisite skills (Ward, 2001). The current study sought to examine the

shared knowledge or understanding of Latino intercultural competence, or the skills that

facilitate cultural interactions, via a mixed-methods approach. The qualitative portion of the

project identified emergent themes, from semi-structured interviews of Latino adults in the

community, detailing the features of intercultural competence. Then, cultural consensus analysis

(Romney, Weller, & Batchelder, 1986), an innovative methodological procedure from the field of

anthropology, was used to identify the shared cultural model of Latino intercultural competence.

The value of the present research is to clarify the experiences of the Latino group, which has

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particular significance to the current U.S. demography and sociopolitical context as well as to

contribute to the general modeling of the cultural adaptation process.

The empirical research investigating the experience of navigating separate cultures has

primarily focused on acculturation, defined as the phenomenon that occurs when different

cultural groups come into continuous contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural

patterns of either or both groups (Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits, 1936). Although several

theoretical advances have been made (i.e., bidimensional vs. unidimensional perspectives; see

Berry, 2003), the measurement of acculturation relies on aspects of cultural exposure and

cultural knowledge that, along with more simplistic indicators of adjustment (e.g., socioeconomic

status, generation level), give an estimate of global group trends. Perhaps as a consequence,

previous research has reported discrepant findings regarding the relationship between

acculturation and Latino mental health (see Rogler, Cortes, & Malgady, 1991). Padilla and

Perez (2003) noted that previous acculturation models and research have been hampered by a

static view of intergroup relations, a belief that adaptation is a uniform process and

methodological practices that have focused on language preferences and

entertainment/friendship patterns. Overall, acculturation studies focus on what changes occur in

an individual’s life during cultural adaptation but overlook how these processes take place.

Although newer acculturation scales assess certain behavioral aspects of adaptation,

they do not address some of the nuances involved in negotiating different cultures. For instance,

an individual’s preferences for associating with members of the mainstream U.S. and/or

traditional Latino cultures are measured in many acculturation scales. However, the nature of

these interactions is not typically examined. The repertoire of skills and method by which an

individual approaches a social situation is influenced on whether establishing network

connections or maintaining supportive friendships is the valued outcome of that cultural contact.

Ward (2001) has argued that adaptation is, in part, a result of learning the culture-specific skills

that are needed to negotiate different cultural contexts. Ultimately, it is the success or failures of

many person-environment interactions that contributes to an individual effectively navigating

within and between cultures.

In their presentation of an innovative model, Padilla and Perez (2003) suggested that

cultural competence is one of the pillars of acculturation. Generally speaking, cultural

competence, or knowledge about and ability to function in a particular culture, has been thought

of as a unique and understudied aspect of cultural adaptation (Zea et al., 2003).

Competence-based formulations of cultural adaptation emphasize that a mastery of particular

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sets of functional skills is key to well-being and allow individuals to fulfill societal roles effectively

(LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993; Ogbu, 1981). A measure of intercultural competence

concerns has been developed as a subscale of the Cultural Adjustment Difficulties Checklist

(CADC) that was intended to understand the acculturative stress factors associated with

immigrating to the United States within the Asian population (Sodowsky & Lai, 1997). This

subscale addresses concerns regarding broad areas including social, cultural as well as

academic and career competence. The Intercultural Competence Concerns subscale of the

CADC has been used with Latino populations showing that it makes significant contributions to

the mental health of this group (Torres & Rollock, 2004; Torres, 2009). However, a rigorous

assessment of the specific skills that define Latino intercultural competence, as described by

members of the community, has yet to be conducted. It is necessary to understand the

characteristics of intercultural competence, as defined by the Latino community, rather than

outlining adaptation strategies that have been drawn from a mainstream frame of reference, as

done in previous work.

Present Study

Historically, qualitative strategies have been the primary method used to discover the

characteristics underlying a particular cultural process. Despite the richness of information

obtained from qualitative methods, several limitations have emerged regarding the use of

nonsystematic and nonstatistical procedures. Recent trends in the empirical literature have

focused on mixed-methodology to triangulate results as well as to facilitate discovery and

testing of theoretical models (Hanson, Creswell, Plano Clark, Petska, & Creswell, 2005). To

examine Latino intercultural competence, the current study used two separate and sequential

methodologies including qualitative semistructured interviews and a systematic ethnographic

technique known as cultural consensus analysis (Romney, Weller, & Batchelder, 1986).

Cultural consensus analysis measures the degree to which participants agree on the

definition of some cultural domain (Dressler, Balieiro, & dos Santos, 1998). Cultural consensus

analysis assumes that cultural groups have a shared pool of knowledge distributed across

social divisions and identifies this preferred cultural model through a form of reliability testing.

Cultural consensus analysis also evaluates each participant’s command of this cultural model,

or expertise, compared with the aggregate. Finally, this analysis identifies the characteristics to

a research question or cultural construct by estimating the distribution of the knowledge as it

applies to participant expertise (Dressler et al., 2005). This technique permits the use of a

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relatively small number of key informants in the community, a necessity when developing new

concepts within the Latino cultural experience (Marin & Marin, 1991), while taking advantage of

quantitative methods. Cultural consensus analysis has been used to examine beliefs about

diabetes, AIDS, blood pressure, cervical and breast cancer, pediatric respiratory symptoms, and

asthma among Latinos and African Americans (Pachter et al., 2002). Developing a cultural

model of Latino intercultural competence will provide significant insight into the community’s

definitions and beliefs about the mechanisms associated with effective cultural functioning.

The purpose of the current project was two-fold: (a) to discover and generate themes

regarding the skills Latinos deem as necessary for successful intercultural interactions and (b)

to derive a cultural model of Latino intercultural competence based on these emergent

characteristics. To achieve these aims, qualitative methods were implemented to analyze

information from semistructured interviews examining Latino intercultural competence. Then,

cultural consensus analysis was conducted on a separate sample of participants to identify the

functional elements of Latino intercultural competence. It was expected that a shared cultural

model of Latino intercultural competence would emerge.

Method

Qualitative Study: Phase 1

Fifteen Latino individuals, from a moderately sized Midwestern city, volunteered and

where interviewed to get an understanding of the skills necessary to engage successfully in the

mainstream U.S. and Latino cultures. Participants were recruited through various community

and University-based organizations that focused on or provided services for Latino individuals.

Potential participants were identified by leaders in the respective organizations or because of

their visible service in the Latino community. Participants were approached, given a brief

description of the study, including confidentiality procedures, and invited to be interviewed.

Participants provided both oral and written consent. Approval from the host institution’s

institutional review board was attained prior to data collection. Every attempt was made to attain

a representative sample of individuals based on age, gender, and generation level.

The interviews were conducted by the principal investigator or by trained undergraduate

research assistants in the language preferred by the participant (i.e., English or Spanish).

Although participants were encouraged to elaborate on their own experiences, the interview

used a semistructured format with questions that prompted specific topic areas. For example,

the first question read: “Think about a Latino/Hispanic person you consider to be ‘successful’ in

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the mainstream U.S. culture. What skills or characteristics does that person have?” A similar

prompt was given with regards to success in the Latino community. These questions were

chosen to allow the participant to create and identify their own definition of success and explain

the features that would allow an individual to achieve such standards. The typical interview

lasted 45 to 60 minutes.

The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed word for word. Given that the

majority of participants (n = 12) chose English for the language of the interview, the transcripts

of the Spanish interviews were translated into English using a double translation procedure by

two bilingual research assistants (see Marin & Marin, 1991). Although translating qualitative

interviews from the original language may restrict some of the richness of the data, analyzing

the responses in English allowed for continuity across interviews. The participant responses

were examined via strategies associated with grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

Specifically, the process of open coding was used in which “data are broken down into discrete

parts, closely examined, and compared for similarities and differences” (p. 102). Initially,

meaningful units of information, typically several sentences long, were identified that described

discrete ideas or events. These units were then compared with each other and gradually

grouped together based on shared characteristics to develop concepts. Related concepts were

merged into category themes.

The research team that analyzed the qualitative data consisted of one Latino (the

Principal Investigator), one Latina, and two European American women. The worldview and

perspectives of the investigators play an important role in the analysis of qualitative data.

Therefore, before the analysis process, the researchers discussed their values, biases, and

assumptions. A Latino male served as an auditor by independently reviewing the emergent

themes to determine that the categories adequately represented the information generated by

the interviews. The entire research team then discussed potential disagreements until a

consensus was reached. Once these themes describing intercultural competence were

established, a list of 36 items was generated corresponding to the features of this construct.

Every effort was made to develop items based on the participant responses. Two statements

were later deemed poorly written and deleted bringing the final list to 34 items (see Table 1).

Cultural Consensus Analysis: Phase 2

Following the procedures outlined by Dressler and Bindon (2000) and Dressler et al.

(2005), 46 participated in this phase of the project. Individuals were recruited from various

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community-based organizations. They were given a brief description of the study, asked to

participate, and provided oral and written consent. Approval from the host institution’s

Institutional Review Board was attained prior to data collection. Participants were asked to rate

the list of 34 items (see Table 1) as to the importance of these skills to succeed in the U.S.

mainstream and, separately, in the Latino community living in the United States. That is,

participants were instructed to first rate the importance of the 34 items for “Latinos to succeed in

the mainstream U.S. society.” Then, they were asked to rate the importance of the same items

for “Latinos to succeed in the Latino community living in the U.S.” This procedure was chosen

as a way of outlining the skills that were specific to the different contexts and types of cultural

interactions. The ratings were originally based on a 5-point Likert-type scale from (0) not at all to

(4) very important. To simplify the cultural consensus analysis, these ratings were later

collapsed into a dichotomous variable indicating (0) not important (Likert-type ratings of 0-2) and

(1) important (Likert-type ratings of 3-4). Preliminary analyses revealed a very high correlation (r

= .90; p < .001) between the ratings for the U.S. mainstream and the separate scores for

competencies in the Latino culture. Given the extreme similarity between these ratings and to

avoid redundancy, the cultural consensus analysis was conducted based on the dichotomous

ratings of the intercultural competence items in response to engaging with the mainstream U.S.

culture.

The first step in the cultural consensus analysis was to test for a shared cultural model of

Latino intercultural competence. This analysis was conducted using the software program

ANTHROPAC, which uses the participant ratings of importance as units of analysis and the

informants as variables in a factor analysis. The degree of agreement on importance ratings is

calculated between informants, thus, determining whether a single factor exists (Dressler &

Bindon, 2000). Romney et al. (1986) reported that if the ratio of the first eigenvalue to the

second is 3.0 or greater, then this indicates sufficient agreement in the analysis. The second

step of the cultural consensus analysis involves calculating the level of expertise for each

participant. This analysis is essentially the factor loadings of each participant on the first factor

indicating the magnitude of each informant’s knowledge correlated with the aggregate

knowledge of the group (Dressler & Bindon, 2000). These coefficients of expertise are used in

the third step of the cultural consensus analysis to calculate a weighted mean of each item’s

importance ratings. Averaged across the sample, these calculations give higher weight to

participants who have higher cultural expertise. These composite scores are considered to be

the shared characteristics of Latino intercultural competence.

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An advantage of cultural consensus analysis includes the ability to derive estimates of

shared knowledge using relatively small numbers of participant responses (Dressler et al.,

2005). Determining sample size is based on the participants’ average command or expertise of

the cultural model, the confidence level, and the proportion of questions to be classified

correctly (Romney et al., 1986). It has been reported that a minimum sample size of 29

participants is needed to perform an adequate cultural consensus analysis assuming an

average 50% (0.5) command or expertise of the cultural model, while attempting to classify 95%

of the questions correctly with a 99% confidence interval (Weller et al., 1999). The 46

participants who volunteered for this portion of the study were recruited to maintain a

representative sample based on gender, generation level, and income.

Results

The participants for the qualitative phase of the project included 15 Latino adults (9 men,

6 women) who averaged approximately 35 years of age (range = 20-69). Nine individuals

reported being the first member of their family to move to the United States while the remaining

participants were second generation or later. The majority (n = 11) of participants indicated

being of Mexican descent. In terms of socioeconomic status, six individuals stated earning

$20,000 or more. The remaining participants chose not to divulge their annual income or were

students earning $10,000 or less. Nevertheless, the student participants appeared to have a

middle-class background based on the University setting in which they were recruited. The

average number of years living in the United States was approximately 16 but ranged from 2 to

44 years.

For the cultural consensus analysis phase, 46 Latino adults (22 men, 24 women) rated

the intercultural competence items that were developed from the qualitative potion of the project.

The mean age was approximately 35 years (range = 18-65). Sixteen individuals were members

of the first generation to live in the United States while 21 participants were second generation

or later. All participants self-identified themselves as Mexican or Mexican American. This

sample consisted of 10 individuals earning an annual income of less than $10,000, 14 earning

between $10,000 and $20,000, 11 earning between $20,000 and $35,000, and 11 earning more

than $35,000. The mean number of years living in the United States was approximately 12

years but ranged between 2 and 39 years. Thirty-four individuals chose to rate the intercultural

competence items in Spanish.

Cultural consensus analysis determines the extent to which participants agreed on the

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features of Latino intercultural competence. Cultural consensus analysis indicated that the ratio

between the first and second eigenvalues was 12.8:1. These results reveal that a single factor

exists indicating a shared cultural model of Latino intercultural competence in which the majority

of participants concur. The average level of cultural knowledge was 0.65 (SD = 0.13). A

significant gender difference was observed with men having higher cultural knowledge scores

(M = 0.69; SD = 0.11) than women (M = 0.60; SD = 0.14), t(44) = 2.56, p < .05. The participant

agreement scores, or the percentage of participants which reported a particular item as

“important,” was used to rank order the importance of the intercultural competence categories.

Discussed below are the themes that emerged from the qualitative content analysis and their

level of importance according to the mean participant agreement scores of the cultural

consensus analysis.

Ambition and Desire to Succeed

The cultural consensus analysis revealed that the items pertaining to the category of

Ambition and Desire to Succeed received the highest scores of participant agreement (M = 0.97)

suggesting that this theme is a key component to intercultural competence. As an emergent

theme from the qualitative portion of the project, this category was defined as having realistic

goals, dreams, and/or aspirations along with the strong drive or passion to achieve. That is,

participants talked about the importance of having specific goals and the notion of continuing to

better their situation. Simply stated, one 20-year-old man said, “I would say their ability to strive

for more, and always looking to be more successful, basically.” Another participant, a

27-year-old man, discussed this idea further and indicated

An ambitious person is a person that is thinking about accomplishing great things, great goals. Not merely finding a job that earns maybe $30,000 a year but a person who is thinking about being the head ... could be a company or could be a leader of a social group ... [it is these people] that are always thinking about becoming managers of an organization whatever it may be.

These excerpts illustrate the idea that an interculturally competent Latino is successful, in part,

by applying an achievement orientation to the adaptation process. That is, Latinos, regardless of

whether they are immigrant or U.S.-born, are effective cultural navigators when they establish

realistic goals, a plan to accomplish the goals, and a desire to overcome potentially difficult

circumstances.

Interpersonal Connections

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Some of the participants who were interviewed reported that an essential aspect of

successful cultural navigation involved establishing and maintaining Interpersonal Connections.

Within this broader category, individuals spoke of Relationship Building and Networking.

Relationship building was defined as the willingness to interact and develop interpersonal

connections with both Latinos and non-Latinos. For instance, one 32-year-old man stated, “And

then obviously, having good relationships within your family, within your friends, being able to

relate to all sorts of people is the key ingredient to becoming successful.” Another individual, a

25-year-old, indicated,

I think a lot of it is the relationship part of it. This person kind of knows both ends of it. The culture of the United States and the culture of the United States or Mexico and so he has meshed it together. He is able to relate to the U.S. culture and also the Hispanic culture. So I would say, yeah, just that relationship building with different types of people.

This particular quote illustrates the idea that the cultural learning process occurs, in part,

through the interpersonal relationships that are established in each culture. As such, this sense

of interconnectedness becomes an important component of not only acquiring cultural content

but establishing social support networks. According to the cultural consensus analysis, the

Relationship Building category items ranked as the second most important aspect of

intercultural competence as calculated by the mean participant agreement scores (M = 0.92).

Another theme within Interpersonal Connections involved Networking or knowing people

who have been successful and/or having mentors. For example, a 67-year-old woman indicated,

“having a large group of people of not friends, but people that they know and they do business

with. One person recommends another, one person can give you an idea that you can pursue.”

Thus, networking involves not just maintaining friendships but establishing contacts within the

community. In terms of cultural consensus analysis, the Networking category items ranked as

the fourth highest in terms of mean participant agreement scores (M = 0.86).

Perseverance and Hard Work

During their qualitative interviews, several participants talked about characteristics

associated with perseverance or having the persistence, dedication, and willpower to continue

even through tough circumstances. Participants described interculturally competent individuals

as people who do not quit, do not take no for an answer, and have strong willpower. For

instance, a 25-year-old participant said,

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After my parents had a divorce ... she [my mother] came out to the United States with my brother and I so she not only worked full time but she would go to school full time at night and, characteristics I saw there were, you know, determination, sacrifice, she had to give a lot of sacrifice in order to get where she is at now.

As illustrated in this and many other participant statements is the underlying assumption that

Latinos are going to face many hardships but that interculturally competent Latinos persist and

continue to do extra work in order to achieve their goals. On a similar note, participants

described Hard work, or going above and beyond, as another important concept of intercultural

competence. A 67-year-old woman indicated,

If you think a job as a place where you go to get a salary, you are always going to be an employee, waiting for your paycheck. That’s it. You have to be creative. Never be afraid to take an extra step and do a little more than you’re required.

According to the participant agreement scores of the cultural consensus analysis, Perseverance

(M = 0.91) and Hard work (M = 0.91) both ranked as the third highest categories in terms of

importance to succeed in the mainstream U.S. and Latino cultures.

Maintaining the Traditional Latino Culture

In discussing the characteristics of intercultural competence, many participants noted the

importance of actively maintaining and identifying with one’s culture of origin. That is, a key

aspect of cultural success involved having pride in the Latino culture and keeping up with

cultural traditions and values. For instance, a 69-year-old male participant stated, “I’m pretty

sure most of them [competent Latinos] have kept their traditions and their culture which is

something that I particularly like to make sure people do is not forget their culture, not forget

their language or their customs.” A 20-year-old male participant noted, “[competent Latinos]

embrace their cultures, and because they do embrace their culture I think they derive some sort

of, I guess, motivation for them to pull forward.” Additionally, individuals spoke of the importance

of upholding cultural values, particularly close ties with family members, as a way of facilitating

the cultural transition process. The cultural consensus analysis revealed that the Maintaining

Traditional Culture items tied for the third highest ranking, along with Perseverance and Hard

work, according to participant agreement scores (M = 0.91).

Communication

Another theme that emerged from the qualitative interviews involved the ability to

communicate effectively. Some participants noted the importance of learning to speak English

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particularly as it pertained to interactions with the mainstream U.S. culture. Others highlighted

the value of being bilingual and speaking both English and Spanish. Beyond language

acquisition, several participants indicated that being an active communicator with the ability to

express one’s ideas is an essential skill. For instance, a 67-year-old participant stated, “speech

and being able to communicate your ideas. It’s not just speaking English, it’s being able to

communicate what you are thinking to others.” The cultural consensus analysis showed that the

Communication category received the second lowest participant agreement scores (M = 0.85).

Community-Orientation and Activity

The importance of the Latino community was evident in the qualitative interviews.

Several participants discussed having a Community-Orientation or making the Latino

community a priority by knowing the issues and feeling connected. Similarly, individuals spoke

of being Community-Active or actively participating in and contributing to the Latino community.

Many participants spoke of giving back to the community by providing service and leadership.

This included volunteering for local organizations, being involved in community activities

whether by planning or through dissemination of information. The cultural consensus analysis

revealed that this category received the lowest participant agreement scores (M = 0.78). This

suggests that Community-Orientation and Activity is not an essential component of the Latino

intercultural competence cultural model.

Discussion

The principal objective of the current project was to delineate the features of Latino

intercultural competence through a mixed-methods approach. The findings have advanced

acculturation research by outlining the skills-based processes that facilitate intercultural

interactions. The mixed-methodology allowed for the discovery of key characteristics that define

intercultural competence along with the formulation of a shared cultural model of the construct.

The current study provides some innovative findings including the attributes of intercultural

competence, which emerged from the Latino community’s definition of success, and the notion

that this taps into a shared cultural experience that spans across socioeconomic background

and generational status. The gender differences that emerged suggest that men may more

easily recognize and identify the components of intercultural competence even though a

common level of knowledge exists regarding this construct. The cultural model of Latino

intercultural competence includes a set of skills consistent with traditional cultural values along

with attributes of self-efficacy. That is, respondents endorsed both a commitment to Latino

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values and an achievement motivation. In general, these results support Ogbu’s (1981) notion

of a native theory of success, which stipulates that members of ethnic minority groups develop

their own definitions of cultural success. As such, effective cultural adaptation involves a

delicate balance between competencies that emerge from both cultural contexts.

The most prominent theme in the cultural model of Latino intercultural competence

involved Ambition and Desire to Succeed. This characteristic involved the ability to have realistic

goals about living within two different cultures and continuing to strive for more despite the

current circumstances. For instance, one of the participants in the qualitative study suggested

that an incompetent Latino may be one who feels content simply by having moved to the United

States but does very little to better their situation. Tyler et al. (1991) have stipulated that general

competence involves a mastery-oriented problem-solving approach to negotiating life events

that includes taking initiative, forbearance, and contributing to one’s surroundings. Along these

lines, Ambition and Desire to Succeed is a feature of intercultural competence that may reflect

the ability to become an active agent in the adaptation process and suggests the importance of

personal growth.

Another key aspect of Latino intercultural competence includes Relationship Building or

the capacity to relate to family and friends. This notion is consistent with the Latino cultural

values of familism, or the preference to maintain connected with family, as well as personalismo,

which emphasizes the importance of having smooth interpersonal relationships through warm,

friendly, and personal interactions (Santiago-Rivera, Arredondo, & Gallardo-Cooper, 2002). In

terms of intercultural competence, Relationship Building may be particularly vital for establishing

social support networks during difficult or stressful circumstances. The qualitative analysis

suggested that Relationship Building was more salient in terms of interactions with the

mainstream U.S. whereas Networking was important within the Latino culture. As such,

Networking may be a skill that allows individuals to make use of the Latino community to gain

cultural knowledge and take advantage of available resources. Interpersonal Connections as a

whole are a valuable and multilayered aspect of successful cultural navigation and it could be

that the differences associated with Relationship Building and Networking are indicative of the

various cultural demands experienced in the different cultural contexts.

Within the Latino intercultural competence model, Perseverance represents the

determination to persist particularly when experiencing difficult barriers. Recently, it was

reported that intercultural competence concerns mediated the relationship between attributions

to discrimination and depression among college-aged Latinos (Torres, 2009). It could be the

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case that it is the ability to persevere in the face of social injustice that allows interculturally

competent individuals to succeed and which protects them from extreme psychological

consequences. As components of the Latino intercultural competence model, Hard work and

Maintaining the Traditional Latino Culture were often linked to other skills. For instance, during

the qualitative interviews, Hard work was often discussed within the context of achieving

individual goals. Maintaining the Traditional Latino Culture could be viewed as a frame of

reference by which individuals approach person-environment interactions as well as a set of

reliable and valued resources. It is likely that these components of Latino intercultural

competence are independent but related aspects that contribute to effective cultural adaptation.

Although Communication was shown to be an aspect of the Latino intercultural

competence model, it was not one of the highly ranked features. This suggests that intercultural

competence is accounting for aspects of cultural adaptation beyond language-based

acculturation factors. This is in contrast to the current thinking in the empirical literature which

considers language fluency as the gold standard indicator of cultural adjustment. According to

the shared cultural model, Community-Orientation and Activity was not an essential set of skills

of Latino intercultural competence despite its emergence during the qualitative analysis. This

could be due in part to the sample characteristics of the participants in the qualitative study who

valued a strong service to the Latino community. This supports the use of cultural consensus

analysis in addition to qualitative techniques as a way to triangulate vital information from

multiple sources.

Typical of qualitative strategies, the current study is limited by relatively small sample

sizes. Additionally, participants for both the qualitative interviews and the cultural consensus

analysis were recruited from moderately-sized cities in the Midwest. The cultural model of

intercultural competence identified by these informants may be different from those Latinos

living in other parts of the United States. In terms of theoretical implications, the findings of the

current study continue to advance acculturation research. Recent conceptualizations of

acculturation and adaptation have focused on language-based factors and daily living

preferences with minimal acknowledgement of efficacy or other competence-based attributes

despite their importance as endorsed by a diverse group of Latinos. Practically, identifying

intercultural competencies allows for the development and implementation of

culturally-appropriate intervention efforts.

Overall, the current findings suggest that Latino intercultural competence contains

multiple domains or sets of skills that promote successful cultural navigation and which are

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embedded within cultural values from both the Latino and U.S. cultures. This multifaceted

process involves various competencies that are important for Latinos to master and which

facilitate cultural adaptation. The ability to engage in a balanced set of intercultural

competencies may be a mechanism that buffers Latinos from increased psychological problems,

particularly those from later generations. Previous notions have suggested that competence for

Latinos develop within a collectivistic and family-oriented value system (Santiago-Rivera et al.,

2002). Although partially supported, the present findings reveal that Latino intercultural

competence involves an integration of value systems that generate a set of skills necessary to

succeed in both the U.S. mainstream and Latino cultures.

Notes

1. Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA

 Corresponding Author: Lucas Torres, Department of Psychology, Marquette University,

P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA, Email: [email protected]

 Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author declared no conflicts of interest with

respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

 Funding: Portions of this research project were supported by the National Institute of Mental

Health [grant # R21 MH077735].

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Steven Albert and David Rollock who provided feedback for earlier

versions of this article. I would also like to thank the participants who volunteered to take part in

this project.

Biography

Lucas Torres is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at Marquette University.

His research interests have involved examining the issues surrounding mental health disparities

and delineating the components of the cultural adaptation process that serve as protective and

risk factors of Latino mental health. He received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from

Purdue University.

References

Berry, J. W. (2003). Conceptual approaches to acculturation. In K. M. Chun, P. B. Organista, &

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Appendix

Table 1: Latino Intercultural Competence Items